Safety Moment - A Better Definition of Risk

Published: Jan. 4, 2017, 6 p.m.

Safety Podcast, Safety Program, Safety Storytelling, Investigations, Human Performance, Safety Differently, Operational Excellence, Resilience Engineering, Safety and Resilience Incentives

We have for too long allowed a Western Economic definition of risk to rule our businesses, our thinking, and our system reliability programs.  

What would you say if I told your the current definition we use to describe risk is probably over simplistic and not very accurate.  Risk is not probability times severity.  Sorry safety guys - you have been sold some snake oil.   

Risk must be better defined to include variability and complexity.  Risk is not stable.  Risk is not permanant.  Risk is not linear.   Sorry.

Risk is more about defining the amount of uncertainty the worker will face.

Thanks for listening.  Sorry I just told you your baby is ugly.  We can still be friends.