Gareth Locke is world-renowned for his Human Factors in Diving, The Human Diver programme.

Gareth explores incidents with a goal of identifying improvements. One of the key issues Gareth has identified is also identified in the updated Safety Management System Requirements for Adventure Activities Operators: “Have we reviewed other, similar incidents known to have occurred outside of our own operation?”.

When asked about incidents that have occurred overseas or in a different sector, people will often say, "This doesn't apply to me because I am running a business the same way as that one". The academic community has long ago identified this as a known barrier to learning - distancing through differencing. I am different, therefore it doesn't apply to me. Try to suspend those thoughts, and consider the similarities rather than the differences. Themes like supervision structure, environmental conditions, time constraints, budget, all begin to show similarities across historical incidents and can help us direct resources to reduce the likelihood of repeating an incident that has already occurred. “These sorts of incidents happen” becomes, “Because of these trends, I see how they’re happening, and I can start to address the causes”.

For a good demonstration of reviewing incidents across different sectors, check out this article, Learning through Loss, from Mountain Training in the UK.