After the event · Just Culture
Trust is earned through how you respond, not promised by a policy.
A one-day workshop for leaders and safety teams on what happens after something goes wrong: how to understand why an action made sense at the time, and how to respond in a way that is fair, proportionate and keeps people talking.
Why it matters
Blame closes down the information you need most.
When people expect to be blamed, they protect themselves. They edit their accounts, stay quiet about near misses, and keep using the workarounds nobody talks about. The event gets managed, but the conditions that produced it stay in place.
Many organisations have a Just Culture policy and a decision tree that sorts people into categories after the event. The trouble is that the same action is often judged very differently by different reviewers, and people know how they will be treated long before anyone asks what really happened.
Just Culture is not
No-blame, where nobody is ever accountable. Nor is it an algorithm applied after the investigation to decide on consequences.
Just Culture is
A culture of trust, learning and accountability. It recognises that most errors come from conditions in the system, that a small number of choices need a different response, and that you look at the context honestly before deciding which is which.
The approach
System questions first. Intent last.
At the heart of the workshop is an eight-question review, adapted from the model developed by Bitar and colleagues at BP. Older models asked about intent first, which primed reviewers to think about blame before they understood the situation. This sequence moves from the system towards individual choice, and only reaches intent if the earlier questions don't explain what happened.
- Was the person instructed or influenced to act this way by someone with authority?
- Were expectations clear, and was the procedure available and workable in practice?
- Did they have the knowledge, skill, experience and resources to do what was required?
- Did they intend to act as expected, but make a mistake?
- Were they following a custom or practice that was common among their peers?
- Would another person with the same experience have likely done the same?
- Is there evidence of acting for personal gain, or with disregard for known risk?
- Is there any evidence of intent to cause harm?
Conditions in the systemIndividual choice
In Bitar and colleagues' work, around 90% of cases were resolved at the system level. Genuine individual culpability was the exception, not the rule.
The workshop
One day, built around your own events.
The workshop is delivered on site for your leadership and safety team. Where possible we work on a real or recent event from your organisation, so the method is practised on something that matters to you.
Morning
The foundations
- What Just Culture is, and what it is not
- Local rationality and hindsight bias
- Separating learning from discipline
- Agreeing where your line between acceptable and unacceptable sits
- Psychological safety before and after an event
Afternoon
The review in practice
- Working through the eight-question review on a case
- The restorative conversation with those involved
- Turning findings into actions with owners and dates
- Closing the loop so reporting doesn't fall into a black hole
- When individual accountability is genuinely needed
What you leave with
A shared method, and the confidence to use it.
Your team will leave with
- A common language for talking about error, blame and accountability
- The eight-question review, practised on a real case
- An agreed starting point for your line between acceptable and unacceptable
- Agreed human performance principles to share with your people
- Quick reference tools to use the next time something goes wrong
Just Culture workshop
£5,000
for a one-day workshop delivered on site for your team.
- A pre-workshop call to shape the day around what your organisation needs
- One day of facilitated work on your own events
- A copy of the Just Culture in Practice guide for every participant
Start on your own
Not ready for a workshop yet?
Free guide
Just Culture in Practice
A practical guide for small organisations in high-risk work, written for teams without an HR department, a protected reporting system or legal cover. It includes the eight-question review and the quick reference tools.
Get the guideOnline course
Just Culture in Practice companion course
A short, self-paced online course that walks you through the guide with problem-based activities, from local rationality to turning findings into action.
See the courseBook a call
Start with a curious conversation.
Tell us what is happening in your organisation, what you have already tried, and what you would like to be different. We will be honest about whether we can help, and point you elsewhere if someone else would serve you better.
Prefer email? Write to [email protected] and we will reply within two working days.