Will Your Critical Controls Work When It Matters?

About this Webinar

For years, one question has driven how we assess critical controls: ‘Did people follow them?’

It’s a fair question. But it’s not the most important one.

The question that matters more is ‘would this critical control still prevent harm under normal human behaviour and real operating conditions?’ Work changes. Pressure builds. People adapt. A control that only works when everything goes to plan isn’t reliable, however well it’s documented.

In this session, Alex Fernando shares what research into more than 10,000 incidents across 12 industry sectors reveals about the difference between compliance and reliability. He’ll explain why critical controls can be defined, communicated, and verified, and still fail. He’ll also show how to design systems that cope with human variability rather than depend on perfection.

What You’ll Learn

• Why compliance isn’t a reliable proxy for effectiveness. What the data shows about critical controls that look strong on paper but struggle in the field, including the finding that over one-third of controls analysed were difficult or unworkable in practice.
  
  
• What makes a critical control reliable. The five factors that decide whether a control performs when it matters: its purpose, its design, the operating context, how easily degradation is detected, and how it performs in real work.
  
  
• How critical controls drift (and how to spot it early). Why adaptation and workarounds are normal features of work, and how to make silent degradation visible before exposure escalates.
  
  
• Building systems that tolerate human error. Practical steps to reduce reliance on vigilance and memory, verify safe states rather than assume them, and shift assurance from ‘was it followed?’ to ‘did it work?’
  

Who Should Attend: 

• Health & Safety and Risk Professionals

• Team Leaders and Managers

• Senior Leaders and Executives
• HR and People and Culture Leaders 
• Anyone responsible for workplace health and safety outcomes