For operations like oil and gas that involve hazardous processes, change management can be a matter of life and death. Operational failures resulting from insufficiently planned changes can result in catastrophic events.

1 – Ties are out. The men’s tie business must be dying a slow death. Of 13,000 people at the Congress and Expo, you might count the number wearing ties on one hand. OK, maybe on both hands. Business casual rules, no doubt. Many attendees are comfortable in jeans and sports shirt. You don’t see many suits at all. Mostly it is the speakers in suits. And certainly not all of them.

Consultants Tom Rancour and Bradford Russell offered these takeaways in a session yesterday afternoon: Some companies implement and dedicate time to management systems, but the guiding principle, the safety and health policy, is buried in some labor manual.