Get to know Joe Estey, Sr: Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-estey-9905515a/ Email: jestey@lucasinc.com See an older, but still pertinent webinar with Joe: Fooled by Counting—Why the Scale is Not Your Friend Website: www.CHOLearning.org (Joe serves on the Board of Directors, Community of Human and Organizational Learning) Joe Estey provides several powerful strategies for reshaping organizational learning, reducing bureaucracy, and improving human performance. Here are the key lessons we learn from his approach: Learning from Everyday Successes Estey stresses the importance of learning from normal, everyday activities rather than waiting to learn exclusively from mistakes. He notes that if an organization only attempts to learn from failures, they will simply get more opportunities to make them. Instead, leaders should proactively study teams that are successfully meeting their expectations and successfully managing everyday challenges. Rethinking the "Vehicles" for Learning Many companies invest heavily in formal "lessons learned" databases or required reading programs that workers never actually read; often, these systems exist simply to meet a bureaucratic deadline. Estey suggests that true operational learning happens through informal crew meetings and ongoing conversations, where workers naturally discuss what happened yesterday to prepare for today. To institutionalize this knowledge for future or newly hired workers, he recommends: Integrating tools into all training: Embedding human performance concepts into everyday classes (like forklift or flagger training) and heavily incorporating them from day one of onboarding. "Today's post-job is tomorrow's pre-job": Creating dynamic, worker-owned forms where a crew takes a few minutes at the end of their task to fill out a brief document (such as noting where special tools are kept) to directly help the next crew who will perform that same job. Combating "Safety Clutter" Through Subtraction Drawing on the concept of the "Scarcity Brain," Estey explains that humans have an innate drive to constantly add things to solve problems. In the workplace, this results in a dangerous "cumulative effect" of endlessly adding new rules, corrective actions, and procedural steps (often referred to as "safety clutter"). Estey challenges teams to overcome this instinct by routinely asking, "What do we need to take away in order to help make this more productive and safe?". By treating subtraction as a form of addition, organizations can simplify overly complex processes—such as avoiding situations where a single lock-out/tag-out tag requires 14 different people to touch it. The Systemic "Undo Button" Finally, Estey highlights that in some situations, the best corrective action is to do absolutely nothing. Every job carries an expected baseline error rate, and when minor mistakes happen that do not lead to severe consequences, organizations shouldn't force formal investigations or reports. Instead, businesses need to build a systemic "undo button"—much like in a word processor—where workers can simply recognize a minor mistake, correct it, learn, and move on without treating it like a catastrophe. Please check out the amazing people doing amazing things on these podcasts we listen to and love: Leading Safely Podcast with Georgina Poole Were We Lucky, or Were We Good Podcast with Steve Smith The Safety Bros with Brad and Dan Ruiz Punk Rock Safety with Dr. Ben Goodheart, Dr. Dave Provan, and Dr. Ron Gantt Counter-Errorism in Diving: Applying Human Factors to Diving with Gareth Lock How Did It Make Sense? with Gareth Lock The HOP Nerd with Sam Goodman A HOP Podcast (With No Name) with Andrea Baker and Matt Florio Health & Safety Conversations with Tom Bourne Pre-Accident Investigations with Todd Conklin Safety on Tap with Andrew Barrett Hop Into Action with Brent Sutton The Safety of Work with Dr. David Provan and Dr. Drew Rae Illusion of Safety with Allison Short, Joshua Russell, and Gabe Encarnacion Be Empowered with Dr. Santoshi Billakota and Dr. Shahla Moghbel (Not HOP-related, but an AMAZING untold history podcast) The Missing Chapter Podcast with Philip Horrender and Phil Schoff
