How can we Maximise Learning from Incident Investigations?
March 3, 2026
Many incident investigations fail to deliver meaningful learning. Not because of a lack of effort, but because an investigation process is not followed systematically from initial notification through to evaluating the effectiveness of the findings and recommendations.
When investigations fall short, organisations risk repeat incidents, missed learning opportunities about the incident itself but also about the investigation process as a whole, and a false sense of safety.
At The Keil Centre, our consultants and associates bring decades of experience across all stages of incident investigation. This experience has been built through:
• Conducting investigations for government bodies, including the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB).
• Developing specialist tools such as the Human Factors Analysis Tools (HFAT®) to support investigators.
• Managing investigations within major organisations across the chemical and process industries.
• Designing and delivering training in Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and Cognitive Interviewing (CI).
Every member of our team understands the practical challenges of ensuring investigations lead to real improvement, not just reports.
We recently partnered with the Energy Institute to develop a comprehensive guide to incident investigation, structured around the full lifecycle of a typical investigation. The guide combines practical checklists and advice with insights from our team’s experience and the latest scientific research.
The guide is free to download from the Energy Institute website.
Whether incident investigation is your primary role, or something you are called upon to do when an incident occurs, the guide is designed to support more effective investigations and better organisational learning.
We also provide expert support to organisations requiring specialist input into incident investigations. Our consultants are Chartered and Registered professionals, each with a minimum of ten years’ experience in incident investigation and human factors.
