This post was originally written as a newsletter article for ETNZ.
“That’s just common sense”. I’ve heard this a bit lately and it’s got me thinking…what is this thing called “common sense”? And where does it fit into backstage health and safety management?
Hands up who’s never made a mistake…? Really…?
Soundies: Never gone to un-patch the effects rack at the end of the gig, only to find an air-gap between the insert lead and the reverb unit? That same reverb you’ve been adjusting (to good effect I might add), all through the gig? Not life threatening but a pretty silly mistake, and one that you’re probably not going to admit to the band…
Mechs: Never found that shifter you’ve been hunting for all season on top of Lx3 when you’ve flown the bar in for the pack out? Grateful for no earthquakes that season…
Lampies: Never grabbed a light to adjust it and had the barn door fall out because the unit you rigged is upside down? Phew, you’ve said to yourself, as you quickly look around hoping no one noticed… glad the bar wasn’t in the air… glad that wasn’t on the gallery rail…. glad that didn’t happen mid-performance…
If I had a dollar for every one of these mistakes I’ve made, I’d have two dollars. So, not all of these have happened to me personally, but they have all happened to people I know and respect (you know who you are!). And from such errors – our own and those we’ve observed – we‘ve all gained valuable knowledge. Chalked up experience.
Where the danger with this lies is when we confuse this on-the-ground, well-earned, experiential knowledge with “common sense”. Common to who? Common to the bunch of old school techs with a squillion years experience between them and hundreds of hours chalked up sitting round the Opera House crew room table swapping war stories over a beer (back-in-the-day when you were allowed a post-show beer in the Opera House crew room)? Or common to the young tech graduates who are all over that flash new digital console, inside out and back to front. So there’s generational differences in what’s “common”. What’s common sense in India is to check there are no cobras sleeping in the warmth of the dimmer room before you go in to re-patch. That didn’t cross this Kiwi tech’s mind in a million years… so there’s cultural differences in what’s “common”.
Most of us come from a background of learning the bulk of what we know on the job. We’ve grown into good practitioners because the learning experiences we’ve had haven’t killed us, and haven’t made headline news… but sometimes only by the grace of a higher-being, or out-and-out luck.
So, what’s my take home message this month? Firstly how about we show a bit of kindness to the youngsters whose mistakes do make the headline news. Seriously, most of us are dead lucky some of ours haven’t. Secondly, don’t assume “common sense”. We all have gaps in our knowledge. If something can kill or maim then people need to be taught how to do things safely, or at least monitored to ensure that they do know what they’re doing. Thirdly, bring back crew room beers. They serve a valuable debriefing and learning function.
Finally, in the words of French philosopher Voltaire “Common sense is not so common” (…. not to be confused with Voldermort who said “I’m going to kill you Harry Potter” and “Avada Kedavra!”, neither of which are particularly relevant to this article…)
Cathy Knowsley – HiViz Event Management www.hivizevents.co.nz (and ETNZ committee member).
