A week ago, I published a blog on why just culture is a flawed concept. If you didn’t have a chance to read through it, here is an overview. During an investigation, I interviewed a forklift driver who had hurt his leg. I asked him, ‘Khalid, what have you learned from the accident?’
His response was, ‘what is there to learn, it’s God’s will.’
Someone said, how is that going to stop Khaled breaking his leg next time? Do we now have to locate root cause of our accidents in Divine faith?
If you think this is irrational, let me share another story. A while ago, I met with a safety manager in Aberdeen. Far from God’s will, Gary believes that all accidents are preventable and it is well within human agency to control the risk.
But Gary, what if another car came and hit yours from behind?
‘That won’t happen’, he says. ‘I’m always looking into the mirror.’
?
Prima facie, there is nothing in common between Gary and Khalid. But take a step back and you will realise how humans across cultures have created their own myths, symbols and rituals to cope with suffering and loss.
We can still ridicule Khalid’s reactions but before that let us turn to our own myth.
Studies show a strong correlation between suffering and inner strength (resilience?). In Britain, the number of people reporting mentally sick at work has peaked at its highest in the last 15 years. In the United States, the number of people being treated for depression has tripled over the past two decades. One in ten now takes antidepressants. Half a million children in the United States are on antipsychotic drugs. Antidepressants strip people of their inner strength by assigning doctors and insurance lobbies to fix their problems.
The greatest source of our sufferings is the lies that we tell ourselves. Perhaps, Khalid’s faith in faith is not as bad as it seems on the surface?
But then how does that help an organisation to prevent the next accident? I’ve been studying organisational failures for over a decade. Nearly all the accidents that I have researched from Costa Concordia, Hoegh Osaka, El Faro, US Airways 1549 (Captain Sully), Nozomi, Wakashio and Ever Given, follow the same structure.
We gather so much evidence, wrap it up in clean plastic bags, spend enormous resources to determine what went wrong and write longwinded reports. And despite all the science behind it, the accident report follows the same mythical pattern as in ancient Israel. We either glorify someone, or we find a scapegoat to blame.
But look at Khalid, he is blaming no one? What good is science?
So, which is better – faith or science?
Devoid of critical thinking, faith in faith is as good as faith in science.
At least with faith, know it is absurd, but science is so beautifully cloaked in lies.
What ancient wisdom can teach us about managing talent
While Brahma creates the Cosmos and Shiva destroys it, Vishnu
