Rajni Walia
Rajni Walia, PhD
Snr VP Client Insights & Experience
DEKRA
The Warning Signs Blueprint: Building HROs Through Psychological Safety and HOP
In the world of high-stakes operations, catastrophic incidents rarely strike without warning. Yet these critical signals often go unrecognized or unheeded. High-reliability organizations (HROs) have cracked the code on detecting and acting on these vital early indicators, even while managing complex, high-risk operations. Their secret? A powerful fusion of psychological safety and human performance principles.
This session explores how leading organizations create environments where employees feel empowered to speak up, challenge assumptions, and drive continuous improvement. You’ll discover how combining HRO and principles—anticipation, questioning, diligence, resilience, and learning—with human and organizational performance principles creates a robust framework for preventing major incidents. Through real-world examples and practical strategies, you’ll learn how to strengthen your organization’s capacity to detect and respond to warning signals before they escalate into crises.
Key Takeaways:
1. Master the five core disciplines that transform organizations into high-reliability powerhouses.
2. Develop practical strategies to identify and act on weak signals before they become major incidents.
3. Build a toolkit of interventions that enhance decision-making quality and operational resilience.
Rajni Walia serves as Senior Vice President of Client Insights & Experience at DEKRA, where she drives strategic initiatives to enhance safety, reduce risk, and optimize performance across client operations in high-risk industries.
Leading high-performance teams, she has empowered clients through innovative solutions that combine applied behavior science, neuroscience, and data-driven insights to achieve operational excellence.
“My aim is to help create safer workplaces so that individuals worldwide can get home to their loved ones every working day of their career.” “My aim is to help create safer workplaces so that individuals worldwide can get home to their loved ones every working day of their career. I have a strong passion for total worker health and wholeheartedly believe that through the identification of needs and solutions founded in scientific research, we can reduce the likelihood of human performance errors that can negatively impact the health and safety of workers”
With over a decade of experience in human and organizational performance (HOP), Rajni has built her reputation as a thought leader by developing brain-centered solutions that help organizations achieve “right-first-time” results in safety performance and human reliability. Her expertise spans fatigue risk management, high-reliability organizational strategies, and complex project management, complemented by deep organizational assessment and development knowledge.
Before her current role, Rajni was a principal consultant for a major consultancy firm, collaborating with executive leaders to advance process sustainability through brain-centered solutions. She was instrumental in developing best practices for mental health awareness, wellbeing, and workforce engagement, implementing programs across the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and Africa.Her research has appeared in notable publications, including the Journal of Hospital Medicine and the International Public Health Journal, with presentations on oil and gas safety and safety citizenship development at major international conferences.
Rajni holds a PhD in applied organizational psychology from Hofstra University, an MA in industrial/organizational psychology from St. Mary’s University, and a BA in psychology from the University of Texas at Arlington. She maintains active memberships in the American Psychological Association, the American Society of Safety Professionals, the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology, and the Society for Human Resource Management.
In her current position, Rajni leverages emerging trends, technologies, and industry best practices to ensure DEKRA remains at the forefront of safety innovation. Through strategic partnerships and data-driven methodologies, she reinforces DEKRA’s position as the gold standard in operational excellence while delivering measurable improvements in client safety and performance.