Learning from structural failure: the challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Learning the lessons from structural failure necessarily involves investigating the organisational and technical causes of failure, and ensuring these lessons are disseminated to the wider structural engineering profession to prevent reoccurrence. Yet despite the obvious benefits of such an approach, individuals and organisations are generally reluctant to disclose or acknowledge failure, and these psychological reactions can dominate their ability to learn the critical lessons. Understanding the role these psychological reactions play in inhibiting learning is a key step in developing practical methodologies for ensuring the lessons of past failures are not forgotten. This paper reviews and discusses some of the unique aspects of anticipating, responding to, and learning from all forms of failure, not only those of a structural nature. The paper reviews the barriers to learning, the challenges of identifying and analysing failure, the importance of ‘near-misses’ in anticipating failure, and explores how these insights can provide guidance to the structural engineering profession on how best to ensure effective learning occurs.