Learning from Incidents - Objections from Lawyers and Insurers

Can we learn from incidents if our lawyers or insurers say no? After a near miss, safety failure or serious incident we should seek to understand what happened, why it happened, and how can we prevent it from happening again. It sounds straightforward, but many organisations hesitate to investigate. Why? Because legal and insurance advisors often warn that uncovering failures might increase liability. While these concerns are valid, choosing 𝘯𝘰𝘵 to investigate might protect the organisation 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺 - but at the cost of 𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸’𝘴 safety and resilience. In this blog post, we explore how organisations can navigate this tension between legal caution and a culture of learning.