Can safety paperwork make us feel safer without better addressing the risks?
Happy to share my newest article with Drew Rae and Sidney Dekker where we explore a phenomenon called ‘safety alchemy’:
the conversion of unresolved uncertainty and operational risk into perceived certainty and assurance through … safety artefacts, without a corresponding improvement in the underlying control of risk.
Drawing on seven major accidents and thousands of pages of testimonies etc., we unpack how plans, risk assessments etc. and safety activities can become passports for work to proceed, even while the problems they’re designed to address remain unresolved.
This isn’t just ‘tick and flick’ or gaps between WAI and WAD. Rather, a document can be carefully curated, reviewed, and accepted, while providing higher confidence than the operational evidence warrants.
Even if you don’t agree with the concept – you’ll likely find value in some of the documented gaps in system safety and assurance.
Provided under an open access licence (feel free to share with colleagues).
#safetyclutter #safetyscience #workplacesafety #assurance #safetyii #systemsafety
