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Learning Teams Inc. authored the "field guide" of best practices of Learning Teams and a facilitator competency framework. The book "The Practice of Learning Teams" is available on Amazon in print and Kindle version. The podcast show of the same name is available on Apple, Google, Spotify and other podcast channels.

Learning Teams from Dr Todd Conklin

Learning Teams from Dr Todd Conklin, PhD, are part of a way of looking at safety, quality and operational excellence differently by a facilitated approach to worker engagement and supporting the empowerment of people to own safety, quality or operational excellence.


In the book Pre-Accident Investigations: Better Questions - An Applied Approach to Operational Learning, Dr Todd Conklin challenges safety and reliability professionals to get better answers by asking better questions. A provocative examination of human performance and safety management, the book delivers a thought-provoking discourse about how we work, and defines a new approach to operational learning. Learning Teams is an approach to operational learning.


A Learning Team is a facilitated means of engaging with workers to understand and then learn from the opportunities that are presented by everyday successful and safe work as well as learning from events or incidents.  This includes understanding what, when, how and why people do things differently from the formal systems and procedures in order to get the job done. By understanding what's necessary to make sure things go right (operational safety), we can focus on ensuring these factors are present in the workplace every day. Involving workers is crucial to gaining this understanding. In essence, Learning Teams are a worker-focused engagement approach to problem identification, and problem-solving issues, conditions, environments, opportunities and threats in organizations to support continuous improvement of operational excellence. Operational excellence is important in high-reliability organizations.