Learning from incidents and implementing action project

Health and safety is a complicated field, with companies employing a variety of tactics to protect employees. One method that has been utilized is learning after accidents and near-misses occur, with the aim of preventing similar situations arising again. As part of the Hearts and Minds initiative the Energy Institute undertook a partnership with Professor Allison Littlejohn to research how companies develop following incidents, resulting in the process diagram that forms the core of the learning from incidents section of the Hearts and Minds Toolkit.

 

In an effort to improve and further develop understanding of the best strategies for companies to employ when learning, the Energy Institute has entered into a new partnership with the Open University to explore the later part of the learning from incidents practice. To date the focus of research into learning from incidents has been on reporting and investigating. However, for organisations to truly transform following unfortunate events, insights must be shared and used by those not involved in the incident. The best practices of sharing incident information, encouraging workers to engage with that information, and what changes can be expected from this are therefore the current targets of the new research project.

The research project is being spearheaded once again by Professor Allison Littlejohn, an expert on organisational change, this time joined by Professor Bart Rienties, a leading researcher on the influences of social networks on educational practices, and Victoria Murphy, a PhD student with a background in both engineering and education. Working with three major energy companies, the project team has conducted surveys and interviews with a variety of workers to understand how employees at different levels of a company are connected, the tools that companies use to encourage employees to actively think about if an incident could occur in their own work, and what changes can show that a group is learning. The project aims to combine the results of the surveys and interviews with knowledge about the context of the individual companies to provide both targeted suggestions for improvements, and derive a list of hints and tips that could be used by a wide range of companies to enhance how they learn after incidents.

Perhaps one of the most practical outcomes is expected to be a list of the changes that are indicators of learning. While many companies invest heavily in learning after accidents, it is still often difficult to knowing if learning is happening. The number of incidents themselves are one indicator of learning, as fewer repeat accidents should occur, but on their own the number of accidents is an incomplete measure of learning. Understanding the variety of improvements to individuals, teams or organisations that can follow an incident is the first step for companies being able to evaluate if they are learning.

The project has two years remaining. A lot of data and information has already been gathered, although the team is searching for at least one more company to get involved. If your company would be interested in taking part in the already funded project, and receive feedback on how well your teams are learning from incidents, then please contact Victoria Murphy at [email protected].

Updates on the project will be distributed through twitter (@VickyMurphyOU) and Petroleum Review/Energy World.