Can We Really Learn from the Experience of Others?How Shared Learnings Can Become Actual Change

This presentation will recount the creation of the first safety committee at Eastman Kodak Company, and how its formation relates to one of the seminal industrial accidents of the 20^th Century, the Triangle Shirtwaist fire of March 1911.

The presentation will review the memo forming the Kodak Committee on Safety as well as the Triangle case history, and discuss how its impact was felt, and how changes were made at Kodak and in many other industries as a result. Available accident statistics from the early 20^th century will be presented to illustrate the case for change and the need for continual review of case histories across a range of industries and activities, adopting learnings even when the event itself is not relevant to current operations.