The nature of belief is a fascinating thing, as is the nature of conversion. Yet, apart from some vague clues and knowing a few contributing factors, we still don’t know much about why people believe as they do or the nature of conversion in and out of beliefs.

What we do know is that once a belief is set, accepted and symbolised, it is very hard to shift. It certainly can’t be moved by rationality or evidence.

So, what does Safety believe? More interestingly, what does Safety hold sacred?

We are going to discuss these questions in our free online workshops series: 7, 14, 21 and 28 July 9am Canberra time. You can register here: admin@spor.com.au

We know that people can believe incredible things like: conspiracy theories, misinformation, fake news, myths, folklore, faith and cultural rituals but why are these believed? What do we know about beliefs? How do beliefs sit on a spectrum of beliefs? See the map: Figure 1. Map of Beliefs.

Figure 1. Map of Beliefs.

Whilst it is one thing to believe something, what if one acts on that belief? How do beliefs filter how people see the world, interpret reality and make actions fit that belief?

BTW, when we talk of belief and conversion we don’t mean just religious belief and conversion but, any faith/belief that has no evidence or rational meaning. Safety believes such things and makes them sacred by the dozens.

The best way to find out what is sacred to Safety is to suggest taking it away.

Why not suggest to your organisation that you remove the risk matrix from a risk assessment? Why not suggest that events are not linear as is believed in iCam and swiss-cheese? Why not suggest that the injury pyramid is nonsense and that injury rates are not an indicator of safety? Why no see how that goes?

The key to understanding the depth/strength of a belief is how it is symbolised. Once an idea is symbolised (made semiotic) it becomes myth and once made myth, it becomes a much more powerful belief.

This is why a study of the semiotics of safety is critical for understanding Safety beliefs.

In studying semiotics, we see how belief is represented.

We know that beliefs evolve and that belief is ‘built’. Most often this is gradual and developmental. So, once one has been indoctrinated with the founding safety curriculum and then anchored to a safety postnominal qualification, the depth of belief becomes immovable as demonstrated through Sunk Cost and Confirmation bias. The more post nominals I see after names on Linkedin, the more I see that there is no movement in learning. The indoctrination process is complete.

Those who do move away from Safety beliefs are those who are not afraid to doubt.

Those who do move away from Safety beliefs are those unafraid of questioning.

Having an understanding of how cognitive biases work (https://safetyrisk.net/perception-heuristics-cognitive-bias-and-the-psychology-of-safety/ ) is a clue to understanding Safety beliefs.

Understanding the power of simplicity, slogans, myths and effort is a clue to the power of attraction and motivation to Safety beliefs.

 The more effort and energy of analysis required to believe something, the less likely it is to be believed.

This helps explain why Safety likes HOP. The moment Safety sees the word ‘performance’, it knows it is in comfortable Safety territory. The moment Safety has five slogans it takes no effort to say we are a HOP organisation. Does any method change? No. Is there any methodology? No. Is there any change in Ethic? No! But we love HOP! We believe in HOP!

If you are interested in questioning Safety beliefs then this workshop series is for you. If you are happy to not doubt Safety beliefs, then this workshops series is not for you.

The workshops series will be delivered by Prof. Rob Long.

You can register here: admin@spor.com.au