2026 Community of Human and Organizational Learning 32nd Annual Conference

Part 1 of 2

Most organisations are very good at investigating events. Far fewer are genuinely good at learning from them.

Too often, events trigger a familiar cycle: find the failure, identify the error, write the report, assign the actions, close it out. The language may sound modern, the process may look polished, but the outcome is often the same — shallow insight, predictable fixes, and missed opportunities to understand how work was really happening.

This 4 hour workshop has two parts and is designed for people who already know the language of human performance and want to sharpen the practice. It focuses on one of the most persistent challenges in our field: how to learn from events in ways that move beyond hindsight, bias, blame, and investigation theatre.

Together, we will explore what gets in the way of meaningful learning after failure, disruption, and surprise, and what it takes to generate richer understanding in the real world of organisational pressure, competing agendas, and the need to “get to the answer.” The session will introduce practical tools and approaches for gathering better contextual data, exploring work as done, understanding local rationality, and producing outputs that are useful, credible, and capable of driving better decisions.

This is not a workshop about making investigations slightly better. It is about rethinking what we are trying to achieve after an event, and building the skills to do it in a way that people actually learn from.

If you have ever looked at an investigation and thought, “We still do not understand what really mattered here,” this workshop is for you.

Part 2

Most organisations are very good at investigating events. Far fewer are genuinely good at learning from them.


Too often, events trigger a familiar cycle: find the failure, identify the error, write the report, assign the actions, close it out. The language may sound modern, the process may look polished, but the outcome is often the same — shallow insight, predictable fixes, and missed opportunities to understand how work was really happening.


This 4-hour workshop is designed for people who already know the language of human performance and want to sharpen the practice. It focuses on one of the most persistent challenges in our field: how to learn from events in ways that move beyond hindsight, bias, blame, and investigation theatre.


Together, we will explore what gets in the way of meaningful learning after failure, disruption, and surprise, and what it takes to generate richer understanding in the real world of organisational pressure, competing agendas, and the need to “get to the answer.” The session will introduce practical tools and approaches for gathering better contextual data, exploring work as done, understanding local rationality, and producing outputs that are useful, credible, and capable of driving better decisions.


This is not a workshop about making investigations slightly better. It is about rethinking what we are trying to achieve after an event, and building the skills to do it in a way that people actually learn from.


If you have ever looked at an investigation and thought, “We still do not understand what really mattered here,” this workshop is for you.

The Art and Science of Decision-Making; The attention on our team members and their decisions seems to be greater today than in many years past. The demand to make “the right” decision is the loud voice right now and yet is tragically misguided in so many ways. Human interactions under stress will never yield a perfect right or wrong outcome. Trainers, leaders, attorneys and all involved in the process of preparing and evaluating  events need to understand what actually takes place and contributes to decisions under stress. This session will break apart the science we know today on decision making and how working the “art” of assisting that process may eventually lead to more ideal outcomes where possible.  We will frame this discussion from the lens of the police world but relate it to any of our industries where there are real stakes whether they are financial, product or people.

Traditional occupational health systems often emphasize compliance, reactive metrics, and error prevention. This session will explore the adoption and integration of Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) operational learning tools like: Proactive Reporting, Leadership Walk & Talks and Learning Teams to drive organizational culture and operational excellence. Attendees will gain new insights into practical strategies for piloting these tools across diverse organizational settings to open proactive mindsets around safety performance, regulatory compliance, and continuous improvement.

By 2026, digital JSAs, operational digital twins, sentry cobots, AI copilots, and wearable technologies are no longer futuristic concepts — they are becoming part of everyday work. Yet these same technologies sit at a critical crossroads: they can be used to surveil people to ensure they do work compliantly, or to design systems so people can work safely.
The difference isn’t the technology. It’s intent.
This session takes participants through a “day in the life” of three roles in 2026 — a frontline worker, a manager, and an engineer — each interacting with advanced digital tools. For each role, two possible futures are explored. In one, technology becomes a compliance engine, amplifying oversight, reinforcing blame, and threatening professional identity and expertise. In the other, technology becomes a capacity-building partner, reshaping work design, revealing hidden constraints, and enabling resilient human performance.
Drawing on Human and Organizational Performance (HOP, the session explores a central tension of innovation: every innovation threatens someone’s expertise — and resistance is often a rational and predictable response. Participants will examine how intent, governance, and organizational learning practices determine whether technology becomes a digital tattletale or a cognitive aid.
This session explores the next frontier of HOP: designing digital systems that support how humans actually think, learn, and perform.

Frontlines workers are hired to complete tasks. Sometimes those tasks are completed in dynamic environments working close to high energy. Cognitive overload is a real issue for workers adapting to solve problems, especially if a task is unfamiliar.

What if we told you that human error isn’t the problem – it’s the key to improvement?  Welcome to the world of Human and Organizational Performance (HOP), where failure isn’t a dead end but a doorway to learning.  In this engaging and eye-opening session, we’ll break down the core principles of HOP, exploring how organizations can shift from a culture of blame to one of resilience, adaptability, and continuous improvement.   Through real-world examples, interactive discussion, and practical takeaways, you’ll discover why traditional safety and performance models fall short – and how embracing a HOP mindset can drive better outcomes for individuals, teams, and entire organizations.  Whether you’re new to HOP or looking to reinforce foundational concepts, this session will challenge the way you think about mistakes, accountability, and success.