Listen to the slogan, any slogan. Is it binary, is it absolute, is it one-directional?
Binary, absolute, one-directional slogans are meant to make us dumb and numb. Say it a few times and it becomes your belief. And watch it for a few years to see how these absolutes and binaries undermine the culture of an entire organisation. Believe in chicken. Believe in Zero Harm. Engineer a safer world. Customer is always right.
What is common across all such slogans is that they are intuitively appealing and they devoid us of critical thinking. Let’s take one example. Context is everything. It’s an absolute slogan. There is no room for ambiguity. It’s everything or nothing (0 or 1). Context drives behaviour. It’s one directional. It’s coercive. It turns human agency into a puppet to be manipulated by the situation. This is behaviourism at its best – stimulus and response with repercussions more serious than we can imagine.
Let me share a story. A few days ago, I had someone attending one of my workshop on human judgment and decision making. I was presenting some practical methods and tools to challenge the way we do audits and investigations. But it seems that it did not go well for this person. He wrote to me with a sense of dismay and disapproval saying that my ideas won’t go very far because I’m not addressing the ‘structural problems’. He said”
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People cannot do what they want to do. They do what their situation drives them to do. If our industry, or safety, wants change, it must begin by reshaping the structures that define these contexts, rather than expecting individuals to develop empathy or insight.
The industry tends to reward those who conform, who save time and money. That’s how a shipowner justifies their existence. Few (if any) run ships to make the world better. Learning is tolerated only when it’s convenient. For most, survival and success depend on aligning with the structures in place: What does the system expect of me? What will I be rewarded for? What are my managers preoccupied with? There are few who can afford to reject these constraints and pursue a different path. Most of us adapt to the incentives before us, just enough to keep life moving.
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Let’s do a little exercise to examine the Discourse in this text. Discourse relates to hidden power and meaning in the text. Notice the keywords and ask yourself where is the power in this narrative? Situation, Structure, Context, and System. Who or what is made powerless? Safety, Individuals. We have accepted to live life as slaves and masses.
This persons response helps us to understand the power of binary and absolute slogans. Context drives behaviour. Context is everything. He has (unconsciously) attributed a lot of power to words and reached a state of learned helplessness and a sense of hopelessness. Pity me everyone; I am the victim of the situation. There is nothing I can do in this situation. Context and Structure have become the Gods. Who am I to change anything?
To understand how we arrive at this stage, we first have to understand how perception works and how ‘constructed’ realities shapes our worldview. When we are awake and conscious, every moment we are bombarded by millions of bits of information per second. But even in the most heightened state of awareness our conscious minds can take in no more than 32 bits per second ; the rest is affecting our unconscious minds. Our perception of the world around us comes from pre-existing beliefs (patterns) that conform to our worldviews. That is sensemaking but that is only one part of sensemaking.
Once reality is formed, it continues to turn all future experiences to our pre-existing beliefs. Every action we take and every word we speak conforms to those pre-existing beliefs. Before we realise we are trapped in this perception and action deadlock. Imagination is dead, learning becomes stagnant, all hope is lost, we accept our fate and we become lame ducks. If someone musters the courage to doubt or challenge this new reality, they are mocked and dismissed. Interestingly, these are the same people who vouch for Speaking up, Stop the Job Authority, and Just Culture but they are totally unconscious of the power of slogans they are living. How do you speak up to an Industry, Structure or System that cares less for individuals in your own words.
At one point, when I tried to introduce an alternative view, it was dismissed and seen as a romantic idea. It’s a lifetime entrapment; no one can help us out of this situation because all change is seen as a threat to our worldview. It is cognitive dissonance at its best. Unfortunately, many of us have uncritically embraced slogans, turned them into our realities and lost hope. There is nothing more hopeless in life than losing hope. It is the single most dominant cause of suicides, neurosis and psychosis we face today.
Beware of slogans. Think critically. Even in the darkest hour, life has meaning. Learn to love yourself, never lose hope, ask questions, challenge your deepest assumptions, and remain open to unlearning and learning. After all we are not Pavlov’s dogs, we are human persons with unimagined depth of potential. All change initiates from within first.
It is true that context does influence behaviour but bringing a change within can also transform the world without.
