What's bothering me? Lies, Fiction, Fake News

I can't help it, sorry, but I listen and watch with dismay at the media and the antics of leaders across the political and business spectrum. Basically if you say it and it is either streamed or reported it becomes a 'truth'. There are no filters or sieves to the endless stream of misunderstanding, assumption, misrepresentation and deliberate misleading information. It used to be called gossip and is not new!

What I also can't help is the parallels with our own Process Safety performance in the energy industries.

So let me start with a truth,

"Gossip is a bad thing. In the beginning it may seem enjoyable and fun, but in the end, it fills our hearts with bitterness and poisons us, too!"

Pope Francis

'Gossip' in the energy industry is not just idle chit chat it is taking raw data and cutting and splicing it to get the answer you want. What this does is obscure the facts, this, coupled with a good dose of excuse (gossip) about why a KPI has not been met is all it takes to avoid doing the work (and spending the budget) to meet the requirement.

So here's a story and maybe a bit of help to filter out the BS.

In Ancient Greece, Socrates had a great reputation of wisdom. One day, someone came to find the great philosopher and said to him:

"Do you know what I just heard about your friend?"

"A moment", replied Socrates. "Before you tell me, I would like to test you on the three sieves".

"The three sieves?"

"Yes", continued Socrates. "Before telling anything about the others, it's good to take the time to filter what you mean. I call it the test of the three sieves. The first sieve is the TRUTH. Have you checked if what you're going to tell me is true?"

"No, I just heard it."

"Very good! So, you don't know if it's true. We continue with the second sieve, that of KINDNESS. What you want to tell me about my friend, is it good?"

"Oh, no! On the contrary."

"So", questioned Socrates, "you want to tell me bad things about him and you're not even sure they're true? Maybe you can still pass the test of the third sieve, that of UTILITY. Is it useful that I know what you're going to tell me about this friend?"

"Not, really."

"So", concluded Socrates, "what you were going to tell me is neither true, nor good, nor useful. Why, then, did you want to tell me this?"

So what?

In the Energy Industry, unfortunately history is repeating itself (see Crisis, What Crisis?) and we all play a part in correcting lies and not accepting BS, we can also help others by simply being kind to those that are working to keep us safe. Finally if you are in receipt of data or information ask yourself what are you going to do with it?

If the answer is do nothing then you will simply be accumulating poison or increasing the likelihood of a MAH.

Have a great day all.

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