Less than a month ago, the long-awaited 𝗪𝗮𝗸𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 was released by the Court of Investigation, Mauritius.
The report cites the following as the primary causes of the accident:
1) crew negligence to sail close to the island to obtain the phone signal,
2) consumption of alcohol by the captain before groundingand,
3) the chief officer not using the appropriate large scale chart when navigating close to the coast.Both the captain and the chief officer have been charged with gross negligence and culpability. The investigation authorities have formally requested the administration to withdraw captain's certificate of competence.It is rather unfortunate that a 223-page comes to this convenient conclusion.
In this podcast, I present an alternative view of the accident. Instead of a simplified narrative that is directed at blaming the crew members, I have made an attempt to question the methodology (and the language) used in the accident report and illustrated the biases and assumptions of the investigation team in analysing the accident and compiling the report. In my view, all the three contributing factors that led to the accident presented by the investigation agency are highly questionable, and when we dig deeper, we come to a very different conclusion of this accident.
About me:
Dr. Nippin Anand is the Founder and CEO of Novellus Solutions, a consultancy specializing in human-centred approaches to learning, risk and social decision making. He is a former master mariner with an MSc in Economics and a Ph.D. in Social Sciences and Anthropology. Nippin brings a Transdisciplinary lens to the challenges of work and organising spanning: the humanities, social psychology, mythology, semiotics, anthropology and philosophy.
In this conversation, Nippin and Frank delve into the significance of safety culture within organizations, emphasizing the need for a holistic approach to risk management. They discuss the importance of communication, listening, and understanding language in fostering a positive culture. The conversation highlights the impact of miscommunication and the necessity of reflection in improving organizational dynamics. Through experiential learning and practical exercises, they aim to enhance cultural intelligence and promote better relationships in high-risk environments.
The podcast was produced to promote a workshop on Safety Culture in Calgary from 20-21st October. the details about the workshop can be found here.
https://novellus.solutions/mec-events/culture-and-risk-intelligence/
Where do you look for the meaning of words? Dictionaries, I guess? Word meanings are not to be found in dictionaries; words meanings are found in metaphors. All language is metaphorical, and we don’t just speak metaphorically, we live by our metaphors.
In this podcast, David and Nippin compare a handful of metaphors in Banking and Maritime. Through this comparison they realise that words don’t just create worlds, but they also create divides between worldviews. Too often, we miss a crucial point in organising - you cannot organise me and I will never become part of your organisation if we don’t share the same worldview. Such is the power of metaphors.
In this podcast, I discuss the impact of binary and absolute slogans on perception and behaviour, by drawing upon "Context is everything" as an example. These slogans undermine critical thinking and promote an absolute view where individuals are rendered powerless. I share a case where a workshop participant criticised my methods for not addressing structural issues, highlighting the industry's focus on efficiency over empathy. I emphasise the importance of critical thinking, challenging assumptions, and recognising the dialectical relationship between context and behaviour. I encourage listeners to be mindful of slogans and to embrace change and learning.
In this podcast, I share some thoughts about the limitations of root cause analysis as a method (or a tool) for investigations and audits based on a social experiment. Linear, deductive reasoning has many limitations because it seeks simplistic answers to ethical and political problems that are inherently messy, non-linear and largely operate in the unconscious space. You can read my blogs and books if you wish to go deeper into this topic.
a conversation with Bryce Boehmer where we discuss how to understand culture.
We are setting up a workshop in Calgary on 20-21st October and this podcast provides an outline for the workshop program.
Culture cannot be understood through definitions and propositions; culture is lived and experienced through observations and conversations.
In this podcast, Nippin explains to Bryce how to make the familiar strange and the strange familiar through immersive, experiential learning that is termed as Semiotic Walks.
As part of this workshop, we will visit a church, a Buddhist monastery and the Ikea Store in Calgary to feel and experience culture. Through these two days of experiential learning we will gain the wisdom and insights to become strategic and deliberate about organisational culture and culture change.
Often people involved in accidents will tell us that the process of accident investigation was far more stressful and even traumatic than the experience of the accident. Our models and methods of investigation end up causing more harm than good to people.In this video, we will learn how to reconcile trauma, healing and learning in an accident investigation not only from the point of view of those involved but also for those responsible for investigating the accidents. How do we reconcile learning and healing? Give this podcast a listen. This video follows from my years of research and practice and a book that I have recently published titled, Are We Learning from Accidents? The book is based on the true story of the passenger ship Costa Concordia that went aground and resulted in the death of 32 people off the coast of Italy in 2012. You can find out more about the book by visiting my website:https://nippinanand.com/You can find out more about our future events by visiting:https://novellus.solutions/events/
Do you believe in Zero Harm? Is that your goal for avoiding injuries and ensuring safety of your people? Is that an expectation imposed upon your organisation?
Here is a true story and an attempt to challenge the Zero Harm ideology prevalent in almost all safety critical industries.
Earlier this year, I interviewed a seafarer whose brother went missing at sea. We don’t know under what circumstances Captain Mathew (name anonymised) went missing or, if you like, what was the cause of this accident. Unfortunately, the sea does not provide many answers but this painful story, told from his brother’s perspective who also happens to be a seafarer, reveals the dark side of the Zero Harm ideology. There’s a lot of debates and discussions in the risk and safety industry whether Zero should be a goal or not. There are practitioners, academics and researchers who believe that there is nothing wrong with having Zero as an aspiration. I hope that this story will serve to slow people down and think about how a seemingly aspiring goal translates into practice in global shipping. I call it a true story but it is shaped by my biased and subjective views. True only to the extent that some may find resonance with this story while others find it deeply uncomfortable.
This story touches upon several themes:
The unintended effects of absolute and binary goals
Why perfection (Zero) cannot be a goal to motivate fallible humans.
Why compassion, empathy, listening and understanding cannot coexist with absolute and binary goals?
Why safety inspections, audits and investigations are so far from an objective exercise?
And finally, the entire culture of the risk and safety industry is based on the idea of harm aversion. The power of this story lies in understanding how the ideology of harm aversion translate into practice.
More specifically, absolute goals such as Zero Harm lead to more harm in a risk-averse society.
This story was first published in the book, 51 stories in Culture, co-authored by Dr Nippin Anand and Dr Robert Long. Link to the book: https://novellus.solutions/product/51-stories-in-culture-to-live-and-to-be/
Many organisations declare safety as one of the values in the vision and mission statements. Can safety be a value?When fallible humans conduct high risk operations, there is no certainty that people will not get injured. When people do get injured we have failed to live by our values.In this video, instead of making an argument, we will use a personal story to illustrate why safety cannot be a value.This is Embracing Differences and I am Nippin Anand (PhD), a former ship captain and an anthropologist.
This podcast is based on the work of the American Anthropologist Ernest Becker's perennial thesis - 'the denial of death'. In this podcast, Professor Sheldon Solomon explains how death anxiety, which is unique to the human species, leads to a quest for meaning, self-esteem and cultural worldviews. Solomon explains why it is so important for us take an interdisciplinary approach to understanding culture and why we must synthesise the wisdom of ages and sages and combine it with science if we truly want to make sense of human behaviour.
YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecYC_Y1UnE8
In less than 12 hours, President Trump blamed that DEI was behind the Washington mid-air collision. How did Trump connect so many dots at the speed of light and establish what went wrong with such conviction? And why do so many buy into this DEI ideology as the cause of the accident? In this podcast, I suggest that the president is using fear of death to heighten public anxiety, create a divide and spread hatred in the society.
We will discuss: Why do humans fear death? How do we react and how do we relate with others when we are confronted with death? How does this explain President Trump’s reaction to Washington midair collision?
Myth busting i.e. viewing a myth as a false story, is a political ideology. It is not science. Myth busting creates differences and it spreads hatred in the society. In a culturally diverse society, understanding myth busting is our pathway to cultural intelligence and improving our relationships with others. In this podcast, I will explain what is a myth and why myth busting should concern the risk and safety industry and our society at large. What are the dangers of myth busting and how we can avoid falling into this trap.
We will discuss: What is a myth? A short story of a myth. What is the power of a myth? What is myth busting? Why myth busting is an ideology (not science)? Why myth busting should concern us?
In October this year, I travelled to Canada for work and on the first night of arrival, while still jet lagged and sleepless, I was searching the internet to read about the culture of First Nations peoples of Canada. There I came across a series of 6 videos between the international expert in humanitarian law, Professor Kathleen Mahoney and the former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Larry Philip Fontaine facilitated by the Canadian TV Journalist Lisa LaFlamme.
It was an extremely rich discussion where one could learn so much about the history and culture of Canada and a telling story of #culturechange.
A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate to have both Kathleen and Phil on my podcast #embracingdifferences. I was humbled that both of them gave me their time to share their stories which I can now share within my own community.
You may think what has the risk and safety industry got to do with the history of the Indigenous people and to this I say give it a listen. It’s a great lesson for anyone interested in understanding culture and how to successfully create culture change.
What happens when someone by-passes an alarm, turns the wrong valve on the manifold, ignores a barrier, or leaves a winch lever unattended. Where does your imagination take you? What questions come to your mind? Whatever model you follow, whatever methods you use, everything begins with our assumptions about how the human mind and what does it even mean to be a human being? Much of risk and safety - new or old, traditional or contemporary, 1 or 2 – implicitly assumes that the mind is encased in the brain and we are caught between the left brain / right brain metaphor. Would you like to understand the science behind decision making? Would you like to find out what leading thinkers and cutting-edge research has to say about the human mind? In this visual story, we will discuss why thinking about the mind as the brain is not only misleading but also unethical at many levels. This brain-centred approach to investigating accidents, and more generally, risk, safety and learning turns human beings into objects for measurement and hazards that need to be controlled. We will discuss how to approach accident investigations, how to engage with people and how to ethically, sensibly and practically learn from accidents. This story is full of practical examples and it is based on my recent book, Are We Learning from Accidents? You can read my book here: https://nippinanand.com/ You can also find out all about our work here: https://novellus.solutions/ And you can check out our events on this page: https://novellus.solutions/events/ Link to the podcast with John Soria: https://novellus.solutions/insights/p... Link to the article with John Soria: / situating-meaning-accidents-seafarers-stor...
In 2012 the passenger ship Costa Concordia sank off the coast of Italy, resulting in the death of 32 people. Amongst other things, the captain was criticised for his casual attitude towards formulating the ship’s voyage plan, sailing 0.5 miles too close to the coast, and ‘disregarding to properly consider the distance from the coast’. The captain was sentenced to 16 years in the prison. While the rest of the world (including leading experts in the industry) criticised the captain for navigating the safe too close to the islands. even five years after the accident when I met the captain in his hometown he maintained that this was a normal practice in the cruise industry. It was a powerful insight into the culture of the cruise industry. In this episode, we will discuss why culture is so often misunderstood within the risk and safety industry using this story. 1) what are normal practices and why do we need to understand them? 2) where are we today with our understanding of ‘normal practices’? 3) how a high-risk manoeuvre became a normal practice in the cruise industry? 4) what safety sciences won’t tell us about normal practices? 5) how can we uncover ‘normal practices’ within our organisations? Each of these questions will be addressed through stories and experiences that we can all relate with. This is the second in a series of episodes based on my recent book, ‘Are We Learning from Accidents?’. A previous video in this episode was focused on why people don't speak up. The next few episodes will focus on: 1) collective sensemaking in a crisis, 2) the power of scapegoating (blame), 3) 3) how do human beings learn, unlearn, relearn and make decisions. You can read a sample of my book here: https://nippinanand.com/ Read more about our work here: https://novellus.solutions/ and check out our future workshops here: https://novellus.solutions/events/
In January 2012, the Costa Concordia went aground and capsized off the coast of Italy. One of the most disturbing aspects of this accident was that a group of competent officers and an experienced captain on the bridge were not able to detect that the ship was heading straight into the rocks.
In this podcast, I will present the power of framing using the story of the Costa Concordia accident. I interviewed the captain before he was sentenced to prison, and I was surprised by how the captain responded to my open-ended questions during the course of our interview and how it led me to a completely different view of the accident and learning than the one presented in the public domain. I have also recently written a book on this accident – Are We Learning from Accidents?
We will focus on the following questions: 1. Why was the Costa Concordia accident framed as a problem of ‘speaking up’ and the failure of ‘bridge resource management’? 2. What are the parallels between concepts such as ‘psychological safety’, ‘crew resource management’, ‘non-technical skills’ and ‘soft skills’? 3. Why do these concepts appeal so much to the risk and safety industry? 4. What are the alternative frameworks to think about ‘speaking up’? 5. And importantly, why we should never underestimate the power of framing?
This is the first in a series of videos based on my recent book, ‘Are We Learning from Accidents?’. In the next few weeks, I will post more videos on a range of topics including 1) normalisation of risk, 2) collective sensemaking in a crisis, 3) understanding safety culture, 4) the power of scapegoating (blame), 5) what is learning, and 6) how do human beings learn, unlearn, relearn and make decisions.
You can read a sample of my book and it is available for purchase at: https://nippinanand.com/
Welcome to Mindfulness, Self-Awareness, and Risk, the podcast where we explore the intersection of human experience and risk management. I'm your host, Nippin Anand, and I'm excited to have Rosa Antonia Carrillo to embark on this journey with us.
If you ask operational leaders and organizations about risk management, you'll likely hear about control, hazards, and audits. But what about caring, mindfulness, or self-awareness? What about the importance of friendship and tapping into our unconscious? Surprisingly, these are the very concepts that are now at the forefront of risk management.
This podcast dives into the world of mindfulness and its profound impact on risk reduction. In healthcare, research demonstrates the positive effects of mindfulness on both patient care and practitioner well-being. It's sparked a conversation about embodiment – the crucial synergy between our unconscious and conscious minds—a synergy can only happen when both are aware of each other. Mindfulness enriches our world when we learn to make the unconscious conscious.
We'll also be exploring the concept of "weak signals," a term coined by Karl Weick to describe the subtle anomalies in organizations that can hint at serious underlying issues. Mindfulness can enhance our ability to detect these weak signals, as well as improve our listening and empathy skills. After all, we can see and hear more when we're not consumed by our own thoughts.
And finally, we'll delve into the power of friendship and the importance of relationships. Gallup research has shown that having a friend at work is a key indicator of high performance. Connectedness is essential for well-being and performance. A true friend can help us bring our unconscious thoughts to light, leading to better decision-making and risk mitigation. This is key to organizations that struggle to bring the tacit, implicit to the surface so that problems can be addressed in a timely manner.
Join us as we explore these timely ideas for tackling risk in an uncertain world. On this podcast, we'll uncover how mindfulness, self-awareness, and human connection can revolutionize the way we approach risk management.
Our hope is that this conversation will help you stay present, stay connected, and stay safe.
This podcast discussion represents two people from different parts of the globe with different backgrounds looking for common ground.
As you listen you can initially hear different perspectives and perceptions. It felt that we began to synchronize at some point and eventually arrived at the same place. It should not be surprising. There are 8 billion of us on the planet. While we all may look completely different; we are designed exactly the same.
When we move to defend our belief’s, we often sacrifice the ability to move forward and seek the learning that is necessary to raise the discussion to higher understanding. Curiosity initiates logic, reason and intuition. Defense moves us to justify and rationalize a belief or an action in the past. Forward is the future we are trying to shape. Backward is the past we cannot change.
We own our belief’s. There is no reason to defend them. Someone with different belief’s is not a threat to ours. Someone else cannot steal our belief. However, if we are curious and listen to others, we can then decide for ourselves if new information somehow may shape our change our current belief. We don’t have to like another’s perspective or their idea. We just have to listen.
As you listen to this podcast, see if you can hear how the different perspectives begin to align. We can release and discover potential in each other, or we can suppress it. We have that power.
The question is, are you willing to walk through the door?
This podcast started off with reflecting on the power of embracing fallibility. Dr John Flach, my guest, then brought his own experiences and how a renowned scientist helped him and supported him when he experienced a setback in life. We then spoke about kindness and briefly touched on the importance of social resilience. The discussion then moved from kindness to humility and the importance of humility in understanding and learning from surprises. From humility we moved into courage and why courage is so important to break free from dogma and become critical thinkers. We ended this session with the importance of metaphysics, meaning making and methodology. Our discussion ended with why we need to be more kind and humble to pursue science.
This podcast questions the centrality of Behaviourism in our lives, and how in our quest for simplifying human behaviour into a particular trait, we can (unknowingly) do so much harm to the others. The podcast is based on a collection of stories from my personal lives. A lot of these stories are reflections from everyday life when we learn to live in awareness. I call them moments in Synchronicity.
