Why Do We Keep Having Repeat Incidents?

Most repeat incidents aren’t caused by people forgetting, not caring, or “needing more training.”
They come from something far more common and far more predictable:

Systems that drift faster than leaders can see it happening.

When HRG teams support refineries, utilities, maritime operations, chemical plants, and heavy industry, we find that repeat incidents almost always point to the same few gaps, not new ones.

This article explains why organizations keep seeing the same failures, even after corrective actions, and what leaders can do to break the cycle.

Repeat Incidents Aren’t Random – They Follow Patterns

Every operation has a fingerprint.
If you look closely at your last five incidents (or near misses), you’ll usually see patterns in at least one of these areas:

Drift in Daily Habits

Standards may be written clearly, but execution slowly adjusts to “how we really do the job.”

• Shortcuts become norms

• Checklists get rushed

• Pre-job briefs lose depth

• Verification slips under pressure

This drift is subtle.
It builds quietly, then shows up loudly.

Weak Feedback Loops

Most organizations investigate events well.
Very few close the loop well.

Indicators of weak loops:

• Lessons learned don’t translate to changed behavior

• Supervisors aren’t reinforcing new expectations

• Work-as-imagined still doesn’t match work-as-done

• Follow-through fades after the first week

Teams repeat incidents when the review process fixes the paperwork, not the behavior.

Overloaded Frontline Leaders

Where incidents occur, capacity is usually already thin.

Supervisors often juggle:

• admin tasks

• production pressure

• coaching needs

• schedule moves

• personnel issues

• unexpected work

When supervisors don’t have time to lead in the field, standards slip, no matter how committed they are.

Corrective Actions That Don’t Address Actual Conditions

A corrective action only works if it fits the real job.

If the fix requires:

• perfect attention

• more time than crews have

• extra steps they can’t sustain

• tools they don’t actually use

• behavior that contradicts production pressure

…it won’t survive the next outage, storm, churn, or shift turnover.

Most repeat incidents come from corrective actions that looked good in a meeting but died immediately on the deck.

No Early Warning System

High-risk operations generate weak signals constantly:

• small deviations

• unusual sounds

• minor checklist errors

• incomplete handovers

• a near miss someone didn’t mention

Organizations that prevent repeat incidents have simple routines that surface these weak signals daily.

If weak signals stay silent, incidents repeat.

How to Break the Cycle

Fixing repeat incidents isn’t about more rules.
It’s about reinforcing the habits that prevent drift and expose early signals.

1. Restore One or Two Critical Routines

This includes:

• • predictable shift handovers

  • consistent pre-job briefs

  • simple verification steps

  • short coaching rounds

Small routines create large stability.

2. Make Follow-Through Visible

Teams must see that corrective actions worked.

Use:

• • 30-day verification

  • short field walkdowns

  • visible status boards

  • leadership presence at the point of work

Consistency builds trust, and trust builds reporting.

3. Reduce Noise Before Raising Standards

Most repeat incidents happen in noisy systems.
Before holding teams to tighter standards, remove friction:

• • remove unnecessary steps

  • simplify forms

  • fix broken tools or slow systems

  • reduce administrative load

A stable system supports stable behavior.

4. Give Supervisors Time Back

Supervisors prevent drift.
If they’re trapped in offices or meetings, drift wins.

Reallocate time, streamline approvals, and remove low-value tasks so supervisors can lead where risk actually lives.

Bottom Line

Repeat incidents are not evidence of weak people.
They are evidence of systems drifting faster than leaders realize.

Organizations break the cycle when they:

• restore daily discipline

• close feedback loops

• simplify corrective actions

• build early warning habits

• give supervisors the bandwidth to lead

Do those consistently, and repeat incidents stop being “unexpected”, they become preventable.

High Reliability Group | Operational Excellence. Built for Execution.
We help leaders in safety-critical industries design cultures of accountability, resilience, and continuous learning.

info@highrelgroup.com  |  (331) 223-9722  |  highrelgroup.com