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.

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.

RaDonda Vaught was the subject of one of the highest profile healthcare criminal cases in recent years.  She holds a BSN and a Certificate in Leadership from Western Kentucky University. While working as a BSN prepared registered nurse, Mrs. Vaught committed a medication error that ended the life of a patient in 2017.  


She was charged under administrative law by the Tennessee Department of Health, leading to the revocation of her nursing license by the Tennessee Board of Nursing in a July 2021 hearing.  Additionally, she was charged under criminal law and found guilty by jury trial of two felony charges in March of 2022: Negligent Homicide, and Abuse of an Impaired Adult, with placement on an Elder Abuse registry in the state of Tennessee. 


Mrs. Vaught is uniquely qualified to speak first hand on the impact this sentinel event has had on her life and her profession, along with the implications of the legal actions that followed.  A passionate advocate for safety and improvement, her story will be one that is not easily forgotten. 

Theories are boring. Facts lack dimension. Rules distance people.  Stories, on the other hand, are one of the most powerful ways to describe nuance, invite curiosity, build interest and change behavior. This presentation will examine the power of the story, the oldest tool of influence in human history, in the quest to improve safety, and illustrate how common themes of children’s bedtime stories can explain the transition from traditional to modern approaches of safety improvement.

In October 2024, I underwent a heart transplant after a long and complex battle with heart failure. What no one expected was what came next: when my heart was removed, surgeons discovered a large, cancerous sarcoma — a one‑in‑ten‑million finding that had gone undetected through years of testing, procedures, and clinical assumptions. This presentation uses my medical journey as a real‑world case study in how deeply held paradigms can shape — and sometimes limit — human judgment, even among highly skilled professionals.
For two years, I was treated for Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD), a condition expected to heal in months. Despite ten heart attacks, bypass surgery, and mounting evidence that the diagnosis didn’t fit, the paradigm held. My experience illustrates how cognitive anchors, organizational norms, and diagnostic momentum can prevent teams from seeing emerging information clearly. These same dynamics appear in every industry: when people lock onto a narrative, contradictory signals are often minimized or missed.
Through this deeply personal story, participants will explore how to recognize paradigm traps, create space for dissenting data, and build cultures where learning from anomalies is not just encouraged but expected. The session also highlights the profound gift of organ donation — the reason I am here to share this journey — and invites attendees to consider the life‑changing impact donors make.
Attendees will leave with renewed insight into how human beings interpret information, how organizations can better support adaptive thinking, and how embracing uncertainty can lead to better decisions, better outcomes, and, sometimes, a second chance at life.

Preventing serious injuries and fatalities demands more than compliance—it requires shared learning, courageous dialogue, and a committed community of practice. Now entering its tenth year, the Serious Injury and Fatality (SIF) Roundtable has brought together practitioners and senior leaders from diverse sectors including Pharmaceuticals, Energy, Heavy Industry, Construction, Healthcare, and Manufacturing to advance thought leadership and practical solutions for SIF prevention.  Our goal of offering the SIF Roundtable at this year’s CHOLearning conference is to build on the legacy of the SIF Roundtable and expand its reach to a new group committed to the same goal.

In the final two minutes of the championship game, during a special operations raid, or amidst a cascading alarm failure in a control room, the environment changes, but the human machinery required to survive and thrive does not. Whether you are a quarterback, a Navy SEAL, or an industrial operator, individual mental toughness is only half the equation. The true competitive advantage lies in collective agility—the ability of a team to learn, adapt, and execute as a single organism under pressure. Dr. Jon Metzler (CMPC) bridges the gap between these high-consequence worlds. Drawing on experience with the US National Teams, the US Army, and corporate leadership, this session deconstructs the psychological frameworks used to win championships and survive battlefields. We will explore how to move beyond relying on "heroic" individuals to building systems of organizational learning where mental performance is culturally embedded. We will also examine the "who" behind the "how"—introducing the Certified Mental Performance Consultant® (CMPC) not just as a coach for individuals, but as a cultural architect qualified to engineer the shared mental models and psychological safety required for high-reliability performance.

Safety professionals are often the most technically competent people in the room, and at the same time, struggle to gain influence.
We were trained to control hazards, write procedures, and audit compliance. But organisations are not technical systems. They are social ones, communities of people whose behaviour is shaped by trust, status, and perceived value, not instruction.
While rebuilding a 30-year-old Land Rover Defender for a 5,000-mile journey to the Arctic Circle, Andy discovered something revealing about expertise in complex systems. With enough knowledge to feel confident in fixing a steering problem, he replaced the part that seemed to be the solution, but the problem persisted. An experienced engineer explained the truth: steering is not a component; it is a system. Knowing one part is not the same as understanding how the whole behaves.
Organisations behave the same way.
Drawing on evolutionary psychology, resilience thinking, and boardroom experience, this keynote reframes organisational learning as an influence challenge: how to work with the organisation as a community. We explore leadership trust as a social risk assessment: “If I invest time, attention, or budget here, will it increase my status and business performance?” Once safety and learning professionals understand that calculation, influence becomes intentional and performance can scale.
This keynote is developmental and deliberately identity-shifting. It moves participants from solving safety problems themselves to designing environments where others willingly contribute their expertise. Attendees will leave with a simple, immediately testable five-question influence sequence that builds cross-functional ownership, increases perceived value, and turns participation into contribution rather than enforcement.
Growth requires risk. Community requires trust. And when decision-making shifts from control to contribution, organisations function as communities, and safety and performance improve together.

Title: From Discipline to Discovery: The Transformation of the “Hatchet Lady” and the “Snake in the Grass”
Abstract:
Once known across their organizations as the “Hatchet Lady” and the “Snake in the Grass,” Stephanie Swindle and Lynn Huckabey had reputations for swift discipline and tough accountability. But their journey took an unexpected turn. Through experience, reflection, and a few hard lessons, they discovered a more powerful approach to driving results—one rooted in learning, collaboration, and understanding human performance.
In this dynamic session, Lynn and Stephanie share how they traded reaction for response, blame for curiosity, and control for connection. They’ll reveal how involving those closest to the work in event analysis and solution development leads not only to better outcomes but also to stronger teams and safer operations.

Come ready to laugh, learn, and be inspired by two former enforcers turned champions of human performance. Discover how embracing the power of learning can transform even the toughest critics into true believers.

It's a myth that safety is just a cost of doing business. For industries that do hazardous work, safety is integral to strategic execution. But too often, strategic pressures and organizational dilemmas undermine effective hazard identification and mitigation, operational learning, and psychological safety. Safety leaders and executives must learn why and how to build safety into organizational strategy as a key contributor to the value chain. This session will explore: 

• Why safety capacity is fundamental to effective organizational strategy development and execution
• How to build the case for greater consideration of safety at the c-suite and board levels
• How to create strategic alignment between safety and business decisions by focusing on value creation

In this highly anticipated mystery session, attendees will gather to explore the rich, complex themes of Cake and Ice Cream — a title chosen with the same level of information we currently have about the actual presentation. Will it be inspiring? Will it be educational? Will it involve sprinkles? Only the speaker knows, and they have chosen secrecy as their brand.