Our brains are wired for inadvertence and inertia not for attention and choice, so why do we force people to attend long winded safety meeting which bore people to death? Also, our brains are not designed to think in binary logic, so why have we created systems which force people to complete safety documents which consist of linear boxes? Most of the time we act as though people have an appetite for knowledge and a willingness to make the right decisions; however nothing could be further from the truth!

The fact is we tend to focus our attention on things that are either pressing or pleasurable. To therefore improve health and safety, we need to stop trying to change behaviours or intentions and concentrate on strategies that activate good intentions that already exist.

Inadvertence and inertia reflect the way our brains have evolved over millions of years, but these instincts and inclinations now operate in an ever changing and challenging environment, which make health and safety a whole new proposition!

In the realm of health and safety Inadvertence and inertia frequently cause overt behaviours to become unhooked from our best intentions and that’s why accidents often occur.

This provocative presentation will challenge some of the common safety practices that have been in place for decades. Items such as risk assessments, job safety analysis forms, method statements, surveys and inspections sheets will be critiqued and questioned relative to our brains capacity to analyse and remember the data. Studies from some of the world’s leading social psychologists and neuroscientists will be analysed to put forward a range of fresh ideas and concepts for intervention. And a range of simplified shortcuts will be proposed to make life simpler and easier to understand for the CEO to the everyday worker.