The answer… should always be zero.
I recently came across a moving road safety video ad 🔗: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ULKYHsz8M3k
A man was informed that over 400 fatal accidents had occurred on a particular road. When asked what he felt was a reasonable number, he said “70.” Then, the producer brought in 70 of his loved ones. His answer immediately changed to zero.
Zero should always be the answer.
But let’s look at reality. Despite massive awareness campaigns, Singapore’s road fatalities have been climbing again since the pandemic low in 2020:
https://lnkd.in/gw4yTWZu
Why?
Because accidents are emergent phenomena. They don’t arise from a single point of failure, but from the interactions between multiple factors: road conditions, traffic rules, driver behaviours, etc.
This is a systems problem. Yet, we often approach it with linear thinking: “Raise awareness and people will be more careful.” But that’s like fixing a leak with a sticker.
👉 The same applies to organisational failures.
In many organisations, unintended consequences, “accidents” of a different kind, occur all the time due to:
1️⃣ Structural complexity (e.g. siloed departments causing misalignment)
2️⃣ Cultural norms (e.g. punishing whistleblowers or rewarding speed over safety)
3️⃣ Task fragmentation (e.g. no one sees the full picture of a process)
When things go wrong? The typical response: “Let’s raise awareness” or “train people better.”
⚠️ This mindset is flawed in two ways:
1️⃣ It blames individuals while ignoring the systemic setup that shapes their actions.
2️⃣ It assumes awareness alone can prevent future issues, ignoring the feedback loops or time delays that drive emergent outcomes.
Until we see these as dynamic problems and use systems approaches to solve them, we will continue to see the same patterns.
💡 What we need is a shift in leadership capability: to embed Systems Thinking Habits into how leaders operate:
😇 Seek to understand the big picture
😇 Consider the circular nature of cause and effect
😇 Recognise delays in results
😇 Account for unintended consequences
😇 Design leverage points within systems
😇 Balance short- and long-term outcomes
🛠 These aren’t soft skills. They’re systemic competencies essential for leaders in high-risk, high-complexity environments, especially in road safety, patient safety, or workplace safety.
If we are truly serious about making “zero” more than a marketing slogan, we owe it to those who have lost their lives to approach this differently.
💬 What do you think?
🌀 How might we embed systems thinking into our leadership practice?
📩 Reach out if you’d like to explore how I help leaders apply these habits in real-world contexts.
🔁 Repost to raise awareness that real change comes not just from intention, but from understanding and shifting the system itself.