Introductory Remarks

Never in our history have our workplaces been so safe and our workers so well protected. Yet in recent years, something strange started to happen. While many companies have ‘hit a wall’ in safety performance, some have seen a slow but visible increase in serious accidents, and most alarmingly, a few ‘best-in-class’ companies suffered catastrophic events. It seems as if the closer we get to ‘zero accidents’, the more vulnerable we become for serious events to happen... Something is wrong. Making the systems safer, puts the organization at higher risk? This presentation will demonstrate how the few seconds before a disaster were years in the making – by well-intended, but dangerous ideas, beliefs and delusions that become destructive forces in the culture. It will outline the new roles of leaders and practitioners in a different world awaiting us.