Has safety become an illness called fear?
Great article by one of our Brisbane Thinking Group Members, Keith McCabe. First published on LinkedIn
One of the best things about sharing my thoughts about safety and risk is the feedback in all its positive and negative guises. Recent responses have made me think that the safety industry is suffering from an illness called fear!
Not a fear of people getting hurt or worse but fear of being held accountable and fear of the ever present thought of litigation. It’s a terrible fear too if I’m right, because the fear is contagious and the safety industry is infecting the people it comes into contact with.
Safety isn’t worried so much that Keith will be injured they are more worried that Keith will blame them, hold them accountable and demand compensation. Ironically this is the very message Keith has been told repeatedly by safety, “accountability, duty and penalty”, fair enough there was a bit of take care too but overall the tone was not so friendly.
Ok so there’s a problem, that’s not the end of the world there is after all, nearly always a solution. If safety has been infected with an illness “Fear”, let’s look at how we can treat the underlying condition and not just the symptoms. I don’t know how to fix safety but I bet other people do and I really hope they can get together and start pooling their knowledge and ideas.
Keith.
Do you have any thoughts? Please share them below