Human Resources meets Operational Learning—aligning leadership, culture, and outcomes.
Operational Learning & human and organizational Performance
WHO IS THE OL COACH
Alexander Edwards, MBA, SPHR is a seasoned HR executive and Operational Learning Coach who helps organizations transform how they learn from work. With a background in logistics, transportation, and high-risk industries, he leverages over a decade of HR leadership to improve culture, reduce errors, and align performance with purpose.
His coaching focuses on learning before fixing—listening to internal experts, identifying system-level issues, and enabling leaders to respond, not react. His approach connects operational realities to people strategy.
WHAT IS OPERATIONAL LEARNING?
Operational Learning helps organizations understand how work really gets done—not just how it’s supposed to happen. By capturing the lived experiences of employees, companies can remove friction, reduce risk, and build a culture that supports both safety and performance.
The Five Goals of Operational Learning:
- Get a more holistic view of how our processes are working
- Remove unacceptable goal conflicts
- Reduce known error traps
- Expand on what helps create success
- Build stronger and more sustainable defenses to improve the reliability and resilience of operations.
(Andrea Baker, Bob Edwards)
WHAT IS HUMAN AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING?
WHAT IS HUMAN AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING?
Human and Organizational Performance is best described as a way of thinking that requires intense collaboration of leadership and those who do the work. The five H.O.P. principles MUST be understood and applied within an organization for effective operational learning to take place.
These HOP principles guide how leaders and organizations respond to failure, change, and feedback. In HR, they reshape performance conversations, safety culture, and how we build resilient systems.
The Five Human And Organizational Performance (HOP) Principles:
- People Make Mistakes
- Blame Fixes Nothing
- Context is Everything
- Learning & Improving is Vital
- Leader’s Response Matters
(Baker, Conklin, Bob Edwards)