Resilience - Individual Skills

[Nimbus]

I wonder if the likes of @Nimbus and @Ortholith shake their heads with despair when they hear of the brainlessness of some people. They get taught the basics of mechanics and electrical theory - but they still seem to not understand that a faster a vehicle goes, the more stopping it takes. They also seem to fail to understand overloading electrical sockets and cables.

Then they fail to be able to understand things like graphs and numbers, or that mixing chemicals without checking the label (eg bleach and washing up liquid - NO) is often a bad idea.

 

[Dicky Ticker]

I wonder if the likes of @Nimbus and @Ortholith shake their heads with despair when they hear of the brainlessness of some people. They get taught the basics of mechanics and electrical theory - but they still seem to not understand that a faster a vehicle goes, the more stopping it takes. They also seem to fail to understand overloading electrical sockets and cables.

Then they fail to be able to understand things like graphs and numbers, or that mixing chemicals without checking the label (eg bleach and washing up liquid - NO) is often a bad idea.

Part of the problem is that, because we have lost the ability to filter out the stupid things because we were told at an early age not to, the law now requires us to think of all the stupid things that people can do and put warnings in place to tell you not to. End result - more warnings than the sensible person needs and people don't read them.

Health and safety law requires us as manufacturers to consider everything that a person could do with our product, including the really stupid things, and make an attempt to prevent that misuse being harmful. Stupid people are too damn clever, clever people mentally go "no-one would be stupid enough to to that" while someone at some point will go "hey, what happens if I eat that pod of clothing detergent....."

 

[Nimbus]

Part of the problem is that, because we have lost the ability to filter out the stupid things because we were told at an early age not to, the law now requires us to think of all the stupid things that people can do and put warnings in place to tell you not to. End result - more warnings than the sensible person needs and people don't read them.

Health and safety law requires us as manufacturers to consider everything that a person could do with our product, including the really stupid things, and make an attempt to prevent that misuse being harmful. Stupid people are too damn clever, clever people mentally go "no-one would be stupid enough to to that" while someone at some point will go "hey, what happens if I eat that pod of clothing detergent....."

Indeed. Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
Read any instruction manual, and the first 10 pages will tell you all some the foolish things you should not do, then a page of how to use the item.
The sooner labels say ‘Take responsibility and don’t be feckin stupid with this’ and Ambulance Chasers are told “Feck off, s/he had it coming”, the sooner we will return to being the Nation that owned most of the world.

 

[Ortholith]

I wonder if the likes of @Nimbus and @Ortholith shake their heads with despair when they hear of the brainlessness of some people.
They get taught the basics of mechanics and electrical theory - but they still seem to not understand that a faster a vehicle goes, the more stopping it takes. They also seem to fail to understand overloading electrical sockets and cables.

Nope, I'm resigned to it. No matter what you do the stupid will always win through sheer force of numbers.
I've had conversations on why it's a bad idea to poke a paperclip into a plug socket, why we should pick up glass bottles by the bottle and not the (unsecured) lid, why we shouldn't stress test a sensitive electronic balance by pressing down on it as hard as possible etc. Every time the reason wasn't deliberate destruction/chaos, just a complete lack of awareness of what might happen / didn't care if things got broken.

I'm all for doing things that were silly in hindsight, providing there was some thought and awareness in the present.

Part of the issue might be that a lot of warnings are for things that won't be a problem if ignored which encourages a culture of 'warnings are for bellends, I'll do what I want and be fine' (and I'm guilty of that mindset a lot of the time when reading official guidance). Health and Safety have something to answer for if that is the case as I have to tell kids to put safety glasses on when they boil a kettle.

Then they fail to be able to understand things like graphs and numbers, or that mixing chemicals without checking the label (eg bleach and washing up liquid - NO) is often a bad idea.

Washing up liquid and bleach should be fine (never tried it), it's acid and bleach that recreates WWI by generating chlorine gas.

 

[happyuk]

This has got me thinking of Texas folks who are having to improvise right now in conditions in which a long night or day without heat, power and/or water can be worrying and energy-sapping, often with no information or end in sight. Melting snow for water, working hard to keep warm in subzero temperatures, keeping animals alive, charging devices from vehicles, and so on.

Water and heat are always the critical things and so easily taken for granted especially if one already has previously undergone such an unpleasant experience. You don't know what you've got till it's gone! Many of the learning points from all this are obvious.

Never think this can't happen to you.
Never think it can't happen to you again.
The weather can do anything it wants, anywhere in the world.
Power and water can go down anywhere in the world, as well.

 

[Fang_Farrier]

This has got me thinking of Texas folks who are having to improvise right now in conditions in which a long night or day without heat, power and/or water can be worrying and energy-sapping, often with no information or end in sight. Melting snow for water, working hard to keep warm in subzero temperatures, keeping animals alive, charging devices from vehicles, and so on.

Water and heat are always the critical things and so easily taken for granted especially if one already has previously undergone such an unpleasant experience. You don't know what you've got till it's gone! Many of the learning points from all this are obvious.

Never think this can't happen to you.
Never think it can't happen to you again.
The weather can do anything it wants, anywhere in the world.
Power and water can go down anywhere in the world, as well.

Divers called in to clear ice from Kinlochbervie water supply

Scottish Water had to call in a team of divers to north west Sutherland last week to clear ice from a water supply intake.

www.northern-times.co.uk

This was coupled with power cuts due to the high wind and snow

 

[Yokel]

One of the things that the nuclear industry does very well is H&S.

Chernobyl was a massive wake up call that made everyone smarten up a bit.

A “questioning attitude” is one of the things that is instilled in everyone now.

Doesn’t matter if you work in the canteen or you’re the chief engineer. Everyone has the right to question things and say “is this safe?”

Sometimes it’s the most junior member of the team who spots a problem. Those of us who’ve watched Chernobyl will realise that had the people on the factory floor been empowered to question what was going on, the disaster probably wouldn’t have happened.

We’ve probably all heard that Qantas is the airline with the best safety record, this is largely down to Aussies having a questioning attitude from birth. It’s part of their culture. You can’t imagine an Aussie co-pilot biting his lip while the guy next to him makes a fatal mistake.

Conversely Japan used to have a very high rate of pilot error crashes for the opposite reason. Japanese culture is very hierarchical. You do what you’re told, obey the rules, never question your superiors or elders. There are various accounts of Japanese planes stoving in because the co-pilot dared not question the pilot.

Of course these attitudes aren’t just confined to the cockpit. We see it in the workshops and engineering facilities too. A maintenance error might be overlooked because a junior member was scared to show up the bloke who’d made the error.

How do we instil a questioning attitude in Britain? Can we teach it? It’s a fine line between creating a real benefit and creating a nation of self entitled gobby pricks.

It certainly doesn’t exist in the military. A private would never question an officer or NCO. There was the fairly recent case of the killick stoker on HMS Bulwark who climbed into a lift shaft while shitfaced and was killed while the junior lads around him just watched. All it would’ve taken is one of those lads to say “hold up shippers, this might not be such a great idea” and he’d probably be alive right now.

It’s also instilled in us not to listen to our subordinates. We know best and don’t want to be shown up by them. Again, in the nuclear world, it’s instilled in managers to look at information from every source and act on it.

Great, John, I told you! Geez! The difference between a duck and a co-pilot

This is apparently a classic but new to me: a training video recreating the issues in the cockpit from a runway overrun in 1976. The question was whether to land downwind on a foggy runway in icing…

fearoflanding.com

Sorry - missed this at the time. Look at this - Lessons from an aircraft carrier:

One of the defining elements of our culture at Cincinnati Children’s is a nearly fanatical focus on safety. While we’re proud of our record and the expertise we’ve developed over the years, we also believe we can learn from others.

For several years, I’ve been told by safety experts that aircraft carriers are a great example of a High Reliability Organization, or HRO. The Navy has significantly reduced safety risks over the last 30 years while performing incredibly dangerous activities.

Along with 14 other civilian visitors, I recently spent two days studying operations aboard a Naval aircraft carrier. Here’s what I learned that can be applied at Cincinnati Children’s and other healthcare organizations:

1) There’s No Hierarchy On Deck
No one dresses by rank on the flight deck. Uniform color signifies role, not rank. The pilots are just one member of the team while on the flight deck. The other 5,000 people on board can cross their arms at any time and stop a launch. Not only can they stop a launch due to safety concerns, they are expected to.

2) Empowering People Means Rewarding Good Catches
During one landing, a piece a paper floated up onto deck. A young trainee raised his hand immediately, dozens of other hands went up on deck when they saw his, and the landing was aborted. During the commanding officer’s daily address that evening he called out the sailor by name and thanked him. On board, the number-one way to get in trouble is to demean a sailor for raising a safety concern.

3) HROs Use Peer Rating
Pilots are rated by other pilots on each landing. Every pilot’s safety record is displayed on the “Wall of Shame.” They believe in transparency. Safety records are significant in evaluations and promotions.

4) Briefs and Huddles
All over the ship, crews met briefly to discuss concerns and the upcoming plan. They felt it was crucial for everyone to know what was going on in real-time. The commanding officer held two briefings per day, and department heads were expected to know what was going on in their department and predict any concerns.

Cincinnati Children’s is now expanding daily huddles throughout departments and units. Each morning we have an organizational Daily Safety Brief. On this call, about a dozen departments and clinical areas discuss safety risks and plan for the next 24 hours.

 

[Dicky Ticker]

Sorry - missed this at the time. Look at this - Lessons from an aircraft carrier:

One of the defining elements of our culture at Cincinnati Children’s is a nearly fanatical focus on safety. While we’re proud of our record and the expertise we’ve developed over the years, we also believe we can learn from others.

For several years, I’ve been told by safety experts that aircraft carriers are a great example of a High Reliability Organization, or HRO. The Navy has significantly reduced safety risks over the last 30 years while performing incredibly dangerous activities.

Along with 14 other civilian visitors, I recently spent two days studying operations aboard a Naval aircraft carrier. Here’s what I learned that can be applied at Cincinnati Children’s and other healthcare organizations:

1) There’s No Hierarchy On Deck
No one dresses by rank on the flight deck. Uniform color signifies role, not rank. The pilots are just one member of the team while on the flight deck. The other 5,000 people on board can cross their arms at any time and stop a launch. Not only can they stop a launch due to safety concerns, they are expected to.

2) Empowering People Means Rewarding Good Catches
During one landing, a piece a paper floated up onto deck. A young trainee raised his hand immediately, dozens of other hands went up on deck when they saw his, and the landing was aborted. During the commanding officer’s daily address that evening he called out the sailor by name and thanked him. On board, the number-one way to get in trouble is to demean a sailor for raising a safety concern.

3) HROs Use Peer Rating
Pilots are rated by other pilots on each landing. Every pilot’s safety record is displayed on the “Wall of Shame.” They believe in transparency. Safety records are significant in evaluations and promotions.

4) Briefs and Huddles
All over the ship, crews met briefly to discuss concerns and the upcoming plan. They felt it was crucial for everyone to know what was going on in real-time. The commanding officer held two briefings per day, and department heads were expected to know what was going on in their department and predict any concerns.

Cincinnati Children’s is now expanding daily huddles throughout departments and units. Each morning we have an organizational Daily Safety Brief. On this call, about a dozen departments and clinical areas discuss safety risks and plan for the next 24 hours.

So when will Cincinatti Children be turning into the wind and cat launching a 6 ship of toddlers....."

 

[Just_plain_you]

Aviation gets this concept

Medicine is getting this concept

IT Security is still wondering why it keeps on getting things wrong

 

[Fang_Farrier]

Aviation gets this concept

Medicine is getting this concept

IT Security is still wondering why it keeps on getting things wrong

Medicine is a long way off the mark

 

[Swan Song]

So when will Cincinatti Children be turning into the wind and cat launching a 6 ship of toddlers....."

The Disney film is on its way....

 

[Yokel]

So when will Cincinatti Children be turning into the wind and cat launching a 6 ship of toddlers....."

I think that the point is that they accept that even senior personnel are fallible, and therefore empowering junior personnel to speak up can prevent disaster. The other point is the importance of unambiguous communication with checks and balances.

Some of the most stressful and miserable events in my life resulted from a hierarchy that insisted that all superiors had a God like infallibility, and I was a very bad person for pointing out what they had said.,

 

[Kinch]

I think that the point is that they accept that even senior personnel are fallible, and therefore empowering junior personnel to speak up can prevent disaster. The other point is the importance of unambiguous communication with checks and balances.

Some of the most stressful and miserable events in my life resulted from a hierarchy that insisted that all superiors had a God like infallibility, and I was a very bad person for pointing out what they had said.,

You, me and most of the rest, fell into the belief that the seniors had basic education. Unfortunately, they couldn't even spell...............thus most of them actually believed their 'archy' was higher.

 

[Yokel]

You, me and most of the rest, fell into the belief that the seniors had basic education. Unfortunately, they couldn't even spell...............thus most of them actually believed their 'archy' was higher.

Not sure how to reply to that! I suspect the people I was thinking of could not read - or at least preferred not to.

Two simple things would help people in any sort of danger or hierarchy putting others in danger - thinking before acting, and paying attention to detail.

 

[Yokel]

Thinking about the comments about self rescue by @Fang_Farrier and others about self rescue and my own comment about knowing your limits, I have just seen a TV advert advising people in difficulty in water to FLOAT (on the back), and not to risk exhaustion/rapid heat loss/water ingestion by swimming. Likewise do people need to be told not to remove a knife or similar causing a stab wound?

A Defence Fire Service Firefighter gave a safety brief in which he said some people would pick up an extinguisher and think that they are Red Adair.

Fail-safe does not mean something cannot fail, it means it will fail to a safe state. People need to learn to recognise an emergency, stabilise things to prevent them from getting worse, and get professional help.

 

[A.N.Other]

Thinking about the comments about self rescue by @Fang_Farrier and others about self rescue and my own comment about knowing your limits, I have just seen a TV advert advising people in difficulty in water to FLOAT (on the back), and not to risk exhaustion/rapid heat loss/water ingestion by swimming. Likewise do people need to be told not to remove a knife or similar causing a stab wound?

A Defence Fire Service Firefighter gave a safety brief in which he said some people would pick up an extinguisher and think that they are Red Adair.

Fail-safe does not mean something cannot fail, it means it will fail to a safe state. People need to learn to recognise an emergency, stabilise things to prevent them from getting worse, and get professional help.

An unrealistic view of how to react based on Hollywood BS?

I'm the movies the gunshot throws you back 10'. Every scratch requires a tourniquet. Impaled on rebar just pull it out.

Without being taught the correct way, they'll use what they've seen on the box.

A funny example was during the Portland antifa/BLM riots last year. These video eo of one getting a superficial wound on their thigh. He's on the ground crying like a baby while people are screaming for a tourniquet. A bloody tourniquet and risking limb death for a superficial wound.

 

[putteesinmyhands]

I have just seen a TV advert advising people in difficulty in water to FLOAT (on the back), and not to risk exhaustion/rapid heat loss/water ingestion by swimming. Likewise do people need to be told not to remove a knife or similar causing a stab wound?

Ah, yes, the starfish technique. Widely recommended by those who float when imitating a starfish.

Unfortunately, a sizeable proportion of the population don't float using this technique. I'm one of them. My legs aren't buoyant in the slightest. I don't know why people aren't taught breathing techniques to stay afloat, namely take a massive lungful of air (preferably two) and hold it. Then breathe out and in as quickly as possible, kicking your feet and bringing your arms down slowly if necessary to avoid sinking during this action.

Obviously, the key is to practice both techniques in a benign situation to see which works so you learn to fight through cold water shock without resorting to the rapid gasping that is the natural reaction.

 

[Yokel]

Ah, yes, the starfish technique. Widely recommended by those who float when imitating a starfish.

Unfortunately, a sizeable proportion of the population don't float using this technique. I'm one of them. My legs aren't buoyant in the slightest. I don't know why people aren't taught breathing techniques to stay afloat, namely take a massive lungful of air (preferably two) and hold it. Then breathe out and in as quickly as possible, kicking your feet and bringing your arms down slowly if necessary to avoid sinking during this action.

Obviously, the key is to practice both techniques in a benign situation to see which works so you learn to fight through cold water shock without resorting to the rapid gasping that is the natural reaction.

But surely the core of your body is less dense than your limbs due to containing organs with gases and spaces inside, as opposed to bone and muscle? Try the RN Sea Survival School or the Institute of Naval Medicine for more information.

Buoyancy Aids and covering the face are vital. Stay with lilo instead of trying to swim ashore.

That was not really the point of my post. My point that it is often better to do little and to stabilise things than attempt heroics. I am thinking of things like staying with a broken down car in snow instead of trying to walk miles to safety.

Most situations are not immediately life threatening, so try not to act without thinking. As @A.N.Other pointed out you will not learn survival and safety techniques from Hollywood. You cannot outrun a fireball or a forest fire. Real glass does not break softly like the sugar glass you see on the box.

 

[Niamac]

Tick box safety is dangerous as it prevents thinking. It also does nothing about unexpected things.

Absolutely true. Also applies to driving; got my lesson on that when assiduously using my indicators to be asked gently by the instructor "Who are you signalling to?" In other words you are not thinking but relying on habit; albeit a good one.

 

[Bob65]

Gardening: growing your own food, self sustainability, botany, identification of poisonous plants, identification of helpful (medicinal/wellness) plants

Tech: learn to build and repair computers, write and debug code, develop websites, operating systems, troubleshooting, use terminal/command line

If you are ever relying on your gardening skills to survive, coding up a website will be the least of your problems!