2026 Community of Human and Organizational Learning 32nd Annual Conference

Safety is a Core Tenant of Southwest Airlines’ culture, guiding behavior, decision-making, and operational excellence.

Every industry faces risks – the differentiator is how effectively those risks are evaluated and mitigated through strong systems and controls.

SMS within the airline industry provides a framework for identifying, assessing, and managing safety risks. A strong Safety Culture drives informed decision-making and consistent operational behaviors. Effective Leadership – and a willingness to support change – is critical to sustaining risk assurance and continuous evaluation of significant safety risks.

Sustained Leadership commitment enables effective oversight, risk assurance, and continuous improvement. A strong Safety Culture translates risk awareness into consistent, safe operational behaviors.

Abstract
Tesla has been driving EHS initiatives such as employee engagement and action programs at global level through KPIs and programs. Our study leveraged advanced analytics to evaluate the impact of these initiatives on safety outcomes, demonstrating their effectiveness and providing actionable insights for continuous improvement. The study also shows how the findings informed the EHS strategy through integration of AI and refinement of EHS KPIs with the overarching goal of focusing on HOP and SIF prevention. This data-driven approach provides EHS a path of understanding the impact of existing initiatives and how they can be further optimized through analytics and AI for a greater impact on safety performance.


 
Learning Objectives
- Practical application of advanced analytics in EHS
- Impact of employee engagement and action initiatives on safety outcomes 
- Integration of advanced analytics and machine learning to derive continuous improvements in EHS strategy
- Data-driven decision making in EHS

Agentic AI is gaining attention as a new class of systems that move beyond analysis to actively observe, interpret, and support operational decisions. This session begins with a brief, practical overview of what agentic AI is, and what it is not, before turning quickly to where it can be applied today.
The focus is on real-world use cases across three areas that are relevant to many of the practitioners in the attendance: safety, HOP, and RCA. Taken together, these three areas reinforce each other: connecting everyday operations, learning from events, and sustained risk reduction. Agentic AI can help tighten the connection by stitching signals, context, and actions into a continuous cycle of improvement.
In safety, agentic systems can sit on top of existing safety data and management systems, continuously monitoring signals, applying predictive models, and delivering plain-language guidance to frontline teams. Rather than static dashboards, these systems combine data, models, and agent-based interaction to help identify emerging risk, support coaching, and shift organizations from reactive reporting to forward-looking prevention.
In Human and Organizational Performance (HOP), agentic AI can make operational load more visible, surfacing signals of demand, constraint, and tradeoffs—and help identify conditions where the system is nearing its capacity to fail, not just its capacity to perform. By highlighting these conditions in context, agents can support better metrics and the subsequent conversations around system design, work-as-done, and organizational learning.
In root cause analysis (RCA), agentic approaches can help address one of the biggest constraints: fragmented and incomplete information. Agents can automatically assemble timelines, pull together reports, logs, and records, and surface contributing factors more quickly, reducing the manual effort and bias that often lead to shallow conclusions. This allows teams to move beyond symptom-level fixes and focus on underlying system conditions that drive repeat events.
The session also takes a grounded view of current limitations. Many agentic AI solutions are oversold, particularly in their level of autonomy and reliability. The most effective applications today are those that augment human judgment, operate within clear boundaries, and are tied closely to real operational context.
Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of where agentic AI is delivering value now, and how to evaluate opportunities without getting caught up in the hype.

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Understanding and Applying HOP Principles
Learning about Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) principles, concepts, and tools can feel overwhelming at first. They sound good in theory—but what do they really mean for your team, and how do you apply them in practice?
For some organizations, HOP has been part of the culture for years, woven into procedures and everyday work. But if you’re new to HOP—or trying to influence others—it helps to start with familiar examples.
Take the concepts of checklists and placekeeping. In everyday life, people use shopping lists to avoid missing or duplicating items. Now imagine going shopping without a pen to mark off what you’ve bought—frustrating, right? That simple habit illustrates why checklists matter: they reduce errors and improve reliability.
By connecting HOP principles to real-life experiences, people can see that these practices aren’t abstract—they’re practical. Start by asking: What do we already do to prevent mistakes? How can we apply those same habits at work? This approach makes HOP relatable and actionable.

In a world where we often describe work life in terms of war (fighting to survive in industry, error as a threat, shielding our culture, hero stories, and so on), there is another option. Let's walk together into a different way of thinking. A perspective of organizational life not as conflict, but as the evolving course, ebbs, and flows of a river.

The human brain makes thousands of rapid fire judgements as we process information around our environment, our interactions, and our experiences.  Most of the time these quick judgements – based on our previous experiences, serve to short cut complex decision making structures and limit decision fatigue by using our natural tendency to recognize patterns to push us forward throughout our day – But sometimes the details are nuanced, the situation is different from expected, and these assumptions can lead us into Error Traps.

What makes the difference between a good conference and a great experience that changes things? Rob has been involved in over 30 CHOL/HPRCTs and provides a unique perspective on how to learn from the event and apply those learnings to make sustainable, positive changes.  Applying your learnings to safety, quality, operations, maintenance, and other aspects of the organization also ensures that you can demonstrate a valid return on investment and achieve operational excellence.  This interactive keynote is based on decades of practically applying information obtained at this conference.  Take some things home that make things better.