EP 700 - Deus Ex Machina

Show Transcript

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Here is our main story on the Rated R Safety Show.

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Yep, main story time. Rated R Safety Show.

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And I think we need to talk about it because I definitely have not talked about this.

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Do you know what it is?

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I guess it's blatantly obvious and I probably should talk about it because I don't hardly ever do these.

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But today, today, today, today, as we are hanging out, we need to talk about some of the motives of the things that we do.

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And here we are on episode 1105.

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And let me tell you, if you've been holding on for your breath for a grand revelation, some miraculous out of nowhere moment where the universe just fixes safety problems for us, you're going to be waiting a long damn time.

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Because I think sometimes we're just not in tune with reality when it comes to certain things.

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So today I want to cover a subject that's going to be kind of weird, but bear with me because that's kind of what I do.

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So because today we're going to talk about Dos Ex Machina and safety.

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Have you ever heard of Dos Ex Machina?

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That's the magical thinking last minute here is solution, the absolute fairy tale nonsense that gets shoved down our throats when companies realize that we're about to have a very, very bad day.

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No, seriously. So kind of bear with me through some of this.

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Now, for those who have a skilled Latin class, I want to explain this to you.

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Dos Ex Machina literally means God from the machines.

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Back in the day in the Greek theater, if the story got too messy, they'd have some some God literally, literally lowered into the stage with a big ass crane, solve everything in the last second and boom.

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Instant happy ending, no consequences, no accountability, just done.

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And let's see if that doesn't scream corporate safety culture.

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If that doesn't scream corporate safety culture, I don't know what does.

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I know some people are not going to like that.

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But here's the problem.

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Safety doesn't work that way.

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And yet, yet, yet, yet, yet we see this exact kind of thinking all the time.

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And you know what I'm talking about?

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Because this is exactly where we kind of work.

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But here's the problem.

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Safety doesn't work that way.

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And yet we see exactly the kind of time of everything about people thinking, oh, this this time it's going to be different.

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So let me kind of give you a breakdown of what I'm talking about.

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Exactly.

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The company has ignored hazard reports for months.

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And then yet.

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We see the exact kind of thinking.

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Well, hold on.

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And then yet.

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Yet, yet, yet, yet.

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We see the exact same thing.

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They slap one of those policies like bandaid and call it a day.

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You know, we all of a sudden see these same things, these hazard reports for months.

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And then an incident occurred, an accident occurred.

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And it's like, oh, here you go.

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Let's just bandaid that together.

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A worker dies in a confined space because there is no rescue plan.

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But suddenly the new safety procedure shows up.

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And as we were always part of the plan.

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You know what I'm talking about?

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I'm not talking out of different things here.

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Some executives pretend that the AI powered safety app that we're going to get this week will revolutionize hazard protection and prevention.

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When in it is in reality, the only thing being revolutionized is the stock options.

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I know little rough.

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So let's be clear.

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Real safety is proactive.

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It's built into the culture, but it's not a last minute thing.

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It's not a Hail Mary.

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It's not save the day.

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Save the moment.

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So some people are going to be like, well, I need some real world examples.

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So let me hit you with some of those in 2010.

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Deepwater Horizon, the BP oil spill.

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Remember that there was movies about and everything.

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The biggest environmental disaster in U.S. history.

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Eleven workers died.

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Millions of barrel of oil spilled into at the time, the Gulf of Mexico.

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And here's the kicker.

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There were years of warning signs.

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Multiple system failures, red flags everywhere.

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But instead of actually fixing the issue, BP relied on what?

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A blowout preventer.

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A single mechanical device that was supposed to be the last line of defense.

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You know, the safety miracle, if one could call it that way, that would save the day, except it didn't.

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It didn't save the day.

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Because when you rely on the last minute fix instead of real safety strategies, you're playing Russian roulette with people's lives.

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Now, let's bring it a little bit closer to home.

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How many have you seen this at your workplace?

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The company invested some flashy safety innovation, but refuses to hire actual safety professionals.

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There's a near miss and suddenly management is scrambling to roll out a new training.

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But there is never addressed the root cause of what is going on.

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A worker speaks up about an unsafe condition and instead of fixing the problem, they're sent to retraining so they can learn how to see safety differently.

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Seriously.

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So let's talk about that.

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There are just different flavors of dose X Machina.

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The belief that some quick fix solution, some last minute intervention will magically solve the deep rooted safety issues.

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But here's reality.

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There's no shortcuts to safety.

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You don't get a magic bite.

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You don't get an divine intervention.

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You get what you build.

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Like, seriously, you really get what you build.

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So what's the takeaway?

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What do we do instead of waiting for safety?

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God to descend from the rafters and fix everything.

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Why don't we do these few things?

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Kill the reactive mindset.

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Stop waiting for something to go wrong before taking action.

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Put safety where it belongs in the hands of the people who actually do the work.

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If you're a frontline workers aren't involved with your safety process, you don't have a safety process.

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It's not that hard.

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Ditch the gimmicks.

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Seriously, ditch the gimmicks and safety.

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Safety isn't about fancy technology.

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It's about fundamental and get those right first.

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Hold leadership accountable.

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If the only time your executives talk safety is after an accident, that leadership is a failure.

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A failure.

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Not a workplace, not a work force problem, not a work force problem.

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So at the end of the day, safety isn't about some theater production where God swoops in to save us, you know, the safety guides.

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It's a discipline.

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It's a commitment.

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And you're sitting around waiting for the last minute miracle to occur.

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You're already too late.

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Seriously.

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So that's it.

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That's the main story.

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There are no safety guides.

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There are no miracle fixes, just hard truth.

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And what makes you uncomfortable is good.

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This means that we're getting somewhere.

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And that's the problem is that if you're not doing the right thing, you're not doing the right thing.

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The problem is that we need to involve other people in the process and it doesn't just need to be a commentary.

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It's supposed to make you feel uneasy because there is no dose X Machina in safety.

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But then again, what do I know?

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I'm just the guy here behind a microphone, aren't I?

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I mean, isn't that isn't that what said?

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I think it is.

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Seems that way.

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A lot of the times.

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Oops.

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What did he just say?

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Safety don't always agree with viewpoints of our hosts and guests.

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Now back to real safety talk on safety FM.

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Don't go anywhere.

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You're listening to the home of real safety talk.

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You're listening to safety FM.

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Right back.