S03E140 Beyond the Incident, Deeper Workplace Investigations with Desai Link

Episode notes

What if your next investigation didn’t end at “who’s to blame,” but opened the door to safer work, stronger trust, and a healthier culture? We sit down with Desai Link, former lawyer, health and safety executive, and author of Beyond the Incident: Practical Tools, Legal Causation and Applied Workplace Investigation Practice, to rethink how leaders and lawyers approach evidence, accountability, and care when things go wrong. Desai walks us through a striking case where a routine injury revealed a deeper recruitment failure, showing how courtroom-grade thinking, verifying claims, reading inconsistencies, and valuing oral evidence, can transform workplace investigations. We unpack why documents alone rarely tell the full story and how to conduct non-adversarial interviews that surface credible, testable narratives. From body language awareness to simple language choices, Desai shares practical steps that make people feel safe to speak while still meeting legal and operational standards. We also dig into the human side of high-stakes cases like bullying and misconduct.