Metaphors Incubating Disasters

While I would never claim that mere words alone contributed to any major accident, the metaphors that leaders use, create the culture in which, as one of the early and most influential thinkers in safety, Barry Turner, said ‘incubate’ and ‘cultivate’ the precursors to disasters. If you have ever heard a leader describe an organization is being a ‘burning platform’, where ‘performance is plateauing’ meaning ‘costs must be slashed’, you have experienced how metaphors influence our thinking and establish a shared sense of understanding. Rhetoric and a strong grasp of metaphor are said to be essential for effective leadership. In this article I aim to explain how conceptual metaphors work and their alleged role in the precursors to some disasters. I will also explain how metaphor are used to dismiss and defend unsafe practices.

I share what I read and study, so I hope you find this useful. I learn a lot from feedback, particularly if you disagree. If you have examples of how metaphors have featured in incidents and failures that you have encountered, please do share.

Thinking in Metaphor

We should start by reminding ourselves that the words we use are not merely linguistic tools we use to communicate, they are fundamental to how we make sense to the world around us. Metaphors frame how we think about and approach abstract concepts. A conceptual metaphor is a way of understanding something abstract in terms of something concrete.?For example when we say ‘Time is Money’, ‘Cancer is a Battle’, ‘Life is a Journey’ or ‘Argument is War’, we are framing the way we view and approach these matters, and the decisions we subsequently take.

Metaphors influence our decission-making. For example, research have shown that framing a medical condition as being at ‘war’ with our own bodies influences the choices we take as patients, and how we treat loved others who are ‘battling’ a disease. Politicians, religious leader and marketers have long recognized the power of metaphor to shape meaning. But what role have metaphors played in the disasters and major accidents? And how are we influenced by the metaphors leaders us?

Faster, Cheaper, Better

One of the more famous studies of the role of leadership metaphors involved NASA and the infamous ‘Faster, Cheaper, Better’ mission statement. Diane Vaughan and William Ocasio have separately studied the role of language in shaping the culture as NASA’s space shuttle program, arguing that organizational vocabulary was a contributing factor in the failures. ?They argued that the metaphorical mission statement ‘Faster, Cheaper, Better’ contributed to failure of leadership and flawed safety culture. Ocasio examined the corporate statements and correspondence prior to the disaster, examining the reference to safety in context to the dimensions of cost, efficiency and schedule, finding safety received far less reference. From this, he concludes that safety was viewed as a bureaucratic constraint not to be compromised rather than as a goal to be achieved and improved upon. Put simply, the metaphor contributed to a culture in which safety was secondary and how it featured within decision-making.

This impact of words to shape a culture resonates with me. I once encountered a newly appointed Plant Manager who, keen to improve productivity in a large high-risk factory, painted “Whatever it Takes” in very large font on the walls, corridors and breakrooms. We soon discovered whatever it took, when the forklifts raced like roman chariots and the machine safety devices were removed to hasten productivity. Whatever it took was two amputations and a worker fatality. Words do not only cause emotional harm, they can kill.

Metaphors that Signal Priorities

Joel Amernic and Russel Craig studied speeches by BP’s CEO prior to the Deepwater Horizon explosion to examine how safety culture featured and was framed by the leader. Borrowing from Edgar Schein’s thesis that what leaders pay attention to and react to emotionally, communicates their priorities, goals, and assumptions, Amernic and Craig examined what the CEO said publicly about BP’s safety culture. The metaphors used by the CEO (i.e. ‘driving’, ‘journey’, ‘focus’, ‘efficiency’, ‘building’ and ‘positioning’) signalled an ideology of economic efficiency and cost control that was incompatible with the organization’s stated commitment to its safety culture. Despite a commitment to safety, the speeches were dominated by discussion of cost cutting, finance and organizational efficiency. The words create and shape the beliefs, ideals and values relating to safety, so if you want to understand what matters, pay attention to what is said and what metaphors are being deployed. The metaphors used by the leader signalled their real priorities, such as making the “asset base work harder” and the infamous journey metaphor. This ‘waggon trail’ metaphor featured prominently in the CEO's speeches:

“BP is on a journey towards a great financial prize”

Metaphors that Deceive

One of the more interesting studies of metaphors in safety is by Karl Weick?and?Kathleen Sutcliffe. They studied the role of conceptual metaphor in entrapping healthcare workers into ways of thinking about failure from "which they cannot disengage and which subsequently lead to repeated cycles of poor performance". They studied the medical failures in the Bristol Royal Infirmary paediatric cardiac surgery failure that resulted in high rates of child mortality. They examined how the metaphor ‘learning curve’ became a self-fulfilling argument that led to medics justifying to themselves a high rate of child mortality. The metaphoric 'curve' creates a conception of gradually learning, incrementally improving with each surgery, whereas the inquiry found the signs of abnormality and high mortality rates were evident. In summary, the conception and worldviews created by metaphor can frame how we view failure, leading us to rationalise error and abnormality. Metaphors can thus also deceive.

We’re learning and improving, there is nothing abnormal here.

Metaphors that Justify

Sometimes metaphors are created to justify and defend something that is patently unsafe or to shift responsibility. From 'Accident Proneness' to 'Unsafe Act', there are many examples of where metaphors are used to explain error and reconceptualise fault. Probably the most famous example of this can be found in road safety where ‘Jaywalking’ was created. The metaphor links walking with a 'jay', a generic term for someone who was an idiot, dull, unsophisticated, poor or simpleton.? More precisely, it was once a common term for “country bumpkins” or “hicks”, usually seen incorrectly as inherently stupid by “city” folk. Hence Jaywalking linked walking across a road with being an idiot. The conceptual metaphor sought to reframe how we view ownership of the road and responsibility for vehicle accident. The metaphor convinced the public that if you got run over by a car, it was not only?your?fault (and also an illegal action).

Another example of metaphors used to justify and defend is within corporate reporting of ESG and sustainability. Corporations frequently use metaphors such as 'journey' to explain progress. However, critics argue that the use of metaphors is suggests action is being taken, but is actually a rhetorical trick disguising the lack of sustainable change and meaningful progress. Metaphors can there be used purposely.

There are many other examples of metaphors constructed to reconceptualise and reframe a contested issue. We should be awake to the use of metaphor in debates and contested matters.

The last word

Metaphors have been central to the development of safety models, theories and ideas. The simplicity of the early safety metaphors, such as the notion of ‘unsafe acts’ and ‘accident proneness’ created highly persuasive concepts of incident causation. Indeed, much of the everyday language used within safety is assumed to be literal, but are on closer scrutiny, is metaphorical. ?The more we view safety through a sociotechnical lens, the more we will rely on metaphor. Effective leaders understand the power of metaphor and it’s persuasive effect. We should thus be ‘awake’ to the use of metaphor by organisations as it is strong signal of what they care about.

Further reading

If you are interested in metaphors, their effect and use in safety, here are some references mentioned:

?? Willie Ocasio, ‘The Opacity of Risk: Language and the Culture of Safety in NASA’s Space Shuttle Program’ in William Starbuck and Moshe Farjoun's ‘Organization at the Limit: Lessons from the Columbia Disaster’ 2005. Access here: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=a17b2fa804e0f3e281dc88e959be9216328ae6cc#page=122

?? Joel Amernic and Russel Craig, ‘CEO speeches and safety culture: British Petroleum before the Deepwater Horizon disaster’ Access here: https://pure.port.ac.uk/ws/files/6106863/CEO_speeches_and_safety_culture.pdf

?? Ben Hutchinson’s great view of Amernic and Craig’s paper:

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/ceo-speeches-safety-culture-british-petroleum-before-ben-hutchinson/

?? Peter Norton, 'Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City (Inside Technology) Paperback'

?? Karl Weick?and?Kathleen Sutcliffe, ‘Hospitals as Cultures of Entrapment: A Re-Analysis of the Bristol Royal Infirmary’ https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2307/41166166?casa_token=OtRiCpK0BFYAAAAA:8iQ7vIYnidMKoinxMgTnyjF7_CVjt-BA3k5wGfBTzhzt6EYE1MUd3QV51A6xqAdR1DgDdmC_fQ6HZA

?? A shameless promotion of a previous article I wrote on metaphors and safety: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/safety-metaphor-james-pomeroy/