Laurie Shelby
VP, EHS & Security
Tesla
From HOP to HdOP: Safety and Performance in a Human–Humanoid World
Human & Organizational Performance (HOP) has fundamentally reshaped how organizations understand safety, risk, and performance – moving away from blame and toward an appreciation of complexity and adaptation. These principles remain valid, but the conditions under which work is performed have changed decisively. Work is no longer carried out by humans alone. Across industries, humanoids, AI agents, robotics, automation, and decision-support systems are now embedded in everyday operations, influencing how work is planned, executed, monitored, and recovered. And more to come!
Yet most performance and safety frameworks continue to assume a human-only system.
This paper introduces Humanoid & Organizational Performance (HdOP) as the next evolution of HOP. HdOP reframes performance as an outcome of hybrid human-machine systems, where risk is redistributed rather than eliminated, and where capacity, learning, and resilience emerge from interaction – not individual effort. As intelligent systems increasingly participate in decisions, accountability, leadership, and supervision must also be redesigned.
HdOP does not replace HOP; it extends its core principles into a new operational reality. The central leadership question is no longer how to make people perform better, but how to design work, governance, and accountability when humans are no longer working alone. Organizations that deploy advanced technologies without evolving their performance models risk falling behind the emerging risk curve.
Laurie Shelby joined Tesla Inc. as their EHS Vice President in October 2017. She leads worldwide EHS, Sustainability, and Security for over 130,000 employees in the automotive, energy, and sales, service, delivery operations.
Previously, she was the EHS Vice President for Alcoa Inc. where she led the global EHS across mining, refining, smelting, and rolling operations. Prior roles at Alcoa included EHS Director for United States primary aluminum operations and EHS global audit Manager.
Laurie is a leader on serious injury reduction and is a human and organizational performance expert known for her new view thinking to drive improvements.
Laurie completed her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Radford University. She earned her master’s in Industrial Hygiene/Biomedical Engineering from Virginia Commonwealth University/Medical College of Virginia. Laurie is also a Certified Safety Professional (CSP) and Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH).
Laurie and her husband live in Austin, Texas but they are both native Virginians. They have 2 daughters who are also helping change the world!