EP 696 - The Safety Hypothesis

What if everything we thought we knew about safety was only half the story? In this episode of Safety FM with Jay Allen, we dive into the Safety Hypothesis, exploring how traditional safety thinking has evolved. Drawing from the groundbreaking work of Todd Conklin, James Reason, and Sidney Dekker, we challenge old assumptions and uncover a new way to view safety—not as the absence of accidents but as the presence of adaptive capacity.

We’ll break down Conklin’s Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) principles, Reason’s Swiss Cheese Model, and Dekker’s Safety Differently philosophy, revealing how safety is about learning, trust, and resilience rather than just compliance and control.

Tune in as we rethink workplace safety, shifting from error prevention to understanding real work and empowering frontline workers. It’s time to challenge the way you see safety!