Safe As Podcast

When you're standing on the front line making an operational call, risk doesn't come with a green or red light. You have to make a binary decision: stop or go. We don't necessarily make it easy for our decision-makers to make good, defendable decisions. This video unpacks Andrew Hopkins’ 2011 Safety Science article, "Risk Management & Rule Compliance: Decision-making in hazard...

On April 15, 2010, BP CEO Tony Hayward reassured shareholders that the company was safer and more efficient than ever. Five days later, the Deepwater Horizon disaster happened. This video unpacks a study that evaluated CEO speeches and how rhetoric and slogans can be disconnected with actual behaviour and resourcing. It explores how relentless cost-cutting and corporate rhetoric set the stage for...

In 1994, two US Air force F15 fighters shot down two friendly US Army Black Hawk helicopters. This event shouldn't have been possible: there were experts, radio communications, radar, AWACS and more. However, this isn't a tragedy due to human error or a lack of safeguards, it happened in spite of the safeguards. This episode unpacks a few findings from the seminal book from Scott Snook cal...

Can our safety reporting and indicators mask signals that organizations are drifting to major accident? This episode unpacks two reports from O'Neill and colleagues looking at the pitfalls of safety reporting measures, and also explores weaknesses in annual safety reports - particularly how reports may be 'safewashing'. More research at SafetyInsights. Org Intro/Output "Dark Synth...

This ep unpacks two articles from Andrew Hopkins, exploring the similarities between the Gretley and Moura mine disasters. Namely, Hopkins argues that a 'culture of denial' existed at both mines, and probably exists across large, high-risk organisations, too. This culture of denial involved a series of beliefs that dismissed warning signs of danger. More research at SafetyInsights. Org Int...

Our mental shortcuts (heuristics) serve us well. They help us navigate a complex, ambiguous world normally safely and efficiently. But in modern organisations, they can sometimes lead us astray - via biases. In this context biases are systematic distortions away from an expected decision or judgement. This article, with Daniel Kahneman and colleagues, unpack some ways to help debias critical decis...

Is 'Safety Culture' a nebulous construct, or even a myth, that obscures more than it reveals? Or is its persistence because it provides a useful vehicle for explaining phenomena in organisations and groups? This episode unpacks several articles (at least 10), from authors like Borys, Guldenmund, Schein, Silbey, Hopkins, Cooper and more, to unpack safety culture from both an interpretative...

Leadership walkarounds seem simple on paper: get a leader to walk around, talk with some people, and then bounce out with a gleeful smile, and warm hearts. But is it that simple? Do walkarounds improve any measures of teams or organisations? Do they improve safety climate, engagement, or even safety incidents? Support the channel: https://buymeacoffee.com/benhutchinsonToday's episode explores...

Does using AI make us smarter, or just more confident? This ep covers a recent study on how generative AI affects our "metacognition" - our ability to judge our own performance. Researchers tracked hundreds of people solving logical reasoning problems with and without AI.They found: a) AI improved scores, but people overestimated their results even more, b) people who knew more about AI...

There are a lot of safety practices in industry. How do we know which are the most effective interventions to use? This systematic review of the evidence assesses the best evidence to answer this question. More research at SafetyInsights. Org Intro/Output "Dark Synth Wave" by ElephantGreen (PixaBay.com) Make sure to subscribe to Safe As on Spotify/Apple, and if you find it useful then please help...

When I say BBS - what is your initial impression? A big smile and thumbs up, or visible disgust? It certainly divides people. But is that division deserved? What does the evidence say are both the pros and cons of BBS approaches? And, how can we move forward with this debate and incorporate the best of both? Or, should we? This episode references 7 articles to provide an overview and balanced disc...

This episode unpacks the Dreamworld Thunder Rapid ride disaster, using the Ten Pathways to Failure model. Ref: Gregson, S., & Quinlan, M. G. (2024). Death at Dreamworld: Ten pathways to disaster and failure to learn.  The Economic and Labour Relations Review ,  35 (2), 436-453. Support the channel at: https://buymeacoffee.com/benhutchinson More research at SafetyInsights. Org Outro music &quot...

How can you develop better indicators targeting the effectiveness of your risk control system? This episode draws on a few sources, including the HSE UK's HSG254 and the ICMM's critical control framework, among others, outlining an approach to safety indicators that targets measuring the most important elements of your risk control systems. Support the channel at: https://buymeacoffee.com/...

Re-recording of an older episode for YouTube

Does counting change what counts? If we create indicators on actions that we'd like to monitor, like injuries, profits, tendering, productivity, do we inadvertently focus on managing the numbers instead of the core issues? Source: Chang, L. W., Kirgios, E. L., Mullainathan, S., & Milkman, K. L. (2024). Does counting change what counts? Quantification fixation biases decision-making. Procee...

Seven hours before the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, four senior executives were on-site congratulating the crew for achieving seven years without a lost-time injury. It wasn’t that these leaders ignored risk; it’s that they were systematically blinded to it by a focus on the 'wrong' metrics. In this episode, we break down Andrew Hopkins’ analysis of that final visit to explore the important dis...

Leadership captures the headlines and conference topics worldwide, but what is the role of followers in team and organisational performance? How can one lead, without those that follow? Refs: 1. Leung, C., Lucas, A., Brindley, P., Anderson, S., Park, J., Vergis, A., & Gillman, L. M. (2018). Followership: a review of the literature in healthcare and beyond.  Journal of critical care ,  46 , 99-...

How well do Learning Teams compare to RCAs for the number and quality of findings? This study compares the two. Note: Update and reupload of a previous episode, now in video format. Ref: Robbins, T., Tipper, S., King, J., Ramachandran, S. K., Pandit, J. J., & Pandit, M. (2021). Evaluation of learning teams versus root cause analysis for incident investigation in a large United Kingdom National...

What are the precursor factors that kill people at work? And are our investigations effectively fixing these factors? Ref: Stockel, L. R. (2023). What Causes Accidents at Work? Workplace Serious Incident & Fatality Investigations: A Study of Precursors. More research at SafetyInsights. Org Intro/Output "Dark Synth Wave" by ElephantGreen (PixaBay.com) Make sure to subscribe to Safe As...

You saw the sign, and read the words. So, apparently you understand the risk, or do you? Source: Hancock, P. A., Kaplan, A. D., MacArthur, K. R., & Szalma, J. L. (2020). How effective are warnings? A meta-analysis. Safety Science, 130, 104876.Support the channel at: https://buymeacoffee.com/benhutchinsonMore research at SafetyInsights. OrgOutro music "Dark Synth Wave" by ElephantGree...

How can we design better - as in safer, healthier, more productive shift work systems and rosters? Let's find out. Sources: QGN 16. Guidance Note for Fatigue Risk Management. Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy Knauth, P. (1996). Designing better shift systems. Applied ergonomics, 27(1), 39-44. More research at SafetyInsights. Org Intro/Output "Dark Synth Wave" by ElephantGreen (Pixa...

Are AI models BS'ing you? Do they have such an indifference--a lack of understanding even--about the truth, that their outputs constitute BS? Note: This is an update and recording of #33, where I rerecord interesting topics for my YouTube channel. Source: Hicks, M. T., Humphries, J., & Slater, J. (2024). ChatGPT is bullshit. Ethics and Information Technology, 26(2), 1-10. Support the chann...

Safety indicators, metrics, measures, KPIs...whatever. Are these indicators used primarily for genuine learning and improvement - or more often misinterpreted and misused? Ref: Oswald, D., Zhang, R. P., Lingard, H., Pirzadeh, P., & Le, T. (2018). The use and abuse of safety indicators in construction. Engineering, construction and architectural management, 25(9), 1188-1209.Support the channel...

This paper explores how complex systems not only fail, but succeed, and provides 9 ways that we can move beyond simplistic notions of system failure due to 'human error'. Ref: Woods, D. D., & Cook, R. I. (2002). Nine steps to move forward from error.  Cognition, technology & work ,  4 (2), 137-144. More research at SafetyInsights. Org Intro/Output "Dark Synth Wave" by Ele...

'Safety Culture' is treated by some as the holy grail of organisational safety concepts: valourised and promoted uncritically. But should we, or even can we, analyse 'safety culture' in investigations? More research at SafetyInsights. Org Intro/Output "Dark Synth Wave" by ElephantGreen (PixaBay.com) Make sure to subscribe to Safe As on Spotify/Apple, and if you find it us...