Whenever we conduct the MiProfile survey (https://www.humandymensions.com/services-and-programs/miprofile/), one of many critical criteria in analysis is the presence of ‘double speak’. I designed the survey 20 years ago and it has a comparative database of over 40,000. The survey is designed with the Social Psychology of Risk Methodology in Mind compared to most survey designs in safety that don’t analyse culture but just analyse safety systems. For this reason, our survey includes extensive observation, visual and verbal experience, immersion in the business/organisation and its own focus group/ interactive keypad methodology. We call it a ‘MiProfile Diagnostic’ rather than a survey. And because it is founded on a SPoR methodology, it ‘surfaces’ amazing cultural trends in organisations.

Of course, we know culture can’t be measured but it can be ‘felt’ and experienced and the SPoR methodology enables this through its multi-methods qualitative and quantitative approach.

Last year we consulted with a large organisation in India using the MiProfile Diagnostic. However, you can’t just use the survey tool in itself without also experiencing the context within which the organisation functions. This subjective experience is something Safety simply doesn’t understand. Indeed, the way in which Safety is seduced by the myth of objectivity is a large part of its problem in understanding culture. Without a foundation in Phenomenology or Existentialist methodologies, it is doubtful that any safety surveys on the market achieves very much. Certainly, the Behaviourist/Engineering lens is unhelpful in understanding culture.

Little did I know that E. M. Forster’s famous novel A Passage to India (https://www.fiction.us/forster/apassagetoindia.pdf) that I studied in 1970, would be realised as a felt reality 50 years later.

There are many things a Westerner learns very quickly in India. The lifestyle, food, religion, art, music, semiotic thinking, mythology, the chaos, smells and warmth of its people, are infectious. It is such a contrast to anything I have experienced before and I have travelled and lived in quite a number of countries, including third world countries.

If you don’t understand religion, semiotics, mythos, poetics and Hinduism (https://www.hinduamerican.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/UNDERSTANDING-HINDUISM_1OCT2014_2018update.pdf), you are at a great disadvantage. Indeed, Hinduism cannot be studied propositionally anyway, it must be experienced and felt. The word ‘Hindu’ was given by the British to name these people and is not considered a religion according to its ancient texts. The word ‘Hindu’ was simply a reference to people of the sub-continent. The word ‘Hindu’ is a cultural and geographic entity however; I will use the word simply because it has been accepted by many as a religious designation.

Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world and has been described as the sanātana dharma (the eternal dharma), a way of life. I am not Hindu but its philosophy resonates with my own philosophy which is influenced by Existentialist and Phenomenological philosophies. Such a worldview helps an approach to culture that is most often constrained when Safety tries to apply its science/engineering lens to it. Last visit to India, I explored Mahabalipuram (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamallapuram) that is 3000 years old.

The metaphor of culture is also helpful in understanding the ‘two worlds’ feeling when one works in India. In India, one sits in a population of 1.4 billion people, more than double the population of America and Europe, and an emerging superpower in technology and trade.

The Indian mainland is half the size of Australia with 55 times the population. If you want to better understand it by cultural comparison you could also use Hofstede Insights (https://apps.apple.com/bg/app/hofstede-insights/id1475925653) to get started.

So, when it comes to safety and western views on safety, let’s see a comparison of these two worlds by using a few photos. Even then, without the smells, heat and felt experience, this also may not help much.

One of the first lessons I learned in India was about footwear. Make sure to wear easy footwear that can be taken off and put on and off easily, because you never know when they will have to be taken off when on holy ground.

Religious semiotics and mythology is accepted in India as a way of life. Even in a Western Hotel you will find the acceptance of Indian symbolism, mythology and religion everywhere. When staying in my Hotel the symbols of Shiva and Ganesh were at either end of every hallway (see pictures 1). Mandala symbolism is everywhere. My studies in Jung made this particularly relevant (https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/luminist/EB/I-J-K/Jung%20-%20Mandala%20Symbolism.pdf). In the company I was working with (30,000 employees) Shiva and Ganesh were at the front of the welcome desk (picture 2).

Picture 1. Hotel Hall Way

Picture 2. Welcome Desk

Our taxi drivers and most tuk tuks are symbolised with various gods. Picture 3.

Picture 3. Gods for Travel

One cannot explain (by propositions) what it’s like in traffic, it has to be felt and experienced. My last tuk tuk ride involved a broken windscreen (picture 4), busted clutch and pull starting the motor each time it stalled, then jolting off to go each time. A small tip is a fortune to these drivers.

Picture 4. Broken Windscreen.

Despite signs everywhere about wearing helmets and ‘’only 2 per bike I saw one tuk tuk with 11 passengers and many families with 4 and 5 per bike. Notice in picture 5 that only Dad wears the helmet.

Picture 5.  Bike with 4

And temples are everywhere, rich in symbolism, semiotics, mythology and devotion. (Picture 6.)

Picture 6. Typical Temple

With over 3000 gods, you can pick which one you need or want the most. One devotee described to me that each myth was an energy source and was like electricity. She stated, think of all the appliances you own and how each provides a different outcome yet from the same source. That’s how she explained how myths and gods worked in her faith.

Of course, when British Imperialism and missionaries came with their conquest, genocide and righteousness, over 40 million Indians were slaughtered to maintain power and obviously thought India had a religion that was ‘wrong’. 3% of India remains Christian. You can read about British Imperialism and colonialism in India here: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1439&context=pcs

No wonder Mahatma Ghandi dominates the imagery of their currency.

One of the amazing aspects of Indian culture in the aftermath of British Colonialism is their love of cricket. Our shared Colonialism under the British and the love of cricket draws many Indians to like Australians. Australian players are dominant in the lucrative Indian Premier League (https://www.iplt20.com/). I was once in a bar and talking to friends and someone, hearing my accent, came up to me and said, ‘you are David Warner aren’t you’!

It is a challenge to explain the Indian passion for cricket, with their largest stadium that seats 150,000 (50% larger than the Melbourne Cricket Ground).

So, this concludes just a foundational discussion before we tackle the challenges of safety.

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When it comes to safety, the tale of two worlds (also common in the West) is simply more amplified in India. This is supported by all the data I hold in the MiProfile survey. Again, a few photos might help.

It is common to see safety sign propaganda everywhere in India. A walk down any street demonstrates this. For example, in their booming economy there is construction everywhere in their cities. I walked onto one building site (no fencing) on a walk and took this mocking photo that exposes the nonsense of the hero myth (see Picture 7). The hero myth actually alienates people from any genuine and relevant message about risk. The hero myth dominates safety ideology in the West and, its not only doesn’t work, its dangerous.

Picture 7. The Hero Myth

I also walked on the worksite stairwell where the rubbish was so thick one couldn’t walk to the base level (see picture 8). And wow, it had a hand rail.

Picture 8. Stairwell Rubbish.

At the top of the stairs was a street person sleeping in the open.

In India, Risk Makes Sense (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/risk-makes-sense/) and anyone who seeks to be a safety crusader won’t last long (https://safetyrisk.net/are-you-a-safety-crusader-or-a-safety-leader/). A safety preacher and teller would be exhausted in less than the first 30 minutes in this culture.

As we were driving to the airport I took this pic of a person fixing a sign (see Picture 9) at least 5 meters in height.

Picture 9. Fixing Sign.

Many business activities happen in the street. For example, here is an ironing company pressing clothes (using an iron weighing 8kgs full of hot coals) in the street for 10 cents per shirt.

Picture 10. Ironing.

We walked around this on one of our walks on a footpath (picture 11.)

Picture 11. Sidewalk.

Or some scaffolders hard at work (see picture 12).

Picture 12. Scaffolders.

But let me suggest, the last thing this culture needs is Western superior arrogant Safety lecturing them on how to live. Unless you have a bright idea for their endemic poverty, perhaps best to keep your safety ‘telling’ to yourself.

And when we compare the two worlds in safety in India are we in the West any better? Certainly not! We just are better at hiding and harming persons in more sophisticated ways. For example: using zero harm to brutalise people or psychosocial ‘hazards’ ideology to harm people. There is nothing more brutal and delusional than the unethical ideology of zero (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/zero-the-great-safety-delusion/).

Indeed, in the West and in safety the same two worlds are clear for those who want to see. It’s just that the harm in the West is different, not better or worse. Indeed, studies show that rates of mental health are much worse in developed countries. What is even more offensive is the silly nonsense and superiority of Safety taking zero ideology into developing countries as if this arrogance is something deemed good. Just more delusion by Safety imperialism and colonialism.

So, what do we do in safety with the organisation SPoR works with?

 How does SPoR juggle and negotiate the two worlds of safety?

First, let me make it clear that SPoR has a mature understanding of semiotic, mythic and poetic cultures and so is well suited to bringing a mature message of safety to organisations in India or any developing culture. Traditional safety (including S2) has a methodology that is not suited to developing countries.

The visual verbal methodology of SPoR also keeps away from the meaninglessness of ‘paperwork safety’ and helps undertake risk assessment in a visual-verbal way in situ.

In SPoR, methods (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/spor-and-semiotics/) don’t require extensive checklists or meaningless paperwork. SPoR methods are relevant, positive, constructive and tailored to the needs of each culture as required.

SPoR doesn’t lecture or tell people what safety is.

SPoR doesn’t police people, focus on hazards or measure performance by numerics/metrics. Indeed, the Western obsession with performance (also evidenced in HOP) simply brings Western assumptions of measurement as a priority over the importance of persons and understanding culture. Indeed, Hopkins endorses the imperialist ideology that safety has a right to override other cultures (https://safetyrisk.net/safety-gives-me-the-right-to-over-ride-your-rite/). Such cultural arrogance is breath taking.

SPoR empowers those who actually do the work to assess risk using visual-verbal methods that work (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/it-works-a-new-approach-to-risk-and-safety-book-for-free-download/) for each culture according to each context. Because SPoR has a very different (non-propositional) understanding of culture, it is able to work with cultures in ways that allow them to own and direct their approach to risk. In safety, if you want to understand culture apparently you ask a chemical engineer.

Even the visual mapping approach of SPoR allows different cultures to ‘explore’, ‘surface’ and ‘discover’ risk according to the power of those doing the work. (Not by some external hubristic arrogance that knows best.)

SPoR doesn’t seek control but, facilitates and empowers others to own, discover and learn. And this focus on learning is not on content, regulation or performance focused but rather understands the true nature of learning as embodied movement.

In this way, SPoR is suited well (in any culture) to straddle and negotiate the culture of two worlds regardless of being in a developed or developing country.

You can learn more about SPoR by either downloading a free book: https://www.humandymensions.com/shop/

Watching a free video: https://vimeo.com/cllr

https://vimeo.com/humandymensions

Listening to a Podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/socialpsychologyofrisk

or

Doing a free online course: https://vimeo.com/showcase/4233556

https://vimeo.com/showcase/4883640

You can read some recommendations of the Free SPoR Introduction Program below:

In the traditional world, we look at risk and safety in a closed, prescriptive way. Rob shares massive vision and knowledge as he opens the door to the Social Psychology of Risk (SPoR) and safety in his free introductory module. His insight presents the social arrangements that affect our decision making and social behaviours, the tip of the SPoR iceberg. A profound awakening, thanks Rob.

Bradley Harris

OHS Coordinator

Local Government

Melbourne, Australia

 

Participating in your SPoR training was a wonderful experience. You showed us a new way of seeing the world of safety through a social and cultural lens.

Knowing about Workspace, Headspace and Groupspace, opened a unison in thinking previously unknown to purely technical and behaviourist constructs.

The presented power of semiotics and dialectics showed us how the Mind executes decisions through micro-rules, experience and culture.

The proposition of One Brian Three Minds demonstrated just how much the Unconscious is allied to collective social influences. Indeed, your dedication to learning and facilitating learning has been invaluable for me personally.

 

Adilson Monteiro

Sau Paulo

National Head EHS

Brazil

 

Robert Long’s introductory course outlines the practical examples and foundational concepts of the social psychology of risk approach to workplace safety. It has been a positive experience challenging my own assumptions associated with more traditional schools of safety thinking,  including an improving focus on what works, namely a transdisciplinary approach. If you are interested in generating deeper and broader impact in your daily practises this is a great course to register for. Thank you to Rob for delivering this as a free course and skilfully facilitating a diverse group of individuals from multiple regions around the globe. This course will benefit the impact I will have for years to come.

 

Wade Needham

General Manager

Environment, Health & Safety

Australia

 

I just wanted to say how much I have enjoyed the Introduction to SPoR course .

As a person that has been involved in the safety space in Construction, Mining & Oil & Gas for well over a decade now, I have found your teachings to be like a breath of fresh air, a breath of air that the industry is in desperate need of.

Injury rates are not going down and yet we continue to head down the same old road with our safety mantra about systems, compliance, legislation, hazards and objects and an obsession with ‘things’ and amongst all of this we have forgotten to care about our people.

We do not know how to care for, listen to or observe our people…and for all of my fellow “safety professional’ colleagues out there who think you do know these things-do this course and you will soon find out that you know nothing of these critical areas of safety and risk.

Safety-it’s time to wake up and start acknowledging what you don’t know before you even start to move forward and start to help people to stop hurting and killing themselves in the workplace.

 

Rob, You are a bright light in a dark room of staleness.

Thanks again Rob for helping me learn how to help and care for people, truly life changing.

 

Shannon Barter

The Human Factor-Risk & Safety

Consultant/Contractor

Sunshine Coast, Qld.

What Social Psychology of Risk (SPoR) has taught me, is that safety is a social construct and that the workers are instrumental in managing risk on the ground. The language we use is important, listening is key to understanding the social arrangements of risk in Workspace, Headspace & Groupspace, by using the various SPoR tools to enhance Learning in the many social interactions in work everyday, not only through the narrative but through Semiotics which is symbolic in our society and in a work setting. I have had many conversations with crews on site and by listening and asking pivotal questions and once the conversation starts to flow, we a get a human connection, that current safety can’t achieve and doesn’t teach.

Sean A. Walker

Project Safety Lead

Allen Recruitment & Consulting

UK

 

When I started the course, I thought that my lack of experience, compared to the other students, would be a problem. Right on the first online class I realized that it didn’t matter at all because we all were in front of new concepts, not taught in traditional Safety.
Rob shared new concepts, visions, experiences and tools really useful to be not only better at safety but also a better person, increasing my interpersonal connections.

Now, I feel more confidence about me and my capabilities and I am certain that they will help me professionally and personally. Rob, be sure you have students and fans here in Brazil.

Hugo De Nadai Silia
HSE Coordinator

Brazil

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If you are open to learning, innovation, questioning and discovery, there is no impediment from holding you back in learning something new in safety that works.

 

If you would like face to face learning then it’s not too late to register for the global convention on SPoR, happening in Canberra in May 2024 (https://spor.com.au/canberra-convention/). Just email rob@spor.com.au for your discount.