Sharing Lessons Learned (That People Actually Use)
- Michael Matthew
- Dec 31, 2025
- 2 min read
An incident happens.You investigate it properly.You uncover real insight.
And then… you send out a report.
That’s where most learning dies.
What usually goes wrong
Think about a job site near miss.
The investigation identifies contributing factors.The summary is emailed out.A few supervisors skim it between meetings.
On the ground?
Crews see a generic reminder to “follow procedures.”Nothing about the rushed permit.Nothing about the equipment layout.Nothing about the production pressure that made the shortcut feel logical.
So next week, the same conditions exist.And the same decision makes sense again.
Learning only sticks when people see themselves in it
Now picture a different approach.
During a toolbox talk, the supervisor starts with:
“This could have been us.”
They walk through the situation—not the conclusion.
What the worker was dealing with
What information they had at the time
What pressure they were under to keep things moving
Heads nod. People lean in.
Because this isn’t abstract. It’s familiar.
If people don’t recognize their own reality in the lesson, they won’t change their behavior.
One incident. Three audiences. Three conversations.
Sharing lessons learned isn’t about blasting the same message everywhere.
It’s about translation.
For frontline crews: What should I watch for on my next shift?Where does the job actually get risky?
For supervisors: Where did planning, staffing, or scheduling quietly push people into a corner?
For leaders: What signals did the system send that this was “normal” until it wasn’t?
Same incident. Different meanings.
Dialogue beats distribution—every time
A report can inform.A conversation can change behavior.
In operations meetings, ask:
“Where do we see this workaround happening elsewhere?”
“What would make the safe choice easier next time?”
On night shift, ask:
“What’s different after hours that this report doesn’t capture?”
On the shop floor, ask:
“If this showed up here tomorrow, what would you do differently?”
Those answers don’t show up in PDFs.
They show up when people feel safe enough to speak.
Share the why, not just the fix
If a control changes, explain why.
If a procedure is updated, connect it directly to what failed in real work.
When people understand the reason behind the change, they stop seeing it as “another rule” and start seeing it as protection that actually helps them.
That’s how trust gets built.That’s how lessons travel.
The real payoff
When lessons are shared well, you see it before the next incident:
Someone pauses and speaks up
A shortcut gets questioned
A supervisor adjusts the plan instead of pushing through
That’s learning in motion.
Not compliance. Not memory. Judgment.
So here’s the question worth asking: Are your lessons learned being distributed—or are they being understood?
Because only one of those actually makes tomorrow safer.
Michael Matthew Mike@SAFETY.INC Dec 2025
Comments