A LITTLE BACKGROUND HISTORY INTO OUR 25 YEARS OF HELPING ORGANISATIONS TO UNDERSTAND LOSS EVENTS

Kinaston Associates has worked with clients from a variety of locations, from Europe to the Far East and between.  We have worked in numerous sectors some of which are: government, education, heavy and light manufacturing, construction, chemicals, transport and oil and gas.

We are only involved in accident investigation and causal analysis, this has given us an insight into different methodologies.  We have been involved in the gathering of evidence for both defence and prosecution, but far more importantly we like to concentrate on the identification of underlying causation.  In order to effectively do this we use recognised academic processes to take qualitative comment and build data sets that show an organisation potential areas for development.

In the last five years we have been concentrating on developing a system for identifying weaknesses in the governance of values and attitudes within organisations.  This is especially important where events are occurring in organisations which would be termed as being ‘high reliability’.  This important step change in the investigative process has led to some very interesting conversations in relation to management direction and corporate governance.  It has redefined the boundaries of investigative process and the given substance to the concept of underlying causation.

We state that we look at ‘loss events’.  These are not simply just personal injury accidents, but include environmental issues, asset loss, security damage, welfare, health and reputation.  All loss events are seen as being symptomatic of the corporate governance and subsequent management of key organisational failure areas and the related values, attitudes, attributes and expectations (VAAE) within the organisation that motivate people.

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Educational Ethos

There is an enormous difference between education and training.  Kinaston Associates offers a variety of educational courses.  These range from 6 hour CPD sessions for directors to the international 4/5 day courses for lead investigators.

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The ethos behind the courses is simply one of understanding the link between intentions (organisational) motivation and process and the potential for failure.  Our instructors are qualified to teach, holding a minimum of a Cert Ed. and have experience and qualifications in their subject matter.

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Our intention is for our delegates to be able to present good data to their organisations from which both an understanding of events can be obtained and an insight of the organisational issues that preempted them.  Much of our work is based in grounded theoretical methodologies, thus providing academically acceptable data for organisations to use to examine their positionality.

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Our training courses were used by The Institution of Occupational Health (IOSH) as part of their professional development programme up until 2014 when this part of the institution’s work ceased.  Our four day course became known colloquially as the IOSH accident investigation course as many delegates attended the institution’s premises to take part.

As with all courses things have moved forward and so now the four day session that we run has been developed further than the syllabus provided during the  IOSH PD days with significant changes brought about by developments in law and academic approaches.

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Have a look at the discussion area for a better appreciation of our journey and where it has brought us