Safe As Podcast
Episodes
E82: Why Good Leaders Make Terrible Decisions (The Science of Bias)
14 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Our mental shortcuts (heuristics) serve us well. They help us navigate a complex, ambiguous world normally safely and efficiently.But in modern organi...
E81: Is Safety Culture a Failed or Useful Concept for Organizations? A review of the Scientific Research
07 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Is 'Safety Culture' a nebulous construct, or even a myth, that obscures more than it reveals? Or is its persistence because it provides a usef...
E80: Is Your Boss Just "Peacocking"? The Science of Leader Walkarounds
31 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Leadership walkarounds seem simple on paper: get a leader to walk around, talk with some people, and then bounce out with a gleeful smile, and warm he...
E79: AI Makes you Smarter but not Wiser: How AI affects your Cognition
24 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Does using AI make us smarter, or just more confident?This ep covers a recent study on how generative AI affects our "metacognition" - our a...
The most effective safety tactics according to science
17 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
There are a lot of safety practices in industry. How do we know which are the most effective interventions to use?This systematic review of the eviden...
E77: Behavior-based safety (BBS) - a balanced review of the science
08 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
When I say BBS - what is your initial impression? A big smile and thumbs up, or visible disgust?It certainly divides people. But is that division dese...
E76: Dreamworld disaster and the pathways to failure
03 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
This episode unpacks the Dreamworld Thunder Rapid ride disaster, using the Ten Pathways to Failure model.Ref: Gregson, S., & Quinlan, M. G. (2024)...
E75: Better indicators for your risk control system
24 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
How can you develop better indicators targeting the effectiveness of your risk control system?This episode draws on a few sources, including the HSE U...
E74: Zombie leadership - old ideas that refuse to die
17 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Re-recording of an older episode for YouTube
E73: When business indicators become the problem
11 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Does counting change what counts? If we create indicators on actions that we'd like to monitor, like injuries, profits, tendering, productivity, d...
E71: Fatal Blind Spot: Why Leader Safety Walkarounds Failed Deepwater Horizon
04 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Seven hours before the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, four senior executives were on-site congratulating the crew for achieving seven years without a...
E71: Leaders, schmeaders...the age of FOLLOWERSHIP is here
28 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Leadership captures the headlines and conference topics worldwide, but what is the role of followers in team and organisational performance?How can on...
E70: Learning Teams: Why Blaming Staff Doesn't Make Workplaces Safer
25 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
How well do Learning Teams compare to RCAs for the number and quality of findings? This study compares the two.Note: Update and reupload of a previous...
E69: Precursors of SIFS & ineffective corrective actions
21 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What are the precursor factors that kill people at work? And are our investigations effectively fixing these factors?Ref: Stockel, L. R. (2023). What ...
E68: Do warning signs work? A dive into the science
18 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
You saw the sign, and read the words. So, apparently you understand the risk, or do you?Source: Hancock, P. A., Kaplan, A. D., MacArthur, K. R., &...
E67: Designing safer and healthier shift work systems/rosters
14 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
How can we design better - as in safer, healthier, more productive shift work systems and rosters? Let's find out.Sources:QGN 16. Guidance Note for Fa...
E66: Is AI BS'ing you?
11 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Are AI models BS'ing you? Do they have such an indifference--a lack of understanding even--about the truth, that their outputs constitute BS?Sourc...
E65: The use and abuse of safety indicators
04 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Safety indicators, metrics, measures, KPIs...whatever. Are these indicators used primarily for genuine learning and improvement - or more often misint...
E64: How can we move forward from notions of 'human error'?
14 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This paper explores how complex systems not only fail, but succeed, and provides 9 ways that we can move beyond simplistic notions of system failure d...
E63: Should we, or even can we, analyse 'safety culture' in investigations?
07 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
'Safety Culture' is treated by some as the holy grail of organisational safety concepts: valourised and promoted uncritically.But should we, o...
E62: Types of error - error as cause, event, or harm
03 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What do we mean when we say 'human error'? Do you mean as a cause, event, or harm? And does error language more broadly mask more underpinning...
E61: Another deep dive on human performance in barrier systems
30 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How should we plan, design and integrate human performance into our risk control and barrier systems?This episode draws on four sources:Mantom, M., Jo...
E60: Psychology of risk and motivating less risky decisions
26 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How can we motivate--or even design for--more desirable, safer decisions on health, safety and life, and disincentivise riskier decisions?This episode...
E59: Predictors of the use of higher-order risk controls
23 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What factors predict the use of higher-order risk controls? This study unpacks the predictors via use of HECA (High-Energy Control Assessment).Source:...
E58: Diving into a process of Safety Decluttering
19 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today we're diving into the CSRA's Safety Clutter Classification model and process of decluttering.Source is: Decluttering Safety report, from...
E57: Safety clutter - paper tigers and non-value adding work
16 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How does safety clutter--the accumulation of safety artefacts that don't contribute to operational safety--distract attention and resources from m...
E56: Walk-Through Talk-Through - a technique for learning about daily work and error traps
12 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This quickisode jumps into the Walk-Through Talk-Through technique, used to collaborate with workers and learn about the challenges and error traps wi...
E55: Butt-covering paperwork & false safety
09 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What if the paperwork that management come to rely on, rather than providing assurance of safe work methods, is more a ritual, disconnected from real ...
E54: Work-as-imagined, prescribed, disclosed and done
05 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How do the models of how we think about work reveal and conceal features of the work? Today we explore varieties of human work: work-as-imagined, work...
E53: Weak Controls. Repeat Deaths. The Brady review into mining fatalities
02 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine following a workplace fatality, that the weakest types of controls are implemented - administrative. This episode unpacks some findings from t...
E52: Tapping into the semiotics of risk - workspace, headspace, groupspace
29 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How can we move beyond simple workplace hazards towards tackling risk from psychological and cultural cues in the workplace? Today we unpack Rob Long&...
E51: The links between hazardous energy magnitude and injury severity
26 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What are the links between the magnitude of the energy within hazard exposures on subsequent injury severity and death?Does more energy = higher chanc...
E50: Ed Schein's Humble Inquiry - “The Gentle Art of Asking Instead of Telling” (quickisode)
22 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This quickisode unpacks Ed Schein's concept of Humble Inquiry - said to be the "gentle art of asking instead of telling".Source: Schein,...
E49: CEO-speak and the road to major disasters
19 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What does the leadership language used by CEOs tell us about the priority and beliefs around safety and risk? This episode unpacks a study exploring t...
E48: Blame fixes ... something ???
15 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Does blame really solve nothing...or does it have some redeeming features?Source: van Mourik, O., Grohnert, T., & Gold, A. (2023). Mitigating work...
E47: Improving procedures via resilient skills - leveraging resilience engineering (quickisode)
13 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This quickisode explores how resilience engineering - particularly enhancing resilient skills - can improve procedures.Source: Saurin, T. A., Wachs, P...
E46: The Stuff That Kills People and weaknesses in Critical Control Programs
12 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How do Critical Control programs succeed or fault and trip? And are CC observations calibrated to the actual things that kill or permanently injure pe...
E45: Unpacking Officer Due Diligence based on a Maritime NZ prosecution
08 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode unpacks findings from the recent Maritime NZ / Port of Auckland case, where a CEO was charged under due diligence offences.It offers an e...
E44: Human-centred design - some terms from Don Norman (quickisode)
06 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This quickisode dives into some key human-centred design terms from the GOAT, Don Norman.The source is: Norman, D. (2013). The design of everyday thin...
E43: How 'no blame' can potentially subvert learning and improvement
05 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Few would disagree that blame negatively impacts learning.However, can efforts to promote 'no blame' approaches also carry their own negative ...
E42: The blindspots of incident reporting approaches
01 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Are our incident reporting systems providing accurate reflections of incidents and severity, or blinkered, highly selective views disconnected from ac...
E41: Writing better procedures with the dark arts of human factors (quickisode)
29 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How can we apply the dark arts of Human Factors to write better procedures? Let's find out.Today's source is: HPOG (2021). Best Practice in Pr...
E40: Types and mechanisms of investigator bias
28 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What are the types and mechanisms of investigator bias, and what are some proposed debiasing methods and improvements?Today's article: MacLean, C....
E39: How biased are incident investigators?
24 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Investigations are reputed to be 'fact finding' exercises: objective searches for facts and truth.How what role does investigator bias play in constru...
E38: 4Ds - Dumb, Dangerous, Different, Difficult - for learning (quickisode)
22 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This quickisode unpacks the 4D method for learning: Dumb, Dangerous, Different, Difficult.The source is Sutton et al. 2023. 4Ds for HOP and Learning T...
E37: Psychological Safety - what is it good for? A meta-analysis of research
21 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Psychological safety has reached almost Deity levels.Every third business, HR or tech article and its dog seems to mention Psychological Safety.But wh...
E36: How audits fail prior to major accidents
17 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How do audits fail to avert major disasters? What do investigations after a major accident say about the performance, or failures, of audits?Today's a...
E35: Critical Steps for managing hazardous work (quickisode)
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Some task steps are so important, that marshal or exchange so much energy, that they must go right first time, every time. These are called Critical S...
E34: The failure of critical controls in construction
14 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How reliable are the critical controls within construction? Which critical controls fail, and how?Today's article is Selleck, R., Hassall, M., &am...
EP33: Is ChatGPT bullsh** you? How Large Language models aim to be convincing rather than truthful
10 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Large Language Models, like ChatGPT, have amazing capabilities. But are their responses, aiming to be convincing human text, more indicative of BS? Th...
EP32: Navigating fatigue risk with the defences in depth approach
08 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode discusses Dawson & McCulloch's structured defences in depth approach to navigate occupational fatigue at different levels.Today's pap...
EP31: Do individual mental health interventions work? Maybe not
07 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Do individual level mental health interventions, like personal resilience training, yoga, fruit bowls and training actually improve measures of mental...
E30: A better way to think about procedures: resources for action
03 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Do you see procedures as concrete actions that specify the one correct way of working, or more as resources to shape work and sensitise people to risk...
E29: Restorative Just Culture Checklist (quickisode)
01 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This quickisode jumps into Sidney Dekker's restorative just culture checklist - available on SafetyDifferently.ComMore research at SafetyInsights.OrgI...
E28: How language shapes blame in investigations
31 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Does the language we use in investigations shape allocations of blame? Quite possibly.Today's study is from Vesel, C. (2020). Agentive language in...
E27: Sleepy or Drunk - which is more dangerous?
27 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Drink driving is a well-known risk, but how dangerous is fatigue impairment in comparison? What happens when mental performance is compared between fa...
E26: Risk Controls: Alternative Controls / Direct Controls (AC/DC) (Quickisode)
25 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Check out the Construction Safety Research Alliance's concept of AC/DC (alternative controls and direct controls).Let me know if it has helped you to ...
Ep 25: Do workers in high-risk industries use and value procedures?
24 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Are your safety procedures effective aids to help navigate safe and reliable work? Do you know? And, do your workers use and value those procedures?To...
E24: Are leadership styles scientifically valid?
20 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We've all been told about the power of positive leadership, servant leadership etc. But what if much of what we believe about these styles is more of ...
E23: Safety-II inspired debriefs (Quickisode)
18 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Want to add a garnish of Safety-II inspired thinking into debriefs? Check out this 4 min quickisode.Today's article is: Bentley, S. K., McNamara, ...
E22: Zombie ideas of leadership - time to exorcise the deceased concepts?
17 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What if many of the ideas we cling to about leaders, are more zombie ideas - outdated concepts that refuse to die? What if some of these ideas are hol...
E21: Beyond the Hierarchy - Haddon's energy countermeasures (Quickisode)
14 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This special quickisode unpacks Haddon's 10 energy countermeasures.This approach provides an alternative or compliment to the hierarchy of control, an...
E20: SMS certification and its impacts on safety performance
13 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We chase certifications, implement systems, but what impact are we really having on operational performance? Is achieving certification, like ISO 1800...
E19: Leadership for safety - silver bullet or hype?
10 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We often put leadership on a pedestal - the silver bullet for all organisational ills.But what does the evidence suggest? What influence does various ...
E18: When Emotion Leads Risk - risk as feelings and not just numbers
06 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Risk in safety is often framed in matrices as likelihood x consequences. It holds an allure of (semi)objectivity - the numbers are the numbers.But wha...
E17: Critical Decisions & Local Rationality: Tools for making sense of situations
03 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why did they do that, what an idiot! What if our inability to understand the apparent stupidity of an action, after the fact, is more an issue with us...
E16: Systems thinking and investigations
31 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Do construction investigations take broader systems perspectives of accident causation, or stuck in the mud focused on local factors, people and behav...
E15: Root Cause Analyses (RCA) and incident prevention: do they work?
30 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Many organisations rely on their root cause analyses (RCA) to help learn about incidents, and, ideally, prevent incident reoccurrences.So the logic go...
Ep 14: Leadership walkarounds - ritualistic peacocking or solid trust building?
27 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We've all heard about or been part of them - leader walkarounds.Are walkarounds backed by solid evidence - do they build break down silos, enhance...
Ep 13: Do near misses increase risky decision making?
23 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Conventional wisdom suggests investigating and circulating knowledge of near misses. These 'free lessons', so it goes, are supposed to help us...
Ep 12: Human performance in barrier/critical control systems
20 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How do you consider the role of people within your barrier or critical control system - threat or adaptable strength?What are some fallacies of human ...
Ep 11: The fault in our stats (incident measures)
16 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Are our use of reported injury measures, like TRIFR or LTIFR, 'good enough' representations, or beset with foundational statistical flaws?Today's repo...
Ep 10: Are safety myths holding us back?
13 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Are our safety myths--like most accidents being the result of human error--holding back genuine improvement within safety?Can myths like these actuall...
Ep 9: How certified systems & auditing mask psychosocial issues
09 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We design, implement and certify our safety systems with best intentions. We hope these systems help us to identify and address workplace hazards.Howe...
Ep 8: The harm in zero harm
06 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Is Zero Harm a laudable approach or a misdirection--an illusion--associated with higher fatality rates?This episode dives into the paper from: Sherrat...
Ep 7: How investigations blind us to control effectiveness
02 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Are our investigations blinded to the functioning and effectiveness of risk controls? Are our current approaches, and mental models about how safety e...
Ep 6: Audit Masquerade - How audits provide comfort rather than treatment for serious safety problems
29 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Are audits effective checks and verifications of our risk control systems?Are they diving deep into the functionality and effectiveness of systems and...
Ep 5: What you find in investigations isn't what you fix
25 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Conventional logic suggests that we fix the gaps that we find in investigations. But is this the case?Is the investigation process more a socially con...
Ep 4: The links between fatal and non-fatal accidents based on >23k incidents
23 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Is there a connection between fatal and non-fatal accidents, or is it a fallacy to focus on the minor potential events with the hope of managing the m...
Ep 3: Learning Teams vs Root Cause Analyses
18 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How well can Learning Teams function against more traditional Root Cause Analysis techniques?What things do they focus on, what fixes result from the ...
Ep 2: Are the things that kill or maim us -- SIFS -- the same as the things that hurt us?
16 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Are the contributing and causal factors similar between Severe Incidents & Fatalities (SIFs) and non-fatal incidents? Will eliminating the minor p...
Ep 1: Do you trust your accident statistics? The extent of accident underreporting
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Do you trust your accident statistics? Are they accurate reflections of reality, or dangerously misleading? In this episode, we explore the following ...