PreAccident Investigation Podcast

Todd Conklin

The Pre Accident Podcast is an ongoing safety podcast conversation of Human Performance, Systems Safety, & Safety Culture.

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20 episodes
Updated Saturday

Episodes20

Newest first

Saturday · 29 min
PAPod 610 - Rock the Boat: Reimagining Safety Science with Dr. David Woods PART ONE
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-45055-6_8#:~:text=The%20Command%E2%80%93Adapt%20Paradox%20arises,%E2%80%9D%E2%80%94being%20poised%20to%20adapt. Todd hosts Dr. David Woods in a two-part episode challenging the current state of safety science, arguing for more synthesis across disciplines and a shift from one-off fixes to ongoing capacity for safe, effective, and viable organizations. They examine the history and fragmentation of safety work, the rise of resilience thinking, barriers like short-term pressure and limited budgets, and why the safety community must collaborate to create stronger, long-term approaches.
August 1 · 30 min
PAPod 609 - Ra Donda Brings Us Up to Speed on Her Effort to Change the World
Join Ra Donda Vought and Todd Conklin and they meet up to discuss how Ra Donda has refined her message to the world and how surprised she is in other, non-medical industry. It is always so much fun to talk with Ra Donda - she has great energy and is so much fun to spend time in discussion. See what you think - I think you will enjoy this Pod a bunch.
July 25 · 37 min
PAPod 608 - Modern Safety: How Children's Hospitals Are Rewriting the Rules
Join Todd and Dr. Anne Lynne from the CHOL conference as they explore “modern safety” in children’s hospitals and the SPS mission — how new lenses on risk, leadership behaviors, and a willingness to try small experiments are reshaping safety, reliability, and improvement work. They discuss practical examples like reducing unplanned extubations, the role of leaders in creating capacity and permission, and how sharing success stories fuels innovation and wider adoption across healthcare.
July 18 · 25 min
PAPod 607 - Croquet Mallets & Outlaws: My Family’s Bonnie and Clyde Encounter
Host Todd interviews his mother, Gyla Conklin, who recounts a true 1933 encounter when her father, Bill Brock, and friends were held up by Bonnie and Clyde near Meade, Kansas. The episode highlights a dramatic rescue at a park, a croquet mallet that saved the day, and a family newspaper account. Short, vivid, and personal, this episode underscores why recording family stories matters and offers a human look at a famous criminal story.
July 11 · 32 min
PAPod 606 - At the Cusp: How Leadership, Compassion and Worker Voice Are Rewriting Safety
Todd Conklin talks with Rob Fisher about how leadership, workforce shifts and compassion are reshaping safety and reliability. They explore why organizations must move from fixing problems to improving systems, and how worker engagement becomes the key source of learning. The episode covers practical approaches—small experiments, better leader conversations, and data from observations (TEDS)—that help leaders act differently without adding more work. They also discuss legacy, cultural change, and why a pull from curious leaders and workers is replacing the old push. Listen for concrete questions leaders can ask, ways to prototype improvements, and a reminder that compassion leads and safety follows.
July 4 · 25 min
PAPod 605 - When a Meeting Becomes an Emergency: Restoring the Room
This episode recounts a medical emergency that occurred during a large conference and explains how a quick critical incident stress debrief helped restore the group and the organization. Todd outlines a simple restoration framework—who's hurt, what they need, and who will help—and walks through a seven-step debrief process that turns trauma into learning, supports people emotionally, and improves future response.
June 27 · 32 min
PAPod 604 - On the Edge: Risks, Resilience, and Red Bull’s Adventure Athlete
Host Todd Conklin interviews Red Bull athlete Will Gadd about adventure sports, recent tragic incidents (a parachute crash in Butler, Mo., a Moab base-jump, and a bungee failure), and how the outdoor world approaches risk. The episode explores the difference between being robust and being resilient, the limits of individual skill, and how controls, recoverability, and community learning can reduce harm in high‑hazard activities.
June 20 · 20 min
PAPod 603 - Procedures: The Double-Edged Sword of Safety
In this episode Todd Conklin explores the paradox of procedures: they keep work stable but also limit flexibility. He explains how procedures can be both necessary and constraining in high-risk, high-consequence environments. Todd highlights the value of incremental safety—making small, thoughtful changes over time—while building communities of practice to better prepare organizations for an uncertain future. He closes with practical advice: treat procedures as thresholds rather than one right way, focus on learning from everyday work, foster resilient systems, and remember to take care of yourself while having some fun.
June 13 · 33 min
PAPod 602 - From Brazil with Safety: Gilval and the New View Revolution
Todd Conklin talks with Gilval Menezes about Brazil’s growing movement to adopt the New View of safety: translating resources into Portuguese, building community, publishing a field guide, and running learning teams to shift culture away from blame. They discuss practical work on HOP implementation, the cultural challenges of translation, the urgency driven by workplace fatality rates, and the push to develop methods that fit Brazil and wider Latin America.
June 6 · 35 min
PAPod 601 - Rethinking Safety: AI, Pre-Jobs, and the Power of Listening
Todd chats with Ron Gantt about the future of safety — from AI-driven pre-task tools to the limits of rote checklists — and why listening to frontline workers matters more than ever. They explore leadership’s role in shaping responses to incidents, bridging power gaps with contractors, and designing systems that actually support real work. Through examples from healthcare to construction and candid anecdotes, the episode argues for intentional, human-centered change: test tools in context, focus on creating success, and set leaders up to respond thoughtfully when things go wrong.
May 30 · 24 min
PAPod 600 - The Future of Safety: Learning Teams, Storytelling, and Not-Knowing
In this part two conversation, Todd Conklin and Bob Edwards explore what the future holds for operational learning and safety. They discuss learning teams, storytelling, the power of curiosity and not-knowing, and how the people closest to the work provide the best solutions. The episode highlights successes from pediatric patient safety, the Navy, and industry examples, and emphasizes cultural shifts away from quick fixes and metrics toward continuous, practical improvement and clearer stop-work practices.
May 23 · 31 min
PAPod 599 - Learn Like Bob: How Pediatric Teams Saved 30,000 Babies
Todd Conklin and Bob Edwards discuss Solutions for Patient Safety (SPS), a grassroots movement of learning teams that used operational learning to dramatically reduce harm in pediatric care. The episode covers emotional stories from the SPS meetings, practical methods like soak time and learning teams, the power of continuous improvement, and the real-world impact of saving thousands of young lives.
May 16 · 16 min
PAPod 598 - What If Risk Never Leaves? Exploring Transportable Hazards
In this episode, Todd Conklin questions whether risk can ever truly be removed or if it simply moves around. He distinguishes between hazards and risk, discusses how organizations shift risk through contracting and worker practices, and argues that while hazards can be managed, risk remains dynamic and persistent. Todd also highlights the role of controls, barriers, and margin in starting work safely, and teases upcoming conversations on psychological safety, AI and safety, and leadership.
May 9 · 21 min
PAPod 597 - From the way, way, way, way, back machine...Pain as a Predictor: Martha Acosta on Finding the Signals Before Failure
Todd Conklin interviews Martha Acosta, a pioneer in human performance and instructional design, about using organizational "pain points" and paradoxes as early indicators of system failures. They discuss why near misses and workplace frustrations are valuable signals and how leaders can turn those tensions into opportunities for learning and improvement. The episode offers practical advice for managers: be present, look for pressure points across roles, and treat minor pains as diagnostic cues to prevent larger incidents. Martha translates high-level ideas into actionable steps leaders can use tomorrow.
May 2 · 20 min
PAPod 596 - Incremental Safety Practices: Reductive vs. Inductive Safety
Todd Conklin reviews Erik Hollnagel’s new book "Incremental Safety Practices" and explains the core idea that safety efforts fall into two approaches: reductive (removing hazards) and inductive (building resilient systems). He urges listeners to view safety as an ongoing capacity managed in everyday work rather than a static goal achieved after eliminating risks. The episode invites organizations to reflect on whether their programs focus on hazard removal, resilience building, or both, and emphasizes paying attention to incremental improvements (or erosions) in safety culture and practice.
April 25 · 30 min
PAPod 595 - Beyond Checklists: How Conversations Transform Safety Culture
Host Todd Conklin talks with Daniel Hummerdahl about his new book, An Invitation to Safety Conversation, exploring how everyday safety talks can move beyond scripted checklists to become learning moments that bridge leaders and workers. The episode shares practical stories and techniques for asking better questions, listening more, and scaling conversational practices across organizations to improve safety, trust, and performance.
April 18 · 30 min
PAPod 594 - Bridging Cultures: Safety, Migrant Workers, and the Heart of Agribusiness
Coming into this episode, Todd Conklin welcomes Al Thomson to discuss safety in the primary sector, focusing on migrant Pacific workers and a human-centered approach. Al shares how Monarch Platform blends pastoral care, cultural understanding, and contemporary safety (HOP) to support a diverse workforce across New Zealand’s agriculture and horticulture industries. The conversation covers cultural differences in risk perception, village success planning, measuring workforce capacity with role-specific “bingo” competencies, and the importance of humility, vulnerability, and leadership in creating meaningful safety outcomes.
April 11 · 32 min
PAPod 593 - Young Voices, System Thinking: A Conversation on Safety with Mousa Yassin
Host Todd chats with Mousa Yassin about shifting safety culture from blaming individuals to designing systems that tolerate failure and recover quickly. They cover life-saving rules, the concept of recoverability, lessons from software engineering like chaos testing, and the importance of learning over punishment. The episode emphasizes practical ways to build resilient systems, nurture learning teams, and make safety training engaging and effective.
April 4 · 28 min
PAPod 592 - How a Near-Miss Sparked the Learning Team Movement
Todd Conklin tells the origin story of "learning teams," sparked by a self-reported near-miss at Los Alamos involving a postdoc and an arcing wrench. Rather than pursuing a punitive investigation, a group of workers gathered to identify what needed to be learned, uncovering broader gaps in postdoc training and safety planning. The episode explains how learning teams prioritize asking better questions, collecting the right data, and designing system-focused solutions. Conklin describes how this approach spread across the lab and why it remains a fast, effective tool for operational improvement.
March 28 · 32 min
PAPod 591 - Workers Are the Solution: A Conversation with Corey Pitzer
Todd Conklin talks with Corey Pitzer about fatality prevention, Human and Organizational Performance (HOP), and how safety thinking has shifted globally. They explore controversial views—treating workers as problem-solvers, tensions between engineering/energy-based approaches and systemic/new-view thinking—and use real examples to show why designing systems that absorb variation matters more than trying to eliminate risk.