Safety Culture or: How cultures can both sensitise or blind us to danger

I’ve long been critical of the construct, and application of, ‘safety culture’ (at best, I’d probably be described as from the interpretive camp—e.g. ‘culture-as-metaphor’). I’ve covered lots of articles why – and others have argued far more nuanced reasons. So, I’m not covering that now. But in saying that, I’ve always found the following definition… Continue reading Safety Culture or: How cultures can both sensitise or blind us to danger

What are we to make of safe behaviour programs?

This 2006 discussion paper from Andrew Hopkins critically discusses some assumptions underlying safe behaviour programs and some of their limitations in the context of complex systems. I can only cover some of the points, so recommend you read the full paper. Note: Trigger warning for those who violently object to ‘unsafe behaviour’. Overall, Hopkins argues:… Continue reading What are we to make of safe behaviour programs?