About the Guest:
Brent Sutton—Managing Director of Learning Teams Inc. and author of foundational texts in the "New View" safety movement—joins to revolutionize how we think about incident investigation and organizational learning. For decades, organizations have followed the same playbook after something goes wrong: investigations, root cause analysis, corrective actions, and often, blame. Brent offers a fundamentally different path—one that replaces punitive investigations with collaborative Learning Teams that genuinely improve safety, quality, and operational excellence.
Rob’s philosophy:
Learning Teams obtain and consider different perspectives and angles of functional diversity to define problems in a group context.
Episode Highlights:
🔄 From Root Cause to Real Learning
Brent unpacks what a Learning Team actually is and does, contrasting it sharply with traditional root cause analysis and corrective action reports. For leaders who've spent careers in the old paradigm, he explains the fundamental shift: moving from "who failed?" to "what can we learn?" and from blame to understanding the context that shaped decisions and actions.
💡 The 'Aha Moment' That Changed Everything
After years developing and implementing Learning Teams methodology, Brent shares the pivotal realization that organizations needed a completely different framework. His books systematize what was once an intuitive practice into a replicable methodology that any organization can adopt.
🛡️ The 4Ds Framework: Making Complexity Transparent
The 4Ds framework—identifying work that is Dumb, Different, Difficult, or Dangerous—provides practical structure for proactive learning from everyday successful work.
📋 Compliance Meets Learning🔍 Work-As-Done vs. Work-As-Imagined
Organizations often have regulatory requirements for investigations that seem to conflict with a learning-first approach. Brent demonstrates how Learning Teams can satisfy compliance requirements while still prioritizing genuine organizational learning over box-checking exercises.
🔍 Work-As-Done vs. Work-As-Imagined
One of the most powerful shifts Brent facilitates is helping investigators move from analyzing work as they imagine it should be done to understanding how it's actually performed in the messy reality of operational environments.
📩 Contact & Resources:
🎧 Podcasts:
🌐 Website:Learning Teams Community
📚 Books
* HOP Beginners Guide To Doing Safety Differently
* 4Ds for HOP and Learning Teams: A practical how-to guide (2023)
