Deepwater Horizon and the suppression of risky conversations. (2016)

“..highlights cultural values and practices that ‘ran under the radar’ (and how) hubris was enculturated on the project.”

Dr Rob Long, founder Human Dymensions

blog/article in SafetyRisk.net (Communication and Consultation, Psychology of Safety and Risk)
10 October 2016

“The release on October 6 of the movie Deepwater Horizon brings to the surface some …. critical issues for safety which are discussed by Dr Rob Long, Craig Ashhurst and Greg Smith in the video series Risky Conversations, The Law, Social Psychology and Risk.”

The video discusses:

• Safety as the focus on trivial, petty risks
• The distortion of what constitutes legal liability
• The logic and ethic of zero as motivation for hiding and under-reporting
• Disproportionality in the way humans understand risk
• The problem of hubris (systemic institutionalized overconfidence)
• The collective unconscious in institutionalized blindness
• Leadership blindness to by-products and trade-offs in decision-making
• The problem of zero harm ideology, pyramids and curves
• The Safety mentality
• The semiotics of risk.

The discussion highlights some of the cultural values and practices that ‘ran under the radar’ on this project. Indeed, the Deepwater Horizon disaster serves as a great lesson in how safety orthodoxy suppresses risky conversations.

“The discourse of ‘zero harm’ is a critical formative factor in the way hubris was enculturated on the Deepwater Horizon project.”

Access the video here: Macondo

Purchase the associated book, talking book and access to 22 videos in the series here: Book

For more on the Deepwater Horizon event see:

Insurance and procedural ethics: Lessons from the Deepwater Horizon explosion.

We need to protect the whistleblowers who save our skins but pay the price.

Meta-analysis of dark side personality characteristics and critical work behaviors among leaders across the globe