Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) has earned well-deserved attention in recent years. It correctly shifts focus from blaming people to improving the systems in which they work. These are meaningful advances. Yet many organizations that have adopted HOP principles are still experiencing the same types of incidents. The reason is usually that something important is still missing.

At Failsafe Network, we’ve been in the trenches for over four decades, helping organizations learn from the things that go wrong. What we’ve seen over all those years is that most traditional RCA training doesn’t fall short because people aren’t trying hard enough—it fails because the approach itself has some pretty fundamental flaws. Let's walk through why that happens and how our Latent Cause Analysis™, or LCA, brings something genuinely different to the table.

Case study of catastrophic hydrotreater explosion.

In this episode of Human Performance and Latent Causes, Robert E. Statham, President of Failsafe Network, takes a deep dive into a real crushing injury and partial finger amputation that occurred during a routine jam clearance on a high-speed wrapper conveyor in a food packaging plant.

Latent Cause Analysis (LCA) is an evidence-based method for investigating incidents that goes beyond fixing immediate problems to uncover deeper systemic, human, and cultural causes. LCA strengthens leadership at all levels and transforms organizational culture toward continuous improvement, better decisions, and fewer repeated failures.

Traditional Root Cause Analysis (RCA) often falls short because it stops at surface-level issues—like equipment failure or individual error—and tends to become a blame-focused, checkbox exercise. As a result, organizations see the same problems repeat.

Latent Cause Analysis (LCA) is a more powerful alternative because it examines the underlying systems and human factors that create the conditions for failure.

The role people play in things that go wrong and the more important role people play in learning, improving, and growing in day to day business.

The problem with blame and how to effectively deal with it in the midst of an investigation .