Soft futures

I'm always on the look out for ways to think about how the future might unfold and this article and a recent write-up of it stimulated a lot of thought. Taking oil rigs workers as an example it shows what happens when the macho culture of such high risk workplaces becomes more cautious and open. It swapped swaggering and intimidation for sharing and taking into account co-workers' feelings.

The result was lots more shut downs because people were happy to say when they thought working practices were too risky.

Wrote the authors: "In short, men routinely breached conventional-male norms, acknowledging their own and others' shortcomings as part of the learning process.”