Finally a Book About Risk That Makes Sense

For some time now we have been privileged to have Dr Robert Long writing some very interesting and provocative articles about creative and effective ways to manage risk in the workplace. They have proven very popular – See them all here

You know all about Legislation, Codes of Practice, Standards, Guidelines, safety systems like BBS, endless paperwork and forms, highly qualified safety consultants, the latest research etc but have you ever thought that something was still missing – you just couldn’t put your finger on it? Risk management is a cornerstone of safety management, and legislation enshrines ones obligations to identify hazards, reduce the risks, implement actions and monitor the outcomes. No-one should argue with the moral, social and legal obligation to provide a safe work place, but what is safe? Can a work place be without risks? Can all risks be identified and controlled to an acceptable level, whatever that might mean? Unfortunately, whole industries have now built up around risk management, where even the slightest risk is now turned into a negative, with many organisations choosing the slogan of ‘zero harm’ as their mantra. In some organisations it seems that the word ‘risk’ has become associated and equated with the word ‘evil’. The motto and language of ‘zero’ is everywhere, sometimes spoken of in organisations like a religious fundamentalist belief. The cult of zero is so pervasive that to question it incurs the wrath of an inquisition. The language of ‘zero’ has become threaded into popular safety culture and industry without question. The language and trajectory of zero doesn’t make sense under the lens of learning, motivation and imagination. It is as if the very taking of a risk in some industries is equated with stupidity. It is as if risk doesn’t make sense.

Then, finally, here is a book by someone who gets it!

NB: We have no commercial interest in this book nor do we receive any financial considerations from it’s sale – its just a damn good read! – do yourself a favour and get a copy!

What the book is about

You can download a more detailed intro, including the table of contents here: RISK MAKES SENSE PROMO (13)

If you want to just skip the intro and buy the book CLICK HERE

In a world of growing risk aversion, one could be forgiven for thinking that risk doesn’t make sense. Risk elimination thinking and behaviour sets a trajectory for a ‘dumb down’ workplace culture. The more efforts are made to ‘engineer out the idiot’, the more the system creates an unthinking workforce.

A Newsletter in 2011 by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in the UK lists a number of things that have been banned. Dodgem cars, school sack races and kite flying, amongst the activities which have been banned. Some schools have banned kids playing on monkey bars and others have banned leather footballs. A local council has instituted a $1000 penalty for kite flying on council ovals in case somebody might get hit. Even the Royal British Legion had to stop selling poppies with pins on Remembrance Day in case people might prick themselves.

(Safety Snippets Edition 22, September 2011)

The report above demonstrates just how absurd things have developed in our risk adverse society. The reality is, there is no learning without risk. Risk is not bad. You can’t live life without a ‘trade-off’ for risk. You can’t learn without risk. We seem more than ever preoccupied with lawsuits than learning, more anxious about injury than adventure and, fearful of harm rather than welcoming creativity. The quest for certainty, absolute control and the elimination of doubt is a fundamentalist pursuit.

The evolving language of risk elimination and cult-like fixation with everything ‘zero’ is a language that fosters the development of an unthinking workforce. As risk aversion increases, so do the resulting management systems that accompany it. This results in ‘flooding’ the worker so that they default to gut instincts, personal micro-rules and ‘risk quackery’. This increases risk. Rather than resist risk or extinguish risk, we need to embrace it and better understand it from a psychological and cultural perspective. This is a purpose of the book.

The answer to the challenge of risk is not more paperwork but more effective conversations and dialogue that are tuned into the psychology and culture of risk. When learning is the lens through which we view risk, risk makes sense.

The book is 182 pages and includes workshop questions at the end of each chapter and is only available from the website http://www.humandymensions.com/home/risk-makes-sense.  The book is structured in three parts. The first part is: What we Know about Risk, the second is: What we Know about Human Sensemaking and the third is, What we can do to Make Better Sense of Risk.

We will soon be running a competition to give away autographed copies of this book – WATCH THIS SPACE

Safety Engagement with Workspace, Headspace and Groupspace – Toward Total Safety Organisation

Another teaser by Dr Robert Long – If you liked this article then you should read the whole series: CLICK HERE. I highly recommend you check out Rob’s new book “RISK MAKES SENSE” – click on image to read precise

So much of what we do in safety takes its focus on workspace. We call this the physical or ‘primary’ dimension of safety. This is easy to administer and regulate because what is required is visible and accountable through checklists matched to regulations. Most safety walks and observations are physical (primary) activities. Walking around and observing what is physically out of place is relatively easy. Unfortunately, this seems to be the majority of what safety professionals do. Every time safety officers undertake observations they seem to concentrate on the same things they found last time. Without ownership, nothing changes.

Often safety walks take the form of the ‘nitpicky repetition cycle’. The ‘nitpicky repetition cycle’ often takes the form of nagging and threatening others about personal protective equipment, dress, trip hazards, dues dates, tags, tickets, barricades, traffic, exclusion zones etc. Whilst these things are important they are a small part of the safety equation. Unfortunately, people assume because something looks safe, that it is safe. Similarly, assumptions are made that if something looks unsafe then it is unsafe. Looks can be deceiving.

One of the first things I do in my Advanced Hazard Identification and PROACT training is help people expand their safety paradigm to think more in terms of workspace, headspace and groupspace. I have written previously about primary, secondary and tertiary hazards and risks. The idea of workspace, headspace and groupspace captures more simply the fundamentals of Psychosocial Safety.

Understanding, observing and influencing workspace, headspace and groupspace is foundational to Psychosocial Safety. We can go on as many safety walks and observations as we like but if we only engage with the primary/physical dimension of safety will never start the journey to the Total Safety Organisation.

How do we begin to practice a Psychosocial Safety approach to observations and conversations? We must understand and learn to engage with workspace, headspace and groupspace, and the interactions between all three dimensions. We must know how to question and engage and influence the physical (primary), psychological (secondary) and cultural (tertiary) dimensions of safety.

Engaging others in workspace, headspace and groupspace takes training and practice. You need to know what you are looking and listening for and how to extract knowledge in these dimensions through effective questioning. Unfortunately too many safety professionals think that the development of ownership in safety is spontaneously generated through telling, lecturing, correcting and policing. These work in the short term but they don’t motivate others to ownership and they certainly make no difference over the long term. This is why the ‘nitpicky repetition cycle’ is one of the greatest frustrations for safety professionals. I often get frustrated when I read and see safety consultants offering nothing more to clients than proficiency in the ‘nitpicky repetition cycle’.

There’s not much need to elaborate in this article about conversations and observations in workspace, we are already proficient in that. So let’s discuss in a bit more detail the engagement and focus of headspace and groupspace.

Engaging with headspace is undertaken best through open questions and generating dialogue. When we engage with headspace we are listening for: assumptions; micro-rules; heuristics; beliefs; rules of thumb; gut knowledge; values; biases; principles, language ‘anchors’, ‘double speak’, habits of mind; competing values, intuitions; emotional decisions; doubts, internal integration and psychological goals. We are looking for: symbols; artifacts; blind spots; omissions; habits and evidence of learning priority. When we hear and see these things we can then respond to them and influence belief and values change.

When we engage with groupspace we are listening for: ‘effects’; interaction beliefs; relationships; trust; power discourse; stereotypes, distractions; interruptions; dissonance; heroes and enemies; power politics; exclusive language; shared meanings; ‘rules of the game’; ‘risk quackery’; situated learning; cognitive load, organic alignments and external adaption. We are looking for: social validation; recognition patterns, stressors; punishment signs and attributions. When we hear and see these things we can then respond to them and influence safety culture change.

Knowing how to infiltrate these dimensions and knowing how they influence safety culture is beyond the scope of this article. To conduct observations and conversations in these dimensions with understanding is not something which comes naturally or automatically. Learning how to engage, listen and perceive these things takes learning and practice. Learning how to ‘prime’ and influence these dimensions is a journey many safety professionals are yet to commence. However, this is the journey we need to take if the idea of a Total Safety Organisation attracts us.

Author’s Resource Box

Dr Robert Long

Executive Director – Human Dymensions Pty Ltd

Rob has a creative career in teaching, education, community services, government and management. Rob is engaged by organisations because of his expertise in culture, learning, risk and social psychology. He is a skilled presenter and designer of learning events, training and curriculum.

Check out his new book: http://www.humandymensions.com/home/risk-makes-sense

Web Link: www.humandymensions.com

Blog: http://web.me.com/robertlong2/HDblog/Blog/Blog.html

Custom Safety Forms

Some of the most popular search terms used to find our site and certainly one of the most popular questions we are asked is in relation to finding common safety and risk management forms. This includes: Hazard report forms, risk assessment worksheets, Job Safety Analysis, work method statements, take 5 forms etc. Unfortunately many safety systems are driven by these paperwork systems, but that’s a debate for another time. We have heaps of generic type forms and examples HERE or just type what you are looking for into our search box. But there comes a time when you may want to customise the forms to include their company logo, sizing, company specific terminology, industry specific requirements and so on. There are quite a few companies not that offer this service. One we found recently was “LOCKBOX Safety Documentation” – they produce high quality custom documentation and appear to have done this for some large organisations. Please note that we have no commercial relationship with this company. Their products look pretty good and as for pricing, well I guess you’ll have to ask them? See some examples of their work below:

Recent work

Hazard Report Cards

This hazard report card (front and back) was developed for an oil …

Job Safety Analysis Worksheet

Empire Gold required a JSA worksheet to be developed that would help …

HSE Incident Report

This incident report was created with the HSEQ Manager of a West …

Heavy Vehicle Inspection Checklist

We created this inspection checklist with the HSE department of this large …

Hot Work Permit

We were hired to develop and print a new hot work permit …

Safe Work Risk Assessment

An effective pocket sized form for recording pre-job risk assessments. Developed with …

Take Five Form

We were approached by an Australian rail network to help rework their …

All Incident Report Form

Sinclair Knight Merz came to us to produce their simple, yet effective …

Top 10 Forklift Accidents

A compilation of serious forklift accidents which could quite easily have been fatal (perhaps they were?). We don’t want to make light of these forklift incidents (the stupid music doesn’t help) but this video shows just how easily they can occur and how serious the outcome can be. Perhaps use this in a tool box talk and discuss, after each incident, what when wrong and how it could have been prevented. Another point for discussion may be: “What to do after something like this happens”? they don’t show that in the video but one can imagine the panic that may set in and how a wrong response could make the situation a whole lot worse?

Few other forklift safety videos:

John Higgins was an ordinary teenager who loved playing basketball and had big plans for his future, but all that changed the day his back was broken in a workplace accident.

Why you should wear PPE

Still have employees who are hard nuts to crack when it comes to wearing PPE? Here is a short, simple video which may assist, could be an idea for your next safety tool box talk or even included in your new employee induction process?:

OK, so its not that great but if anyone has found anything better please let us know

Your Talk Matters – Effectively Managing Risk

If you have enjoyed the series of articles by Dr Robert Long (see them here) then you will love this short video which clearly explains the important basics of how to have an effective safety talk or conversation – a crucial, but often overlooked, element in controlling risks in the workplace.

Your Talk Matters, Effectively Managing Risk from Human Dymensions on Vimeo.

This is a video which supports some of Human Dymensions programs on safety observations and conversations. The brief chat raises the importance of skilled conversations as the most effective way to manage risk. If you are interested in the training package or associated tools, please contact Rob at rob@humandymensions.com

Some of his other videos include:

Leadership and the Psychology of Risk from Human Dymensions on Vimeo.

Management Psychology Essentials from Human Dymensions on Vimeo.

Ways To Tell If OHS Training Is Working For Your Business

Guest Post

OHS requires safety and Health Training in almost every occupation from office workers to hazardous waste. They have rules and regulations for land and sea and it is up to each company to ensure that they and their employees have the necessary training and competence to get jobs done in the safest healthiest manner possible. While most businesses want a safe and healthy work environment for their employees they often find themselves wondering if all these OHS training programs are really doing any good.

So, here are 5 ways to tell if that OHS training program is working for your business.

1. Are workers demonstrating skills and competency with using machine and adhering to safety procedures they learned in the OHS training? Is someone in management dedicated to making sure OHS guidelines and regulations are met? After all, no training program is going to be successful unless implemented and followed.

2. Do workers feel free to report any safety or heath concerns, and are those concerns addressed by your company to further reduce the risk to the employee? If your OHS training program is working, your employees should be more aware of safety or health risks on the jobs and feel free to talk to you about those risks and suggest ways to minimize those risks.

3. Has there been a reduction in accidents, worker compensation claims, and overall absenteeism? One of the best ways of knowing if the OHS training is effective is when there is a noticeable reduction in accident and worker claims regarding various on the job health problems. When the work place is safer, workers tend to take less time off work.

4. Has the general atmosphere in the work place lightened? Do your workers look and act more comfortable when performing tasks? Is there less complaining? Overall, do workers seem less stressed and seem to enjoy their jobs a little more? The safer a worker feels on the job, the more job satisfaction they experience and the less need the feel to complain. It may take some time but eventually, if your OHS training is working, there will be an overall general improvement in workers attitude.

5. Is productivity improving? The safer the workplace, the healthier the work environment the more productive your business will become. When workers are allowed to concentrate on their jobs rather than spending time worrying about their safety or their health, the more they can accomplish during regular working hours. This cuts down on the need for overtime and overall increases the businesses bottom line. One of the main goals of OHS training to help employers and their employees understand that safety and health is something that everyone needs to be aware of and want to improve. While it is the employers job to minimized health and safety risks as much as possible, the employees mush make effective use of the equipment supplied, the training they are given, and the procedures they learn in order to help keep themselves and the workers around them safe and healthy. If everyone from that warehouse clerk to upper management understands their role in keeping your business and each other safe and healthy then OHS training does indeed work.

Are the New OHS Harmonisation Guidelines Not Meant For All?

Guest Post

The changes in the OHS guidelines were meant to harmonise those guidelines over all of Australia, making them clearer and easier to follow and lifting some of the burden from employers to have to "prove" themselves innocent when an employee was injured. Under the new harmonized guidelines, employers are now considered innocent until it is proven they did not follow the guidelines, which makes more sense. This change also means that Unions cannot prosecute businesses on behalf of their employees. These guidelines were meant for all, or so we thought. NSW is discovering this may not be the case.

Finance Minister Greg Pearce states that NSW is not the only state where unions retain the right to prosecute employers. Not only does this leave certain employers at the mercy of being targeted by unions but it also may mean that, in essence, NSW has failed to meet the requirements of the ohs harmonisation guidelines.

So what does this mean to NSW? It could mean a lot financially. The federal government has promised 144 million dollars in federal grant money for harmonizing occupational health and safety laws. The failure of NSW legislator to follow those guidelines as laid out may mean that NSW grant money is in grave jeopardy due to this failure to comply with the new guidelines.

It also means that NSW employers are looking for clarification of guidelines and want to know what their appeal rights are. More importantly, does this mean that NSW employers will continue to have to "prove" their innocent rather being considered innocent and having to be "proven" guilty? While no one is sure how this play out in the end, it could mean that if clarification is not forthcoming or businesses feel that they are being held to a higher standard than businesses in other parts of Australia it may mean that some businesses will choose to move to other states where they deem the laws more fair.

While no one is making any plans of uprooting businesses at this point, it could become an eventuality if harmonisation with Federal OHS guidelines are not achieved. In the meantime, the O’Farrell government has refused to intervene with the Industrial Relations Commission on behalf of 170 businesses who were charged before the workplace reforms were passed by parliament. However, according to according to Malcolm Davis, an expert in workplace law, difficult to postpone these current cases because they were prosecuted under the old legislation.

So we will have to wait and see how new cases that are brought under the OHS changes play out and whether employers in NSW reaped any of the benefits of the harmonized changes or if they will continue to be held to a higher standard than the rest of the country.

4 Ways OHS Training Can Save You Money

Guest Post

While most business owners would agree that safety in the workplace is desirable and necessary they sometimes allow concern for the bottom line to overcome their better judgment when it comes to safety. However, it is necessary to look at the bigger picture and in doing so, owners and managers will have a clearer picture how ohs training can actually improve profits by saving the company huge amounts of money. Here are Here are 4 ways that OHS training can save your company money:

1. Reduces the number of accidents and worker accident claims. When a worker is injured on the job due to unsafe work conditions, the company often ends up paying huge amounts for that workers medical care and continues to pay in huge insurance premiums. OHS training programs helps both business owners and managers and workers to understand how and where they can institute safer worker conditions. The safer the work place is, the fewer accidents, the lower the number of accident claims filed by employees. Over time, this can lead to lower accident insurance premiums saving your company big money and resulting in larger profits over the long term.

2. OHS training is mandatory. Having that training for every member of your work force will result in less fines for noncompliance and less costly shut downs. A company that is forced to pay huge fines and is shut down until they get proper OHS training can suffer thousands of pounds in lost revenue each day. Having the proper OHS training is one way to eliminate these unnecessary and costly fines.

3. OHS training can lead to reduced worker stress and less missed work time. An unsafe work environment is much more stressful to work in than one where workers feel they can do their job without risking life and limb. When OHS training is applied across the board, workers feel safe in the work environment and less stressed when doing their jobs. Lowering the stress levels for employees results in less missed work and more consistent work team that the company can depend on.

4. OHS Training actually increases production. Believe it or not, OHS training actually can increase production. When everyone knows the right and safe way to do a job, they can accomplish that job more efficiently with fewer accidents. Accidents or the fear of accidents can halt production and interferes with the workflow that is being done. When everyone feels that work environment is safe, they can concentrate on the work at hand which in turn improves production levels making the company more money. Safety in the workplace not only benefits employees but employers as well and that can be seen in the bottom line. When a company is paying out less money in medical compensations and fines and has fewer work stoppages, their profit margins go up and companies find they can make more money with less production required.

What is Psychosocial Safety?

Another provocative article by Dr Robert Long – If you liked this article then you should read the whole series: CLICK HERE

Psychosocial safety is really not a new concept but has been around industry for some time. The beginnings of psychosocial safety are usually linked to Herbert W. Heinrich an insurance investigator in the 1930s and 1940s. Interest in psychosocial safety as a discipline grew out of the early work done by pioneers who were applying behavioural principles in organizations. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Aubrey Daniels, Wanda Myers, and others were working with organizations applying psychological concepts to improve performance in what Aubrey would later term ‘performance management’. More recently psychology in safety has been championed by Scott Geller (Geller, S., (2001) The Psychology of Safety Handbook. Lewis Publishers, London).

Perhaps the first complete focus on a psychosocial focus on risk and safety was triggered by the methodology of Karl E. Weick. Weick’s psychosociocultural evolution model of organizing adapts the concepts and propositions of cultural evolution, sociology, psychology and ecology to human organizing, risk and safety. See further: Weick, K., (1979) The Social Psychology of Organizing. McGraw Hill, New York; Weick, K., (1995) Sensemaking in Organisations. Sage Publications, London.

Psychosocial safety integrates key aspects of psychology and sociology to understand and manage human dimensions of safety. As a discipline, Psychosocial safety extends well beyond the mechanistic horizons of Behavioural Based Safety (BBS). Behaviourism is typically reductionist and determinist. Rather than being a panacea for safety BBS limits the way humans are viewed, humans are more than the sum of their behaviours and are not machines. For this reason psychosocial safety the takes into account a full range of psychosocial factors in its methodology not just behaviourism.

Whilst there is no doubt that orthodox safety methodologies such as BBS or legislation have some success in improving safety, there is more to the safety picture if one wants to become a ‘Total Safety Organisation’ (Weick).

The following serve as examples of what psychosocial safety considers in its response to human judgement and decision making about hazards and risks:

Cognitive Dissonance: developed by Leon Festinger. Refers to the mental gymnastics required to maintain consistency in the light of contradicting evidence. An understanding of cognitive dissonance is essential if one wants to understand conversion. Cognitive dissonance explains the attempts made to alleviate the feeling of self-criticism
and discomfort caused by the appearance of the conflicting beliefs. The idea that compliance forces, power, punishment, incentives and other behaviourist methods ‘convert’ people from ‘unsafety’ to safety is naïve. Such belief denies all that has been learned from the psychology of addictions, psychology of conversion, psychology of fundamentalisms, psychology of abuse, cults and religions, suicide ideation and psychology of goals (Moskowitz, G., and Grant, H., (eds.) (2009) The Psychology of Goals .The Guilford Press, New York.).

In many ways televangelists and safety officers share something in common except televangelists are much better at it. They just have a different view of what it means to ‘save lives’. There is not space here to emphasise or map the dynamics of cognitive dissonance and its relevance to safety, I undertake a more detailed description of this in my book.

Discourse Analysis: attributed to Leo Spitzer, Jurgen Habermas and Michael Foucault. Discourse analysis is concerned with The transmission of power in systems of thoughts composed of ideas, symbols, artefacts, attitudes, courses of action, beliefs and practices that systematically construct the subjects and the worlds of which they speak. For example: the language of safety is so important for the construction of meaning for organisations. For example: the language of ‘zero’ in safety constructs mindsets preoccupied with reductionism, minimalism and control. The language of BBS constructs a focus on behaviour-only approaches to safety.

Reciprocal Determinism: postulated by social cognitive theorist Albert Bandura. Reciprocal determinism states: that the situation people find themselves in will influence both their behaviour and their attitudes. People’s behaviour will influence both their attitudes and the situation, and that people’s attitudes will influence their perceptions of a situation and, in turn influence their behaviour.

Risk Homeostasis: developed by Gerald Wilde (Wilde, G., (2001) Target Risk 2. PDE Publications, 2001). Risk homeostasis holds that everyone has his or her own fixed level of acceptable risk. The famous Berlin Taxi Experiment first conducted by Wilde in 1981 demonstrates the idea of ‘risk compensation’. What this means is that people adjust their response to safety technologies. Safety technologies are not neutral but are interpreted. It is possible that some safety technologies increase rather than reduce risk. This is because humans tend to resist external controls and prefer to ‘own’ their decisions. The current thirst in society for ‘edgework’ exemplified in ‘X-games’ is evidence of risk homeostasis. Further see: Zinn, J., (ed) (2008) Social Theories of Risk and Uncertainty, An Introduction. Blackwell, London.

Unconscious enactment: championed by John Bargh. Bargh, J. A., (ed.) (2007) Social Psychology and the Unconscious: The Automaticity of Higher Mental Processes. Psychology Press, New York; Hassin, R., Uleman, J., and Bargh, J., (2005) The New Unconscious. Oxford University Press, London. Bargh shows that many of our decisions and judgements are ‘primed’ by the anchoring of words or social context. This idea of automaticity is also supported by social psychologists of risk: Slovic, Plous, Sunstein and Gardner. There are strong connections between what has been discovered by Bargh and discourse analysis. For this reason safety culture programs need to take much greater care with safety communications, language, words and symbols.

Much more could be discussed about these and other psychosocial influences on human judgement and decision making. There is much more to learn about why some orthodox safety programs and initiatives don’t work. Psychosocial safety is no silver bullet, it just helps explain why there are no silver bullets. It extends the journey. Once we get our heads out of silver bullets and begin to be realistic about human judgement and decision making, then we may better able to make sense of risk, broaden our approaches to its understanding, analysis and management.

Author’s Resource Box

Dr Robert Long

PhD., (UWS) BEd., (USA) BTh., (SCD) MEd., (Syd) MOH (La Trobe), Dip T., Dip Min., MACE, CFSIA.

Executive Director – Human Dymensions Pty Ltd

Rob has a creative career in teaching, education, community services, government and management.

Rob is engaged by organisations because of his expertise in culture, learning, risk and social psychology. He is a skilled presenter and designer of learning events, training and curriculum.

Web Link: www.humandymensions.com

Blog: http://web.me.com/robertlong2/HDblog/Blog/Blog.html

George’s Safety Reflections SEE MORE OF GEORGE’S WORK HERE

Access to earthmoving equipment

A highly practical safety project in the early 1990’s was the Access to Earthmoving Equipment project. Work required included:

v Carrying out a literature review;

v Thorough statistical analysis of company accident data

v Developing a check-list to assess access systems;

v Field assessment of access systems

v Discussing access requirements with maintenance and operational personnel;

v Designing and installing prototype access modifications;

v Assessing the adequacy of the prototype modifications;

v Developing access purchasing specifications and maintenance guidelines; and

v Providing written guidance on desired characteristics of access systems.

v Presenting to industry forums in Qld. W.A. & N.S.W.

Through the employer association we successfully applied for Federal Government funding to extend the original research work by further research by an ergonomist / mechanical engineer. Thorough statistical analysis of Qld mining industry accident data was the starting point. This work provided significant input into the writing of an Australian Standard for "Earthmoving Equipment Access” and subsequently much earthmoving equipment in open-cut Australian mines now have hydraulically operated access arrangements.

The focus of this work was the large earthmoving equipment used in open-cut mining but the lessons are equally applicable to smaller earthmoving equipment and the back of trucks.

This research developed an industry manufacturing and developing earthmoving equipment access systems. With the passage of time this work is not well known in the mining industry nowadays, whilst the work has significant application outside the mining industry few will be aware of it.

I can supply further information if necessary, fgrobotham@gmail.com

George’s Safety Reflections SEE MORE OF GEORGE’S WORK HERE

Analysis of “Accident” experience

Many organisations analyse their “Accident” experience in the hope of gaining insight into how to prevent their problems. Most organisations will not have sufficient serious “Accident” experience to make statistically significant determinations.

1. Damage to people at work has a number of adverse outcomes:-

§ Financial loss to employer, worker and community

§ Pain and suffering

§ Dislocation of lives

§ Permanence of death

2. Damage to people from work falls naturally into one of three Classes.

- Class I damage permanently alters the person’s life and subdivides into

- fatal

- non fatal

- Class II damage temporarily alters the person’s life

- Class III damage temporarily inconveniences the person’s life (Geoff McDonald & Associates)

Taxonomy

This is an incredibly simple technique that it is rare to find used. Essentially a taxonomy is a collection of like. The most well known taxonomy is the phylum of plants, their botanical names.

Awhile back I was associated with a taxonomy of the more significant personal damage occurrences in the Qld mining industry which I thought was particularly effective in setting priorities for the industry. It is important to do the taxonomy on an industry basis as it is unlikely even the big companies will have enough of the more serious events to be able to develop statistically significant determinations.

The Qld mining industry has a standard personal damage occurrence report form that is sent to the inspectorate. The hard copies of the forms were obtained and sorted into like, ie the spinal column damages caused by driving a haultruck were put together ,the spinal column damage caused by lifting gas cylinders were put together, the eye injuries caused by grinding were put together and so on. The personal damage occurrences were then examined for their frequency, severity and the essential factors (An essential factor is one without which the final damage could not have occurred) This process gives insight into where your principal problems are occurring and guides preventative action.

In these days of computerised data systems I still feel it is necessary to go back to the original hard copy or a scanned in copy.

Examination of personal damage occurrences on an industry basis can provide meaningful insight into your safety problems.

Note

Various papers on OHS and OHS related topics can be seen under articles on www.ohschange.com.au

George’s Safety Reflections SEE MORE OF GEORGE’S WORK HERE

Commercial Safety Management Systems

No doubt there are commercial safety managements systems that add value to organisation’s safety effort but I experienced one that was a disaster.

The introduction of the overseas S.M.S. was led aggressively by senior management despite a workshop of safety staff rejecting the concept. The first step was a consultant conducting a series of briefings for management, supervisors and workers. The consultant started talking about the thousands of people killed in industry in his country and a union rep asked him what made him think he could teach us anything about safety when fatalities in Australian industry were much less. It went downhill from there. At smoko the 4 senior managers came to me to ask that the consultant wrap the show up quickly because he was doing more harm than good. I wrote a report on the training session which was not warmly received by those leading the charge. The manager leading the charge got a significant touch up about the training at the next senior managers meeting.

The safety staff requested detail about the system but it only became apparent when the auditors came to Australia and showed us their auditor’s books. The detail was kept close to the chest prior to that and when it was revealed I did not think it was anything earth shattering. There were a few things that were probably pretty silly in an Australian context. One of my jobs was to accompany the auditors on their audits, a task I did not relish. The auditor’s book was their bible with little interest in other things. The auditors were definitely no stars and would have not lasted long working for me.

Somewhere along the way we had a 2 week auditor’s course that was woeful. Early in the piece a meeting of participants was called to give the presenter guidance on how to do it better. I was in the middle of my Bachelor of Education (Adult & Workplace Education) and it was obvious the presenter was making a number of fundamental mistakes.

The system had a number of training courses we were required to do as part of the audit process but there was significant concern about the standard so we flew the training manager over from overseas so we could discuss a process for Australianising their courses. This was done with considerable cost and effort.

The system ran a few years in the company but died a natural death.

Even if the system had been technically good it was socially and culturally difficult for Australia. The psychological process of group think was evident in the consultants and those leading the charge in the company. Many commented on the arrogance of the auditors. The difficulty of using a standardised approach without identifying the unique needs of organisations was emphasised.

Since my association with this system I have had dealings with a number of Australian commercial S.M.S All suffer from the deficiency of lacking a focus on the Class 1 personal damage occurrence phenomenon.

The following are my observations on the above systems-

• They usually lock you into having audits with their auditors at considerable cost
• Some lock you into specified training with their trainers at considerable cost
• All adopt a standardised approach where it is difficult to accommodate the unique identified needs of organisations
• Lag indicators of safety performance rather than lead indicators tend to be used.
• My experience is that some have had poor quality auditors
• Generally costs are high

Note

Various papers on OHS and OHS related topics can be seen under articles on www.ohschange.com.au

New ONE-COVER Cable Tape

ONE-COVER Cable Tape is a revolutionary new product that allows you to easily cover cords and cables on carpeted surfaces without the use of adhesives. It grips any loop pile carpeted surface, uses no glues or adhesives, is easily cut to length, is reusable 1000’s of times, is 100% recyclable and a fraction of the price of similar products.

ONE-COVER Cable Tape is a great product for home, the office, board rooms, meeting rooms, exhibitions, events, schools and in fact anywhere you need to cover cords and cables. It grips so well, it can be vacuumed over and won’t move and it’s so flexible it can even be used on stairs or around corners.

For more details visit the website: http://www.fifteen4.com/

Importance of Following Safety Instructions

A new fuel tanker arrives on location somewhere in the Middle East.
The Safety manager tells the Fleet Manager to ensure that the tanker is clearly signposted………..
“Diesel Fuel” and “No Smoking” in Arabic.
This is what was done:

Meanwhile……….

http://www.safetyrisk.com.au/2011/03/02/safety-communications-not-always-safe/

Free Safety Resource – International Labour Organization’s Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety

This link was brought to our attention by a reader – thanks Mike. This is an enormous volume and body of safety knowledge and pretty heavy going at times. But, as a resource for safety and risk management info, probably second to none. See it here

The ILO’s Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety is the most comprehensive reference source on the subject. It has a long and honourable history, having had four editions: in 1930, 1971, 1983 and 1998. It is one of the flagship publications of the International Labour Office and is widely respected worldwide by health and safety professionals, students and policy-makers alike.

Extract from the preface:

Volume I

· The Body and Health Care take a medical approach and provides information on disease, its detection and prevention, and occupational health services and health promotional activities.

· Prevention, Management and Policy covers legal, ethical and social policy aspects of the field, as well as educational and informational and institutional resources.

· Tools and Approaches provides insight into the disciplines which comprise the study and application of occupational health and safety: engineering, ergonomics, occupational hygiene, epidemiology and statistics and laboratory research.

Volume II

· Hazards spans the range of chemical, physical and social hazards, accidents and safety management methods that may be encountered around the world. The nature of the hazard is detailed, together with technical information on its recognition, evaluation and control.

Volume III

· Chemicals presents basic data on use in industry and chemical, physical and toxicological properties information on more than 2,000 chemicals categorized by chemical family

· Industries and Occupations takes a “how things work” and “how to control hazards” approach to all the major industries. The hazards associated with a variety of occupations which span several industrial sectors are presented in a hazard card format.

Volume IV

· Indexes and Guides provides a how-to-use the Encyclopaedia guide; lists of tables and figures and collaborating institutions; and indexes of chemical substances, cross-references, subjects and authors cited.

Several thousand internationally recognized experts have been called upon to be writers and reviewers of this Encyclopaedia. They have been drawn from virtually all the major institutions around the world and we have attempted to assure that international perspectives are represented because such perspectives are not the same everywhere and it is the responsibility of the International Labour Organization to promote the free interchange of different conceptualizations. Further, problems and solutions vary around the globe and it makes good sense to seek out the expertise of those who personally know and understand the issues.

What’s Wrong With This Photo – Spot the Hazards

Each issue of WorkSafe™ Magazine includes a safety photo that has been staged to show a number of hazards or potentially dangerous work practices. The online version is highly interactive and includes ability to place pins and comments onto the photo and print the results. Could be a good idea for your next toolbox talk or something different for safety awareness training?

A whole range of topics have been covered including Farming, Construction, Scaffolding, Healthcare, Forklifts, Chemicals, Confined Spaces, Kitchens and Nurseries. Check Them Out

A Formula for Safety Culture Failure and Success

Another provocative article by Dr Robert Long – If you liked this article then you should read the whole series: CLICK HERE

I find it fascinating to read many uses of the word ‘culture’ and ‘risk’ that have no complementary reference to people. Even when there is some mention of people, safety culture advocates often focus on ‘behaviours’ or use obscure expression such as ‘human factors’ that lack definition. The same applies when people speak of ‘common sense’ as if such an expression has a defined meaning for everyone.

The accepted formula for risk and safety management is often expressed in the following formula:

Whilst the formula seems straightforward there are too many significant issues that it omits. Simplicity is helpful but simplistic formulas are unhelpful. Simplistic formulas are what I term ‘risk quackery’, they give the impression of being genuine and helpful but are misleading.

Risk is not independent of people, especially their psychology and culture. The concept of ‘human factors’ is too obscure, we need to know much more about human judgement and decision making if we are to properly address risk and safety in the workplace.

Here are few specific things we need to know about human judgement and risk:

aRational: The arational dimension of human nature defines all that is not based or governed by reason. This is neither rational nor irrational but non-rational. This includes decisions by emotion, social manipulation and intuition.

Cognitive and Social Biases: There are over 100 cognitive and social biases which affect the way humans make decisions. For example: Fundamental attribution error is when humans overestimate the importance and power of individual personality and underestimate the influence of social situations. This is most often the case when people blame others for being stupid in judgements about risk.

Cognitive Dissonance: Developed by Leon Festinger. Refers to the mental gymnastics required to maintain consistency in the light of contradicting evidence.

Discourse: Developed by Michael Foucault. This is a cultural term and refers to more than language to include the transmission of power in systems of thoughts, ideas and language.

Flooding: Refers to when human senses are flooded beyond the capacity to cope. Flooding drives people to intuition, personal ‘micro-rules’ and heuristic decision making

Heuristics: Mentioned for the first time in HB327 and the hand book that complements AS/NZS 31000, Heuristics refer to experience-based techniques for problem solving, learning, and discovery. Heuristics are like mental short cuts used to speed up the process of finding a satisfactory solution, where an exhaustive search is impractical. Heuristics tend to become internal ‘micro-rules’ or ‘rules of thumb’. For example: trial and error is a heuristic.

Priming: Is an implicit memory effect which influences response. Priming is received in the subconscious and transfers to enactment in the conscious. The way we ‘frame’ messages influences the thinking and decisions of others. This is evident in propaganda and mass movements.

Risk Homeostasis: Developed by Gerald Wilde. Risk homeostasis holds that everyone has his or her own fixed level of acceptable risk.

Sensemaking: Is about paying attention to ambiguity and uncertainty. Developed by Karl E. Weick to represent the seven ways we ‘make sense’ of uncertainty and contradiction.

Scotoma: A scotoma is an area of loss or impairment of visual ability surrounded by a field of normal, well-preserved vision. A blind spot can be physical, psychological and cultural. I have listed more than 20 kinds of blind spots in my book.

Unconscious: Processes of the mind which are not immediately known or made aware to the conscious mind. The term subconscious is also used interchangeably and denotes a state ‘below’ the conscious state. The subconscious is more associated with psychoanalytics.

These are just some of the examples of things we should know that influence human judgement and decision making. For the purpose of this discussion let’s call these factors Human Decision Making (HDM).

Anything that involves humans is complex and there is no great advantage in putting one’s heads in the sand. More ‘risk quackery’ doesn’t heal insufficient formulas. So a more realistic formula for risk and safety management should look like this:

Author’s Resource Box

Dr Robert Long

PhD., (UWS) BEd., (USA) BTh., (SCD) MEd., (Syd) MOH (La Trobe), Dip T., Dip Min., MACE, CFSIA.

Executive Director – Human Dymensions Pty Ltd

Rob has a creative career in teaching, education, community services, government and management.

Rob is engaged by organisations because of his expertise in culture, learning, risk and social psychology. He is a skilled presenter and designer of learning events, training and curriculum.

Web Link: www.humandymensions.com

Blog: http://web.me.com/robertlong2/HDblog/Blog/Blog.html

TYPING SAFETY ADVISORS – 2 Minute Read

New Article on GenWhyAsk

Extract:

Along my professional path I have being exposed to more and more fellow Safety Advisors and its becoming more apparent the great divide between us. In my opinion we can generally be slotted into one of two categories Type A or Type B… I don’t mean to stereotype Safety Advisors but when it comes to discussions / issues / managing safety we seem to take lean towards a particular ‘Type’………..Type A the employee pleaser and Type B the employer pleaser… Are we loosing balance?

Read the full Article……….

Conducting a Psychology and Culture Safety Walk

Another guest post by Dr Robert Long – If you liked this article then you should read the whole series: CLICK HERE

Safety walks, observations and conversations are foundational to managing safety in organisations. Site walks, office walks or whatever you want to call them are a critical strategy in ‘management by walking around’. You can’t assess or address assumptions, beliefs, values and attitudes very well by sitting at a desk or signing off checklists. Leaders know that dialogue and walking around must be a priority.

Walks, observations and talks are the big challenge for leaders and managers who have high level desk-constrained obligations. Effective leaders know how to strike a balance between email management and face-to-face management.

Safety walks often focus on important physical hazards and risks. These ‘primary’ hazards and risks are visible and on the surface. However, it’s just as important to attend to ‘secondary’ (psychological) and ‘tertiary’ (cultural) hazards and risks. Secondary and tertiary hazards and risks are below the surface and are largely unseen.

Safety walks must do much more than police easy ‘cosmetic’ targets such as PPE. Walks, observations, listening and conversations need to tune-in to cultural and psychological hazards and risks in the workplace. The iceberg metaphor in Figure 1 captures the challenge.

Figure 1. Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Hazards and Risks

A psychology and culture safety walk adds a new dimension to the practice of conducting a safety walk. A psychology and culture safety walk observes and listens for psychological and cultural hazards and risks. Knowing what these hazards and risks look like and sound like requires training, practice and skill development.

General safety walks focus on what is ‘seen’, the tip of the iceberg. Psychology and culture safety walks focus on what is ‘unseen’, the 70% below the water line. It is often the things we cannot see which drive culture and implicit knowledge. It is often undisclosed assumptions that send things pear shaped in times of turbulence.

Effective walks, observations and conversations are not something one does automatically. Effective questioning and listening are something one has to learn and develop with practice. It’s all a matter of focus and perception,

What are the skills of an effective psychology and culture safety walk? What kinds of things does a psychology and culture safety walk look for? The following are a helpful foundation:

1. Most importantly it is critical to get the balance right between listening and telling. Safety walks should be about dialogue not just monologue.

2. Observing and listening must not be perceived as ‘spying’ and ‘policing’. The listening needs to be genuine, not a loaded gun waiting to shoot people down for the first mistake. Creating a climate of acceptance for observations and conversations takes training and time.

3. A psychology of safety walk should be understood as an education and learning activity for both observer and worker.

4. A psychology of safety walk must be a positive experience. There should be a good balance between negative and positive discussion, especially finishing on positives.

5. Observers should be trained and practiced in listening for cultural language. They should be able to hear values and assumptions in discussion that have implications for safety.

6. Observers should be practiced in the art of open questioning. Stimulating conversation and avoiding entrapment into lecture mode is a real skill that requires work.

7. Observers need to stimulate discussion, observe and listen for:

a. Perceptions

b. Interruptions

c. Disruptions

d. Work flow

e. Work goals

f. Time pressures

g. Fatigue

h. Stereotypes

i. Generalisations

j. Stressors

k. Blaming language

l. Simplistic language

m. Projections

n. Dismissal

o. Resignation

8. It is important that the observer know and is conscious of what they are doing. A psychology of safety walk need not be announced to everyone, but the observer needs to undertake such a walk with intentionality.

It is amazing what an experienced observer can detect in a short walk and talk. It is important that small issues not distract the safety observer but that influencing culture takes the major focus.

Author’s Resource Box

Dr Robert Long

PhD., (UWS) BEd., (USA) BTh., (SCD) MEd., (Syd) MOH (La Trobe), Dip T., Dip Min., MACE, CFSIA.

Executive Director – Human Dymensions Pty Ltd

Rob has a creative career in teaching, education, community services, government and management.

Rob is engaged by organisations because of his expertise in culture, learning, risk and social psychology. He is a skilled presenter and designer of learning events, training and curriculum.

Web Link: www.humandymensions.com

Blog: http://web.me.com/robertlong2/HDblog/Blog/Blog.html