Psychology in Safety, Leicester

Psychology in Safety

I have been giving presentations in psychology in safety, on and off, for about ten years now. I have had a break from it this year while concentrating on the EHS software, but I am planning on another session for January 2018.

The sessions are about why people sometimes behave seemingly irrationally (it makes sense to them) and how you can make allowances in your risk assessments and method statements for that behaviour. 

As an example, most people know about the study where people concentrate on counting how many times a basketball is passed between players but fail to notice someone walking across the field of play in a gorilla outfit. Most workplaces have situations where we know staff are concentrating on a task and are likely to not see what is going on around them. 

In simple terms you may want to explain to the person on the task that their concentration will block out their environment but more importantly you may want to explain to people entering the area “You know what, you may as well be wearing a cloak of invisibility, that person won’t see you.” Typical scenarios for that include fork lift truck activity, detailed assembly work etc. 

Think about it, how many people get injured every year in the vicinity of an activity rather than being the person doing it?

The work is drawn from some of my own work, that of Dan Ariely, Daniel Kahneman and others.

Anyway, that and much more is what the presentation on 25th January 2018 in Leciester will be about. 

If you are interested, it is ￡65 per person for a session from 10am to 4pm (a buffet lunch will be included). 

Message me on Linkedin or at [email protected] to book or if you want further details. Please note I don’t take payment this far in advance, those details will be arranged closer to the time.