Results
Fewer Errors
Safer Operations
More Trust
Challenge
For many years, a research laboratory with 3,600 engineers, scientists, and other technical experts had a compliance-based safety culture. Whenever an error led to an incident, the solution was often to find someone to “hold accountable.” Leaders wanted to increase trust, safety, and reliability but felt compelled to just keep enforcing rules, and didn’t see a practical alternative.
Solution
I led an interactive workshop for lab leaders on my Learning Based Approach to Errors. They liked it so much, that they asked me to lead 30+ sessions of that workshop for groups of 20-40 people at a time lab-wide. Instead of making it required, we used “soft power” and the “Innovation Curve” to gradually help spread the Learning Based Approach across the culture. I mentored several senior leaders and gave them the tools to nudge their followers to experiment with the Learning Based Approach, especially during incident investigations.
Result
"Jake has played an integral role in re-shaping culture and behaviors around safety and work planning and control (WPC). The HPI Core Team meetings create a safe environment to share successes, challenges, and ideas. I leave the meetings feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the challenges that I face with a new set of tools collected from the Core Team. Folks are beginning to realize the importance of communication and collaboration throughout the entire work planning process. The use of fail-safes, adaptive thinking, and peer checks are becoming part of the way we do things. Additionally, multiple senior leaders have requested Jake to facilitate feedback sessions to create a psychologically safe environment for their teams where lessons learned and best practices can be shared openly. After these sessions, multiple researchers shared that they found these sessions valuable…”
Challenge
Electric Power Substation Relay Technicians have a unique job. They spend every day installing, configuring, and maintaining the complex, hair-trigger relay systems that help keep electricity flowing to our homes and business 24/7. One day, Mike — the leader of 200+ Relay Technicians — told me this. “We’re making way more errors than we should. And some errors could cost our company $1,000,000 to fix.” Can you help?
Solution
I designed and led a series of interactive workshops for Mike’s team. We kept the groups small, 12-24 people — to maximize interaction and accelerate practical application to everyday work. I fine-tuned the content and delivery after nearly every workshop. My goal was not to tell them how to do their job, but to show them practical tools and powerful examples of how other similar teams had adapted the Learning-Based Approach to their work.
Result
"With the help of Jake’s training, we have raised our workforce’s awareness of the errors that occur while we do the work we do and introduced HP defenses that can be put in place to eliminate those errors. Through everyone’s hard work, we have been able to reduce the technical workforces’ human error rate by more than 60% over a three year period. Those numbers speak for themselves and Jake’s Human Performance training paved the way for those improvements. Thanks Jake!"
Challenge
A large electric power utility experienced a switching error. It cut power to 3,600 people without warning, and could have caused multiple SIFs (serious injuries or fatalities). There were multiple miscommunications, misunderstandings and other errors among 6-8 field technicians and system operators. I was asked to join a team of experienced incident analysts and provide input on the Human Performance elements of the event.
Solution
Within the first hour of the investigation, I realized that their process was structured like a criminal investigation and would likely lead us all to “fix the blame without fixing the problem.” I carefully navigated the strong personalities and delicate group dynamics, and suggested that we experiment with using my Learning-Based Event Review process instead. The team and leaders tentatively agreed to use my process instead of theirs.
Result
Company leaders & executives liked my Event Review process so much, they asked me to teach it throughout their entire department. The main client wrote...
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“Your investigation and analysis was the most thorough and well-documented of any we have had to date... the interviews and investigation were not threatening in any way… we have already implemented some changes to our processes.”
250+
Client Groups
Since 2015
99%
Positive Ratings
From 1,900+ Participants
97%
Of Attendees Would Like to
Hear Jake Again
"Even our most senior and experienced experts were impressed!... Several attendees told me that they've already begun applying these practical skills to improve safety and human reliability in our field teams around the world."
~ J.T. Lee, Senior HSE Advisor, Organizational Learning, Chevron
"Your investigation and analysis was the most thorough and well-documented of any we have had to date...the interviews and investigation were not threatening in any way... we have already implemented some changes to our processes."
~ Manager of System Operations in an electric power utility serving 1+ million customers
"Jake has played an integral role in re-shaping culture & behaviors around safety and work planning...The use of fail-safes, adaptive thinking, and peer checks are becoming part of the way we do things."
~ Work Planning & Control (WPC) Manager at a national scientific laboratory
"We got more practical ideas from Jake than from any other keynote we can remember. After dinner, we talked about Jake's presentation for more than TWO HOURS! That led to REAL change when we returned to the plant."
~ Maintenance & Reliability Leader at Xcelerate 2019
"This was the first session of my ASSP conference, and it was the most impactfulsession for me The information presented was amazing and relatable to anysituation, in my opinion. Jake kept the audience actively listening and fullyengaged for the duration of his presentation. I cant wait to attend anothersession led by Jake in the future!"
~ Marcus Fitzgerald, Global QEHS Director at CETCO Energy
"We engaged Jake as a keynote speaker for our company-wide safety conference.Our leaders, from field foreman through executives, were unanimouslyimpressed. Since Jake's presentation, our project managers and field foremanhave told me that they are starting to experiment with many of the practicalideas that Jake taught us"
~ Fred Barlow, Vice President & Chief Safety Offcer, Reliance Electric, Inc.
"From my initial reach out... to the follow through of our event, I have nothing but good things to say about my interactions with Jake.He was professional and organized, prompt with his communication and deliverables and engaged my audience in an intentional and thought provoking way Jake made my job easy AND our audience really enjoyed his sessions. That's what we call a win."
~ Molly Nolan, Marketing & Program Manager at Nolan Consulting Group, Inc.
"Jake walked through his step 6 process so efficiently I could confidently complete an event review tomorrow! He was also very well spoken. The overview he provided while still including applicable examples was a great balance."
~ Safety Manager for a steel construction company
"We invited Dr. Jake to guide and facilitate a workshop among our hiring managers... His facilitation process pulled the best information and ideas from our mixed-discipline group. We look forward to working with him on our next complex problem."
~ John J. Kumm, P.E., VP of Field Services POWER Engineers
