In any kind of workplace, things will occasionally go wrong. In high-risk sectors, such as healthcare, energy, or aviation, the consequences of unexpected events can be dire, even fatal. These kinds of events can have a significant impact on the health and wellbeing of professionals in a workplace. However, while not desirable, there is a silver lining: incidents are an opportunity to learn and develop better ways to work in the future.

The highly diverse tasks undertaken in the energy sector and in healthcare have driven the development of unique ‘learning from incidents’ (LFI) practices, which can be of benefit to any workplace…

Dr Victoria L Murphy is a consultant who works with companies to maximise learning from workplace incidents. She also works as an associate lecturer at the Open University, teaching courses on educational psychology and managing organisational uncertainty.

Sharon Davidson is an associate lecturer with the Open University Business School. She has previously worked as an associate director of patient safety with the National Patient Safety Agency in the UK, managing the National Research and Learning system and Directorate.

Peter D Hibbert is a researcher in patient safety and evidence-based care at Macquarie University and the University of South Australia.