How one of the world's largest P&I clubs made Learning from Normal Work available to the maritime industry.
The partnership
The UK P&I Club partnered with Psychology Applied in 2024 to provide Learning from Normal Work training to its members across the global maritime industry.
Stuart Edmonston, Director of Safety and Risk Management at the UK P&I Club, described the rationale for the partnership:
Ship owners and operators are facing an increasingly risk-intensive operating environment as they navigate market changes. As part of the UK P&I Club’s Safety and Risk Management division, we understand the need to look outside of our industry to make sure we keep in step with the best practices in safety and risk assessment. Our collaboration with Dr Marcin Nazaruk provides our Members with access to the latest innovations in practical psychology, to ensure that their approach to loss prevention adapts to meet the modern demands of our industry.
The maritime context
The UK P&I Club identified a pattern familiar to every high-risk industry. The introduction of the ISM Code and other standards produced a decline in the incident rate, but the rate plateaued and incidents continued to occur. Shore-based managers were frustrated by repeat incidents and questioned the effectiveness of the systems they had worked hard to implement. Average claim costs continued to rise.
The Club recognized that most operations are completed without a negative incident. Crew manage available resources, deal with pressures and restrictions, and get the job done. But in many cases, the way the job is completed differs from what the procedures describe. The gap between work-as-imagined and work-as-done is where risk accumulates, and where proactive learning can surface it before the next incident.
What the program covers
The training is available as a one-day workshop covering the core Learning from Normal Work methodology. The sessions are designed for senior leaders, managers, supervisors, superintendents, DPAs, HSE/HSQE professionals, and senior crew training officers.
Learning from Normal Work for the maritime industry
Industry coverage
The partnership was covered across major maritime publications.
- Maritime London
- Partnership announcement (opens in a new tab)
- Hellenic Shipping News
- Industry coverage of the partnership and its objectives (opens in a new tab)
- World Ports Organization
- Partnership context alongside other P&I club collaborations (opens in a new tab)
What makes this partnership significant
This is the first time Learning from Normal Work has been adopted by a major industry body for distribution to its entire membership. The UK P&I Club is one of the largest mutual marine insurance associations in the world, and the partnership represents a structural shift: a major insurance body investing in proactive learning capability for its members as a loss prevention measure, funded by the Club rather than by individual ship operators.
Client snapshot
- Organization
- UK P&I Club (managed by Thomas Miller)
- Industry
- Maritime insurance / P&I
- Scope
- Free training available to all UK P&I Club members globally
- Program
- One-day Learning from Normal Work workshop
- Partnership announced
- 2024
- Key contact
- Stuart Edmonston, Director Safety and Risk Management
