If you watch the Zero Event promo (https://safety2023sydney.com/) you would be confused to think that safety is some kind of progressive, critical thinking outfit that tackles Transdisciplinarity. It doesn’t. You would also be confused to think that safety looks outside of its own echo chamber to … [Read more...] about Zero and a Culture of Denial
Zero Harm
Shaping Change to Zero
One of the fascinating things about zero messaging is the normalisation of absurd contradictions in language. For example: the Safety and Health at Work ‘zero event’ congress website to be held soon in Sydney, states the mantra: ‘Shaping Change’ (https://safety2023sydney.com/ ). The last thing … [Read more...] about Shaping Change to Zero
When Zero Doesn’t Work, Don’t Change Anything
You would think when something doesn’t work after 15 years of campaigning, one would jettison the campaign and seek better messaging. Not so Zero (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/zero-the-great-safety-delusion/). Once committed to a delusion with endless ‘sunk cost’, there is no moving the … [Read more...] about When Zero Doesn’t Work, Don’t Change Anything
Guilt and Shame, The By-Products of Safety-Zero
One of the first things educators learn is that the projection of guilt and shame anchored to ‘performance’ is a disaster. It doesn’t matter whether this ‘performance’ is in maths or theatre, the subjectivities of measurement and the way they are declared, can create enormous distress and … [Read more...] about Guilt and Shame, The By-Products of Safety-Zero
Update on Zero Survey, Just believe!
Everyone in safety (except CEOs, associations and regulators) know that Zero ideology is delusional (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/zero-the-great-safety-delusion/). This is confirmed time and time again by the Zero Survey we started (https://spor.com.au/zero-vision-survey/) three years … [Read more...] about Update on Zero Survey, Just believe!
Zero is NOT the Only Acceptable Number
I read a thesis the other day on zero messaging, premised on the silly idea that ‘ “zero” is the only acceptable number of injuries or fatalities in the workplace. This is the kind of simplistic stuff we come to accept from business and safety. At no place in the thesis was there any questioning of … [Read more...] about Zero is NOT the Only Acceptable Number
Zero Ideology as Maximum Offense, Zero Benefit
It is nothing short of front row entertainment to watch consultants dance around the offensiveness of zero and act as if it has some skerrick of merit. The last thing we want to do is be harsh on zero or abrupt, we might lose business. There is nothing good about Zero. Any absolute applied to … [Read more...] about Zero Ideology as Maximum Offense, Zero Benefit
Hey CEO? Does Zero Apply to You?
One of the fascinating characteristics of the zero cult is that it always comes ‘from above’, never below. Those at the coalface of risk, those from below know it is bullS*#t. Our Zero Survey (https://safetyrisk.net/take-the-zero-survey/) with over 4000 respondents demonstrates this … [Read more...] about Hey CEO? Does Zero Apply to You?
The Questions You Ask in Safety are Showing?
Our questions frame our world, they show our worldview and what we think matters. Similarly, the questions we don’t ask, deliver the same. They tell us what we don’t want to know, and in Safety, there’s a lot it doesn’t want to know. These are the silences in safety … [Read more...] about The Questions You Ask in Safety are Showing?
Finding Balance in SPoR
We know that zero is extremist and that it holds no compromise with anything other than zero. The anathema to Zero is 1. I was offered an invitation the other day by an engineer to be lectured on balance in risk assessment. Yet, what safety engineers call ‘balance’ is NOT balance. There are at … [Read more...] about Finding Balance in SPoR