My H&S Spirit Animal is a Squirrel Piloting a Flying Corkscrew in a Tornado

When I consider the ideal mindset for a health and safety professional, I don't envision a perfectly organized spreadsheet or a rigid, linear checklist. Instead, my mind conjures a more chaotic yet oddly effective image: a squirrel at the helm of a flying corkscrew, deftly navigating the winds of a tornado.

This image, as peculiar as it is, embodies three essential cognitive processes: "squirrel thinking," pattern recognition, and critical thinking. Separately, they are useful skills. Combined, they form a powerful approach to risk management and problem-solving.

The Power of "Squirrel Thinking"

"Squirrel thinking" is not about being scatterbrained; it's about being relentlessly curious and drawing connections from a wide-ranging, diverse knowledge base. It's the ability to dart from one seemingly unrelated subject to another—from historical treaties to behavioral psychology, from engineering principles to storytelling—and collect valuable insights along the way.

This non-linear approach is crucial for innovation. A specialist in one field might miss a solution because their focus is too narrow. The "squirrel thinker" brings a broader perspective, finding solutions by borrowing concepts from different disciplines. For example, understanding operant conditioning, a concept championed by B.F. Skinner, allows a safety professional to recognize that workers repeat unsafe behaviors (the "squirrel's path of least resistance") because of subtle, positive reinforcement (e.g., completing a task faster). The squirrel thinker can then design a safety program that focuses on reinforcing safe behavior instead of just punishing unsafe acts.

The Foundation of Pattern Recognition

At the heart of "squirrel thinking" is a refined sense of pattern recognition. This is the fundamental ability to perceive order in chaos—to see the repeating motifs in data, events, or behaviors. In a tornado of information, the squirrel's corkscrew path isn't random; it's a search for familiar shapes and recurring risks.

This concept is supported by the work of cognitive neuroscientist Irving Biederman, who proposed that the human brain recognizes objects by breaking them down into basic geometric shapes called "geons." We can extend this idea to safety: the chaos of an incident is a collection of complex, interconnected details. The skilled professional breaks down the event into its fundamental "geons"—the unsafe acts, the system failures, the environmental factors—and can then recognize how these basic components have appeared in past incidents. This allows for proactive intervention before a new tragedy occurs.

The Anchor of Critical Thinking

Without a counterbalance, "squirrel thinking" can lead to chaos. This is where critical thinking acts as the anchor. It’s the logical, disciplined process that evaluates the patterns and ideas found by the squirrel.

The goal is to temper the "random" with a rigorous, systematic evaluation. This requires a psychologically safe environment, a concept championed by Amy Edmondson. She defines psychological safety as a shared belief that a team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. In this context, a worker or a professional can share a "squirrelly" idea or a strange observation without fear of ridicule. An employee can say, "Something about this process reminds me of a game of chess, and I'm worried we're missing the endgame," and have that observation taken seriously. Critical thinking then takes over to analyze and validate the observation, turning an intuitive leap into a concrete strategy.

The Synthesis

In the end, the most effective approach to health and safety is a dynamic synthesis of these three elements. It's the "squirrel" that intuitively gathers disparate information and sees the potential connections; it’s the pattern recognition that sifts through the data for recognizable trends; and it's critical thinking that applies a logical, evidence-based lens to confirm, refine, and act upon those insights.

The health and safety professional is not a linear thinker. They are a multi-faceted problem-solver who can embrace the chaos of "squirrel thinking," rely on the foundational skill of pattern recognition, and use critical thinking to pilot their way to a safer future for everyone.