Advice on Managing Disruptive Change: “Make Things Make Sense”

The past few years have seen enormous changes for workers in the oil and gas industry. The Covid-19 pandemic forced rapid operational changes to day-to-day work at everything from the rigs through to the corporate back office. Technology has been key to enabling new ways of working during this time of disruption. But is it all too much, too fast?

At Oil and Gas IQ’s recent summit in Houston, seasoned industry veterans offered their advice on helping organizations deal with the explosion of technology change:

#1: Understand your audience and what matters to them

Different messages will resonate with different groups of people. Communication must always be tailored to the specificities of local cultures. Just ask former executives of GM, who famously tried to market their Chevy Nova to the Spanish market. It was only when someone pointed out that “Nova” translates as “doesn’t go” in Spanish that they understood why sales of the car were so poor.

In the oil and gas context, the guys out on the rigs, for instance, have very different experiences and needs from those in corporate head office. How does your change impact them? What benefit will it bring to them in their day-to-day job?

Jennifer Hohman, CIO and VP at Seadrill says that they get “down and dirty” to understand what messages resonate with different groups when they’re introducing new technology. Whether it’s out on a rig in Malaysia, she says, or users in the corporate office in the UK she says it comes down to making things make sense to each audience.

“From an IT perspective it means filling up your organization with people who have been out on a rig,” she says. “Filling it up with people who understand electrical engineering and understand some of the systems they work with and the challenges that they face out in that culture.”

#2: Truly listen to feedback

People are much more likely to get behind a change if they feel their voice is heard. Really listen to the people who a change will impact and then act on the feedback you receive.

Take the time to have conversations and, more importantly, report back on those ideas, recommends Seadrill’s Hohman. She says that too often people feel that what they say doesn’t make an impact and it’s important to relay how that feedback has been acted on (or why it hasn’t).

“If you can help someone feel like their voice matters – their job functions matter – that naturally rises the tide of morale,” says Deana Werkowitch, SVP, Audit, Technology and Implementation Services, Crestwood Midstream Partners.

It’s an approach that resonates with Charles Osborn, VP & Chief Information Officer, Enable Midstream Partners. His company created an innovation team a few years ago. The team consisted of a cross functional group of about 20 people who were able to propose ideas directly to the president of the company. Beyond the value created by the ideas that came out of that group, he says, it was amazing the impact it had on generating ideas from other people within the company. As the innovation group’s successes were celebrated, it encouraged people from field offices to also suggest new ideas.

#3: Be open and transparent

Communication and education are key to ensuring the success of any change. “Once an individual knows what to expect, then they know how to move forward,” says Joel Hurt, Jr., Vice President - Industrial Plant Solutions at Leica Geosystems.

Crestwood’s Deana Werkowitch agrees and says that this applies even if the change may have some teething pains.

“People are much more patient if they know it’s coming, even if it’s not great,” she observes. “You don’t want people to feel reactive and out of control. “Sometimes the news is bad. Just be honest.”

It’s much better for workers to hear about it from you, she adds, rather than grumbling at the water cooler about how poorly something is going. That way you control the narrative and can explain the path forward.

#4: Educate the workforce and let them contribute ideas for technological innovation

Ultimately, you want to create pull within the organization for new technologies and new ways of operating. That way change is not being imposed from corporate head office but is instead driven by the end users themselves. The challenge is that the users are often heads down working hard at the day-to-day activities that create value for the organization. They’re not experts in how AI or robots might be able to transform their jobs.

One way that some organizations are addressing it, is by educating the workforce about the technologies that are available.

Seadrill’s Hohman, for instance, said that they hold “lunch and learn” sessions with the operations teams where they would focus on the latest innovations in robotics or bitcoin. The goal, she says, is to get the operations team to think about how that can apply to their jobs.

Enable Midstream Partners Osborne says that his company invites business functions to Gartner analyst calls so that the business understands the emerging trends and technologies rather than IT being the intermediary.

“We need to focus on solving the problems that add value, educating the workforce on new technology and being able to say, will this work for us?” says Crestwood’s Werkowitch.