SH283: You're Accountable. You're Responsible. You're It!
About this episode
This episode discusses the importance of distinguishing between accountability and responsibility in diving incidents to foster a learning environment rather than a blame culture.
This piece explores how diving incidents are often misunderstood by focusing too quickly on blame rather than learning. It explains the important difference between responsibility (who was involved) and accountability (who answers for the outcome), showing that incidents are usually caused by a chain of decisions, pressures, and system factors—not just one person’s mistake. By comparing “blame questions” (who is at fault?) with “learning questions” (why did it make sense at the time?), it highlights how real improvement comes from understanding the conditions that led to an error. Through examples like missed safety checks, risky habits becoming normal, ignored concerns, and unreported near-misses, the text shows how blame cultures stop people speaking up and allow problems to grow. Instead, it argues for a learning-focused approach where divers, instructors, and organisations reflect on decision-making, encourage honest reporting, and examine the wider system. The key message is that accountability should not be about punishment, but about creating an environment where people can speak openly, learn from mistakes, and prevent future incidents. Original blog…
More episodes of Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to Diving
- SH282: Isolation Amplifies Drift: When Remote Operations Make Small Deviations Invisible
- SH281: HMS Scylla Wreck Penetration Tragedy: Two Perspectives on Learning
- SH280: This Could Happen to Any Dive Operator: What We Can Really Learn From The Perth Diving Academy Incident
- SH279: The Tower Was Already Full of Holes
- SH278: Be Curious, Not Judgemental
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