Safety Maxims, in that I quote myself!

#53 - duty

If leaders cared for their workers, then they would not need others caring for them!

Some years ago I framed this quote, and I think it kinda stunned the person I was debating with who was invested in making the typical quote "people don’t go to work to hurt themselves". I have since seen this quotes used by those people, but dared not mention where it came from!

While it is nice and humbling to assume workers don't choose to harm themselves, they often do choose to make way for harm to happen, so they choose 'unsafety'.

Quote #51 - Natural Born Leaders

When one goes for a Safety Manager role, would not the criteria ask at least for these expertises: 1) Must be able to manage safety (SMS) 2) Provide the leadership, structure, resources to improve safety and engagement. 3) Demonstrate agility, leadership and stakeholder management capabilities and influencing skills. etc etc. So why so many having to go and learn these things? Safety Cynic - Is there any self managing courses...I think I need to go learn about that.

Quote #50 - no enlightenment possible

Enlightenment says that human reason is capable of answering all the questions that the previous authority had answers to. It is saying that humans can be their own moral and ethical dictator. It is saying we can make and choose the best option, individually, we are our own rule maker. People in their lack of understanding due to time constraints, see my thoughts as if I am all for rules, authority and control, this is very incorrect. What is correct is that while I wish to be free from constraints, and see others free from constraints, I am not naive enough to ignore what makes for a functioning society (collective good). I am aware that we have arrived to this current social state by the very virtue of human essence -we tend to do what works! What works is what we have; fear, authority and control. Can you imagine a world without it! The difference between me and say Dekker (Safety Differently) is that I do not wish too sell an idea that is not possible, and to lead others to assume it is. It is a easy sell...that of dreams Safety Cynic - by virtue of control

Quote #49 - speculation toleration

I have asked this question more than any other, --------------------------What is safety?------------------------- Safety Cynic - safety is taking a risk and a capacity to assume you're right when you do!! (ha...that's what I am being told anyway!!)

Quote #48 - Come-on Sense...where are thou.

A common theme (a common discourse) that keeps coming up is the whole debate over how SAFETY is supposed to be dumbing us down and that it takes away common sense. Commmonn! that's a common misconception that is commonly made. There are logic issues with this Bias Supposition (BS) as said by those looking to save humans from any embarrassment of being named as an utter and total failure in most things they do!!! 1) Safety is only ever put in place after a lack of common sense 2) Safety does not take away common sense, it gives it (well supposed to) 3) and lastly...if rules take away common sense, yet the rule was made to solve lack of common sense...then clearly we must have been already dumb to warrant a need have rules...and why is the rule made...we cannot get any dumber than why the rule was made in the first place!. Safety Cynic - If I had common sense, I'd be as common as all of you, I think I prefer 'idiosyncratic sense'.

Quote #47 - safety is like the lights on a police car

Quote #47 - safety is like the lights on a police car...Blue and Red, but some might say law is all about shades of purple.

Quote #46 - Safety I is all about fear...but we need it!

What I have noted over a very short time (maybe due to my constant awareness of blown out matters) is how those selling the so-called new and different ways to safety, are increasing their grey and safe discourse.
When once they were putting down 'orthodox' safety (what ever that really is as safety is safety), when once they advertised they will 'bash it' where once they said it causes toxic and immature cultures...where they even went as far as to separate safety into competitive silos...which as I have said is doing safety (a thing that is meant for the great good of all, a concept the like of Ron Gantt and others of SD did not once grasp) no favors and tearing it apart and making it even more a joke. I clearly see why these people dislike my views, i.e. safety being a collective, safety having its own standards, safety using tools that are fit for use for all, the role of safety (people) broken down into roles where people can actually be experts in specific areas-not pretend gurus of all expertise, where investigations are done externally, and injuries are recorded by Doctors and etc. Safety Cynic - That Safety Cynic is bad...do we need him!

Quote #45 - esoteric

Those of' Safety Differently are saying we need to look at what is working instead of what is not working/failed, they say if we focus on what is working, we will have a 'better' understanding of how things work 99% of the time. That does sound pretty cool/marketable, and one can easy fall for it, but it's naive and untrue and people will fall for it as they fail to consider logic. I have said before, all things remain robust until they fail, learning why it failed makes a thing robust again...it cyclical and progressive. Here is point made by Todd Conklin (who says this point is 'esoteric' in that is intended to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest)....so he obviously puts himself into a high level of superiority like the rest selling SD, like sitting in first class makes one put down flight attendants..kinda like not parking right..back at you Todd!!). Todd says - "We can't study what failed in order to explain what worked, we have to study what works in order to determine what can fail" If Todd ever had the balls, I love to debate this, but as he only surrounds himself with those who agree with him; what a sad world that is! SC - success is given via failures...period!

Quote #44 - best things in life ain't FREE

If a 'just culture' was the way to success, it would have naturally evolved instead of...well...what it is trying to replace! Clearly logic would prove that to make money and succeed in most businesses, there is limited room for movement and acting on whims of workers...those who disagree, clearly have not run a kitchen! Safety Cynic - I am not even sure mother nature is one of making just cultures.

Quote #43 - I like the idea of nihilism.

I find it fascinating that everything we do in safety is about controlling the things or ways we humans do things. We make a change, we then move past that and create a need for more change, we set in place rules to only decide that rules need to be broken and that we need disruption for continuous improvement..we are even told by experts to take risks for crying out LOUD.

Yet we carry on looking to blame everything else except ourselves,then turn around seeking to create a "just Culture" of love and understanding...cough, a hair ball just came out!

That is why I introduced the 'Cost of Safety' philosophy; it is not the worker who is to blame, it is not the manager, it is not the CEO, it is not the shareholders....it is us...ALL of us, who seek everything Fast, Cheap and Fragile. WE are not prepared to pay for safety to the same level we seek...WE talk the talk but don't walk the walk. We talk complexity yet have no where near the ability to put complexity into practice, yet we keep on pushing it adding complexity to complexity, thus I give you hyper-complexity

Safety Cynic - Of course, I blame all of you:)

#42 - Success

Quote #41 - how about the LAW makes consultants responsible.

Quote #40 - NO, NO, NO...know

Why are so fearful of saying NO. Is it exclusion, that greatest of social punishments. If we say yes (agreeable traits) are we not just taking on a greater inconvenience to yourself, which could make you become spiteful/bitter...a loss of self worth!. It's dam hard to say NO, yet I find hard to understand, when saying NO is perfectly in line with self preservation...and there could be the grand issue. The need to be within the group overrides the self, for the group gives more to the self than it can by itself...meaning; be be protected (safe), it's best to do things you do not agree with if that doing avoids punishment! BUT, I suppose the biggest philosophical question I could ask here is; >WHY is there a need to say NO in the first place? Safety Cynic - NO, I won't agree with the group

Quote #39 - best side

Quote #38 - First in first out.

Quote #37 - Dollars and SENSE.

Why I morally Disagree with selling safety under this logic - HERE

Quote #36 - measure up

Quote #36 - we seek comparisons Wow, our existence, our essence is predicated on success. When others are successful, we are meet forcefully with new levels of expectations... always higher, always more, always better...always in need...always wanted. Through school, through work, through our own kind, we are in constant appraisal, everything we do is compared and a measured with past wows. As my maxim states, if we don't meet up to expectations, we are ignored.. Safety Cynic - If I was used as a measure, I'd be about half way between excellence and perfection; excellfection!

Quote #35 - can't solve a person

Quote #34 - Movements cause disruption

Quote #34 - the seeking of a cure is relentless by the many safety movements...one group does a time marketing on Linkedin, then they slow, then another takes up their turn...the cycle seems to coincide with a new 200 page heavily parroted and long listings of references magazine quality book...or a dates for the next gospel... SO I suppose, movements keep on moving around and around and around...chasing a market. DO WE NEED ANOTHER MOVEMENT

Quote #33 - Sensemaking human

Quote #33 - I made sense once, twice and then I realised that I was sense- making..

Quote #32 - take away rules

Quote #32 - Hard and soft Why cannot those selling Safety Differently answer my questions? 1) Can you please advise what OHS rules/laws we can take away? 2) Who gives the capacity' to take away the rules, and do they own the risk of rule removal? 3) Is safety Differently taking ownership of their marking spin...ok Woolworths takes away a hard rule and a worker or public person is badly injured...WHO IS TO BLAME???? I suspect a 'soft rule' we can take away is...'''clean the bloody microwave out if you make a mess with your spaghetti''' (as seen in similar context in the Safety Differently movie - where that had this RULE in the crib room...which I found really funny) Safety Cynic - addressing this post to the 98%ers...those who have no brain of their own..safety zombies!!!

Quote #31 - Hazard hunt is meaningless

Quote #31 - LONG' live the hazard hunt MORE HERE - https://lnkd.in/bVsXQ5G and Dr Long saying milk creates are fine at work (yeah until someone falls off one) - https://lnkd.in/gnSgnfG also think the sack-able offence is typical jargon...much like Sidney Dekker who say pilots are sacked for not using hand rails!!! Dr Longs risk taking views in relation to workplace health and safety are nothing short of idiotic in a sector where risk ownership has accountability!

Quote #30 - Weick Mindfulness

Quote #30- if only we could have Mindfulness and Just Culture...our workplaces would be...well...above excellent!! Please contact one the many new age safety gurus (and or their consultant subordinates) for more information and or to secure your seat an the next master class...they have many tools and different ways to reach the top rung...

Quote #28 - of course Safety Differently will add pressure to manipulate and game numbers. Next thing they will be telling us is that since they started, workers have chosen not to harm themselves, as clearly this is what the chose to do before...in spite of rules etc

Quote #29 - books blind

Quote #28 - LTI LOR LOW

Quote #27 - No mature or mindful cultures

Quote #26 - No absolutes in safety

Quote #26 Imagine the judge going (in a incident case that killed workers)...well, I cannot charge any organisation or officer (PCBU) for failing to meet their OHS Duty of Care and Due Diligence (or whatever your country has) because it seems safety is all about Greyness and there is no absolutes!!! YEAH... Safety Cynic - bringing some sense back after many seem to have taken it away, for what ever reason I do not know!! (well have a bit of an idea:)

Quote #25 - measure success

Quote #25 Would a million successes mean anything when measuring success (as per Safety Differently proposes) is the NEW way?

Quote #24 - investigation should find system failure

Quote #24 - Investigations are to find real causes I has occurred to me that what is failing in safety is the investigation process and of those who do the investigation to find real causes. I have done a few investigations and in many of those I have listed the main causes of failure as management/system failure (before i knew of SD)...they were not well received by my manager/s and in some cases my report was binned and completely re done by agreeable group-thinking safety people who were to afraid to be honest and noted the workers as the cause (and don't dare call that orthodox safety..maybe orthodox ethics!!!).. I can also say I was not liked and outcast for being honest...which is why I think it is funny the promotion of Just Cultures...(I have obviously been in the real game unlike these snake oil academic sellers who live in dreamerstan) I suppose that is why we should adapt one investigation method...https://lnkd.in/g4jptfN have no internal investigations for any serious event, they should all be done by 3rd parties to limit bias and corruption. But lets say the evidence is correct and all investigation were done competently (cough)...then proof would say that workers are cause... Safety Cynic - just cause!