Counter Errorism

Get to know Joe Estey, Sr:

Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-estey-9905515a/

Email: [email protected]      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:

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.

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Get to know Joanne Zaraliakos:

Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanne-z-492b0530/

Email: [email protected]

In her conversation on the Counter Errorism podcast, Joanne Zaraliakos shares highly practical, subtle strategies for implementing organizational change and making safety training memorable.

Here are the key lessons we learn from her approach:

"Sneaky" Change Management

Zaraliakos notes that people are generally nervous about change and often resist massive new safety initiatives or programs. To bypass this resistance, she employs a "sneaky" strategy: she looks at what the organization is already doing and makes slight tweaks so workers do not even realize a change is happening. Instead of launching a formal program, she simply sprinkles the desired concepts into existing routines, such as integrating a "stop and act" moment directly into a standard pre-start inspection. The ultimate reward of this subtle approach is hearing the workforce naturally mimic back the new safety language without ever realizing a new initiative was implemented.

From "Gotcha" Observations to Conversations

She actively moves away from traditional "safety observations," which she refers to as negative "gotcha moments". Instead, she transforms these interactions into "safety conversations." By approaching workers with open, caring questions—like simply asking, "How's your day going?"—she opens up a dialogue rather than immediately confronting them about a missing pair of safety glasses.

Experiential Learning and Making Training "Sticky"

Rather than rolling out a brand new, dry training program, Zaraliakos advocates for slipping experiential learning into existing events, such as turning a standard chemical safety (WHMIS/SDS) review during Safety Week into a fun, hands-on experience. She emphasizes that for training to be truly "sticky" (meaning it is actually retained by the worker), you must make the participants feel something. Because human memories are deeply tied to emotions, creating a feeling during a training exercise ensures the lesson will actually stick.

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Get to know Stephanie Moore:

Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniemoore763/

Email: [email protected]

In her conversation on the Counter Errorism podcast, Stephanie Moore shares several practical strategies for improving organizational learning, emphasizing that performance improvement requires abandoning "one-size-fits-all" solutions. Instead, practitioners must tailor their approaches to the unique nuances and cultures of each specific group.

Here are the key insights and lessons from her approach:

Disarming Frustration and Building Trust Moore notes that frontline workers often deeply resent individuals coming down from the "glass palace" to fix their problems. To build immediate trust, she actively disarms their frustrations by shifting the conversation entirely away from corporate metrics, goals, or performance indicators. Instead, she focuses strictly on how to get them home safely. This genuine, human-centric concern bypasses defensive barriers, allowing passionate and frustrated workers to finally open up about the actual operational issues they face.

Humility and "Planting the Seed" Rather than acting as the ultimate authority, Moore approaches the frontline with profound humility, recognizing that while she may know the safety theory, the workers are the true experts of their own environment. She advocates for patiently "planting the seed" of new ideas, acknowledging that people rarely adopt changes immediately. By giving workers the space to let concepts marinate without forcing an agenda, they can organically discover how these performance tools fit into their daily work.

Translating Between Academia, Leadership, and the Frontline A major part of Moore's success lies in her ability to act as a vital translator across the different layers of an organization:

Empowerment Over Blind Compliance Finally, Moore operates on the foundational belief that people are inherently good and do not want to make mistakes. Rather than forcing workers to follow rules simply because of compliance or because "academia said so," organizations must empower employees by explaining the why behind their policies. Even if a worker thinks a policy is foolish initially, understanding its actual purpose allows them to apply critical thinking and make safer choices on the fly, rather than resorting to dangerous shortcuts because a rule didn't make sense to them.

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Get to know Steve:

Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/experiential

Email: [email protected]

Books:

Safety Science for Outdoor & Experiential Education

Beneficial Risks

Website: https://www.outdoorrisk.com/

In his appearance on the Counter Errorism podcast, Steve Smith shared practical strategies for improving organizational learning, focusing heavily on how we view, report, and learn from risks. Here is a short synopsis of his key lessons:

Note an error in conversation: James says "Yosemite" but meant "Mount Diablo" in California

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Get to know David Woods:

Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidwoods3/

email: [email protected]

books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/David-D.-Woods/author/B001ITTKTY?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1774154901&sr=8-1&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

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Get to know Bob:

Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-edwards-48577492/

Website: www.youtube.com/@bobedwards4253

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Get to know Becky Ray:

Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/becky-ray-culturekick/

Website: https://www.culturekick.co.uk/         https://www.linkedin.com/in/becky-ray-culturekick/

Books mentioned in this episode:

The Psychological Safety Playbook: Lead More Powerfully by Being More Human by Karolin Helbig & Minette Norman

The Gap and The Gain: The High Achievers' Guide to Happiness, Confidence, and Success by Dan Sullivan & Dr. Benjamin Hardy

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Get to know Sam:

Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-goodman-03a95391/

Website: https://www.thehopnerd.com/meetsam or https://www.thehopnerd.com/podcast

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Get to know Bill:

Profile linkedin.com/in/william-scarberry-160a2256

Website: https://www.gevernova.com/ or nuclear.gepower.com/

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Are you interested in some ideas on getting workers comfortable enough to share their experiences without fear of judgement? In this episode we chat about easing people into Psychological Safety and the importance of FOOD in these situations. You have to create the time for curiosity.

Georgina's cool stuff:

Profile linkedin.com/in/georginapoole

Website georginapoole.com.au (Personal)

Email [email protected]

Podcast LEADING SAFELY with Georgina Poole

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