Syed has previously written two ‘pick it up in Smiths’ books with core messages not just vital to occupational safety and health (OSH) but for thriving in life itself.
Bounce covered ‘you get the luck that you deserve’ (or the Heinrich principle) and Black Box Thinking covered the vital importance of learning and is very probably the best ‘safety’ book of the last decade.
Rebel Ideas is, I feel, a bit ‘difficult third album’ with the essence of the whole book covered in a simple diagram on page 54.
However, Syed is always very readable and Rebel Ideas makes the need for diversity irrefutable. It stresses, in essence, that if we find ourselves on Who wants to be a millionaire? we should phone the person least like ourselves.
It also stresses we need to actively guard against echo chambers of like-minded people – which in the world of OSH might mean departments, professions or simply management layers.
Leaving aside the vital truth that the people who actually do the work know the reality far better than we ever will, we should listen to them as much as possible because they see the problem from a different perspective.
He doesn’t actually quote the vital importance of empowerment-based behavioural safety but if he did … it would fit in perfectly!