“Around 8 years ago, as part of a road safety campaign focussed on reducing reckless personal behaviour, I made a pledge that if I was going to be getting behind the wheel of a car, I will not drink anything alcoholic and I committed that if I did imbibe, I would use alternative transport methods. And whilst I may on occasion have sipped the odd congratulatory champagne, I, for the most part, have kept to my pledge.
Recently at a cocktail network event, I again found myself explaining why I don’t indulge at functions. Over the years I have found that the most palatable reason people accept is “well, I don’t want to be stopped at a roadblock with possible alcohol on my breath” i.e. I don’t want to get caught.
And thinking about that in the context of what we see in society today, it is actually a terrible reason – because getting caught disobeying the law is the least of the consequences to bad or unlawful behaviour.
My key motivator is actually that should I be involved in an accident I don’t want to wonder if my reactions were impaired by alcohol. Having seen the dire consequences, both physical and mental of road accidents, I have decided that it is not a risk worth taking. But unfortunately in society today, it isn’t about doing what is correct, or not breaking the law, but about not getting caught.
Berenice Francis
Every day as risk officers or business people, we make decisions or contribute insight into decisions. And as part of our training, risk officers often go to the consequential actions of those decisions (both good and or adverse). Very often we are also privy to the thinking behind the actions taken and sometimes might realise that the decision would not pass the reasonable defendable test. One of the yardsticks I personally use is the measurement of organisational interest versus stakeholder interests versus personal interest debate.
Like many South Africans I am following with interest some of the current enquiries, and this year we have seen some intense reviews of past decisions and actions and the resulting failures.
Personal ambition and achievement are the driving force behind human evolution – we achieve because as individuals we dream to succeed, our goal to achieve more than those who have gone before, thus collectively moving society forward. But somewhere we have warped the view of success at any price.
During my involvement with risk management and road safety, I have learnt that accidents happen, and they sometimes are just that – an unfortunate and unforeseeable event with adverse impacts on the individuals involved. However, when we are party to stacking the deck in favour of or contributing to the increased likelihood of an accident happening – we need to reconsider our tolerance for risk-taking behaviour. And we need to be more honest around what our appetite to take risks are and our propensity for schizophrenic behaviour depending on the interests involved.
Be it uncle Ben from Spiderman, Voltaire, a French revolutionary or scripture that you attribute it to, “with power comes responsibility” and it is both a privilege and a choice to get behind the wheel of a car or be part of the decision making role of an organisation. Risk management has a duty to assist and ensure that the principle of taking better risk-adjusted decisions need to be entrenched in our organisational culture.”
Berenice Francis
CORPORATE AFFAIRS EXECUTIVE
MOTUS
How Much Is Too Much To Drink Before I Drive? The Safest Driving Rule is ZERO Alcohol before and when you Drive! https://t.co/DVK8qLEiCK @TrafficRTMC @DoTransport @DriveDry #ArriveAlive pic.twitter.com/cHJemlQWRR
— Arrive Alive (@_ArriveAlive) January 13, 2020