Blame does have value. It makes us feel that it was someone else's problem and we wouldn't make that same mistake. It has societal value because we believe people should be punished for bad outcomes. It has self-value when it comes to self-blame because how could WE be so stupid?  

But when it comes to learning, it adds almost no value because we all have variability in our performance (even the experts). So, let's look at the conditions in which we undertake our activities (from boardroom to front-line) and change those, not reward/punish the outcomes and fall foul of many cognitive biases in the process. 

Look to develop a restorative (just) culture in your team and organisation. 

It is easy to judge others when things go wrong, but do we consider how it made sense for them those involved to do what they did? Why do bank ATMs give you the card first and not the cash? Why do supermarkets put bread and milk at the back? Why do metrics surrounding safety get gamed and produce meaningless and useless results? Why do busy people forget things?

This principle explores the factors that make it easier to do things (right and wrong) and harder to do other things (wrong and right).

While the main focal point for HOP programmes is the leadership within an organisation, leaders exist at all levels, not just the C-suite or the Senior Leadership Team (even if they think they are managers rather than leaders). Leaders are those individuals that others look up to for support, guidance and direction - they don't have to have a title.

Because they are in this influential position, their response to positive and negative outcomes matters. If blame, including the use of counterfactuals and self-blame, is one of the first things to be demonstrated when something unexpected or unintended happens, then the stories that could help learning will be buried and the deeper underlying issues will remain within the system.

Systems evolve based on feedback. The more rapid and the more accurate the feedback, the quicker the system can evolve to the situation surrounding those in the system.

Learning shouldn't just happen after a major event, learning can happen when nothing bad has happened because teams look to see how work was done using different reflective tools like DEBrIEFs, Learning Teams, and Learning Reviews. However, for these to be effective, there needs to be a psychologically-safe environment and a Just Culture.  

- Introduction to the philosophy and practical application of HOP

- Organisational Drift model and how to apply it

- Principle 1: Human error is normal.

- Principle 2: Blame adds no value.

- Principle 3: Context drives behaviours.

- Principle 4: How you (leaders) respond matters?

- Principle 5: Learning is vital for improvement.

- Reflections and transference.

Throughout the day we will make use of the 'serious game' tools (Who's last to touch it? and Planks) to bring the theory to life. You will get to take away your own 'games' at the end of Day 2.

There will be breaks morning and afternoon, plus lunch will be provided.

- Recap of Day 1

- Effective & learning focused DEBrIEF

- Local Rationality Investigations

- What Just Culture really means.

- Resource Identification

For learning to be effective i.e., knowledge retained and then used in the workplace, it has to be relevant to the operational environment. You are never going to remember everything you experienced in the class, so the PM session on Day 2 involves going through a requirement generation process to develop resources for when you get back to work and have to deploy these tools. 

The goal is to identify key practical resources that meet the following requirements: 

• Concerns you have
• Tasks you need to complete
• Resources to refer to
• Experiences to have

We will prioritise them, and spend the next 4 weeks putting them into the Human in the System Learning Academy for you to access.