Prof. Karl E. Weick died on 21 May 2026. He was indeed a pioneer and scholar of distinction in the Social Psychology of Risk.

We have been studying the work of Weick for many years in SPoR (https://cllr.com.au/product/social-psychology-high-reliability-organising-unit-5/) and wish to pay tribute to Karl for all he has offered.

It is indeed synchronous that we are about to start our workshop series on Weick on 9 June (https://safetyrisk.net/registrations-for-free-weick-workshops-in-june-close-today/).

We have been writing about Weick’s philosophy for the past four weeks in preparation for the June workshops, you can read those blogs here: https://safetyrisk.net/?s=Weick

Weick introduced some critical new ideas into the nature of tackling risk – ‘loose coupling’, ‘organisational sensemaking’, ‘enactment’ and ‘collective mindfulness’. Each of these coalesce together and interact dialectically in the Social Psychology of Risk.

In Lose Coupling Weick explores how ontological incompatible entities exists in tension with each other. In SPoR, we explore this in the use of mandala and the hyphen.

In Organisational Sensemaking, Weick does not mean making sense of something through logic, rationality or so called ‘common-sense’. Indeed, he lays out seven core properties that make up what he understands as a ‘cosmological’ order. The seven properties are: identity, retrospect, enactment, social contact, ongoing events, cues, and plausibility. Each of these requires significant unpacking, which we will explore in the workshops.

By Enactment, Weick posits that certain phenomena are created by being talked about. In a way this also bears resonance with some aspects of quantum theory, quantum mysticism, quantum Mind and the contradictions of consciousness. The idea of ‘enactment’ is that we enact things into being. To understand this more, I would suggest reading Zukav, The Dancing WuLi Masters (https://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/dancingmasters.pdf).

In Collective Mindfulness, Weick tackles the nature of organising and the energy/orientation organisations undertake to reduce equivocality. This energy of ‘collective mindfulness’ bears some similarities to Jung’s Collective Unconscious. That is, in organising, fallible humans enter into the ‘wickedity’ (implied) of ambiguity, bricolage and paradox, as organisations spiral towards entropy.

In the risk and safety world most don’t actually read Weick but rather read into Weick. In risk and safety much of Weick’s underlying philosophy is ignored in favour focussing on his work on sensemaking captured in his account of the Mann Gulch disaster (https://www.cs.unibo.it/~ruffino/Letture%20TDPC/K.%20Weick%20-%20The%20collapse%20of%20sensemaking.pdf) and the reconstructed idea of a HRO.

In the ‘Collapse of Sensemaking’ Weick outlines how social psychology affects decision making under stress/distress. Even so, in this paper Weick refers to a ‘cosmology’ that exists in organising, not exactly the kind of language one hears in safety. Weick states (p.633):

This is indeed radical language to use in reference to risk. And, as we look at Weick’s philosophy, we should include his use of the following:

When we read this discourse, we see that Weick uses concepts and thinking quite foreign to the materialist, behaviourist, positivist Discourse common to risk and safety. This is where Weick’s pioneering work is most pronounced.

If all we look at in Weick is the safety-view of the HRO, most of the genius of Weick is lost.

The best way to read a Social Psychologist like Weick, is through the lens of Social Psychology.

Without conceptualisation of Weick’s Social Psychological philosophy, much of the power of his work is mis-understood.

On page.641 of Weick’s ‘Collapse of Sensemaking’ paper he further states:

His understanding of wisdom, resilience, First Nations knowing and embodiment are quite profound. Weick brings these into full view when he discusses the manner of decision making under social panic, tightly coupled systems and moral meaning associated with Structuralism. He states (p.645):

One cannot underestimate just how important moral meaning and a shared ethic determine decision making under stress. In SPoR, we use the semiotic of a camera lens to best understand Weick’s seven attributes of Sensemaking:

It would take weeks just to unpack all that is in this semiotic and what Weick intended in each aspect of the: lens, aperture, adjustment focus, filter, f-stop, focal length and image sensor. We will discuss these in our workshop series.

Just imagine if the risk and safety industry took seriously the research and semiotics of Weick. Just imagine if just these seven criteria or organisational sensemaking were used as a lens to understand risk and make sense of risk. Moreso, what if Weick’s idea of Collective Mindfulness was also considered.

Thankyou Karl, for all you brought to the world of the Social Psychology of Risk. We pay tribute to you in your passing and wish to affirm the many insights you brought, that we now put into practice in SPoR.