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Construction has made measurable progress in reducing lower-severity incidents, yet serious injuries and fatalities remain stubbornly high. That reality has driven many organizations to adopt Human and Organizational Performance (HOP), a philosophy that acknowledges human error as inevitable and focuses instead on improving the systems, tools, and conditions that shape work.
According to HOP consultant Shawn Connick, the concept “integrates psychology, organizational science, and system design to better understand how people and organizations perform together”. Unlike traditional safety programs that focus narrowly on compliance, HOP “changes how we collect and evaluate information” so leaders can understand why work unfolds as it does, not just how it should.
As Connick explains, HOP isn’t a replacement for safety management systems, it’s an evolution:
“We’re in a high-hazard industry, and while we’ve built safety bureaucracy with good intent, it’s often limited open discussion about failure. Bad things still happen, and we have to learn from them without blame.”
One of HOP’s foundational ideas is that how we respond to failure matters. When organizations investigate with the goal of learning, not punishment, they create space for honesty, growth, and genuine prevention.
The Hidden Gap: Sharing What We Learn
Learning teams, structured discussions that explore “how work really happens”, are one of HOP’s core tools. But as Connick points out, the challenge isn’t only gathering insights; it’s communicating them.
“There’s not a great feedback loop in construction,” he says. “Once a job wraps up, people move to the next one, and we don’t circle back to ask what worked well or what didn’t. That’s not just a safety issue, it’s an efficiency issue.”
In many organizations, learning teams identify practical improvements, a clearer preventive maintenance process, a new pre-task step, or small resource adjustments, but the findings rarely reach the crews performing similar work elsewhere.
Connick sees this as a major opportunity:
“The hardest part isn’t getting workers to share information, they love to talk about their work. The hard part is whether people are ready to receive that information. You’re going to hear things that make you uncomfortable, but they’re invaluable for real improvement.”
Workers deserve to know when their feedback leads to change. Communicating these updates doesn’t just improve awareness, it builds trust. As Connick notes, “When field workers see that leadership is acting on the issues they’ve raised, you can feel the cultural shift. They go from silence to participation.”
Turning HOP Insights Into Action: Best Practices for Communication
To ensure HOP learnings reach the field and actually influence behavior, organizations should emphasize visibility, relevance, and feedback.
1. Involve the Field in Learning Teams
Learning teams should include workers who actually perform the task, without their managers in the room. “You want about six people who are peers,” Connick explains. “The goal isn’t to test them on policy, it’s to understand how the work actually happens.”
That insight provides leaders with a realistic foundation for improvement and bridges the gap between written procedure and lived experience.
2. Keep Findings Tangible and Measurable
According to Connick, the best learning teams focus on “smaller, tangible things that you can measure.” Instead of vague goals like “improve communication,” teams identify visible, actionable items,such as adding spare materials to reduce delays or streamlining tool access. “Those are the kinds of changes that stick,” he says.
3. Create Clear, Story-Driven Messages
Connick emphasizes the power of storytelling:
“Avoid long reports or technical language. Make it interesting. Focus on what’s changed and why. Don’t tell people what they did wrong, tell them what’s been improved.”
Short, relevant stories about real improvements resonate far more than policy updates.
4. Use Multiple, Redundant Channels
Information should reach every crew through multiple methods: briefings, alerts, visual boards, and digital tools. Connick notes that organizations still rely heavily on “old-school” communication, emails,PowerPoints, and word of mouth, but those aren’t enough to reach distributed workforces. “We haven’t seen much innovation in 20 years,” he says. “People want short, useful messages. Technology can help make that communication scalable and sustainable.”
5. Close the Loop
Connick warns that many organizations unintentionally send what he calls “I care” messages,generic statements of concern that don’t show action.
“It’s the actions that matter,” he says. “When crews see leadership actually fixing things they’ve been pointing out for months, that’s when trust builds.”
Sharing outcomes, “You told us. We did this.” makes learning visible and real.
Building a Culture That Learns and Listens
The ultimate goal of HOP isn’t just fewer incidents, it’s a smarter, more connected organization. Connick urges companies to see learning as continuous, not event-based. You don’t have to call it HOP. Just say you’re becoming a learning organization, one that shares what it learns and invites others to contribute.
That mindset shift requires frequent, transparent communication and an environment where feedback flows both ways. It’s about designing systems for people as they actually work, not as policies assume they will.
“HOP better reflects the way people really work,” Connick says. “Our job is to design processes and systems that support humans, not the other way around.”
When learning reaches every level, from the boardroom to the boots on the ground—HOP stops being theory and starts becoming your culture.
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About the Expert
Shawn Connick, CSP, is a recognized consultant and practitioner in Human & Organizational Performance (HOP) and operational learning. With extensive experience in high-hazard industries, Shawn helps organizations shift from compliance mindsets to learning systems. He has served in leadership and safety roles for major construction firms, led development of serious injury prevention programs, and speaks widely on how to build feedback loops, learning teams, and culture of trust. He often presents at industry conferences and has led HOP implementations across diverse environments.
For more about Shawn’s work or to connect for presentations, visit https://connick.cc/