It's almost a theme at this point, but if you guessed the episode title is also a NOFX song, you're the winner. It's a pretty deep cut from the Backstage Pass album, but it gets right to the point of this episode - that culture shapes meaning. And safety can mean a lot of different things when we aren't careful to understand it in the context of culture. We could have gone with the Pennywise song "Society," but we didn't. It's cool if you like that one better.

In this episode of the PRS podcast, the boys discuss the challenges of implementing global safety standards while being culturally sensitive. They highlight the importance of understanding local practices and adapting safety protocols accordingly. Ron shares some experience with a learning team in Malaysia and the cultural barriers that can make effective communication super difficult.  

If you only get one takeaway from this one - and that's a stretch sometimes - it's the need to standardize outcomes, not processes or even policies, as a way to aim for global consistency with locally relevant practices. Safety is very much affected by imposing Western safety norms on diverse cultures, and without a solid interpretation of local and societal norms, that can be dangerous.

Ok, get to it then. 

Oh, and give your money to Punk Rock Saves Lives. They're a rad organization that works in mental health, addiction, and human rights. And they're awesome people who can use your help to keep on kicking ass at what they do.

https://www.punkrocksaveslives.org/

Let us know what you think at [email protected] or on our LinkedIn page.

Merch at punkrocksafetymerch.com

Hey, you guessed it - a title from a NOFX song.

This time, the boys are talking about power. It's a pretty punk rock topic, because there's a lot of music about subverting power.

The conversation starts with the same BS as usual - you're welcome. Eventually, it moves to the good stuff of complexities of power and politics in safety and the importance of decentralized decision-making and deference to expertise. The boys discuss the impact of power imbalances on team dynamics, communication, and safety, and links to studies and real-world examples.  

Really, there's a lot of evidence that supports how important it is for safety professionals to address these issues and promote open, honest communication. There's more to it than that, but you'll have to listen in!

Oh, and give your money to Punk Rock Saves Lives. They're a rad organization that works in mental health, addiction, and human rights. And they're awesome people who can use your help to keep on kicking ass at what they do.

https://www.punkrocksaveslives.org/

Let us know what you think at [email protected] or on our LinkedIn page.

Merch at punkrocksafetymerch.com

Like the Sex Pistols song, but with more cowboys and stuff.

There's been some talk of abolishing the health and safety regulator - OSHA - in the US. It's pretty punk to think of full-scale safety anarchy, but is that what would really happen?

Maybe leaving safety performance up to companies wouldn't be so bad. After all, things were going great before regulation, right? It was a magical place where FSMM reigned supreme. At least sometimes.

The boys haven't been good about predicting the future so far, so this episode probably isn't much different, but there are some solid points raised about what actually encourages safety in industry. Anyway, Reagan Youth probably has something to say about what sure sounds like "trickle down safety."

Listen in and let us know what you think. LinkedIn is where all the most punk rock conversations are happening.

Oh, and give your money to Punk Rock Saves Lives. They're a rad organization that works in mental health, addiction, and human rights. And they're awesome people who can use your help to keep on kicking ass at what they do.

https://www.punkrocksaveslives.org/

Let us know what you think at [email protected] or on our LinkedIn page.

Merch at punkrocksafetymerch.com

Ron is back!

Turns out that even a punk band needs a lead guitar, no matter how simple some people say it is to play.

In this episode, the boys stumble onto the topic of whether safety can be a simple formula. There are some recent publications that represent it that way, but it's sort of like trying to define punk music. There are probably a million ways to describe it, and in the end, it doesn't matter anyway.  

We've already covered safety metrics on PRS, but this is a little different. It's about simplifying safety to some two-dimensional BS.

Also, the formula idea is sort of bad. Using made-up numbers, constants, measures of effort, or whatever else to arrive at a safety score is mostly wasted time and maybe just harmful.

Listen to the pod for more inspiring advice!

Oh, and give your money to Punk Rock Saves Lives. They're a rad organization that works in mental health, addiction, and human rights. And they're awesome people who can use your help to keep on kicking ass at what they do.

https://www.punkrocksaveslives.org/

Let us know what you think at [email protected] or on our LinkedIn page.

Merch at punkrocksafetymerch.com

Josh Bryant joins the pod for this episode because Ron's out doing real work, apparently. Joshie is a big-time safety and risk guy in the mining industry, and he's Australian, so this episode gets a Frenzal Rhomb song title to match.

Not wanting to disrupt the norm of unpreparedness, the boys figured it out on the fly (even though it was Josh's job, and if he cared more, he'd have done it better).

The topic: "What's going on out in industry with all this safety stuff?"

The two guys without actual jobs are seeing a lot of the same themes, including an increasing awareness that maybe focusing all our effort on tracking safety numbers and stamping them out with bonuses or punishment isn't the best approach. Even though there is a shift in safety thinking, many of the folks doing work would say there isn't much change in how safety is actually getting done.

That's mostly where this episode goes, including some pretty good advice (and some sketchy advice) from Josh on how things have worked in his company and industry.

Josh doesn't play guitar, so PRS is just a bass and a drum kit until Ron gets back. How fucking punk is that?

Frenzal Rhomb: Digging a Hole For Myself

Oh, and give your money to Punk Rock Saves Lives. They're a rad organization that works in mental health, addiction, and human rights. And they're awesome people who can use your help to keep on kicking ass at what they do.

https://www.punkrocksaveslives.org/

Let us know what you think at [email protected] or on our LinkedIn page.

Merch at punkrocksafetymerch.com

Shit. Things are crazy, man. As the Bad Religion song says, "Los Angeles Is Burning." Link to the song below, if you're into that sort of thing.

Seriously, though, if you're one of the 11 listeners and you're out in LA and need help, drop PRS a line at [email protected]. Punks help punks - always.

In the middle of all the chaos out on the West Coast of the US, there are some really cool stories of resilience.

So, that's what the boys are talking about in this episode. Resilience isn't something you have, it's something you do. Or maybe it's something you have. Shit. It could be either one, depending on where you look.

Maybe that's why there are so many views of resilience. In the pod, we're talking about resilience at a system level, specifically how systems can deal with failure, etc., and maintain their core function to at least an acceptable level. Like how you keep the show going after Fletcher absolutely destroys your bass or drum kit.

There's a lot of name-dropping and big words in this one, and that's mostly Ron's fault, but this is a topic where it's worth going back to Cook, Woods, Rasmussen, and so on. They're like the Sex Pistols or Ramones of resilience - everything after is built on that foundation.

So, how does that work in a normal organization? That's what the boys try to solve in just under an hour.

Oh, and give your money to Punk Rock Saves Lives. They're a rad organization that works in mental health, addiction, and human rights. And they're awesome people who can use your help to keep on kicking ass at what they do.

https://www.punkrocksaveslives.org/

Let us know what you think at [email protected] or on our LinkedIn page.

Merch at punkrocksafetymerch.com

Don't you think Punk Rock Safety isn't taking safety seriously enough? Making jokes about safety is surely a sign that some idiot doesn't care enough, right?

Uhhh, no. And that applies to safety pros who are having a good time, laughing, and joking as they do their jobs, too.

Why aren't people saying, "Whoa, this is fucking awesome!" when the safety folks come around? If the seriousness that a lot of people think is associated with safety was working, we wouldn't be fighting to get folks' attention all the time.  

If safety is supposed to be about valuing and connecting with people, then we have to bring in all the stuff that makes life interesting.

That's a big part of punk, too. Connecting with people through a common story and supporting one another even when shit gets gnarly.

Fun and serious aren't opposites, dude, and if it's boring even to the people doing it, what the hell chance do we have of being helpful?

The boys talk about safety as the "fun police" and more. It's a super serious conversation. Pinky promise.

NOFX The Idiots Are Taking Over

Oh, and give your money to Punk Rock Saves Lives. They're a rad organization that works in mental health, addiction, and human rights. And they're awesome people who can use your help to keep on kicking ass at what they do.

https://www.punkrocksaveslives.org/

Let us know what you think at [email protected] or on our LinkedIn page.

Merch at punkrocksafetymerch.com

It's a Christmas miracle! We made it to 21. Seriously, though, this episode is coming out on Christmas or the day after, depending on where you are in the world. You're welcome.

Man, some weird shit's been going down in the world of CEOs lately. We promise we have nothing to do with it. But this episode does. First, it's important to point out it's not a NOFX reference this time. It is a song from Crass, though, so this one's for you if you like old-school shit.

There are a lot of references in safety about the importance of top-down support. Cool, what does that look like? If we want CEOs doing CEO shit, then we probably ought to figure out what that is. What does an executive leader owe us (besides a living, hopefully) for safety?

CEO shit is a lot about uncertainty and tradeoffs, and just maybe most other folks don't see behind the curtain to what those tradeoffs are. That's probably where safety folks come in. CEOs are usually pretty good at a lot of things. Safety isn't always one of them, so hearing about the safety implications of leadership decisions seems important.

Anyway, we probably solve it completely in this episode.

Crass: Do They Owe Us A Living?

Oh, and give your money to Punk Rock Saves Lives. They're a rad organization that works in mental health, addiction, and human rights. And they're awesome people who can use your help to keep on kicking ass at what they do.

https://www.punkrocksaveslives.org/

Let us know what you think at [email protected] or on our LinkedIn page.

Merch at punkrocksafetymerch.com

Sometimes bad shit happens to good people. We know it's weird, but here's another episode with a NOFX title. This time, it's a song about Tony Sly's (from No Use For a Name) death. Good dude and an awesome musician, but dead way too early.

What about when organizations that are trying really hard to do safety stuff have an accident? Or a fatality?

That can feel tough to reconcile, even though we can (and should) separate outcomes from building systems that effectively reduce safety risk. What do we do when there are emotional or political calls for something more? There's something unsatisfying about saying that sometimes shit happens. There's some tension there, and that's what the episode is about.

The boys talk about who decides what a "good" organization is and what a "bad" outcome is. Dave - the lover of zero - makes a good point about understanding the difference between doing lots of things and an actual, meaningful change to work. How do we figure our way around failures of foreign, peeling back layers of monotony, and all that other stuff.

We're biased, but we think it's a conversation worth having. You could be really good at safety management and have a fatality (and the other way around).  

"What if all organizations are just as fucked as each other?" Exactly.

NOFX I'm So Sorry Tony

Oh, and give your money to Punk Rock Saves Lives. They're a rad organization that works in mental health, addiction, and human rights. And they're awesome people who can use your help to keep on kicking ass at what they do.

https://www.punkrocksaveslives.org/

Let us know what you think at [email protected] or on our LinkedIn page.

Merch at punkrocksafetymerch.com

We keep forgetting (except for now, because we're definitely mentioning it) to say that there's some evidence that Fat Mike from NOFX loves the podcast. We'd go so far as to say it's his favorite pod.

We're the "Seal Team 6 of podcasts," says Ron, because there's no prep at all except Provan. That guy has always been pre-gaming.

So, the boys take on the topic of evidence-based safety, whether safety is a science or if we're just doing it for The Cause (see, there's a NOFX reference).

Who gets to decide what evidence matters? Probably Ron, because he was in school the longest of anyone. Is evidence saved for those things we don't agree with, because it sure seems that way sometimes.

Safety is a little weird in that there isn't a lot of experimental evidence, but that might be a feature, not a bug. It is a challenge though, and maybe something that makes it tough for safety professionals to know what to rely on as a sound foundation for practice.

Not sure relying on this pod as a source of knowledge is best, but you should listen anyway.

NOFX The Cause

Oh, and give your money to Punk Rock Saves Lives. They're a rad organization that works in mental health, addiction, and human rights. And they're awesome people who can use your help to keep on kicking ass at what they do.

https://www.punkrocksaveslives.org/

Let us know what you think at [email protected] or on our LinkedIn page.

Merch at punkrocksafetymerch.com