The safety anarchist: relying on human expertise and innovation, reducing bureaucracy and compliance

Work has never been as safe as it seems today. Safety has also never been as bureaucratised as it is today.

Over the past two decades, the number of safety rules and statutes has exploded, and organisations themselves are creating ever more internal compliance requirements.

At the same time, progress on safety has slowed to a crawl.

Many incident- and injury rates have flatlined. Worse, excellent safety performance on low-consequence events tends to increase the risk of fatalities and disasters.

Bureaucracy and compliance now seem less about managing the safety of the workers we are responsible for, and more about managing the liability of the people they work for.