The Challenges of Creating a Learning Organization when Merging Global Safety Cultures with Dr. Thomas Burgdorff

It’s been said that Corporate America has the attention span of a squirrel. And it’s also been said that the concept of a “Learning Organization” is 20 years old. 

But learning and continuous improvement go hand in hand. And it’s doubtful that continuous improvement will ever go out of style.

However, the challenges of creating a learning organization when it comes to health and safety, and trying new things, when you have to merge different cultures from different regions are significant - to say the least. 

Thomas is in the midst doing just that: going from 11,000 to 20,000 employees and merging cultures from Russia and Europe, North America, South America and Asia.

Which ideas and processes work best? 

Which ones should be global standards and which ones should remain in the local domain? 

How do you share the learnings and successes?

How do you get them to try new ideas from other regions? 

And how do you do all of this and keep moving forward - with injuries on a downward trend?

“Not easy”, says Thomas, “one step at a time…”


About Thomas:

Thomas Burgdorff, PhD, is a communications expert with an extensive history working in politics and the private sector. His proficiency as a master of connection has made him invaluable at Uniper for 5 years as the Learning Manager Health, Safety, and Environment.

In his role, Thomas encounters questions like this all the time: Why do the same incidents keep happening again and again? How can we stop it or at least reduce the likelihood of reoccurring? As Uniper's HSE Learning Manager he deals with these questions on a daily basis. Developing his company into a real learning organization, capable of learning from incidents, preventing them from happening but also learning from good practice, is what he's striving for with passion and dedication. Thomas is on the show because he’s interested in sharing experiences on how to communicate lessons learned in the most effective way.