Learning Doesn’t Provide Immunity

in

Just because I’ve learnt a little about how I make decisions and judgments, it does not mean that I will always make better decisions. I know that I am vulnerable in my decision-making and that it is thick with bias.

Perhaps the best I can hope for is to recognise through reflection, sharing and good conversation the biases in the decisions and judgments I make and continue to learn from them as well as seek to understand ‘cues’ of when my biases may be at play.

Around this time four years ago I began a ‘learning adventure’ that would change my life in more ways than I could have imagined. I had been working in ‘safety’ for most of my life and I was at my wits end trying to understand why our focus was fixated predominately on systems, policing and ‘control’, with little understanding of people and how we make decisions. There seemed to be no place in the paradigm that I was working in that allowed for mistakes, and the groundswell in the industry was being driven by the seduction of ‘zero’.

READ THE FULL STORY FIRST PUBLISHED HERE

The Banned Objects Index – A New Development in Safety Culture

in

If we adopt an approach to safety that is focused on controlling others then banning things in the name of safety is a perfect solution to dealing with the grey, messiness and ambiguity of risk. There is no grey in banning something, right?

Have you heard of the ‘Banned Objects Index’ (BOI)? It is the latest ‘measure’ that you can use to compare your organisations safety culture against another. The ‘BOI’ is easy to calculate, it’s simply the number of banned objects (for safety reasons) per full time equivalent employees. The higher the number, the better the safety culture. Sounds pretty simple right?

Could ‘BOI’ be the elusive ‘Positive Performance Indicator’ we have all been searching for?

Word in the industry is that Government are considering a national ‘BOI’ target and an associated strategy for achieving it. The country’s leading safety body, the Stupid Incident Again (SIA) are reportedly forming a Committee to review the concept, with one insider leaking that the BOI is just what the industry has been searching for. Some suggest that it could even replace Zero Harm as our key aspirational safety target as it’s so much better to have a positive number as a goal.

It also means that the risk and safety industry would have access to a great new range of charts and diagrams where finally safety numbers can go up instead of down. Business is more likely to take our message seriously when we finally have a positive performance indicator that makes sense. Onwards an upwards in safety…..

This all sounds pretty silly right? I mean why would any organisation think that the number of items banned from a site could be an indication of safety culture? In fact, why would an organisation think that they could in any way get a feel for culture through the use of any (apparent) objective measure? Did someone mention LTIFR?

I guess if your tools of choice in ‘enforcing’ safety are control, rule and fear, then a BOI might make perfect sense in measuring culture. If we adopt an approach to safety that is focused on controlling others then banning things in the name of safety is a perfect solution to dealing with the grey, messiness and ambiguity of risk. There is no grey in banning something, right?

Do we really understand the psychology of risk?

READ THE FULL ARTICLE FIRST PUBLISHED HERE

What can Safety Learn from the Gympie Gympie Stinging Tree?

in

What can Safety Learn from the Gympie Gympie Stinging Tree?

This week I have been holidaying in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is a warm climate and a great way to welcome Spring and all that comes with a change in season. As my wife and I love to do when on holidays, there has been a nice mix of relaxing and exploring.

We have been fortunate enough to spend time exploring the beautiful Daintree Rainforest. Today we visited the Mossman Gorge where we experienced one of their Ngadiku Dreamtime Walk’s that are conducted by the local Indigenous people. Ngadiku (Nar-di-gul) means stories and legends from a long time ago in local Kuku Yalanji language. Today our welcoming host was Rodney.

As we meandered through the rainforest, I could not help but feel welcomed, valued and respected. Rodney was showing us around an area that his family and ancestors have inhabited for many thousands of years. Rodney shared stories, knowledge and experiences. He guided us through what he described as ‘our backyard’, referring not only ‘our’ being his people, but also ‘our’ as being the people who were sharing our journey today, it was a very welcoming experience.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE, FIRST PUBLISHED HERE