About seven hours before the Gulf of Mexico oil well blowout of 2010, a group of four company VIPs helicoptered onto the drilling rig in question, the Deepwater Horizon. They had come on a “management visibility tour” and were actively touring the rig when disaster struck. One of the VIPs had a particular interest in harnesses used for work at heights. “One of the things I look for in addition to housekeeping, [he said], I look at harnesses and look at when inspections were done on harnesses. And I noticed when I looked into the harness locker some of the harnesses did not have tagging on the, inspection tags”. He took this up with the offshore installation manager and received a satisfactory answer. Working Paper 79 Management Walk-Arounds: Lessons from the Gulf of Mexico Oil Well Blowout Professor Andrew Hopkins, Australian National University (contact Andrew.Hopkins@anu.edu.au)