Latest / Safe As Podcast / E52: Tapping into the semiotics of risk - workspace, headspace, groupspace

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E52: Tapping into the semiotics of risk - workspace, headspace, groupspace · Safe As Podcast

• 0:07
  Good everyone. Welcome to this quick assault of
• 0:09
  safe as today we're unpacking Rob Long's semiotic risk
• 0:13
  framework called Workspace, Headspace and Group Space 3
• 0:18
  lenses to guide you away from treating safety only as physical
• 0:22
  issues and more towards reconnecting our senses to the
• 0:25
  environment and the different layers of risk.
• 0:29
  Several sources were used today, including an article on
• 0:32
  safetyrisk.net, the Spore Tools Handbook and a video from Rob
• 0:36
  Long on vimeo.com. First, workspace.
• 0:41
  This is the physical primary layer, the bolts trip hazards,
• 0:45
  the guarding. Most organisations check this
• 0:49
  obsessively because it's visible and easy to do.
• 0:52
  But if your safety programme lives here alone, you'll keep
• 0:55
  refixing the same problems without really challenging the
• 0:58
  assumptions, the retains or beliefs that drive this sort of
• 1:02
  context. Second headspace.
• 1:06
  This is a psychological secondary layer.
• 1:09
  This is where the heuristics and assumptions, fatigue and rush
• 1:12
  thinking lives. These are invisible unless you
• 1:15
  know how to listen. Use open questions, narrative
• 1:19
  prompts and curious conversations to service what
• 1:22
  people are thinking about during hazardous work.
• 1:24
  Skilled listening identifies cues and early signals.
• 1:28
  At Headspace, we're sensing for symbols and artefacts, habits
• 1:32
  and more. And by hearing and saying these
• 1:35
  things, we can try to influence belief and value changes.
• 1:39
  Third, group space. This is a cultural tertiary
• 1:43
  layer. How teams talk.
• 1:45
  Trust makes sense of risk. Assign blame or reward
• 1:49
  shortcuts. You have to watch for language,
• 1:53
  rituals, heroes and enemies, and the unspoken rules of the game.
• 1:58
  This level helps us tap into deeper and more hidden cultural
• 2:01
  cues. Rob has recommended carrying a
• 2:04
  WHG Carter Workspace, Headspace and Group Space card, a pocket
• 2:10
  prompt that reminds you to balance what you see workspace
• 2:13
  with what you ask headspace and what you notice between people,
• 2:18
  Group space when you do your walkthroughs, or curious
• 2:22
  engagements with our workers. Combine physical cheques with
• 2:26
  open questions and questions around cultural cues.
• 2:30
  Who benefits? Who's anxious?
• 2:32
  What's normal here? What sort of things do we reward
• 2:35
  or things do we ignore? What sort of semiotics and
• 2:38
  symbols do we have around the work areas?
• 2:41
  How does this influence people's perceptions of what's important?
• 2:45
  Other questions we can ask, and there's a range of questions
• 2:47
  that Rob provides things like step me through or can you tell
• 2:50
  me about what's your plan of attack with this and more?
• 2:55
  Maturing our approaches requires maturing our thinking about how
• 2:58
  safety is socially constructed and enacted by groups of people,
• 3:02
  sometimes with conflicting goals.
• 3:04
  It involves stepping beyond easy physical fixes and to the harder
• 3:09
  conversations and cultural cues. Lead with curiosity, not
• 3:13
  policing. Overtime, those conversations
• 3:16
  become the lever that turns repeated fixes into lasting
• 3:20
  ownership. That's it on this quick assert
• 3:22
  as safe as. Thanks everyone.