Trending data and analysis of investigation reports suggest that many organizations are failing to learn from accidents, as Dr. Kletz famously stated decades ago, leading to similar incidents. At times, this failure to learn from mistakes can result in an even larger and more catastrophic event. The challenge that we as a process safety community face is: How do we collectively learn to proactively preserve knowledge to prevent incidents and avoid history repeating?
This paper will explore the importance of lessons learned and offer three practical strategies to foster learning, preserve knowledge, and sustain organizational memory to improve safety. Several theoretical concepts from a Health, Safety, and Environmental (HSE) context and an Organizational Development (OD) perspective will be included.
We will consider approaches to managing safety and organizational knowledge in daily operations and after an incident will be also considered. Lastly, we will highlight the benefits of technology as a driver of engagement and knowledge transfer to enhance organizational memory and safety.
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