Clarity in Chaos

The educated and the illiterate stand side by side without judgement or insecurity because we all have our place and purpose here.

Our workplace is ever changing indoors and out, hot and cold, wet and dry it has no boundaries or borders and has its own set of rules, half the time we make it up as we go along because that’s what the situation dictates

We are fluid, dynamic, compliant, compatible, creative, conscientious and tenacious.

If given a task we will do everything in our power to get it done.

Our industry requires the use of almost every device known to man from cranes to calculators, we build, construct, design, manufacture, erect, alter and destroy.

We bring together total strangers from different vocations to work together in unfamiliar environments to complete what seems to be inane or irrelevant tasks in what is almost always an unreasonable timeframe.

Yet we get it done.

That’s not the best part, we almost always get it done regardless if there is 10 or 1200 people on site at the same time, we get it done with little or no major incidents or injuries occurring.

This is the motion picture industry.

I’ve watched the homeless sit side by side millionaires riding on ‘craned platforms’ 50 feet in the air, I see people who work in offices all day enter a site and walk past cranes, trucks and burning planes like it’s an everyday occurrence, why? Because if you live and work in this industry the absurd is an everyday occurrence.

Why the low rate of injury or incident?

I remember one of the first times I went to Singapore, I thought to myself how do these people survive on the roads in all this chaos, that was until I went to Vietnam, then to Thailand, Indonesia, the Middle East, Japan then China – The Singaporeans would say the same about those countries  and the same could go for parts of Europe as well.
The one thing that stood out to me most of all during that trip to Singapore wasn’t the traffic chaos and the almost lawless approach to driving, the thing that stood out was that even the most minor accident or incident made the news. Why? Because it was rare, it was unlike western society it was rare enough occurrence that it made the news.

Why so rare? It’s called dynamic risk evaluation (well if it wasn’t it is now) it’s something more of us should adopt and it’s something that has been taken away from most parts of society regardless if its east or west. It’s just been taken away for different reasons.

If people aren’t allowed or given the opportunity to think for themselves for a long enough period of time they will just stop doing it.

In my many travels. I’ve sat and watched the traffic and how it flowed – Now I didn’t go and write a thesis or gain a PHD from it, I was just curious, I am in traffic a hell of a lot as I work in a different place almost every working day of my life. The behaviour patterns of South East Asian drivers made me think, how does it work? Why don’t they crash more? own.  Please don’t make this an opportunity for racial bashing I can say that I have had as many bad experiences with Caucasians as I have with anyone else.

If you watch traffic flow in highly populated parts of South East Asia or any Asian or as I said part of Europe, there is clarity in the chaos.

If you are void of rules (or highly dictated rules) you will create your own to an extent, now I’m not spruiking anarchy or removal of all laws and legislations, I’m making an example.

And this is what happens in these situations, it’s also what happens in the film industry.

The traffic needs to flow all in the same direction and sometimes lanes merge, sometimes they expand, most of the time they don’t exists at all. In Asian countries unlike most western countries they a courteous and conscientious, something we as westerners could learn from a lot.

When things get tight or tough they continue to flow and converge without lane markings or strict guidelines, they just let it happen, they don’t ague or complain they just let it happen it becomes a tidal flow a river of cars and bikes if you will.

If you have ever been in a large crowd of people all going the same way it works in the same fashion, all of a sudden you just become a part of the tidal push, if you fight it you gain nothing more than frustration, fear and anxiety as well as extra time in the calamity, at times it even becomes dangerous. If you go with the flow with considered direction you become a strong part of the flow and you easily make it through unscathed and get where you need to go…

I’ve chased planes in speedboats, orchestrated a dance of six cranes that all needed to be over the top of each other at the same time, made my way through crowds of 1,200  plus people who all had specific tasks, I’ve been part of gun fights, car chases, cattle stampedes with helicopters, motorbikes and horses . We are in the sky, the water, underground and on land and we are dealing with people who can and will change their mind in an instant.

Being open to that without being cavalier is the key, assessing and evaluating on the spot is what we do.

What do we have? What do we need? How long do I have to get this together? What resources are available to me?
If you are willing not only to ask these questions in a stressful situation but you are open and willing to work with the answers you get, you will get a result swiftly and safely everytime.

Now sometimes compromise is required, but ultimately the end goal is usually achieved and achieved safely.

How does this result in little or no injury or incident occurring? It’s because everyone on site becomes part of the dynamic and in an almost hive like fashion everyone works together to alter the course and the situation.

Because everyone on site enters with an open mind and open eyes, they become more aware of their surroundings and situations. Their spatial awareness increases, this sense has been lost almost completely in most cultures. This is because of rules and regulations govern everything we do. If you are told what and what not to do over and over again, you will just stop thinking and do as they are told or just put their heads down into a device and block out the world.

We’ve all seen this, the people who do the same thing every day, day after day, and when things change they don’t what to do, they fall apart, by the time they recover its far too late, they’ve lost the ability to adapt, they panic. – They crash.

It happens in life as it happens in traffic.

Dynamic Risk Evaluation and Dynamic Risk Assessment is something every work place should adopt, no matter where you are or what you do, things can and will change, expect it.

If you walk in with the mindset that this can happen you will instinctively prepare for it.

Be ready.

Be safe.

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