Antwerp Crisis Conversations

Our lecture series on “Antwerp Crisis Conversations” explores and addresses the challenges we face in an era where organizations' environments are marked by increasingly complex crises, transcending traditional borders and sectors. The intricate nature of contemporary crises requires collaborations beyond conventional crisis management; they demand adaptive governance within and between organizations to deal with crises as unfolding emergent processes rather than effectively responding to and absorbing shocks in extreme situations.

Time: 16:00 – 19:00

Location: University of Antwerp, City Campus, Room S.B.203

“From Risk to Reality: Reading the Drift and How Systems Absorb Stress”

Speaker: Dr. Frank Imans

What if safety wasn’t about ever-tighter rules, traditional risk models, or post-mortem analyses — but about understanding how entropy and capacity influence outcomes together? In this edition of our Antwerp Crisis Conversation, we introduce a new perspective that reveals how entropy — the noise, drift, and disorder inherent in real work — interacts with capacity, which encompasses the structures, resources, and adaptability that maintain systems. From oil and gas to construction, from nuclear to aviation, we’ll explore why some systems break while others adapt, and how stress ratios can help us predict failure before it occurs. This approach connects industries, providing a common language for understanding safety in complex environments.

​Dr. Frank Imans has spent over 25 years in HSE management across multiple industries, including oil & gas, steelmaking, construction, logistics, and (petro)chemicals. Much of his career has been abroad, leading safety functions in complex, high-hazard environments.His work combines the practical aspects of safety with a scientific curiosity about how systems cope under stress. This journey has led to the development of a new model that redefines safety by balancing entropy and capacity. He offers a rare mix of operational experience, cross-industry insight, and clear conceptual thinking to one of today’s most urgent questions: how do we design for resilience, not just compliance?