The HOP Nerd

Ready to Get Curious?! Check out Starting Points! our Operationally Curious Questions

On today's episode...

We Had and Accident... What Now?

Check out the "Blogcast"

In this 'What Now?' mini-series episode, Sam Goodman (The HOP Nerd) shares practical steps to improve reactions, foster learning, build trust, and make Human & Organizational Performance real.

Actionable Steps Discussed (The "What Now?") from The HOP Nerd's CSCL Post-Event Framework:

Pause - Move from react to respond. How can my response best demonstrate care for everyone involved and prioritize learning?

Care - Check on the humans. Are we caring for all involved?

Stabilize - Our people are being cared for. What's our current operational condition?

Communicate - We have cared for our people and stabilized the situation. Who needs immediate factual information?

Learn - What basic information do we need to gather? What is the best way to learn deeply from this event?

Download the CSCL Framework

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

Contact him at: [email protected]

Book an initial consult at: https://calendly.com/d/26x-qs8-xnv/initial-consultation-call

Visit TheHOPNerd.com to schedule a consultation, access free resources, snag some exclusive merch, and more.

Sam, a unique blend of strategist and comedic creator, brings a fresh perspective to organizational improvement. He's not your typical consultant; he's The HOP Nerd, dedicated to highlighting the absurdity in our workplaces and workplace safety through his hilarious and insightful content. With a track record of helping hundreds of businesses successfully operationalize HOP, and teaching tens of thousands of people around the globe HOP concepts, Sam uses his comedic lens to expose the ineffectiveness of our more traditional approaches.

Ready to take your organizations efforts around learning and improvement to the next level? Book Sam Goodman for consulting, speaking engagements, or to inject some much-needed thought and humor into your next event.

Also Follow Sam on:

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheHOPNerd
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehopnerd/

Ready to Get Curious?! Check out Starting Points! our Operationally Curious Questions

On today's episode...

How We Respond Matters... What Now?

In this 'What Now?' mini-series episode, Sam Goodman (The HOP Nerd) shares practical steps to improve reactions, foster learning, build trust, and make Human & Organizational Performance real.

Actionable Steps Discussed (The "What Now?"):

• Master the Pause: Deliberately pause before reacting to surprising news.
• Make Your First Words Curious Word: Start interactions about events with open-ended questions aimed at understanding ("Teach me more...").
• Focus Response on the System: Guide conversations and reviews towards understanding context and system factors, not just individual actions.
• Ask Key Questions Immediately: Use a structured approach (Care, Stabilize, Communicate, Plan Learning) as the standard first response to events.
• Leaders Model the Response: Leaders must visibly demonstrate thoughtful, curious, system-focused responses, especially under pressure.

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

Contact him at: [email protected]

Book an initial consult at: https://calendly.com/d/26x-qs8-xnv/initial-consultation-call

Visit TheHOPNerd.com to schedule a consultation, access free resources, snag some exclusive merch, and more.

Sam, a unique blend of strategist and comedic creator, brings a fresh perspective to organizational improvement. He's not your typical consultant; he's The HOP Nerd, dedicated to highlighting the absurdity in our workplaces and workplace safety through his hilarious and insightful content. With a track record of helping hundreds of businesses successfully operationalize HOP, and teaching tens of thousands of people around the globe HOP concepts, Sam uses his comedic lens to expose the ineffectiveness of our more traditional approaches.

Ready to take your organizations efforts around learning and improvement to the next level? Book Sam Goodman for consulting, speaking engagements, or to inject some much-needed thought and humor into your next event.

Follow Sam on:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-goodman-03a95391/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheHOPNerd
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehopnerd/

Ready to Get Curious?! Check out Starting Points! our Operationally Curious Questions

In today's episode...

Context Drives Behavior... What Now?

We all know the HOP principle: "Learning is Vital." But how do we move beyond just saying it to actually doing it within our organizations? In this episode, Sam Goodman dives into just that.

Actionable Steps Discussed (The "What Now?"):

1. Change How You Investigate: Shift from root cause hunts to facilitating Learning Reviews/Teams focused on context and understanding.
2. Seek Stories of Normal Work: Actively learn how things go right by talking to frontline personnel about their challenges, adaptations, and successes.
3. Make it Safe to Learn: Cultivate psychological safety where reporting errors, concerns, and near misses is encouraged and met with curiosity, not blame.
4. Lower the Bar for Learning: Implement simpler, more frequent learning activities like debriefs and informal learning conversations.
5. Close the Loop: Translate learning into tangible actions and communicate back to the workforce what was learned and changed.

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

Contact him at: [email protected]

Book an initial consult at: https://calendly.com/d/26x-qs8-xnv/initial-consultation-call

Visit TheHOPNerd.com to schedule a consultation, access free resources, snag some exclusive merch, and more.

Sam, a unique blend of strategist and comedic creator, brings a fresh perspective to organizational improvement. He's not your typical consultant; he's The HOP Nerd, dedicated to highlighting the absurdity in our workplaces and workplace safety through his hilarious and insightful content. With a track record of helping hundreds of businesses successfully operationalize HOP, and teaching tens of thousands of people around the globe HOP concepts, Sam uses his comedic lens to expose the ineffectiveness of our more traditional approaches.

Ready to take your organizations efforts around learning and improvement to the next level? Book Sam Goodman for consulting, speaking engagements, or to inject some much-needed thought and humor into your next event.

Follow Sam on:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-goodman-03a95391/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheHOPNerd
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehopnerd/

Ready to Get Curious?! Check out Starting Points! our Operationally Curious Questions

In today's episode...

Context Drives Behavior... What Now?

Why do people do what they do? It's rarely just about individual choice. In this crucial episode of the "What Now?" action-focused mini-series, Sam, The HOP Nerd, dives into the foundational HOP principle: Context Drives Behavior.

Understand how systems, tools, processes, and pressures shape performance far more than we often realize.

This episode moves beyond theory and gives you the "What Now?" actions:

• Learn to actively seek to understand the context influencing work.
• Shift from asking "Why did they...?" to "How did this make sense?"
• Discover how to redesign work environments to support success.
• Focus improvement efforts on strengthening systems, not just correcting people.
• Understand the leader's role in shaping a context where people can thrive.

Join Sam to get practical tools for looking past the person and understanding the situation – the key to unlocking real, sustainable improvement.

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

Contact him at: [email protected]

Book an initial consult at: https://calendly.com/d/26x-qs8-xnv/initial-consultation-call

Visit TheHOPNerd.com to schedule a consultation, access free resources, snag some exclusive merch, and more.

Sam, a unique blend of strategist and comedic creator, brings a fresh perspective to organizational improvement. He's not your typical consultant; he's The HOP Nerd, dedicated to highlighting the absurdity in our workplaces and workplace safety through his hilarious and insightful content. With a track record of helping hundreds of businesses successfully operationalize HOP, and teaching tens of thousands of people around the globe HOP concepts, Sam uses his comedic lens to expose the ineffectiveness of our more traditional approaches.

Ready to take your organizations efforts around learning and improvement to the next level? Book Sam Goodman for consulting, speaking engagements, or to inject some much-needed thought and humor into your next event.

Follow Sam on:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-goodman-03a95391/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheHOPNerd
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehopnerd/

Ready to Get Curious?! Check out Starting Points! our Operationally Curious Questions

In today's episode...

Sam, The HOP Nerd, continues his action oriented "What Now?" mini-series!

Today he works through Blame Fixes Nothing... What Now?

It's our go-to reaction when things go wrong, but Blame Fixes Nothing. In the second episode of the "What Now?" action-focused mini-series, Sam, The HOP Nerd, dives deep into why our instinct to blame is so destructive to learning and improvement.

Learn how blame reduces true accountability and get the practical "What Now?" actions to escape the blame trap:

• Asking "What Failed?" relentlessly before "Who Failed?".
• Separating learning reviews from disciplinary processes.
• Moving disciplinary action from the first step to the last step..
• Adopting fair ways to respond to error, mistake, and well intended violations.
• Focusing communication on condition and system fixes, not finger-pointing.
• How leaders can model a learning-focused approach.

Join Sam for practical strategies (and likely some pointed commentary on blame culture absurdity) to build a workplace where learning thrives and accountability means fixing problems, not finding fault.

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

Contact him at: [email protected]

Book an initial consult at: https://calendly.com/d/26x-qs8-xnv/initial-consultation-call

Visit TheHOPNerd.com to schedule a consultation, access free resources, snag some exclusive merch, and more.

Sam, a unique blend of strategist and comedic creator, brings a fresh perspective to organizational improvement. He's not your typical consultant; he's The HOP Nerd, dedicated to highlighting the absurdity in our workplaces and workplace safety through his hilarious and insightful content. With a track record of helping hundreds of businesses successfully operationalize HOP, and teaching tens of thousands of people around the globe HOP concepts, Sam uses his comedic lens to expose the ineffectiveness of our more traditional approaches.

Ready to take your organizations efforts around learning and improvement to the next level? Book Sam Goodman for consulting, speaking engagements, or to inject some much-needed thought and humor into your next event.

Follow Sam on:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-goodman-03a95391/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheHOPNerd
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehopnerd/

Ready to Get Curious?! Check out Starting Points! our Operationally Curious Questions

In today's episode...

Sam, The HOP Nerd, kicks off the brand new "What Now?" mini-series!

Tired of just talking about Human & Organizational Performance concepts and ready to actually do something? This series is for you. Each episode breaks down a key HOP principle and delivers concrete, practical actions you can take to operationalize it in your workplace.

Sam, known for blending real-life sharp-end strategy with a comedic eye for workplace absurdity, draws on his experience helping hundreds of businesses ditch ineffective approaches and successfully implement Human & Organizational Performance (HOP). If you've ever asked "Okay, I get the theory... What Now?", tune in as Sam guides you through the real steps to make HOP happen.

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

Contact him at: [email protected]

Book an initial consult at: https://calendly.com/d/26x-qs8-xnv/initial-consultation-call

Visit TheHOPNerd.com to schedule a consultation, access free resources, snag some exclusive merch, and more.

Sam, a unique blend of strategist and comedic creator, brings a fresh perspective to organizational improvement. He's not your typical consultant; he's The HOP Nerd, dedicated to highlighting the absurdity in our workplaces and workplace safety through his hilarious and insightful content. With a track record of helping hundreds of businesses successfully operationalize HOP, and teaching tens of thousands of people around the globe HOP concepts, Sam uses his comedic lens to expose the ineffectiveness of our more traditional approaches.

Beyond his consulting prowess, Sam's comedic creations shed light on workplace safety and culture, proving that sometimes, a dose of absurdity is exactly what we need to see things clearly.

Ready to take your organizations efforts around learning and improvement to the next level? Book Sam Goodman for consulting, speaking engagements, or to inject some much-needed thought and humor into your next event.

Follow Sam on:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-goodman-03a95391/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheHOPNerd
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehopnerd/

Keywords: Safety, Continuous Improvement, Leadership, Quality, HOP, Human & Organizational Performance, Learning Teams, Culture, HR

Ready to Get Curious?! Check out Starting Points!

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

Contact him at: [email protected]

Book an initial consult at: https://calendly.com/d/26x-qs8-xnv/initial-consultation-call

Visit TheHOPNerd.com to schedule a consultation, access free resources, snag some exclusive merch, and more.

In today's episode...

Sam dives deep into getting started with Human & Organizational Performance (HOP) and Operational Learning within your organization

Sam, a unique blend of strategist and comedic creator, brings a fresh perspective to organizational improvement. He's not your typical consultant; he's The HOP Nerd, dedicated to highlighting the absurdity in our workplaces and workplace safety through his hilarious and insightful content. With a track record of helping hundreds of businesses successfully operationalize HOP, and teaching tens of thousands of people around the globe HOP concepts, Sam uses his comedic lens to expose the ineffectiveness of our more traditional approaches.

Beyond his consulting prowess, Sam's comedic creations shed light on workplace safety and culture, proving that sometimes, a dose of absurdity is exactly what we need to see things clearly.

Ready to take your organizations efforts around learning and improvement to the next level? Book Sam Goodman for consulting, speaking engagements, or to inject some much-needed thought and humor into your next event.

Follow Sam on:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-goodman-03a95391/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheHOPNerd
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehopnerd/

Ready to Get Curious?! Check out Starting Points!

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

Contact him at: [email protected]

Book an initial consult at: https://calendly.com/d/26x-qs8-xnv/initial-consultation-call

Visit TheHOPNerd.com to schedule a consultation, access free resources, snag some exclusive merch, and more.

In today's episode...

Ever roll out a brilliant new process or tool only to watch it get ignored, resisted, or maliciously complied with? Tired of the "Top-Down Dictatorship" approach that frustrates people and achieves little? In this episode, Sam Goodman tackles Idea #2 from his book, "10 Ideas to Make Safety Suck Less": the crucial shift from Doing Things TO People to Doing Things WITH People.

Discover why 'doing things to people' always backfire and why leadership often misunderstands frontline reality.

Sam breaks down how genuinely involving people, asking what they need, and co-creating solutions transforms initiatives from bureaucratic burdens into collaborative efforts that actually work. Hear how one team transformed a checklist driven heat stress program into something useful. Learn practical steps to listen better, empower your teams, and finally start making work suck less by tapping into the real expertise – the people doing the work.

Sam, a unique blend of strategist and comedic creator, brings a fresh perspective to organizational improvement. He's not your typical consultant; he's The HOP Nerd, dedicated to highlighting the absurdity in our workplaces and workplace safety through his hilarious and insightful content. With a track record of helping hundreds of businesses successfully operationalize HOP, and teaching tens of thousands of people around the globe HOP concepts, Sam uses his comedic lens to expose the ineffectiveness of our more traditional approaches.

Beyond his consulting prowess, Sam's comedic creations shed light on workplace safety and culture, proving that sometimes, a dose of absurdity is exactly what we need to see things clearly.

Ready to take your organizations efforts around learning and improvement to the next level? Book Sam Goodman for consulting, speaking engagements, or to inject some much-needed thought and humor into your next event.

Follow Sam on:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-goodman-03a95391/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheHOPNerd
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehopnerd/

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

Ready to Get Curious?! Check out Starting Points!

Contact him at: [email protected]

Book an initial consult at: https://calendly.com/d/26x-qs8-xnv/initial-consultation-call

Visit TheHOPNerd.com to schedule a consultation, access free resources, snag some exclusive merch, and more.

In today's episode, Sam Goodman sits down with the Punk Rock Safety crew: David Provan, Ron Gantt, & Ben Goodheart!

They laughed, joked, talked music, talked ‘safety nostalgia,’ talked learning and leading with better questions, and discovered a new best practice for ending meetings early.... And, not the first serious moment was had.

Good.

“Some things are too important to be taken seriously.”

Watch the episode on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1QN1eq30GI

A few randomly selected quotes (pulled by the recording software):

"I love lamp."

"It's fine."

"You nailed it, yeah, just nailed it."

"What magic words are we writing?"

"It's like, yeah, OK, sure."

"Back to the good old days."

"What does back to the basics even mean?"

"We can just go and talk to people."

"What is the viable alternative?"

"Lead with questions maybe."

"We should come up with an app."

"Second last is winning, right?"

Sam, a unique blend of strategist and comedic creator, brings a fresh perspective to organizational improvement. He's not your typical consultant; he's The HOP Nerd, dedicated to highlighting the absurdity in our workplaces and workplace safety through his hilarious and insightful content. With a track record of helping hundreds of businesses successfully operationalize HOP, and teaching tens of thousands of people around the globe HOP concepts, Sam uses his comedic lens to expose the ineffectiveness of our more traditional approaches.

Beyond his consulting prowess, Sam's comedic creations shed light on workplace safety and culture, proving that sometimes, a dose of absurdity is exactly what we need to see things clearly.

Ready to take your organizations efforts around learning and improvement to the next level? Book Sam Goodman for consulting, speaking engagements, or to inject some much-needed thought and humor into your next event.

Follow Sam on:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-goodman-03a95391/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheHOPNerd
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehopnerd/

Aren't You Curious? You should be. In today's episode, Sam Goodman explores key assumptions, principles, and actions from his latest book, 'Aren't You Curious? The Operationally Curious Leader.' Discover how to practice operational curiosity as leader, grow curiosity within your team, drive innovation through insightful questions, and transform your leadership approach with practical, actionable strategies. We'll dive into real-world examples and unpack the power of operational curiosity to unlock your organization's full potential.

The book is available HERE, or in your local Amazon market place.

Sam, a unique blend of strategist and comedic creator, brings a fresh perspective to organizational improvement. He's not your typical consultant; he's The HOP Nerd, dedicated to highlighting the absurdity in our workplaces and workplace safety through his hilarious and insightful content. With a track record of helping hundreds of businesses successfully operationalize HOP, and teaching tens of thousands of people around the globe HOP concepts, Sam uses his comedic lens to expose the ineffectiveness of our more traditional approaches.

Beyond his consulting prowess, Sam's comedic creations shed light on workplace safety and culture, proving that sometimes, a dose of absurdity is exactly what we need to see things clearly.

Ready to take your organizations efforts around learning and improvement to the next level? Book Sam Goodman for consulting, speaking engagements, or to inject some much-needed thought and humor into your next event.

• Contact him at: [email protected]
• Book an initial consult at: https://calendly.com/d/26x-qs8-xnv/initial-consultation-call
• Visit TheHOPNerd.com to: schedule a consultation, access free resources, snag some exclusive merch, and more.

Follow Sam on:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-goodman-03a95391/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheHOPNerd
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehopnerd/