Is Safety Learning the Right Lessons with Nippin Anand

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Nippin Anand, an event investigation expert who founded a consultancy specialising in human-centred approaches to learning.

Using the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster, Nippin examines how investigations often produce explanations that satisfy the need for closure but fail to reflect the complexity of events and help organizations actually learn.

Drawing on social psychology, mythology and anthropology, Nippin challenges many “safety myths” including normal work, zero harm and the role of blame in the workplace. He encourages the safety profession to uncover deeper insights through surfacing the unconscious, using our three minds and focusing on intelligent cues in accident investigations.

A key theme is that real learning lies in the tension, and Nippin argues for transdisciplinary thinking in safety, moving beyond root cause and corrective action towards context, meaning, individuality and uncertainty. This interview offers EHS professionals a more reflective approach to safety learning.