A framework for learning from incidents in the workplace

Learning from Incidents (LFI) in the workplace has been gaining increasing importance in the Health, Safety and Environment context. Although organisations adopt a variety of LFI initiatives, it is often unclear what learning approaches are the most appropriate and the most effective for different types of incidents across a range of contexts. The aim of the paper is to surface factors that are important for effective Learning from Incidents (LFI). The paper builds on a conceptual framework for learning from incidents, developed through an earlier study. This conceptual framework was validated through empirical data collected at two multinational corporations in the energy sector. From this data a refined framework for learning from incidents was devised with five factors important for LFI: participants of learning, type of incidents, learning process, type of knowledge and learning context. This framework can be used as an evaluation tool and as a guidance tool to develop holistic, organisational learning approaches.