2026 Community of Human and Organizational Learning 32nd Annual Conference

At Davey, we are constantly striving to build an organization comprised of more resilient systems through operationalizing Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) principles and ideas. One way Davey has started Operationalizing HOP is through Field Studies. Field Studies are frontline surveys/interviews conducted by our Health and Safety Team to use field knowledge, expertise, and success to guide our solution creation process around known serious injury and fatality hazards in our work. Our most recent field study is currently being used to strategize Davey’s 2026 approach to reduce falls from height, a hazard that has seriously affected the arboriculture industry since its inception. Another way Davey has started operationalizing HOP is through Foresight, a tool for hazard identification and mitigation. Foresight is a tool built to help frontline employees recognize and mitigate hazards on their jobsite that they will face that day. Building off our recognize, protect, and reconsider action cycle, Foresight keeps our most serious areas of significant injury and fatality at the forefront of our employee’s consideration every day.

Operational waste, such as rework, friction, workarounds, delays, duplicated steps, and overcomplicated controls, is often your earliest signal of system stress. These are not just productivity problems. They are indicators that Work-as-Imagined (WAI) and Work-as-Done (WAD) are drifting apart.


Most organizations manage to the Black Line, the procedures, rules, and documented controls that describe how work should happen. But performance actually lives in the Blue Line, how work really gets done under real-world pressure, variability, and constraint.


The gap between Black Line and Blue Line is where learning lives. And it’s also where waste, friction, control erosion, and weak signals begin to accumulate. Most safety systems focus on closing compliance gaps. High-performing systems focus on understanding alignment gaps.


This session explores how HOP and operational learning tools, like the 4Ds, and AI can help you systematically learn from everyday operations at scale, not just from incidents. Instead of waiting for failure, you’ll discover how to surface early indicators of system strain by examining where WAI and WAD diverge across sites, teams, and environments.


You’ll learn how operational waste reveals:

1. Where work is “Difficult” and creating cognitive overload
2. Where processes are “Different” and introducing instability
3. Where exposure is becoming “Dangerous” beneath normal production
4. Where systems are “Dumb” adding steps that no longer make sense

These signals show up long before injury or loss. They show up in everyday work.


To scale this learning, organizations must move beyond isolated conversations and static reports. This scaling will be constrained without using AI as a Learning Amplifier, Not a Control Mechanism. An ethical and human-centered approach to AI is vital. AI should be:

1. A pattern amplifier, not a people predictor
2. A sensemaking assistant, not a decision-maker
3. A weak signal detector, not a surveillance tool
4. A conversation catalyst, not a compliance enforcer

AI helps connect Blue Line realities across operations. Humans interpret the meaning.

In this information packed session, participants will gain a deeper understanding of the elements that drive worker adaptability during the performance of their tasks. We will look at both the physical and performance hazards impacting individuals during task performance. Provide definitions to abide by so there is no debate on what is being talked about. And lastly provide a process that can be followed immediately upon return to work so they can determine drivers of worker adaptability. 

In this information packed session, participants will gain a deeper understanding of the elements that drive worker adaptability during the performance of their tasks. We will look at both the physical and performance hazards impacting individuals during task performance. Provide definitions to abide by so there is no debate on what is being talked about. And lastly provide a process that can be followed immediately upon return to work so they can determine drivers of worker adaptability.