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Strategy, change, learning and safety: discussing the lessons of the past, thinking about the future

Safety Days 2023

Day #2 - Workshop #2

From countless cases of catastrophic events, we have learned many things. One is that safety is an organisational property (or a system one). Another is that the organisations (or systems) are not static but evolving, changing, in order to adapt to their business (or political) environment.

Strategies matter in this respect, and this is another finding of decades of studies of accidents. From the stories of BP, NASA or Boeing, it has become established that a strategic analysis is more than necessary to understand the conditions of safe performance. Strategies are developed to adapt organisations (or systems) to their environment.

They therefore imply change. Change can have consequences. It must be managed. It must trigger learning. Yet, linking strategy, change, learning and safety is not always done explicitly in organisations. The aim of the workshop is to debate about ways of promoting a better grasp of these connections.

This page was created in the context of an event organised by the European Union Agency for Railways. The information was provided at the time of the event and may not reflect the person’s current role or activities. Last updated on 23 June 2023, this content may no longer be fully up to date, and the Agency does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.