🦺 An electrifying front row seat

Welcome to the second edition of Safe For Work. This week we explore lessons from the Current Wars for the safety industry (And lots of “what not to do” if you are looking for film-making lessons). At the bottom, today’s news section highlights a couple of innovations that may impact the next frontier of energy and shares how Japan Airlines has built a strong, positive safety culture.

The race to commercialize electricity in the late 19th and early 20th Century is rightly depicted as a war. It was a battle that included inventors and corporate titans, but also its fair share of traitors, spies, propaganda, international intrigue and casualties. The conflict between Edison, Westinghouse, and Tesla as depicted in the 2017 film, “The Current War,” was rightly panned by critics. That’s because the story is more electrifying than the filmmakers were able to bring to light. Jill Jonnes book, “Empires of Light,” elucidates the story, detailing the protagonists and their not-so-hidden motivations. At times, you can almost imagine strolling down the streets of New York City full of overhead wires and a soft incandescent glow. Or having a cocktail at a Pittsburgh mansion marvelling at the lack of gas lamp smoke seeping into your evening wear. If you want to dive into this fascinating history, this is yet another example of the book being much better than the movie. I’m confident that we are at the beginning of a recurring debate over films versus books and that Akiva Goldsman will appear on both sides. Alas, I digress.

Here are some of the highlights from the historical period often referred to as the “Current War.”

• A safety ‘manual’ that you’d be hard-pressed to get anyone to read. Edison’s 84 page corporate diatribe lambasting Westinghouse and Alternating Current in general may be titled “Warning,” but that really should be just to inform the reader of the sheer volume of propaganda contained inside.

• Innovation and continuous improvement is table stakes in business. While leadership failures and hubris are certainly at play, a fundamental unwillingness to reconcile past success with the arrival of the future can be catastrophic. Some of the key figures actually wanted to be on Edison’s team, but he could not reconcile the potential value of their contributions with his own ego. And while Westinghouse technically ‘won,’ they could not turn the victory into a sustainable business due to numerous own goals, including too much debt on the balance sheet.

• The importance of shaping a narrative. Edison did not ultimately succeed in dominating the commercialization of electricity, but he was a great inventor. And undoubtedly he was a great promoter who could keep up with the Kardashians.

• Collaboration Over Competition: While competition drove rapid innovation in electricity, it also led to safety oversights. Which is probably an understatement because it also led to the electric chair becoming the default standard for capital punishment in the United States. Today, it's recognized that collaboration among companies, regulatory bodies, and safety experts can lead to more comprehensive and effective safety standards.

In Safety News

• Edge Computing for IoT-Enabled Smart Grid Systems: Innovations in smart grid management using Internet of Things and edge computing promise a future of energy that is safer, more reliable, and efficient (Quy Nguyen Minh et al., 2022).

• All Electric-Aircraft (AEA) Architectures: Research in electric-aircraft architectures focuses on reliability, efficiency, and specific power density, aiming to achieve cleaner air mobility within the next two decades (Tania C. Cano et al., 2021).

• Japan Airlines culture of safety likely prevented a significant tragedy January 2. Below, we’ll explore how they built it.

The crash of Japan Airlines (JAL) flight in Tokyo on January 2nd where every passenger and crew member evacuated safely stands in stark contrast to their own Flight 123 crash in 1985. After that tragic mountain-side crash, JAL recognized the need to build a strong safety culture. And the critical step has been that they did not sweep the incident under the rug, they highlight it to all current and future employees to make it clear that ‘safety’ is not theoretical.

William Wright’s antimetabole in The Empire of the Hittites leads us to one of the most important aphorisms in safety, “The absence of accidents is not evidence of safety.“ Whether you prefer an environmental or ecological approach to safety, the reality is that safety must be created. And most of the time, it will not be visible to the average worker or customer. JAL recognized this and viewed the accident in 1985 where over 500 people died as an opportunity to educate, inform and build longterm responsibility into the company. They built what is essentially a museum to the crash, frequented by employees and even customers. The Japan Airlines Safety Promotion Center serves as a critical tool for safety education and awareness. The center not only includes plane wreckage and charred seats, but even personal notes and voice recordings from the passengers. This creates an intense, memorable, and effective portion of JAL’s safety training program.

Is there anything that you do or have seen firsthand that are other examples of ways to help build a culture of safety? Reply and we’ll curate some ideas to share with the community in a future edition.

See you next week as we dive into artificial intelligence, ethics and science fiction with Asimov’s “I, Robot.” Stay safe.