How to Implement HOP in a Compliance-Focused Organisation

How to Implement HOP in a Compliance-Focused Organisation

Most safety professionals who hear about Human and Organisational Performance (HOP) like the principles. The harder question is what to do on Monday morning when your organisation runs on compliance, audits and a firm view that someone is responsible when things go wrong.

In a recent myosh Academy session, Kym Bancroft, Director of New View Safety and former Deputy Director-General and Regulator at WorkSafe Queensland, explored how to Implement HOP without positioning it as an alternative to compliance. This article summarises what she shared, and what a live audience added.

Expect objections, and take them seriously

When the audience was asked what concerns people had raised about HOP, the answers were consistent. It removes accountability. It needs more documentation. It does not fit our reporting or management systems. Some people said senior colleagues simply resist change.

Kym’s view is that many of these concerns are legitimate from the position the person sits in. Her advice is to surface them before introducing HOP, and to treat implementation as a change management challenge, not a training challenge. She likes Kotter’s stages of change, but says the model matters less than choosing one and thinking through the barriers and enablers.

“The easy part of HOP is agreeing with it… It’s much harder to apply this inside an organization.”

Use a familiar entry point

Kym uses the idea of a Trojan horse: bring HOP in through something leaders already care about, openly and without being sneaky.

Due diligence. Officers in Australia and New Zealand have obligations to understand operations and risks, receive and respond to risk information, and verify that controls work. HOP helps leaders see work as it is actually done, not just as reported. Kym described a water utility where monthly reports counted leadership walks. When the walks were redesigned to explore work as done, leaders began hearing stories of success and drift, which gave them far richer information.

Assurance. Traditional assurance asks whether a control is present and a procedure followed. HOP-informed assurance adds how it worked in practice, why it differed, and how you know it was effective.

Operational learning. How leaders respond to bad news shapes what people tell them next time. If the response is blame, information gets filtered and assurance becomes less reliable.

Start small and weave it in

Kym’s interviews with organisations that had implemented HOP produced three lessons. Be thoughtful about launching another safety program, because the label can become the barrier. Start with leaders and credible allies. Weave HOP into work that already happens, such as investigations, safety walks and inductions, then show the value.

The audience voted on realistic first steps. A micro-experiment, such as removing safety clutter, came first, followed by a learning conversation about normal work. Kym noted that no one needs permission to start a learning conversation. The 4Ds (difficult, dumb, dangerous, different) offer a simple set of questions.

Her own experience of decluttering is a useful warning. A risk and compliance team feared it would create legal exposure. In practice, the review found critical risk documents, such as fatigue management, that were underdone. The lesson was to spend more time understanding the team’s fears first.

What this means in practice

Choose a problem your leaders already recognise, and name it.

Pick a change model and identify your allies and barriers.

Pilot one small change: a learning conversation, a changed question after an event, or one less form.

Ask what changed for the people doing the work, and whether it helped them manage risk.

If your organisation uses myosh, incident and investigation forms are a natural place to start building learning questions into everyday workflows.

Key takeaways

HOP is not an alternative to compliance. Compliance and learning can reinforce each other.

Start with due diligence, assurance or operational learning, depending on what your leaders care about.

Treat implementation as change management, and surface objections early.

Avoid launching another safety program. Weave HOP into existing work.

Start with a micro-experiment or a learning conversation.

Success is measured by whether it helps people do their work and manage risk.

Watch the full session: https://www.myosh.com/academy/webinars/introducing-hop-in-a-compliance-focused-organisation

Presenter: Kym Bancroft, Director, New View Safety. Tags: HOP, WHS, HSEQ, safety culture, due diligence, safety assurance

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