Event Learning Taxonomy in Synergi Life

Turning incidents into insights with Synergi Life and Event Learning Taxonomy

Event Learning Taxonomy enhances Synergi Life, DNV's HSE and risk management software, by supporting learning from everyday events rather than assigning blame.

Event Learning Taxonomy, also known as CLUE (Contextual Learning and Understanding of Events), helps organisations learn from incidents by focusing on the conditions that influenced what happened, rather than reducing events to simple causes or individual errors. Using neutral, descriptive language and a limited set of contributing factors, it supports more consistent reporting and helps reduce the focus on naming, blaming, shaming, and retraining. Rather than asking “Who failed?”, Event Learning Taxonomy supports a deeper understanding of what made actions reasonable at the time, providing a stronger foundation for learning, improvement, and decision making.

Event Learning Taxonomy in Synergi Life: from reporting to learning

Event Learning Taxonomy is designed to work inside the flow of incident reporting, not alongside it. In Synergi Life, users select contributing factors while registering an incident or event case, as part of the normal workflow. 

Instead of asking users to find a single cause or decide who failed, Synergi Life helps them describe the conditions that influenced the event. These may relate to the task, the individual’s situation, organisational priorities, or equipment and workplace conditions. More than one factor can apply, and that is expected. 

Without a simple, consistent, and neutral taxonomy, reporting becomes fragmented, analysis is less reliable, and improvement actions tend to focus on retraining or supervision instead of addressing underlying system conditions.

What this looks like in practice

When creating a case in Synergi Life, users: 

• describe the event in their own words 
• select the contributing factors that best fit the situation 
• focus on what was present at the time, rather than what should have happened in hindsight 

Clear, neutral language and a limited set of factors make this quick to do, even without investigation training.

Why this improves incident reporting and learning

Embedding Event Learning Taxonomy in Synergi Life supports:

• more consistent classification across sites and teams 
• more accurate incident data that is easier to interpret 
• better visibility of patterns and weak signals across low and mediumseverity events 

Because the taxonomy is simple to apply, reporting becomes more comparable over time, strengthening the foundation for learning. 

How this influences actions and improvement

How events are described shapes the actions that follow. When contributing factors highlight system conditions, improvement actions are more likely to address planning, coordination, interfaces, resourcing, or organisational expectations, rather than defaulting to retraining or reminders. This helps organisations prioritise improvements based on patterns, not isolated cases.

Supporting everyday use, at scale

Event Learning Taxonomy in Synergi Life is designed for everyday events, where most learning opportunities exist. By using it in the system people already rely on, organisations can move beyond basic incident recording and strengthen learning and improvement over time.