• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Safety Risk .net

Humanising Safety and Embracing Real Risk

  • Home
    • About
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact
  • FREE RESOURCES
    • FREE SAFETY eBOOKS
    • FREE DOWNLOADS
    • TOP 50
    • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS
    • Find a Safety Consultant
    • Free Safety Program Documents
    • Psychology Of Safety
    • Safety Ideas That Work
    • HEALTH and SAFETY MANUALS
    • FREE SAFE WORK METHOD STATEMENT RESOURCES
    • Whats New In Safety
    • FUN SAFETY STUFF
    • Health and Safety Training
    • SAFETY COURSES
    • Safety Training Needs Analysis and Matrix
    • Top 20 Safety Books
    • This Toaster Is Hot
    • Free Covid-19 Toolbox Talks
    • Download Page – Please Be Patient With Larger Files…….
    • SAFETY IMAGES, Photos, Unsafe Pictures and Funny Fails
    • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
    • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • PSYCHOLOGY OF SAFETY & RISK
    • Safety Psychology Terminology
    • Some Basics on Social Psychology & Risk
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk – Prof Karl E. Weick
    • The Psychology of Leadership in Risk
    • Conducting a Psychology and Culture Safety Walk
    • The Psychology of Conversion – 20 Tips to get Started
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk And Safety
    • Psychology and safety
    • The Psychology of Safety
    • Hot Toaster
    • TALKING RISK VIDEOS
    • WHAT IS SAFETY
    • THE HOT TOASTER
    • THE ZERO HARM DEBATE
    • SEMIOTICS
    • LEADERSHIP
  • Covid-19
    • COVID-19 (Coronavirus, Omicron) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
    • Covid-19 Returning to Work Inductions, Transitioning, Safety Start Up and Re Entry Plans
    • Covid-19 Work from Home Safety Checklists and Risk Assessments
    • The Hierarchy of Control and Covid-19
    • Why Safety Loves Covid-19
    • Covid-19, Cricket and Lessons in Safety
    • The Covid-19 Lesson
    • Safety has this Covid-19 thing sorted
    • The Heart of Wisdom at Covid Time
    • How’s the Hot Desking Going Covid?
    • The Semiotics of COVID-19 and the Social Amplification of Risk
    • Working From Home Health and Safety Tips – Covid-19
    • Covid-19 and the Hierarchy of Control
  • Dr Rob Long Posts
    • Learning Styles Matter
    • There is no HIERARCHY of Controls
    • Scaffolding, Readiness and ZPD in Learning
    • What Can Safety Learn From Playschool?
    • Presentation Tips for Safety People
    • Dialogue Do’s and Don’ts
    • It’s Only a Symbol
    • Ten Cautions About Safety Checklists
    • Zero is Unethical
    • First Report on Zero Survey
    • There is No Objectivity, Deal With it!
  • Quotes & Slogans
    • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
    • When Slogans Don’t Work
    • 77 OF THE MOST CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
    • 500 BEST and WORST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2021
    • 167 CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
    • COVID-19 (Coronavirus, Omicron) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
    • Safety Acronyms
    • You know Where You Can Stick Your Safety Slogans
    • Sayings, Slogans, Aphorisms and the Discourse of Simple
    • Spanish Safety Slogans – Consignas de seguridad
    • Safety Slogans List
    • Road Safety Slogans
    • How to write your own safety slogans
    • Why Are Safety Slogans Important
    • Safety Slogans Don’t Save Lives
    • 40 Free Safety Slogans For the Workplace
    • Safety Slogans for Work
You are here: Home / Robert Long / Zero as a Semiotic

Zero as a Semiotic

May 29, 2021 by Dr Rob Long 2 Comments

Zero as a Semiotic

When we look at the image (semiotic) of zero there is much that is going on unconsciously.

The idea of zero in risk and safety may have originally started as some naïve quest for no injuries but it has evolved to become the iconic anchor for a religious movement. The Spirit of Zero video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VIRXEuniWA ) released in 2021 prior to the zero convention in Spain May 2021 cements zero ideology as the religious semiotic for the zero vision movement (safety).

We can trace the semiotic of zero all the way back to the numerics, pyramid and domino semiotics of Heinrich (1931). Heinrich’s semiotics still plague the risk and safety industry with their mechanistic assumptions, linearity and numeric attributions.  Neither semiotic bias nor model bias are named in any of Heinrich’s work or in the risk and safety industry. The assumptions about how models and symbols are presented in the risk and safety industry is that semiotics are somehow neutral and objective, just the representations of a metaphoric/symbolic reality. Nothing could be further from the truth.

What Heinrich’s dominoes embed unconsciously is that causality is: methodical, linear, sequential and not contingent. Indeed, causality even runs from left to right for Heinrich (see Figure 1). The swiss-cheese semiotic introduced later by Reason attributes the same characteristics to causality.

Figure 1. Heinrich’s Dominoes

clip_image002

Heinrich’s pyramid semiotic embeds unconsciously that causality is: hierarchical, ratio measured and numeric. All these attributions are exactly that – attributions, there is ample evidence to argue that causality is: chaotic, non-linear, ‘wicked’ and emergent. Indeed, when considering humans as an ecology, there is no evidence for Heinrich’s semiotic validity. The real world of biosemiotics demonstrates that Heinrich’s semiotics are off with the fairies.

What is hidden in Heinrich’s semiotics (Figure 2. Heinrich’s Pyramid) are assumptions about: determinism, materialism, epistemology and naive realism. These philosophical assumptions are never owned by Heinrich or the industry that follows his false consciousness.

What we know from the study of semiotics is that signs and symbols hide philosophical assumptions from the undiscerning eye. Semiotics are absorbed unconsciously and tacitly (Polanyi) and without semiotic critique, embed their hidden philosophy by osmosis. Without a semiotic worldview, one is unlikely to understand the power of semiotics in shaping the human unconscious. In order to understand semiotics one needs to know that humans live in a semiosphere not just a biosphere. (Semiotics has now become the most demanded study in the Centre for Leadership and Learning in Risk (https://cllr.com.au/).

Lotman defines the semiosphere as:

… that synchronic semiotic space which fills the borders of culture, without which separate semiotic systems cannot function or come into being.

Semiotics have a force and power unto themselves and influence the unconscious like an archetype. All semiotics emerge from a semiosis (an ontology of meaning and purpose). One’s semiosis (symbolic/myth meaning) drives the hidden philosophy behind one’s choice of semiotic. No image is neutral or objective but is situated within the semiosphere, generated by a philosophy hidden in the semiotic. All signs and symbol systems work this way.

Figure 2. Heinrich’s Pyramid

image

When we speak of the power of semiotics we might like to think of the power of a crucifix or a swastika and contemplate just what power these symbols have as a ‘force’ in history. Display either symbol and see what they invoke. There is need not be any text, no audible comment, no narrative, no descriptive discourse, the symbol operates and triggers emotions, ideologies and responses all on its own. As we know about all tacit knowing, semiotics holds a force well beyond itself, this is what the power of a symbol/myth generates. The symbol/myth embodies the ideology of a movement and without it, identity is lost. What is a bikie gang without its symbols?( https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-04/bikie-gangs-by-colours/4999510 ) What is the masonic lodge without its symbols? (https://www.ghlilley.com.au/blogs/news/freemason-symbols ). What is Qanon without its symbols of hate? (https://www.timesofisrael.com/a-guide-to-the-hate-symbols-and-signs-on-display-at-the-us-capitol-riots/ ). Just imagine if you could rid safety of its nonsense symbols like: risk matrices, pyramids, swiss-cheese, bow-ties and curves? (https://safetyrisk.net/all-risk-is-subjective/ ).

However, when your worldview (philosophy) is even unknown to oneself, how would one know what philosophy is being promoted by such semiotics as Heinrich developed? When one assumes that semiotics are objective and neutral one is surely in for a hiding of one’s own creation. This is how Safety ends up claiming religious efficacy in a symbol.

It’s hard to envision risk (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/envisioning-risk-seeing-vision-and-meaning-in-risk/ ) when one only knows one worldview and then deems this worldview as authoritative and objective. This is what Safety claims with its supposed ethic of risk in the AIHS BoK Chapter 38.3. Just because the safety worldview declares something as objective doesn’t make it so. Such is the nature of Safety’s deontological ethic and naïve realism. This is the same kind of naivety claimed by observation that the sun revolved around the earth.

Now to the semiotics of Zero. Zero is not just a number but has a long history of semiotic power. A simple reading of Kaplan (1999) The Nothing That Was, A Natural History of Zero (https://sites.google.com/site/bilji22ocmae1/8OoO1wOp5630 ) demonstrates how this object holds ideological and tacit power. Or read Seife (2000) Zero, The Biography of a Dangerous Idea (https://fdocuments.in/document/zero-the-biography-of-a-dangerous-ideaby-charles-seife.html  ). The development of zero as the semiotic representation of place/infinity was a philosophical/methodological creation.

The semiotic representation of nothing, null, void and infinity in an object continues to foster philosophical argument about the nature of the cosmos (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345673605_The_Explanation_for_Dark_Matter_and_Dark_Energy ). Zero is neither a neutral or objective concept.

The semiotic worldview is not a mechanistic worldview. There are other valid worldviews other than the Safety worldview (https://safetyrisk.net/starting-points-worldviews-and-risk/ ; https://safetyrisk.net/transdisciplinarity-and-worldviews-in-risk/ ; https://safetyrisk.net/a-poetic-worldview/ ; https://safetyrisk.net/can-there-be-other-valid-worldviews-than-safety/ ; https://safetyrisk.net/the-mechanistic-worldview-and-the-dehumanisation-of-risk/  ). The projection of a mechanistic worldview of objects and observable objectivity is the fantasy of Safety. This is how Safety ends up promoting videos on normalising spiritual healing via zero.

The semiotic of zero drives an ideology, whether one understands it or not. It is not likely that such an engineering (safety) worldview could work out how it ends up with a religious/theological video on spiritualism from a base of a zero semiotic. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VIRXEuniWA). How strange this industry confused by its own metaphysics and doesn’t even know it.

Without some level of respect for other worldviews in Transdisciplinarity it is not likely that Safety will even realise how religious it has become, even when it claims its own form of soteriology. Only high priests in Safety could claim ‘safety saves’.

Similarly, when one accepts as the starting point of safety on the semiotics of Heinrich one need not wonder why this risk and safety industry is bogged down in a psychosis of numerics, metrics and blame. The driving assumption behind Heinrich’s semiotics are also the driving semiotics of zero. The strange thing about this religious journey is the denial of fallibility as its endpoint. What kind of philosophical gymnastics does one have juggle to get to end up in such delusion?

Such is the binary naivety of an industry that sets its identity by zero ideology and Heinrich’s false consciousness. When zero takes over, all critical thinking ceases, such is the semiotic power of zero.

  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
  • More about Rob
Dr Rob Long

Dr Rob Long

Expert in Social Psychology, Principal & Trainer at Human Dymensions
Dr Rob Long

Latest posts by Dr Rob Long (see all)

  • Culture Silences in Safety – Holism - May 23, 2022
  • Culture Silences in Safety The Collective Unconscious - May 21, 2022
  • Culture Silences in Safety Artefacts - May 20, 2022
  • Culture Silences in Safety Symbolism - May 19, 2022
  • Culture Silences in Safety Mythology - May 16, 2022
Dr Rob Long
PhD., MEd., MOH., BEd., BTh., Dip T., Dip Min., Cert IV TAA, MRMIA Rob is the founder of Human Dymensions and has extensive experience, qualifications and expertise across a range of sectors including government, education, corporate, industry and community sectors over 30 years. Rob has worked at all levels of the education and training sector including serving on various post graduate executive, post graduate supervision, post graduate course design and implementation programs.

Please share our posts

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Robert Long, Semiotics Tagged With: Heinrich’s pyramid, Swiss Cheese Model, transdisciplinarity

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Rob C says

    May 30, 2021 at 11:16 AM

    Hi Rob, yes the attraction of a simple silver bullet certainly is anti human and at best ignorant. I find it equally awkward that both models are constantly misinterpreted and miscommunicated. For example Heinrich was an insurance engineer and so a simple dollar answer made some sense. Reasons Swiss cheese model is about understanding how the holes get in the cheese. All models are wrong, but some are useful.

    Certainly a humanised approach to risk that acknowledges unconscious and social interaction and influences does not need to focus on a model. The challenge for health and safety, environment, security, quality and other risk based Trojans is how to shift the mindset of big corporations in a sustainable way, given the impact of sunk cost and traditional Newtonian thinking.

    Reply
    • rob long says

      May 30, 2021 at 4:17 PM

      I think Safety thinks models are not interpreted and yet hold power within themselves of fundamental philosophical value, regardless of interpretation. A reductionist model/semiotic can hardly be made and open model for conversation or listening. Numerics can’t be made into person-centerdness.
      I don’t find any of the models in traditional safety even slightly helpful, all founded on the centrality of objects, numerics, hierarchies and linearity. Just imagine if Safety put persons first what kind of models might be in place.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Search and Discover More on this Site

Visit Count – Started Jan 2015

  • 24,016,330 Visitors

Never miss a post - Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,424 other subscribers

NEW! Free Download

How we pay for the high cost of running of this site – try it for free on your site

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Recent Comments

  • Roel on Free Workplace Health and Safety Downloads
  • Rob Long on Safety Silences – Video Series
  • BRENT R CHARLTON on Safety Silences – Video Series
  • Rob Long on Sleep Dysfunction, Dreaming and Safety
  • Rob Long on Working Out What Makes Sense in Safety
  • simon cassin on Working Out What Makes Sense in Safety
  • Rob Long on The Safety Trifecta and Nothing Changes
  • Aneta Parker on The Safety Trifecta and Nothing Changes
  • Rob Long on How to Tackle Risk You Can’t See
  • Andrew Thornhill on How to Tackle Risk You Can’t See

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Featured Downloads

  • GENERIC-MANUAL-V4.doc (28553 downloads)
  • violence_checklist.pdf (2126 downloads)
  • Manual Handling Risk Assessment Template (1707 downloads)
  • Telecommuting Safety Checklist (10212 downloads)
  • Driving Safety (8498 downloads)
  • Professional-Challenges-for-the-Safety-Industry (19550 downloads)
  • template_training_needs.xls (4544 downloads)
  • Risk-Unplugged-Peter-Ribbe.pdf (2267 downloads)
  • Due-Diligence-Workshop-Nov-2018.pdf (748 downloads)
  • Supervisor-Induction-Checklist.docx (1006 downloads)
  • SAFETY-SLOGANS-LIST.doc (8530 downloads)
  • Contractor Risk Assessment Form (3864 downloads)
  • Safety_Training_Needs_Analysis6.doc (7290 downloads)
  • Public-Event-Risk-Management-Checklist-HD.doc (3738 downloads)
  • Presenting-Dos-and-Donts.pdf (1104 downloads)

Recent Posts

  • Culture Silences in Safety – Holism
  • Culture Silences in Safety The Collective Unconscious
  • Culture Silences in Safety Artefacts
  • Culture Silences in Safety Symbolism
  • Culture Silences in Safety Mythology
  • The Safety Trifecta and Nothing Changes
  • Sleep Dysfunction, Dreaming and Safety
  • Working Out What Makes Sense in Safety
  • How to Tackle Risk You Can’t See
  • Study Reveals an Unexpected Side Effect of Traffic Safety Messages

What is Psychological Safety at Work?

Footer

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,424 other subscribers

AUTHORS

  • Alan Quilley
    • Heinrich–Industrial Accident Prevention
    • The Problem With ZERO Goals and Results
  • Bernard Corden
    • After the goldrush
    • The Internationale
  • Bill Sims
    • Employee Engagement: Chocolate, Vanilla, or Strawberry?
    • Injury Hiding-How do you stop it?
  • Craig Clancy
    • Task Based vs Activity Based Safe Work Method Statements
    • Safety And Tender Submissions
  • Daniel Kirk
    • It’s easy being wise after the event.
    • A Positive Safety Story
  • Dave Whitefield
    • Safety is about…
    • Safety and Compliance
  • Dennis Millard
    • Are You Risk Intelligent?
    • Honey they get me! They get me at work!
  • Drewie
    • Downturn Doin’ Your Head In? Let’s Chat….
    • How was your break?
  • Gabrielle Carlton
    • All Care and No Care!
    • You Are Not Alone!
  • George Robotham
    • How to Give an Unforgettable Safety Presentation
    • How To Write a Safety Report
  • Goran Prvulovic
    • Safety Manager – an Ultimate Scapegoat
    • HSE Performance – Back to Basics
  • James Ellis
    • Psychological Core Stability for Wellbeing in Workers Comp
    • In search of plan B in workers’ recovery
  • James Parkinson
    • To laugh or not to laugh
    • People and Safety
  • John Toomey
    • In it for The Long Haul – Making the most of the FIFO Lifestyle
    • Who is Responsible for This?
  • Karl Cameron
    • Abby Normal Safety
    • The Right Thing
  • Ken Roberts
    • Safety Legislation Is Our Biggest Accident?
    • HSE Trip Down Memory Lane
  • Mark Perrett
    • Psychology of Persuasion: Top 5 influencing skills for getting what you want
  • Mark Taylor
    • Build a Psychologically Safe Workplace by Taking Risks and Analysing Failures
    • Enculturing Safety
  • Max Geyer
    • WHS Legislation is NOT about Safety it’s about Culture
    • Due Diligence Is Not Just Ticking Boxes!
  • Matt Thorne
    • Safety Culture–Hudson’s Model
    • Culture – Edgar Schein
  • Peter Ribbe
    • Is there “Common Sense” in safety?
    • Who wants to be a safety professional?
  • Phil LaDuke
    • Professional Conferences Are A Sleazy Con
    • Hey Idiots, You’re Worried About the Wrong Things
  • Admin
    • Study Reveals an Unexpected Side Effect of Traffic Safety Messages
    • Humanising Leadership in Risk, Shifting the Focus from Objects to Persons
  • Dr Rob Long
    • Culture Silences in Safety – Holism
    • Culture Silences in Safety The Collective Unconscious
  • Rob Sams
    • The Learning (and unlearning) that Revealed my Vocation
    • I’m just not that into safety anymore
  • Barry Spud
    • Things To Consider When Developing And Designing Your Company SWMS
    • Bad Safety Photos
  • Sheri Suckling
    • How Can I Get the Boss to Listen?
  • Simon Cassin
    • Safety values, ideas, behaviours and clothes
  • Safety Nerd
    • The Block isn’t portraying safety as it should be
    • Toolbox Talk Show–PPE
  • Wynand Serfontein
    • Why The Problem With Learning Is Unlearning
    • I DON’T KNOW
  • Zoe Koskinas
    • Why is fallibility so challenging in the workplace?

Most commented on

The Unconscious and the Soap Dispenser

Forecasting Safety

The Banned Objects Index – A New Development in Safety Culture

Dumbs for Safety

The Real Barriers to Safety

Safety as Faith Healing

Who Said We Don’t Need Systems?

How to use signs, symbols and text effectively in communicating about risk

Why Safety Controls Don’t Always Work

Safety Should NOT Be About Safety

FEATURED POSTS

Understanding Just Culture

How Semiotics Affects The Return To Work Process

The Safety Charade as Tokenism in Safety

Zero Vision but Purchase Insurance

No Moral Compass in Zero

Behaviourist Neuroscience as Safety

Free Poster–What is Safety

Visualising Risk

The Conundrum in Discerning Risk

The Repression of Uncertainty

Culture About Much More Than Structure

The Illusion Of Hazard Identification

Who Gives a Toss?

Social Sensemaking – Book Launch Dates & Venues Confirmed

Doing Something Bad Well

Anchoring Safety to Objects

The Social Psychology of Risk Handbook, i-thou

Safety-as-Persona

Psychometric Testing and Safety

No Ethic of Hope in Zero

More Posts from this Category

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,424 other subscribers

How we pay for the high cost of running of this site – try it for free on your site

 

How To Make Your Own Hand Sanitizer

 

 

How to Make your own Covid-19 Face Mask

 

Covid-19 Returning To Work Safety, Transitioning, Start Up And Re Entry Plans

 

How’s the Hot Desking Going Covid?

imageOne of the benefits of the Covid-19 epidemic is a total rethink about how we live and work (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-28/coronavirus-could-reshape-how-australians-work-forever/12097124 ).

Expertise by Regurgitation and Re-Badging

One of the fascinating things about the Coronavirus pandemic is watching Safety morph into epidemiology expertise. I would like a dollar for every flyer, presentation, podcast, powerpoint, checklist template, toolbox talk and poster set that had jumped into my inbox… Read the rest

The Stress of Stasis

One of the challenging things about the Coronavirus crisis is stasis. For those without work and confined to home, for those in self-isolation, it’s like life is frozen in time. ‘Stay at home’ is the mantra. The trouble is, in… Read the rest

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.