SH309: Change around Safety Culture is Really Hard

In this episode, Gareth Lock reflects on why improving diving safety requires more than telling people to follow the rules. Drawing on his experience in aviation, diving, and safety science, he explains why incidents are often blamed on individuals while the wider system escapes scrutiny. The discussion explores how culture, reporting systems, commercial pressures, and training standards shape diver behaviour, why many divers avoid formal reporting channels, and what other high-risk industries have done to build real learning systems. Gareth also shares how The Human Diver, the LEODSI investigation framework, and new industry standards are helping shift the focus from blame and compliance to understanding context, building trust, and creating lasting improvements in diving safety.

Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/post/cultural-infleunce-is-really-hard

Links: Developing competencies and capacities for resilient performance: https://www.thehumandiver.com/post/resilient-performance-model

Diving Talks: https://youtu.be/fUSD9gPZ-x0

Work as Imagined vs Work as Done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtgIwHrUWVQ&list=PLNXuyLsCTX6hHS3newpcROfJ_JiI27q3C&index=24

Standards: https://www.thehumandiver.com/post/beyond-the-floor

Gareth’s Thesis: https://youtu.be/DRXqeQvRFK0

Flavours of Human Factors: https://www.thehumandiver.com/post/four-ways-of-hf

LEODSI: https://www.thehumandiver.com/post/what-is-leodsi-petteot

Chac Mool fatalities: https://www.thehumandiver.com/post/chac-mool-triple-diving-fatality

Human Diver Conference: https://www.hf-in-diving-conference.com/

Rebreather Forum 4: https://youtu.be/nkdVHBDnCjc?t=3015