On April 20, 2010, the crew of the floating drill rig Deepwater Horizon lost control of the Macondo oil well forty miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Escaping gas and oil ignited, destroying the rig, killing eleven crew members, and injuring dozens more. The emergency spiraled into the worst human-made economic and ecological disaster in Gulf Coast history. Senior systems engineers Earl Boebert and James Blossom offer the most comprehensive account to date of BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Sifting through a mountain of evidence generated by the largest civil trial in U.S. history, the authors challenge the commonly accepted explanation that the crew, operating under pressure to cut costs, made mistakes that were compounded by the failure of a key safety device. This explanation arose from legal, political, and public relations maneuvering over the billions of dollars in damages that were ultimately paid to compensate individuals and local businesses and repair the environment. But as this book makes clear, the blowout emerged from corporate and engineering decisions which, while individually innocuous, combined to create the disaster. Rather than focusing on blame, Boebert and Blossom use the complex interactions of technology, people, and procedures involved in the high-consequence enterprise of offshore drilling to illustrate a systems approach which contributes to a better understanding of how similar disasters emerge and how they can be prevented.

History is littered with the bones of institutions killed by change, either because they let events run over them, or because they misjudged what was happening to them. When you look closely at those institutions that have changed successfully, it is often clear that somewhere, somehow, somebody did their homework. Thats the subject of this book: how to do your homework in a way that both motivates and informs rational institutional change. (From the Foreword) This book will teach you how to tackle an important problem, get it right, and make a difference. Here's what you'll learn: - The attributes of mind needed to get it right. - What you need to know and do as a team leader. - How to determine the resources your team will need. - How to uncover the things that may bite you, before they bite. - The kind of infrastructure that supports effective teams. - How to plan your work and track progress. - Organized ways to cut through today's ocean of misinformation, disinformation, and spin and arrive at the truth. - A structured method for deciding what change must happen. - How to capture your results in an effective, readable document. - How to give presentations that will carry the day. Plus you get almost a hundred references to useful books, articles, and Web pages. This book is not based on academic theory or pop psychology. It is based on almost 50 years of experience in the trenches of high technology and embodies the lessons I learned the hard way, from victories and defeats, elation and heartache, success and failure. If it were a college course it would be called "Real World 101."