I have been working in the UK since 2010, mainly in short-term maintenance work. That means you're always working with other people, often with Boskalis ships, but also with third parties. The preparation for a piece of work goes well: we agree on the risks and what to watch out for.

But what is often missing is an evaluation afterward. Everyone is in a rush to get away after a job: on vacation or onto the next project. That's unfortunate, because you never discuss whether the measures you took were effective. Obviously, we draw up a final report with facts and figures, but unless crazy things have happened, you don't fill in anything about safety. That's a shame. It slips through your fingers like sand.

I know that a final evaluation (or a 'close-out meeting' with lessons learned is increasingly common in large projects. I would advocate doing this more often for small projects, too: was our safety approach successful? Sharing experiences is a good way to move forward together and that's what we want after all: leaving safer than we arrived."