The Safety of Work
Episodes
Ep. 135: Is speaking up always a good thing for safety?
22 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Drawing on Edmondson's extensive psychological safety research, the episode provides practical guidance for safety leaders seeking to improve workplac...
Ep. 134: Does caring about psychosocial safety mean we have to stop telling jokes at work?
08 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The conversation explores how humor serves psychological purposes beyond entertainment, often functioning to establish power hierarchies and devalue p...
How do policies and metrics shape the outcome of investigations?
23 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The discussion explores three critical constraint categories: structural elements like mandatory timelines, organizational factors including resource ...
Ep. 132: How much should we worry about the invasiveness of team support AI?
14 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The findings reveal that invasiveness drives negative reactions more than the stated purpose of monitoring, with participants showing skepticism about...
Ep. 131: How can we make automated systems team players?
31 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The discussion centers on two key design principles: observability, which ensures humans can understand what automated systems are doing and why, and ...
Ep. 130: What are the problems with Just Culture models?
03 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
You'll hear about BP's attempt to create a fairer process using eight new questions that focus more on system factors like management influence, proce...
Ep. 129: How can we use swapping as a strategy for decluttering?
23 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
You’ll hear six key principles for effective behavioral substitution, drawing parallels between healthcare and safety contexts. They discuss how the...
Ep. 128: What are the attributes of an effective supervisor?
16 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The discussion challenges traditional views of supervision by emphasizing the importance of psychological safety and predictable relationships between...
Ep. 127: Should safety education focus on hard skills
09 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Drawing on insights from business leaders and contemporary educational theory, we propose that effective safety professionals require both technical e...
Ep. 126: Is it time to stop talking about safety culture?
26 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this discussion, we dissect various models of safety culture, scrutinizing how organizations perceive, measure, and manage these concepts. From art...
Ep. 125: Does ChatGPT provide good safety advice?
10 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From discussing mobile phone use while driving to the challenges of giving advice to older adults at risk of falls, this episode covers ChatGPT’s re...
Ep. 124 Is safety a key value driver for business?
01 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We challenge the notion that high injury rates are punished by market forces, as we dig into this article that posits the opposite: that safety should...
Ep. 123: Is risk a science or a feeling?
03 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From the perceived control in everyday activities like driving, to the dread associated with nuclear accidents, we discuss how emotional responses can...
Ep. 122: What makes a good presentation?
21 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The discussion provides an in-depth examination of the principles of multimedia, modality, and redundancy, all of which are crucial for optimizing lea...
Ep. 121 Is safety good for business?
07 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We examine whether a safe work environment truly enhances productivity and engagement or if it stifles business efficiency. Historical incidents like ...
Ep. 120: What does the literature say about safety professionals?
26 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
David and Drew share insights into Dr. Provan’s PhD research journey, exploring the scarce guidance and fragmented views within academic research on...
Ep. 119: Should we ask about contributors rather than causes?
28 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s paper, “Multiple Systemic Contributors versus Root Cause: Learning from a NASA Near Miss” by Katherine E. Walker et al, examines an in...
Ep. 118 How should we account for technological accidents?
14 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Using the Waterfall incident as a striking focal point, we dissect the investigation and its aftermath, we share personal reflections on the implement...
Ep. 117: Can digital twins help improve the safety of work?
31 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Using the paper, “Digital Twins in Safety Analysis, Risk Assessment and Emergency Management.” by Zio and Miqueles, published in the technical saf...
Ep 116. Do audits improve the safety of work?
17 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ben's expertise guides us through an analysis of audit reports and accident investigations, laying bare the counterfactual reasoning that often skews ...
Ep. 115: Why are subcontractors at higher risk?
03 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Safety isn't one-size-fits-all, especially for subcontractors who navigate multiple sites with varying rules and equipment. This episode peels back th...
Ep. 114 How do we manage safety for work from home workers?
17 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Lastly, we delve into the role of leadership in addressing psychosocial hazards, the importance of standardized guidance for remote work, and the chal...
Ep. 113 When are seemingly impossible goals good for performance?
10 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The conversation stems from a review of a noteworthy paper from the Academy of Management Review Journal titled "The Paradox of Stretch Goals: Organiz...
Ep 112 How biased are incident investigators?
10 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
You’ll hear David and Drew delve into the often overlooked role of bias in accident investigations. They explore the potential pitfalls of data coll...
Ep. 111 Are management walkarounds effective?
06 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The research paper discussed is by Anita Tucker and Sarah Singer, titled "The Effectiveness of Management by Walking Around: A Randomised Field Study,...
Ep. 110 Can personality tests predict safety performance?
23 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The paper reviewed in this episode is from the Journal of Applied Psychology entitled, “A meta-analysis of personality and workplace safety: Address...
Ep. 109 Do safety performance indicators mean the same thing to different stakeholders?
30 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Show Notes - The Safety of Work - Ep. 109 Do safety performance indicators mean the same thing to different stakeholdersDr. Drew Rae and Dr. David P...
Ep. 108 Could a 4 day work week improve employee well-being?
09 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This report details the full findings of the world’s largest four-day working week trial to date, comprising 61 companies and around 2,900 workers, ...
Ep. 107 What research is needed to implement the Safework Australia WHS strategy?
12 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Summary: The purpose of the Australian Work Health and Safety (WHS) Strategy 2023–2033 (the Strategy) is to outline a national vision for WHS — S...
Ep. 106 Is it possible to teach critical thinking?
19 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Baron's work focuses primarily on judgment and decision-making, a multi-disciplinary area that applies psychology to problems of ethical decisions and...
Ep. 105 How can organisations learn faster?
05 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
You’ll hear a little about Schein’s early career at Harvard and MIT, including his Ph.D. work – a paper on the experience of POWs during wartime...
Ep. 104 How can we get better at using measurement?
22 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
You’ll hear some dismaying statistics around the validity of research papers in general, some comments regarding the peer review process, and then w...
Ep. 103 Should we be happy when our people speak out about safety?
04 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In concert with the paper, we’ll focus on two major separate but related Boeing 737 accidents: Lyon Air #610 in October 2018 - The plane took off f...
Ep. 102 What's the right strategy when we can't manage safety as well as we'd like to?
15 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The paper’s abstract reads:Healthcare systems are under stress as never before. An aging population, increasing complexity and comorbidities, contin...
Ep. 101 When should incidents cause us to question risk assessments?
30 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The paper’s abstract reads:This paper reflects on the credibility of nuclear risk assessment in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima meltdown. In democrat...
Ep. 100 Can major accidents be prevented?
09 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The book explains Perrow’s theory that catastrophic accidents are inevitable in tightly coupled and complex systems. His theory predicts that failur...
Ep.99 When is dropping tools the right thing to do for safety?
18 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The paper’s abstract reads: The failure of 27 wildland firefighters to follow orders to drop their heavy tools so they could move faster and outrun...
Ep.98 What can we learn from the Harwood experiments?
04 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1939, Alfred Marrow, the managing director of the Harwood Manufacturing Corporation factory in Virginia, invited Kurt Lewin (a German-American psyc...
Episode 97: Should we link safety performance to bonus pay?
21 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This was very in-depth research within a single organization, and the survey questions it used were well-structured. With 48 interviews to pull from...
Episode 96: Why should we be cautious about too much clarity?
31 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Just because concepts, theories, and opinions are useful and make people feel comfortable, doesn’t mean they are correct. No one so far has come u...
Ep.95 Do Take-5 risk assessments contribute to safe work?
24 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Assessing the Influence of “Take 5” Pre-Task Risk Assessments on Safety” by Jop Havinga, Mohammed Ibrahim Shire, and our own Andrew Rae. The...
Ep.94 What makes a quality leadership engagement for safety?
17 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The authors’ goal was to produce a scoring protocol for safety-focused leadership engagements that reflects the consensus of a panel of industry exp...
Ep.93 Do the benefits of Lifesaving rules outweigh the negative consequences?
30 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We will discuss the pros and cons of “Golden Safety Rules” and a punitive safety culture vs. a critical risk management approach, and analyze the ...
Ep.92 How do different career paths affect the roles and training needs of safety practitioners?
13 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The paper results center on a survey sent to a multitude of French industries, and although the sampling is from only one country, 15 years ago, the f...
Ep.91 How can we tell when safety research is C.R.A.A.P?
27 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We will go through each letter of the amusing and memorable acronym and give you our thoughts on ways to make sure each point is addressed, and differ...
Ep.90 Does formal safety management displace operational knowledge?
13 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
An excerpt from the paper’s abstract reads as follows: The proposition is based on theory about relationships between knowledge and power, complemen...
Ep.89 When is the process more important than the outcome?
30 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Wastell, who has a BSc and Ph.D. from Durham University, is Emeritus Professor in Operations Management and Information Systems at Nottingham Univers...
Ep.88 Why do organisations sometimes make bad decisions?
16 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
While this paper was written over half a century ago, it is still relevant to us today - particularly in the Safety management industry where we are o...
Ep.87 What exactly is Systems Thinking?
02 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We will review each section of Leveson’s paper and discuss how she sets each section up by stating a general assumption and then proceeds to break t...
Ep.86 Do we have adequate models of accident causation?
19 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We will discuss how other safety science researchers have designed theories that use Rasmussen’s concepts, the major takeaways from Rasmussen’s ar...
Ep.85 Why does safety get harder as systems get safer?
28 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Find out our thoughts on this paper and our key takeaways for the ever-changing world of workplace safety. Topics:Introduction to the paper & the A...
Ep.84 How do orgasnisations balance reliable performance and spontaneous innovation?
31 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This paper by Daniel Katz was published in 1964 and, scarily still has some very relevant takeaways for today’s safety procedures in organisations...
Ep.83 Does the language used in investigations influence the recommendations?
17 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This paper reveals some really interesting findings and it would be valuable for companies to take notice and possibly change the way they implement i...
Ep.82 Why do we audit so much?
26 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It's Modelling the Micro-Foundations of the Audit Society: Organizations and the Logic of the Audit Trail by Michael Power. This paper gets us thinkin...
Ep.81 How does simulation training develop Safety II capabilities?
12 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The specific paper found some interesting results from these simulated situations - including that it was found that the debriefing, post-simulation, ...
Ep.80 What is safety clutter?
29 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The paper we reference today is our own research paper published in 2018 named; Safety clutter: the accumulation and persistence of ‘safety’ work ...
Ep. 79 How do new employees learn about safety?
08 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
While there may be many reasons for this - this particular research paper looks at how younger workers are inducted into the workplace and how they le...
Episode 78: Do shock tactics work?
25 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The reason we are talking about this today, is because this tactic is often used in workplace safety videos and we ask whether or not it works for eve...
Ep.77 What does good look like?
11 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The findings of this research point to the importance of staff buy-in and a team-driven approach to safety. Topics:Introduction to research paper Sev...
Ep.76 What is Due Diligence?
27 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Greg makes it very clear how important it is to avoid oversimplifying the term “due diligence”. He shares how this mistake has, unfortunately, led...
Ep.75 How are stop work decisions made?
13 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Together, Jop and I discuss a topic on which Drew and I previously touched: We revisit how stop-work decisions are made and why this is such an intere...
Ep.74 Is a capacity index a good replacement for incident-count safety metrics?
30 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This topic interested us mainly because of a paper we encountered. It’s a very new peer-reviewed study that has only just been published online. We ...
Ep.73 Does pointing and calling improve action reliability?
16 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As our workplaces become more automated, it becomes the task of human workers to monitor the automated actions. At times, this may require a physical ...
Ep.72 How visible is high-vis clothing?
02 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We came across this topic, because of a conversation happening on LinkedIn. Thus, we thought it would be a good idea to dig into this subject and disc...
Ep.71 Do double checks improve safety?
18 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This topic came directly from our Safety of Work portal, which you can locate on our LinkedIn page. Rhys Thomas was good enough to submit this topic a...
Ep.70 Is OHS management a profession?
04 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
So, on today’s episode, we discuss Occupational Health and Safety management and if it can be considered a profession. We’d love to hear from our...
Ep.69 Do safety in design processes change the design?
21 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Russell is a safety practitioner based in New Zealand. He joins us to tell us about his work and together we wonder if safety and design processes cha...
Ep. 68 Are safety cases an impending crisis?
07 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today, we plan to discuss whether safety cases are headed towards an impending crisis.Join us as we figure out if the work safety community is headed ...
Ep.67 How to constructively resolve an argument about safety theory?
21 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
You may find that this conversation makes us look hypocritical, when discussing how to argue. We just want the best outcomes for all discussions regar...
Ep.66 What is the full story of just culture (part 3)?
14 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The final chapters cover such issues as creating functional reporting systems and the pitfalls in creating such systems. Topics:Creating a solid repo...
Ep.65 What is the full story of just culture (part 2)?
07 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this installment, we cover more chapters from Sidney Dekker’s book about just culture. Last week we covered the core ideas of just culture. This ...
Ep, 64 What is the full story of just culture (part 1)?
31 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For the next few weeks, we are going to cover ‘just culture’ and focus mainly on Sidney Dekker’s book of the same name.The laws currently on the...
Ep. 63 How subjective is technical risk assessment?
24 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As risk assessment is such a central topic in the world of safety science, we thought we would dedicate another episode to discussing a facet of this ...
Ep.62 What are the benefits of job safety analysis?
17 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It’s difficult to give an introduction to this topic, given that a JSA is such an amorphous topic. Generally speaking, we’re talking about job or ...
Ep.61 Is Swiss cheese helpful for understanding accident causation?
10 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The article we reference provides a historical account of the “Swiss Cheese Model”. Since there are many versions of this same diagram, we thought...
Ep.60 How does Safety II reimagine the role of a safety professional?
03 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Every ten episodes or so, we like to indulge ourselves and cover some of our own research. This is one of those episodes. Since it is relevant to our ...
Ep. 59 What is the full story behind safety I and safety II (Part 3)?
27 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We dive into the final chapters of the book and analyze Hollnagel’s intent and offer our commentary on his ideas. Though our ideas don’t necessari...
Ep.58 What is the full story behind safety I and safety II (Part 2)?
20 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Picking up where we left off, we begin our discussion with chapter three. Over the course of this episode, we talk about Hollnagel’s definition of S...
Ep.57 What is the full story behind safety I and safety II (Part 1)?
13 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For this episode, we are breaking away from the standard formula for this show. We thought it best to split this topic into three episodes, as we don’...
Ep.56 Does Goal Based Regulation increase bureaucracy?
06 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Ultimately, we want to help everyone understand the role of organizations and individuals when it comes to safety regulation. Topics:Why regulators...
Ep.55 Are injury rates statistically invalid?
29 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The paper we use to frame our discussion is one that has been making the rounds on social media recently. We thought it was important to seize on the ...
Ep.54 Do safety communication campaigns reduce injuries?
22 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We dig into how safety promotion is used and its effectiveness within an organization. Often, safety communication is about large-scale behaviors and ...
Ep.53 Do parachutes prevent injuries and deaths?
15 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Given that the last two episodes were about theories, we wanted to get back to something more concrete in nature. Hence, the topic of parachutes. We f...
Ep.52 What is the relationship between safety climate and injuries?
08 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We frame our conversation around the paper, Safety Climate and Injuries: An Examination of Theoretical and Empirical Relationships. Tune in to hear u...
Ep.51 How do experts manage fuzzy role boundaries?
01 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Neale is a Senior Research Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute at Deakin University. There, he studies human geography and cultural anthropology...
Ep. 50 What is the relationship between safety work and the safety of work
25 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A huge thank you to our listeners who have made this podcast such a success. We started this show with the hope that we could impact the safety of wor...
Ep.49 What exactly is a peer reviewed journal paper?
18 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This topic was a request from one of our listeners. Join us as we dig into this frequently asked question and let you know all about academic journals...
Ep.48 What are the missing links between investigating incidents and learning from incidents?
11 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This discussion is building off last week’s episode where we focused on blame. We thought we would dig a little deeper into how people learn from in...
Ep. 47 Does individual blame lessen the ability to learn from failure?
04 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This is a particularly controversial topic, so we are going to attempt to be as neutral as possible. We refer to the sources, A Review of Literature: ...
Ep.46 Is risk compensation a real thing?
27 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We are fortunate to have a few resources we can reference for today’s topic. Please see below for links to the papers we mentioned in our conversati...
Ep.45 Why do we need complex models to explain simple work?
20 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We use the paper, Analysing Human Factors and Non-Technical Skills in Offshore Drilling Operations Using FRAM, in order to frame our discussion of th...
Ep.44 What do we mean when we talk about safety culture?
13 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
To frame our discussion, we reference the paper What We Talk About When We Talk About HSE and Culture.Please send us your further questions of safety ...
Ep 43: How is leadership development experienced?
06 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We reference the paper Six Ways of Understanding Leadership Development in order to frame our study.Tune in to hear our discussion and more about this...
Ep.42 How do safety leadership behaviours influence worker motivation for safety?
30 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We had trouble finding a suitable paper for this topic. Measuring and studying safety leadership often proves difficult. However, we use the paper Exa...
Ep.41 How do ethnographic interviews work?
23 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We have had a couple of requests for this topic, so even though we couldn’t find a completely suitable paper, we decided to forge ahead anyway. Top...
Ep.40 When should we trust expert opinions about risk?
16 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
To frame our conversation, we use one of Drew’s papers to discuss this issue. This paper, Forecasts or Fortune-Telling,was borne out of deep frustra...
Ep.39 Do accident investigations actually find the root causes?
09 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
To frame our chat, we reference the papers, Our Current Approach to Root Cause Analysis and What-You-Look-for-is-What-You-Find.Tune in to hear our tho...
Ep.38 Can we get ready for automation by studying non-automated systems?
02 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We use the paper, Observation and Assessment of Crossing Situations Between Pleasure Craft and a Small Passenger Ferry, in order to frame our discuss...
Ep.37 How do audits influence intentions to improve practice?
26 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
To help frame our conversation, we use the paper How Does Audit and Feedback Influence Intentions of Health Professionals to Improve Practice? Topics...
Ep.36 How do we tell the difference between theories and fads in safety?
19 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In order to frame our discussion, we use the paper Fads and Fashions in Management Practices.Topics:Recent changes in the spread of ideas.Where new ma...