Common sense – what is it?

Risk Management has often been associated with common sense, and with good reason. We all practice risk management every day, if not every hour of our lives. When we look left and right as we cross the road, when we carry items or when we choose to cut the (metaphorical) corner based on our experience. But sometimes our understanding and approach to common sense can be a bit too simplistic. Einstein is quoted as saying “Common Sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age 18”. Another quote by him is that “Common Sense is what tells us that the earth is flat”.

More often than not, common sense is more about culture than about facts. Allow me to illustrate with a train story. I grew up in inner city Sydney where I caught two trains to get to High School and was well familiar with train travel even younger than this. I then moved to Northern Territory where my train experience was mostly limited to occasional travel on trains when visiting Singapore. Many Singapore stations have two simultaneously opening doors on both the track and the train, meaning that you cannot access the railway track until the train has stopped and are restricted to only go onto the train. After these trips my next train ride was in Adelaide where I alighted the train at a small suburban station and literally walked up and down the platform three times trying to work out how to get off the platform until realising I had to walk across the railway tracks. There were plenty of caution signs to check for trains, but it still felt quite unsafe.

Indeed, train travel in Australia is relatively unsafe. According to a Flinders University study there are an average of 170 rail serious rail accidents each year. The most common injuries occur while boarding or alighting from a train[1], with many stories of runaway prams and other incidents on platforms, and more pedestrians being hit by trains than we think. Now to car travel, I was shocked to see so many people riding in the back of trucks in Singapore, knowing that all states and territories had outlawed the practice in Australia by 2005 because of the risks involved. How could a country like Singapore that applied such safe practices to train travel and be known for its heavy policing appear so inconsistent for car travel? Can you see how both of these risk management practices around trains and cars are cultural? Train travel is more common in Singapore with motor vehicle registrations being very expensive, but car travel is more common in Australia. The principle of ALARP – As Low As Reasonably PRACTICABLE - needs to be applied to all risk mitigation, with it not being possible, or even desirable to eliminate all risks.

The point of this article is not whether we should make train travel safer, but the extent to which risk management is more cultural than we think. I have sat in many meetings directors and managers have made statements like “why don’t they just apply common sense?” or “don’t they know that this isn’t how it’s done?”, chances are, the answer is no. Values are also more cultural than we realise, which is the topic for another day.

Risk Management needs to be logical, tested, explained and embedded. Knee jerk reactions without thinking through the implications do not make good policy. That is why WHS, or Risk Management committees should always include frontline workers who implement policies. Committees should be enabled, encouraged and minuted so they are reported upwards and acknowledged by those who take ultimate responsibility (the board) for the entity. Taking the time to create good frameworks and processes can create rhythms to enable compliance.

So, if you want good risk management that is fit for purpose in your workplace or entity, spring for that packet of Tim Tams or appropriately indulgent morning tea to encourage attendance at WHS meetings, enable appropriate minute taking, but ultimately work on your culture. [1] Flinders university serious unintentional injury involving a railway train or tram Australia 2009 to 10 to 2013 to 14. Injury research and statistics series number 101 aihw.gov.au