Tim Ferris and his podcast How to Not Be Evil – Dr. Phil Zimbardo inspired this blog post. Sadly, the behaviours for preventing evil occurring are very similar to those that prevent catastrophic events.
If you haven’t come across Dr Zimbardo before, he’s famous for his1971 Stanford Prison Experiment. Here he took a group of students and turned them into ‘prisoners’ and ‘guards’. The experiment was planned for two weeks but terminated after just six days due to the near mental breakdown of all involved. See Philip Zimbardo: The psychology of evil | TED Talk | TED.com.
Why are Serious Safety Failures like Zimbardo’s Steps to Pure Evil?
Let’s take a deep dive into the social processes that grease the slippery slope of evil (disaster in the making).
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Mindlessly taking the first small step
HSE Professionals have a fancy word for this, it’s ‘Normalised Deviance’. In the world of social psychology, it was also extensively researched by Stanley Milgram and his famous Milgram Experiments (the one’s where people were encouraged to give life-threatening electrical shocks to an anonymous person who was making ‘mistakes’).
In the world of bricks and mortar, this is the “I’m just driving around the block, who needs a seatbelt?” or “Just hop on the machine, I’ll give you a lift”.
Combat this By:
- Setting boundaries for acceptable behaviour
- Lead by example: Be the change you want to see
- Hold people accountable when they cross the boundaries
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Dehumanisation of Others
Political Science buffs have spent centuries investigating Jingoism, Group Think and the politics of hating your enemy, or simply stereotyping ‘the other’.
On a worksite, how many times have you heard the apprentice called ‘The Boy’ or the Site Supervisor ‘The Boss’ at best of ‘FIGJAM’ at worst? Even if it’s done ‘in jest’ this also becomes a way to ignore or undermine someone else’s opinion.
Combat this By:
- Effective Communication Strategies: Always have ‘Open Mic’ an agenda item at meetings where anyone can share their ideas
- Understand the difference between issues and needs: if people are complaining, mocking others or generally being an embuggerance, listen and observe. Do a root cause analysis and work out what the ‘stone in their boot’ is and then fix it.
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De-individuation of Self (anonymity) and Diffusion of Personal Responsibility
The ‘it wasn’t me’ syndrome really is the counterpoint to dehumanisation. Instead of creating ‘the other’ that is the problem, this issue is all about ‘I’m just doing what the mob’ is doing, it’s not me personally, it’s the ‘firm’. This was the key defence of most SS officers in the Nuremberg Trails, ‘we were just following orders.’
Combat this By:
- Constant innovation: Embrace change, trial and error. Ask what ‘can we do differently to make our team even better?’
- Get curious: always ask what’s different and what could go wrong?
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Blind Obedience to Authority and Uncritical conformity to group norms
This is the workplace of fear where people are too scared to speak up or point out that a ‘command’ or ‘commander’ isn’t right.
Combat this By:
- Devil’s advocates: Ask team members to deliberately argue the counterpoint to a planned project
- Reward and recognise courageous conversations: If someone points out something or raises an issue (even if it’s not right/accurate) thank them for speaking up.
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Passive tolerance of evil through inaction or indifference
This is where omission (not doing something) causes the accident. By walking past and not fixing the problem someone doesn’t get to go home safe.
Combat this By:
- Don’t walk past: Even if it’s just a gut instinct that ‘something’s not right’ don’t walk past a hazard or hazardous situation
- Ask where are we going wrong here? Sometimes it’s the question that triggers the answer, by using ‘where’ we focus away from the ‘who’ and the blame game.
What Next?
Catastrophic events are devastating, and the effects are wide-ranging. Just because you have not had a catastrophic event in your business does not mean that you are doing everything right, or that it won’t happen.
Review this post with your supervisors and pick three things that you are going to do as a team to make your safety culture even stronger.
Have a safe and productive week.
SB a.k.a. Safety Girl