Industrial safety through the lens of complexity: implications for training

This article examines, through the lens of complexity, a series of conceptual and empirical contributions in safety sciences, before concentrating on studies related to training within this domain. It seeks to discuss the desirable advancements to achieve a comprehensive integration of complexity (and of complexity theories) into training and/or the design of training situations. Our analysis highlights the fundamental role of complexity, not only in debates related to industrial safety, but also in the training methods associated with it, although the concept of complexity has not yet played the role it could or should have in safety training. We support the idea that the development and scaling up of what we define as training II programs (resilience-oriented) - and potentially even training III programs - are now indispensable, particularly to address the current shortcomings in safety training. Such training programs, in our view, i) fundamentally require the adoption of a complex thinking approach, both with regard to the target activity and the training itself, and ii) could benefit from a more robust grounding of design principles in complexity theories.