“It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense.” Robert Green Ingersoll
Common sense is described as “good sense and sound judgement in practical matters.” It is sadly becoming less common to see in practice. I believe it needs to be applied in a balanced manner but all too often tends to the politically correct and 'nanny state' side!
When I first arrived in the UK from my native South Africa, it amused me how it seemed like a world gone mad with its health and safety regulations. A world where you could sue a coffee shop for making your coffee too hot and then having it spill into your lap whilst driving. Where instructions were overly explicit with detail including how to hold the hammer. Where kid’s playgrounds had certain items banned (like the rocking horse on coiled metal) due to Health and safety concerns. Where escalators in subways (underground stations) that are being maintained get entirely enclosed in wood boarding with safety signs, the building of which takes 2 months before the actual maintenance work begins on the escalators to prevent people absentmindedly stepping into the gap. [Schindler escalators suggest that 86% of accidents on escalators are attributable to passenger behaviour (due to distraction, multitasking or loss of balance) so I guess this is fair comment]
Now let us first consider common sense in the workplace. I worked for a very safety conscience US agricultural firm where Health and safety featured very high on their agenda. In fact I was very amused the first time we had a meeting and someone had to give a ‘safety tip’ – which was a pre requisite to kick off any meeting. As it was summer the designated talker then went on to explain how people needed to wear goggles for cutting their grass at home to prevent eye injury, and inside I was giggling at the thought that here were 7 or 8 people in suits in an office in London about to have a budget meeting but talking about grass cuttings. Equally amusing at one of the company’s sites when you arrived you were even given guidance as a pamphlet by the guard on how exactly to park your car in the parking lot whilst considering all the dangers around you. Now at first I thought this was ridiculous and a bit of overkill, but over time did come to appreciate that there was something to be said for raising awareness of danger in the workplace.
How else do you instil a culture of safety where everyone is constantly scanning for threats without trying to discuss it at every opportunity? Those safety meetings became ingrained and over time employees start looking at the workplace environment differently. I believe the very idea of Health and safety in the workplace striving for zero accidents is an excellent ideal for saving lives. The basic idea being that every time there is an accident, it needs to be formally reviewed, considered what the risk was, how it happened and how it can be corrected to never happen again. Equally whenever any new task / process is being designed, a full risk assessment needs to be undertaken to determine the risk factors and mitigating actions to prevent an accident. Talk to the mother or wife of anyone saved in the work place due to a behaviour or action plan that prevented something happening and you too would become a believer.
However there is a cautionary note here and the problem that I see occurs when these action plans or guidance become so onerous or difficult to undertake that people ignore them or people get too much guidance that they have information overload and can’t take it all in. In many ways we are creating a world where common sense has gone out of the window and people intrinsically no longer have any common sense! They have had all the common sense driven out of them through being molly coddled too much by the system and not being spatially aware of their surroundings. I still giggle when reading about people following their satnav into a river or through a tunnel not wide enough for their car as this demonstrates an overreliance on technology.
What do you think?
Part 2 can be found here:
https://steemit.com/life/@genxlifelessons/on-common-sense-part-2