The purpose of analyzing the human behavioral component of any event is to understand why the people involved did the things they did. Investigations attempt to understand the workplace conditions, worker attitudes, adequacy of staffing levels and effectiveness of leadership to explain what happened. In this session, we’ll look at how incorporating elements of both human and organizational performance and behavior-based safety into an investigation allows management to create an environment in which workers can make good decisions by recognizing the role of the individual and human fallibility, identifying how organizational systems influence human behavior, and embracing the role of the leader to manage organizational systems to positively influence human behavior. Further, as worker behaviors are examined using the behavioral approach, underlying management system at-risk behaviors become apparent. When we reach these holistic conclusions, we can concentrate on improving the management system – instead of using the easy answer of the “big stick.”