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Would you say that your role is primarily that of a manager or a leader? Or both? .... change at the last minute, right before the drilling operation is about to start, ...


HANDBOOK Leadership in Integrated Operations

Abstract / Managerial summary Integrated Operations (IO) is different from traditional ways of working, as it brings together diverse and geographically distributed disciplines and teams in a collaborative setting for the purpose of achieving a common goal. By reducing the impact of traditional obstacles of geography, organization and professional discipline, IO aims to facilitate better decision-making and safer, more efficient operation. Because IO is different and IO teams are different, it makes sense that leaders working in IO organizations also need to approach their work in a different way. The handbook describes the concept of leadership, and takes lessons learned from leadership experts across a range of disciplines and industries to demonstrate what great leadership looks like. The handbook then considers the experience of managers and leaders who are working with Integrated Operations in the petroleum industry today, and provides advice on the topics that they consider important and central to becoming a great IO leader.

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Contents Introduction

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What is leadership?

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Why Integrated Operations is different

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What does great leadership look like?

8 8 8 9 10

Becoming an IO leader

11 11 11 12

How to: leadership in IO

How to use the “How to” pages How to build swift trust to improve collaboration How to build a common team culture How to enhance collaboration by encouraging participation How to create a safe place for collaboration How to improve remote collaboration How to build relationships in IO teams How to lead cross-disciplinary teams How to develop contextual awareness How to inspire commitment and motivation

13 13 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30

Further IO reading

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References

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Useful resources

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The difference between management and leadership Can leadership be taught? What is different about Integrated Operations? What this means for IO leaders What makes a great leader? Everybody has leadership potential How to recruit and develop great leaders How management and leadership works together

The eight-stage process for leading the change to successful IO What makes a great IO leader? The eight-stage process

TED Talks about leadership Leadership books Leadership blogs

Figures Figure 1: Management versus leadership (adapted from Kotter, 2012)4 Figure 2: How managers and leaders can work together (adapted from Kotter, 2001)10

Report/document number: IFE/HR/F-2014/1611 Version: 1.1 Date: 25 November 2014

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Introduction This handbook provides advice and guidance on leadership in Integrated Operations. The handbook is primarily aimed at mid-level managers and team leaders who wish to develop their leadership capabilities. However, the handbook will be of interest to personnel at all levels within the organization who have an interest in leadership. The handbook describes the concept of leadership, and takes lessons learned from leadership experts across a range of disciplines and industries to demonstrate what great leadership looks like. The handbook then considers the experience of managers and leaders who are working with Integrated Operations in the petroleum industry today, and provides advice on the topics that they consider important and central to becoming a great IO leader. In addition to this guidance and advice, the handbook contains questions to prompt the reader to reflect on their own experiences and to evaluate what they would do in the same situation, and provides practical recommendations that the reader can implement to become a better IO leader today. Throughout the handbook there are links to useful resources, blogs, articles, videos and books that help to illustrate the points made in the handbook, and to provide more information. These are also listed at the back of the handbook and on the IO Center webpage “Leadership in Integrated Operations”.

What is leadership? Before we explore the concept of leadership in Integrated Operations, it is good to take a step back and consider what leadership means, how this is different to management, and whether leadership can be taught and learned, or whether it “just comes naturally”.

One of the reasons for the confusion between the two concepts is the fact that leadership is difficult to define in a neat, precise or relatable way. Some people argue that leadership has become too big a concept, and that to be a leader requires almost heroic efforts: “The leader has become one of the dominant heroes of our time. Almost regardless of the problem, leadership is presented as the solution.” (Alvesson & Willmott, 2012, p. 122)

The difference between management and leadership The terms management and leadership are often used interchangeably, when in fact they refer to two different concepts. For example, we often refer to the top-level management of an organization as “the leadership”, and managers of teams are often called “team leaders”.

Even though it is less common in organizations today to make a distinction between managers and leaders, it is still useful to make a distinction between the terms management and leadership because one does not necessarily follow the other. Not all managers are leaders, and not all leaders are managers.

Management is what makes an organization work. It refers to processes such as planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing, control and problem solving. Together, these management processes keep the organization running smoothly.

It is important to understand that, although a person may excel at planning and budgeting difficult and complex projects, this does not necessarily equip that same person to motivate people to go the extra mile during difficult times on that project. Equally, a person may excel at developing solutions to seemingly impossible problems, but this does not mean that they will be able to develop a practical action plan and assemble the right team to make that solution a reality.

Leadership, on the other hand, is what creates, builds or transforms an organization. Leaders define a vision for the future, align people with that vision, inspire people to make the vision a reality and remove any obstacles that could prevent the vision from being realized.

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Figure 1: Management versus leadership (adapted from Kotter, 2012) It is also important to understand that neither good management nor good leadership can, by themselves, solve an organization’s problems or guarantee an organization’s success. Both management and leadership are essential for the organization to progress and thrive.

example, team leader, discipline lead, project manager, operations manager, platform manager etc.). However, we acknowledge that leadership can (and does) occur on a more informal level within teams, which we will discuss later in this leadership handbook.

Figure 1 above summarizes the key differences between management and leadership, and what this means for an organization. Put simply, management makes a system work by helping you to do what you know how to do. Leadership builds new systems or transforms old ones by taking you into a new and less well-known territory.

Can leadership be taught?

Although it is generally agreed that management skills can be learned, there is some debate about whether leadership can be learned or whether it “just comes naturally”. To some extent, management is considered easier to teach than leadership because it consists of more practical, In this handbook, we use the term leader to refer to a concrete skills, whereas leadership is often thought of as person in a formal leadership or management position (for

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STOP AND THINK Take a look at the two descriptions in Figure 1 and consider your role in your organization, and the things that you do in your daily work, and then answer the questions below. Write your responses in the spaces provided. 1. Would you say that your role is primarily that of a manager or a leader? Or both? __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Are there any aspects of the leadership description in Figure 1 that you don’t currently do? Which ones? How could these help you to develop your capability as a leader? __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ an inherent character trait or a natural ability.

others to work towards a future goal. It is important for organizations and managers to recognize and accept this possibility when promoting people into leadership positions.

Early research on leadership examined whether leaders had different character traits from their followers – based on the traditional idea that “great men are born, not made” – but the results showed that there was not much difference in character between the two groups.

THE 6 KEY LEADERSHIP TRAITS • Drive for achievement • Desire to lead • Honesty and integrity • Self-confidence • Intelligence • Job-relevant knowledge (Kirkpatrick & Locke, 1991)

“[Character] traits alone, however, are not sufficient for successful business leadership – they are only a precondition. Leaders who possess the requisite traits must take certain actions to be successful (e.g. formulating a vision, role modeling, setting goals). Possessing the appropriate traits only makes it more likely that such actions will be taken and be successful.” (Kirkpatrick & Locke, 1991, p.49)

Simply giving a person the title of “leader” does not necessarily make them so. To be a good and effective leader the person has to have a desire for it as well as the necessary organizational support.

In other words, people who naturally have what are considered to be leadership characteristics or traits are more likely to seek out leadership roles, than those who do not have these traits. This does not mean that leadership skills cannot be taught, and that people cannot learn to become good leaders; rather, that there are certain aspects of personality that makes it more likely that people possessing these will seek out and be successful in achieving leadership positions.

“Leaders do not have to be great men or women by being intellectual geniuses or omniscient prophets to succeed, but they do need to have the “right stuff” and this stuff is not equally present in all people.” (Kirkpatrick & Locke, 1991, p. 58) This issue is discussed later in the handbook in the section on “How to recruit and develop great leaders”.

For example, without a drive for achievement, it is unlikely that a person could gain the experience and expertise needed to effectively lead a project, team or organization towards a future goal or vision. And, of course, it must be acknowledged that not everybody wants to be a leader. Some people simply do not have a desire to lead, and so they are not interested in motivating and persuading

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Why Integrated Operations is different Integrated Operations (IO) is different from traditional ways of working, as it brings together diverse and geographically distributed disciplines and teams in a collaborative setting for the purpose of achieving a common goal. By reducing the impact of traditional obstacles of geography, organization and professional discipline, IO aims to facilitate better decision-making and safer, more efficient operation.

communication even more difficult; • Most communication takes place using electronic technology such as telephone, email, online video meetings, collaboration software and other datasharing applications, which puts an additional barrier between people; • Teams are often made up of individuals from different disciplines, different corporate or organizational backgrounds and different nationalities, making it difficult to share a common culture or understanding, or sometimes even a common language; • The leaders themselves may be part of one or more different teams, with different and sometimes conflicting goals.

Because IO is different and IO teams are different, it makes sense that leaders working in IO organizations also need to approach their work in a different way. IO leaders must take the skills and characteristics that define good leadership (as described later in this handbook) and adapt these to fit the IO context.

These characteristics of IO organizations can have a significant impact on the ability of the leader to establish and communicate a vision and direction for the future, and to align and motivate people accordingly.

What is different about Integrated Operations? Earlier we described the key activities that define leadership: establishing a vision for the future, aligning people in the direction of that vision, and motivating and inspiring people to achieve that vision. Whilst this is not easy in any context, it might be considered easier in an organization with a more traditional structure because:

What this means for IO leaders In an IO organization, the leadership landscape becomes more varied and leaders need to become more innovative and collaborative. For example:

• Team members tend to be located in the same office and can easily communicate face-to-face; • There are more opportunities for informal communication (e.g. around the water cooler, in the coffee area, over lunch, or outside the office in a social setting), which can help build relationships and trust between team members, and between team members and their leader; • The leader will have more hands-on knowledge and understanding of the local context within which the team operates, making it easier to identify local obstacles that could stand in the way of achieving the future vision.

• Work might be delegated to team members whom the leader has never met in person, and so trust becomes very important for both the leader and the team member. • Clear communication about the roles of different people in the team, their responsibilities and the boundaries of their authority is essential. • The leader must be involved enough in the work to maintain an overview of what is happening, to remove obstacles and to keep people aligned to the vision, but must not fall into the trap of micro-managing. • The potential for goal conflict is increased as people strive to achieve their daily local goals and yet also work towards the future vision, especially if they are part of multiple teams.

IO is now a common operational concept for most petroleum organizations, but the very characteristics that define IO as a desirable operational concept (i.e. bringing together diverse, distributed, multi-disciplinary team members to achieve a common goal) are the same that create challenges for leaders of IO teams.

This means that IO leaders will need to “scale up” their local leadership skills and capabilities to overcome bigger, more widespread barriers (disciplinary, cultural, lingual and even time zones) to bring people together and to inspire and motivate them to work together towards a common goal.

• Team members can be distributed across multiple locations (offshore, onshore and even in different countries), which can make face-to-face

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 Another characteristic of leadership in IO organizations is that it tends to be shared amongst different members of the team, so that as well as having a formal team leader, there may be people within the team who informally take on leadership roles and responsibilities as necessary. The leadership trait theory that was described earlier in the handbook has been extended to suggest that leaders can emerge to fit the situation, i.e. that different people will take the lead in different situations, because the situation requires their particular combination of skills, characteristics and personality traits.

The supervisor then has an idea: what if the vendor was involved in the planning process from start to finish, instead of just at certain pre-defined planning gates as is the case now? Would this work? In the supervisor’s mind, the benefits would be that the vendor always has the most up-to-date information about the plan and should be able to mobilize quicker to get the right equipment to the rig when there are changes to the plan. In addition, the planning team and the tool pusher would get a better insight into how the vendor supplies the equipment, what information they need and how quickly they need it in order to get the right equipment to the rig at the right time.

This is particularly the case in IO where leadership is more likely to be shared amongst many people in the team, in parallel or in succession, depending on who is best qualified to meet the needs of the situation. It takes a strong and humble leader to recognize when they are no longer the most qualified person to lead the particular activity, project or team, and to nominate someone else to take over in that instance.

But, there are some potential obstacles. The planning team might be reluctant to share this much information with the vendor. The vendor is also supplying equipment to a number of nearby rigs and so they might not have the time to be involved in the whole planning process. New information from the onshore engineers is sometimes communicated on a one-to-one basis to the offshore planner. The plans frequently change at the last minute, right before the drilling operation is about to start, sometimes resulting in the need for new or additional equipment. And the video conferencing equipment that they have offshore is not always reliable; they often have to conduct meetings via telephone, and so they can’t be sure that everyone is looking at the same information.

Leaders in IO organizations also have the challenge that the vision for IO has already been defined, at least at a high level, which is to reduce the impact of traditional obstacles of geography, organization and professional discipline, to facilitate better decision-making and safer, more efficient operation. However, IO leaders still have the ability to set the vision for how they and their team can achieve the IO vision in their local work.

STOP AND THINK The drilling supervisor on a drill rig has a problem: 3 of the previous 4 drilling operations have suffered delays due to the late arrival of equipment to the rig. The supervisor talks to a few people to try to find out why this has happened, and it seems to come down to a breakdown in communication between the offshore planning team, the tool pusher and the onshore supplier of the equipment.

Considering the 3 leadership activities in Figure 1 (also shown in the box below), write down what you think the supervisor should do next. ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________ ________________________________________

It’s not entirely clear what happened, but it appears that the supplier was not involved in a meeting where changes were made to the plan based on updated information from the onshore engineers, and there was a miscommunication between the tool pusher and the supplier about what additional equipment was needed as a result of these changes. “We are not”, the supervisor thinks to himself, “working effectively as an IO team”.

THE 3 LEADERSHIP ACTIVITIES • Establishing direction • Aligning people • Motivating and inspiring (Kotter, 2012)

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What does great leadership look like? • “Great leaders dare to be different. They don’t just talk about risk-taking, they actually do it.” Great leaders are not afraid to abandon practices that have been successful in the past, because they know that even though these practices are comfortable and familiar, they will not yield any new results. In order to achieve the future vision, they need to think in new ways and develop new ways of working.

As mentioned earlier in the handbook, there is a tendency these days to exaggerate the idea of leadership to become something huge and unobtainable. Leaders are thought of as charismatic superheroes charged with the task of radically changing the world or, at least, the organization that they work for. As a result, people can sometimes be uncomfortable with the idea of calling themselves a leader.

• “[Great leaders] are the are preparing themselves, predictability of yesterday, of today and all of those tomorrow.”

USEFUL RESOURCES! In this short online video, Drew Dudley gives an entertaining talk on Everyday leadership, in which he calls on all of us to celebrate leadership as the everyday act of improving each other’s lives.

men and woman who not for the comfortable but also for the realities unknown possibilities of

As with the earlier example of the drilling supervisor, the leadership characteristics listed above do not have to be applied on a grand level in order for a leader to be successful. These are characteristics that can be adopted at a local level everyday.

This superhero view is based on old, outdated ideas about leadership; the same ideas that think only “great” men – those with charisma and magnetic personalities – can truly become great leaders. This kind of thinking devalues the things that people do every day that have an impact on others and help them to do their job better.

USEFUL RESOURCES! To hear more about the characteristics of successful leaders, watch the online video by Roselinde Torres on What it takes to be a great leader.

What makes a great leader? What do “great” leaders do that make them so great? In her 2013 TED Talk (see the link below) Roselinde Torres, a leadership expert with over 25 years experience, describes the characteristics of some of the most successful leaders that she has worked with:

Everybody has leadership potential It is fair to say that the change to IO has created in very different working environment. The increase in information availability, digital technology development and globalization of the petroleum industry places new, and sometimes overwhelming, demands on individuals in their daily work. Leadership is needed more than ever to set direction, align individuals and motivate and inspire them to achieve the IO vision.

• “Great leaders are not head-down. They see around corners, shaping their future, not just reacting to it.” Great leaders have a vision. They look to the future to anticipate the next change (or the next need for change) in the organization, and they make decisions today to prepare themselves and be ready for that future change.

To be successful, leadership needs to occur at all levels within an organization, from corporate to middle management through to the operational staff on the ground.

• “Great leaders understand that having a more diverse network is a source … of solutions, because you have people that are thinking differently than you.” Great leaders break out of their comfort zones. They welcome and actively encourage feedback and constructive criticism from outside their normal networks. They value the view of the “devil’s advocate” because it helps them to identify things that they would never have thought about themselves.

When we stop thinking about leadership as a formally defined position in the organizational hierarchy, and start thinking about leadership as a capability, it is entirely possible to see how everybody in the organization has the potential to be a leader.

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 “Leadership is the ability of an individual to influence, motivate and enable others to contribute towards the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members.” (House et al., 1999, p. 13)

Recruiting or promoting people into leadership roles should be a strategic decision. Often, individuals are promoted to a leadership position based on their number of years of technical or management experience, with little or no thought to whether they have any leadership potential. This can be true both for individuals who are being considered for formal leadership positions, and for team managers or leaders looking to give informal leadership responsibilities to team members for a particular project or activity.

A leader is someone who takes responsibility for satisfying the needs of the team, to enable the team to effectively achieve their goals. The leadership role is not always performed by the formally appointed team leader in every activity; it can also be performed by a team member, or even somebody outside of the team who (formally or informally) takes on a leadership role for all or part of that activity.

As Kotter states, recruiting or promoting a person to a leadership position is only the first step. The person will need support and access to opportunities and challenges to develop and grow their leadership capabilities.

Leadership does not always have to be a grand gesture; it can be something as simple as defining the goal of an activity and communicating this in a way that everybody on the team can understand, or defining the roles and responsibilities of each of the team members and helping them to understand how they individually contribute to the overall goal, or introducing team members who have never met before in such a way as to establish a good relationship.

“Successful corporations don’t wait for leaders to come along. They actively seek out people with leadership potential and expose them to career experiences designed to develop that potential.” (Kotter, 2001) Kotter suggests that a development plan should be drawn up for new leadership recruits. In his experience, people who go on to become successful leaders are those who were exposed to significant challenges early in their career. This allows the individual to try their hand at leading, to take risks and to learn from both successes and failures. This experience will help them to develop a wide range of leadership skills and perspectives, as well as learning about the difficulties of leadership and their potential to produce change.

Leadership might not be a role that just one person on the team adopts, but different team members might step up into leadership roles at different times during an activity, depending on their own skills, experience, knowledge and abilities.

How to recruit and develop great leaders

Once the individual has developed some skill at leadership, it is important to broaden their experience through a lateral career move or a promotion to a broad job assignment or special task-force assignment. This will enable the person to develop a breadth of knowledge as well as a wider network of relationships both inside and outside of the company.

As noted earlier in the handbook, great leadership and great management skills do not necessarily go hand-inhand, although there is an increasing tendency to expect individuals to excel in both areas. Organizations should be realistic and understand that not everyone can be good at both managing and leading. In some instances it may be more productive to recruit two people – one who is a good manager and one who is a good leader – rather than expecting a single person to take on and perform well in both of these roles.

By applying a more strategic approach to the recruitment and promotion of both formal and informal leaders, organizations take control of and invest in their own future success. Of course it can happen that, despite the best intention, opportunity and support, an individual is either unable or unwilling to live up to the expectation and become that great leader. In this case, the organization (e.g., the individual’s own line manager or leader) must be prepared to take the person out of that role and find a replacement.

“Some people have the capacity to become excellent managers but not strong leaders. Others have great leadership potential but, for a variety of reasons, have great difficulty becoming strong managers. Smart companies value both kinds of people and work hard to make them a part of the team.” (Kotter, 2001)

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Figure 2: How managers and leaders can work together (adapted from Kotter, 2001)

How management and leadership works together In a successful organization, managers and leaders complement each other. Figure 2 (adapted from Kotter, 2001) shows an example of how managers and leaders can work in harmony together on an activity. In this example, the need for a change has been identified either by the leader (e.g. through gathering data and identifying a pattern of issues) or perhaps the organization has identified the need for a change, such as moving to an IO way of working. The leader develops a vision of what the future will look like, when this change has been implemented, and develops a strategy to move their team in the direction of that vision. The manager starts to develop a plan and a budget to realize this vision. The manager considers the more practical aspects, such as timescales, deliverables, checkpoints and costs, and then starts to create the organizational structure that will be needed to implement

the plan as quickly and as efficiently as possible. This will include finding suitable staff, training those who need it, communicating the plans to the staff and delegating authority. The manager themselves might not perform all of these function (e.g. they will not provide the requisite training to the staff), but they will make the necessary arrangements. Once the organizational structure has been created and staffed, the leader starts communicating the vision to the staff to align them in the right direction and empower them to implement the vision. This might require communication with people beyond the immediate organizational structure, and include discussing the vision, direction and strategy with peers, other managers and leaders, staff in other parts of the organization, suppliers, regulators and even stakeholders and customers. The leader should aim to talk to anyone who can help implement the vision or who could (unknowingly) be an obstacle to implementation of the vision.

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 The staff then gets to work, and it is the manager’s role to control the work and solve any problems that arise, to ensure that the staff are meeting their targets and progressing through the plan. This is done by monitoring results, comparing these to the plan, reporting progress, identifying deviations, etc. The leader, on the other hand, continues to motivate and inspire the staff to keep them moving in the right direction.

What makes a great IO leader? Whilst writing this handbook, a number of IO managers and leaders were interviewed to understand their experiences with and thoughts on IO, and what they consider to be the characteristics of a great IO leader. In their experience, a great IO leader is someone who: • Sets the direction for the team • Is involved, engaged and acts as a role model • Shows and encourages initiative

• • • • •

Is open, honest and trustworthy Shares decision-making with the team Is a good communicator Motivates others Takes time for self-reflection and self-improvement

A great IO leader is also someone who recognizes that IO is not always a problem; rather IO can be the solution to many obstacles that exist in traditional ways of working. IO provides access to more data, access to more diverse expertise, access to modern technologies and new ways of working, and even more interesting challenges! The best leaders take advantage of the opportunities that IO offers, and they make IO work for them. The experiences and lessons learned from these managers and leaders are also captured in the “How to” section later in this handbook. These are divided into nine different topics that they considered to be important for IO and central to becoming a great IO leader.

STOP AND THINK Have you ever worked for or with someone who was a great leader? What are the things that they did that made them a great leader? _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

Becoming an IO leader At the heart of IO is the integration of people, processes and technology in order to make safer, better decisionmaking and operation. This is achieved by the use of collaborative communication technologies, real-time data sharing and multidisciplinary teams working together. IO does not require radically new leadership techniques, skills or characteristics; rather, existing leadership practices need to be applied in a different way and, in some case, scaled up to meet the requirements of the IO way of working, to overcome the challenges this presents and, more importantly, to exploit the opportunities that IO creates. IO is a significant change from traditional ways of working, and so IO leaders need to change how they approach their work. Kotter, in his book Leading Change (Kotter, 2012), describes an eight-stage process for leaders to create a major change in an organization. This has been adapted for the IO context, and is described in the next section.

IO leaders can use this eight-stage process as a structured roadmap to help them achieve the IO vision in their daily work environment, and to further develop themselves as IO leaders.

The eight-stage process for leading the change to successful IO Kotter stresses the importance of following the sequence of steps as defined below, although it is possible to carry out some steps in parallel. Although leaders may be under pressure to produce results, he cautions against skipping steps, or getting too far ahead in the process without building a solid base (steps 1 to 4). Moving on without sufficiently confronting and dealing with any obstacles in a step will give the illusion of progress for a short time, but ultimately will cause the whole process to fail. In trying to align people to the IO vision, the IO leader is trying to effect a cultural change, and this takes time

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 and effort. There is no quick fix or magic bullet, but if the leader is enthusiastic, authentic, committed and leads by example, this hard work will pay off.

The eight-stage process • Stage 1 – Establish a sense of urgency Help others to see the need for the change to IO and a more integrated way of working, and convince them of the importance of acting immediately. Are you creating the necessary urgency within your organization to convince people that IO is essential? • Stage 2 – Create a guiding coalition Assemble a group with enough power to lead the change effort, and encourage the group to work as a team. Does IO feature prominently in all communication coming from the top-level management, both internally within the organization and externally? • Stage 3 – Develop a vision and strategy Create a compelling vision to help direct the change effort and develop strategies for achieving that vision. Have you created a picture of what IO looks like, how it works, how it is different from today’s operations, so that people know what is expected of them and what they need to achieve? • Stage 4 – Communicate the change vision Make sure as many people as possible understand, accept and buy into the vision and the strategy for achieving this. Do people in your organization see IO as a win-win scenario, and that it is in the best interests of the organization and the workforce themselves to embrace IO as the future? Do they know what’s in it for them and how they can contribute to make this happen? • Stage 5 – Empower broadbased action Remove obstacles, change systems or structures that seriously undermine the vision of IO, and encourage risk-taking (through innovation and initiative) and non-traditional ideas, activities and actions. What are the resources, skills, tools and technologies that will be needed to achieve your vision of IO? Are you providing the necessary support to enable people to successfully align with the IO vision? • Stage 6 – Generate short-term wins Plan for achievements that can easily be made visible, follow through with those achievements and recognize, rewards and celebrate employees who

were involved. Do you visibly celebrate the short-term wins when people make progress towards achieving the IO vision? • Stage 7 – Consolidate gains to produce more change Use increased credibility to keep changing systems, structures and policies that don’t fit the vision. Hire, promote and develop employees who can implement the vision and reinvigorate the process with new projects, themes and change agents. Is IO seen as the “flavor of the month” or is everybody in it for the long run? Do you continue to promote IO as the future for your organization? • Stage 8 – Anchor change in the organization’s culture Articulate the connections between the new behaviors and organizational successes and develop the means to ensure leadership development and succession. Do you recognize the organizational behaviors that are necessary to make IO work? Do you communicate these and show how these behaviors have been successful? At first glance, it may seem that these eight steps are more applicable to leaders at a corporate level, but using judgment and intuition, leaders at all levels in the organization should be able to adapt this eight-stage process to their own needs. Consider the earlier example of the drilling supervisor, who is having problems with timely delivery of equipment to the drill rig. The supervisor has identified the potential for a bigger problem in the future if the pattern of delays continues, and so he starts to raise this issue at meetings with his team, his peers and his own supervisor or manager (Stage 1). He sets up a meeting with the manager of onshore vendor and the onshore engineering team to explain the problem and the solution that he has come up with. If necessary (e.g. if this will require additional budget) he presents his ideas to higher-level management to get them on board (Stage 2). The supervisor starts to further develop his vision for more effective collaboration, and comes up with a strategy for how to achieve this (Stage 3). He discusses the strategy with his team and asks them for help and ideas on how to make this happen, when the different parties should be involved, what kind of information they will need etc. By asking for their help, the supervisor makes his team feel like part of the process and he gives them ownership of the strategy (Stage 4). The supervisor also consults with his team about what

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 obstacles could stand in the way of this vision, such as problems relating to organization, technology, process or personnel. He then starts to create strategies to remove or overcome these obstacles, as well as putting in place the necessary support structures, infrastructure, policies, etc. for his team to realize the vision (Stage 5). The supervisor creates smaller, short-term goals to monitor the progress of the larger strategy, such as having a successful initial planning meeting where all parties are involved and contribute to state their needs and expectations for the next activity. When the meeting is successful, the supervisor acknowledges this and thanks everyone involved, and celebrates the win. If there was a particular person or

group of people who really helped to make this happen, he acknowledges them in particular (Stage 6). On the tail of this initial success, the supervisor encourages his team to keep going. During difficult times, he reminds them that they have already had success with this new strategy and he reinforces the importance of having a better collaboration for everybody (Stage 7). When the overall strategy has been successful and they have had one or two new drilling operations with better collaboration and no delays, the supervisor celebrates this and encourages his team to use this way of working in other areas (Stage 8).

STOP AND THINK Think about an area in your work that you would like to change, perhaps to bring it more inline with the IO vision. How could you use the 8-stage process to successfully implement this change?

USEFUL RESOURCES! You can learn more about Kotter’s 8-stage process and how to apply it in your organization in this short online video: Explaining Kotter’s 8 Step Change Model

How to: leadership in IO The next section of the handbook takes a look at a range of topics that are considered important to IO leaders, according to the experience of a number of managers and leaders working in the petroleum industry today who have been interviewed as part of the development of this handbook.

How to use the “How to” pages For each topic, a brief description of the concept or issue is provided along with excerpts from interviews with managers and leaders where they describe their real-world experience of this topic, the challenges they have encountered and/or the actions that they have implemented to address these challenges. Recommendations are provided to help IO leaders to overcome (or preempt) similar challenges in their own organizations. These recommendations are based on lessons learned from other managers and leaders, and the most recent research on leadership theory. In addition to the examples and recommendations, each topic has a number of questions to prompt the reader to reflect a little on their own situation and consider how and when they can implement the recommendations in

their organization. By writing down their answers, readers may feel more inclined to commit to taking action, and it also allows for more concrete reflection of the outcomes after they have implemented the recommendations. It is important to note that the recommendations provided here are not comprehensive because there is no “one size fits all” solution to IO leadership. The intention of this handbook is to prompt leadership thinking, reflection and innovation. The best IO leaders are the ones who listen, learn from examples, then adapt these to fit their own situation, and then learn from their own experience. Simon Sinek, in his 2014 TED Talk, said that “Leadership is a choice, not a rank.” Links to useful resources, such as online articles, blogs, videos and books are listed throughout this section. These are also listed at the back of this handbook, and on the IO Center webpage on Leadership in Integrated Operations. You can access this page in the following ways: click on the following link: http://www.iocenter.no/ongoingactivities/leadership-integrated-operations or type the link into your web browser. Note: you will need to log in to the IO Center webpage to access these links.

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How to build swift trust to improve collaboration Effective teamwork happens when team members trust each other. Trust refers to an individual’s willingness to be vulnerable to the actions of another person. When team members are located close to each other, trust is more easily developed because they see each other regularly and there are more opportunities for casual and informal interaction, and therefore to develop personal relationships. However, when team members are not co-located (as is often the case with IO teams) and rarely or ever meet face-to-face, building trust can be more of a challenge because team members don’t know each other. A good IO leader tries to build trust between team members to enable effective collaboration across locations, disciplines and organizations. Often, the leader must do this quickly because there is time pressure associated with tasks or activities that need to be solved in a hurry and in collaboration with others. This kind of rapid trust building is called swift trust.

STOP AND THINK What do you think you can do as a leader to build swift trust within your team, with the goal of enabling effective collaboration between people who might not have met before and who work in different locations? Write your thoughts in the space below. _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ “My experience” One platform manager has developed his own way of dealing with this issue. Whenever there is a requirement for collaboration between people who have never met face-to-face, the manager makes sure to participate in the first meeting to introduce the people and say a little bit about their experience. This helps to quickly establish a relationship between the people, building trust and paving the way for smoother collaboration in the future.

MY EXPERIENCE “I don’t get them to boast about themselves; I, as a leader, must step in and do that. Then mutual respect suddenly gets established. I tell them ‘he [onshore] knows a lot about this and he [offshore] knows a lot about that.’ I get [each] person to talk about something that I know they are good at.” (Platform manager)

Recommendation Leaders can actively participate towards building swift trust by participating in initial meetings between geographically separated team members, and by introducing them in a way that builds a bridge across the separate locations. Try introducing the meeting participants to each other by saying a little bit about their background and experience and what you think they will bring to the collaboration. It doesn’t have to be a long introduction, just a couple of sentences to break the ice.

Another possibility that you can try out is a practice recommended by an operations manager where he gets people to introduce themselves in situations where they are meeting new team members for the first time: “[I ask them to give] a very short presentation. For example, ‘I am an operator or I am an engineer. I have short experience or I have long experience.’ … To start a meeting with a presentation like that contributes to building trust, I think. Also, be clear about why we are here, what the goal, delivery and purpose are. That contributes to building trust because then you set the stage right away.”

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 Leaders can also encourage meeting participants to introduce themselves but make sure they keep the introductions short. Set an example by introducing yourself first. If people are reluctant to say much about themselves, then you can add any important information.

Leadership self-evaluation questions

Consider the following questions and write your thoughts into the spaces provided. Have you ever been in a situation where people who have never met in person have been brought together to collaborate on some work? What happened? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ When could you next try out the recommendations above for building swift trust? At which meetings, or in which situations? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ How did it go when you tried out the recommendations above? What did you learn from the experience? What went well / what went wrong? Why? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Will you use these recommendations again in a future setting? How and when will you do this? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________

NOTES, THOUGHTS OR COMMENTS:

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How to build a common team culture IO teams work in increasingly multi-cultural environments. Teams may be made up of individuals from different organizational, corporate or national cultures. Culture refers to the shared motives, values, beliefs, identities and interpretations or meanings of significant events. Team members may have different experiences and expectations of how to collaborate, how to perform their work, and how to interact with and take instruction from their leader. As a result, IO leaders may have to adapt their leadership style to enable better cohesion and effectiveness. Scandinavian leadership styles tend to be very democratic; leaders and managers gain respect from their team by asking for team input and by sharing decision making with their team. In other cultures, leaders and managers are expected to behave in a more authoritative way, and they command respect by making decisions themselves and by telling the team members what they have to do.

STOP AND THINK Do you have team members from different cultures (organizational, corporate or national) on your team? How does this affect team cohesion, effectiveness and collaboration? Write your thoughts in the space below. _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ “My experience” A manager once found himself in a meeting to solve a specific issue with people of three different nationalities. It quickly became clear that everybody had different expectations about the purpose of the meeting.

MY EXPERIENCE “Everyone had different expectations. The Norwegians expected discussion. The French expected the manager to provide explicit instructions. The British wanted a decision so they could get on with the work.” (Manager)

Recommendation When leading a team where the members come from different cultures, it is important for the IO leader to be perceptive and to try to understand where conflicts or difficulties arise from. If you notice adverse behavior between people from different cultures, try to have an open and honest discussion with the parties involved to get to the root of the problem and to come up with a mutually agreeable solution.

Another manager describes how he creates his own culture in the teams that he leads: “You need to establish a company culture; a metaculture. We must ask each employee to make a little effort to create a new culture. Then they can go back to their own local culture when the work is finished and they go home. With the metaculture, we establish a shared understanding of terms, so you don’t have to explain what the same things mean every time.” IO leaders should be open and curious to find out about and observe the differences between cultures. Try to build a new, unique team culture and encourage team members to commit to a set of guidelines or expected behaviors that enable the team to work effectively together. Clarify with team members what values and attitudes they all share, if any, and which of these should form the common ground for the guidelines. In this way, the leader provides an opportunity for each team member to bring the best aspects of their own cultures to the table whilst at the same time providing an opportunity to learn about how other people do things, and how this can benefit the individual.

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 A different manager talked about his own experience, when he was a team member, working for an organization with a very different culture to his own: “Sometimes I was working on a simple task, and I knew I was on top of it and could handle it, and I definitely didn’t need help. But then my manager would come along and check on my work, and this irritated me. But, in other areas where I really didn’t know how to table the problem, then I really appreciated the influence and interaction from my manager, because they were very competent.”

Leadership self-evaluation questions

Consider the following questions and write your thoughts into the spaces provided. How do you as a leader try to identify the different cultural expectations of your team members in aspects such as communication and collaboration styles, attitudes towards authority, power and status, etc.? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ When could you next try out the recommendations above to develop a common team culture? At which meetings, or in which situations? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ How did it go when you tried out the recommendations above? What did you learn from the experience? What went well / what went wrong? Why? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Will you use these recommendations again in a future setting? How and when will you do this? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________

NOTES, THOUGHTS OR COMMENTS:

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How to enhance collaboration by encouraging participation For collaboration to be successful it requires open communication and mutual respect, in addition to collective decisionmaking, between all members of the team. When working in an IO setting, collaboration often brings together team members from different disciplines and backgrounds. This can create challenges because individuals might not speak the same language – technical language, or even national language. Alternatively, they might not know the other people on the team well and might hesitate to speak up and participate in meetings for fear of disapproval or being negatively judged.

STOP AND THINK What do you think you can do as a leader to encourage your team members to actively participate in collaboration meetings to get everybody’s input? Write your thoughts in the space below. _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ “My experience” A platform manager recently took over leadership of a team, and tries to encourage active participation and collaboration from all the people in his new team by being more open and humble when he communicates with them. He also encourages each individual to express their thoughts and give their inputs in meetings.

MY EXPERIENCE “I have quite clear ideas of how things should be done, but when I present my idea I always ask my team what they think about how we should go about this.” (Platform manager)

Recommendation Leaders can encourage more active participation in meetings by being democratic, supportive, and by asking and welcoming questions and challenges. Explain to your team the importance and value of getting everybody’s input as a learning experience for the whole team, and as a means of improving how you do your work.

It is also important for the leader to be prepared to act on the input provided. If a genuine problem is raised, or a better way of working is suggested, the leader must be prepared to investigate this fully and to make changes if necessary. In another example, a new organizational model was created for production optimization, where the focus was on improved collaboration between onshore and offshore. Communication was centered on daily video meetings between the different groups involved. A strong focus was put on having a structured agenda and good meeting management. The intention of this new way of working was to enable all the meeting participants to better prepare for the meeting so that they could be more involved. As a result, the offshore control room staff felt that they were able to participate in the meetings in a new and better way than before. In one particular meeting, a less-experienced control room operator, who had never actively participated before, came up with a solution to a problem that resulted in an improvement to the overall production optimization process for the installation.

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 Leadership self-evaluation questions

Consider the following questions and write your thoughts into the spaces provided. Have you ever been in a meeting where some of the people did not actively participate, even though you know that they had valuable input? How did this affect the meeting? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ When could you next try out the recommendations above to encourage more active participation in collaborative meetings? At which meetings or in which situations? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ How did it go when you tried out the recommendations above? What difference did it make to the meeting and to the overall work activity? What did you learn from the experience? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Will you use these recommendations again in a future setting? How and when will you do this? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________

NOTES, THOUGHTS OR COMMENTS:

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How to create a safe place for collaboration Collaboration and teamwork need trust and cooperation, honesty and respect. When people feel that they are in a safe environment, they are more likely to trust each other and therefore to combine their talents and strengths to cooperate. They will be more honest with each other, which in turn will build mutual respect. It can often occur in meetings, especially if the participants come from different backgrounds and disciplines that individuals will misunderstand or will disagree with the point being discussed. However, these individuals might not feel comfortable challenging the point, or offering their own opinions even though they may have identified a problem or an inaccuracy in the information. This situation can be worsened in collaborations between distributed team members because they don’t know each other very well. A good IO leader will create a “safe” environment where individuals feel comfortable providing information, asking questions, offering opinions and challenging ideas. This kind of open, safe environment can actively improve work processes, create and increase mutual trust and respect, and can promote innovation and learning between individuals and between different disciplines.

STOP AND THINK What do you think you can do as a leader to help people feel comfortable enough to disagree with someone else and to offer constructive criticism? Write your thoughts in the space below. _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ “My experience” A discipline manager explains what creating a safe place for collaboration means to him.

MY EXPERIENCE “It is very important to help the individual leader or employee feel safe. Not feeling safe or confident that they know everything, but feeling safe in the sense that [they want] to understand, that it is acceptable to ask … all kinds of questions. Of course not ‘stupid’ questions meaning you haven’t done your homework or that you haven’t spent time finding out what has been done. So I think that safety is creating a work environment that allows one to make mistakes, and that it is expected that one learns from one’s mistakes as a community and not just as individuals.” (Discipline manager)

Recommendation IO leaders should set the tone for collaboration, but they should not force people to speak up in meetings. Instead, show a genuine interest in what people say. Show that you are listening. Be encouraging. Ask the “stupid” questions yourself to get them out of the way and in case anyone else was afraid to ask them. This will demonstrate to the more reluctant participants that everybody’s input, opinions and thoughts are welcome and valued, and over time this will encourage others to participate more actively in the future. The best leaders lead by example. If you have identified a problem or an inaccuracy during a meeting, point this out but do so in a constructive, non-threatening way.

Again this will encourage others to speak up and offer their thoughts and point out any issues that they have identified. If the leader sets the tone for how to do this, others will follow.It is also important for the leader to be prepared to act on the input provided. If a genuine problem is raised, or a better way of working is suggested, the leader must be prepared to investigate this fully and to make changes if necessary.

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 Leadership self-evaluation questions

Consider the following questions and write your thoughts into the spaces provided. Have you ever been in meetings where you did not feel safe enough to offer your ideas or opinions, or to challenge someone else on theirs? Why did you not feel safe? What was the impact of this? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ When could you next try out the recommendations for creating a safe collaboration environment? At which meetings or in which situations? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ How did it go when you tried out the recommendations? What difference did it make to the meeting and to the overall work? What did you learn from the experience? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Will you use these recommendations again in a future setting? How and when will you do this? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________

USEFUL RESOURCES! Click on the links below to learn more about how to create a safe environment for better and more effective collaboration: • This link gives some tips on how to give constructive criticism. • Margaret Heffernan shares an example of how people who dare to disagree can generate progress, and how effective collaboration needs people who think differently than you. • Simon Sinek describes how leaders can make employees feel safe, and how this promotes trust and cooperation. NOTES, THOUGHTS OR COMMENTS:

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How to improve remote collaboration As stated throughout this handbook, one of the characteristics of IO organizations is that team members tend to be distributed across several different geographical locations. In many cases, team members might be located onshore or offshore and might actually rotate between these two locations. This provides these team members will a much better understanding of the context of the different work environments and can actually help to improve collaboration between people working in the two different locations. However, some team members may be located in much more remote locations and so they rarely if ever have the opportunity to visit or work in other locations closer to other team members, and therefore to learn more about how the other members of their team operate on a daily basis. This can have an adverse impact on the quality of collaboration and the cohesion and effectiveness of the team, not to mention the morale of the person working remotely.

STOP AND THINK Are there any people in your team who are remotely located? Have you noticed whether their location impacts on their input to collaborative work activities, or their sense of being part of a team? Write your thoughts in the space below. _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ “My experience” Trust, communication and engagement are at the heart of successful remote collaboration. A good IO leader must be pro-active to keep the remote team member in the loop and to help them engage more effectively in collaboration activities. One offshore platform manager describes a method he uses to do this, whereby he calls the person located remotely in advance of an important meeting and briefs them on what the topic will be. This gives the remote team member time to prepare for the meeting, so that they are not caught off-guard and so they can more effectively contribute to the meeting.

MY EXPERIENCE “If we have a challenge or problem… I call the integrity manager [or other remote team member] and tell him what we will be discussing in the next meeting... I try to enable people to play at their best so when they are confronted with an issue that needs to be solved, they are already prepared.” (Platform manager)

Recommendation Regular communication is essential with remote team members to keep them in the loop and maximize their contribution to collaborative activities. The IO leader should clarify the direction and goal of the activity, and the expectations of all the people involved regarding roles, responsibilities, timescales, deliverables etc. The leader should then communicate this clearly to all the people involved to ensure they understand how they and every one else contributes to the collaboration.

The leader should also take time to communicate the importance of the remote team member’s input to the activity and how it contributes to the overall goal. As with all team members, regardless of where they are located, the leader should be involved and engaged and show that they are interested in the work. One of the main challenges with leading people who work remotely is that they might not be aware of or fully understand the limits of their capabilities or boundaries of authority. As one platform manager describes, this can lead to potential accident situations if not handled carefully and quickly:

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 “The challenge is that they might over-estimate their own capability or competence about what they can do and what decisions they can make. When delegating responsibility, you also need to be clear about limitations. There needs to be clear boundaries about when they can make decisions and when they should seek support. There have been some incidents when people made the wrong decisions or decisions were based on the wrong information. They improvised because they did not have a complete understanding [of the situation] and thought that something would be safe to do. But others with better expertise and competence would have spotted problems with the decision. This particular incident had major accident potential. Had they contacted the onshore organization, it would have constituted an extra barrier in this case. The onshore team do not want to look over their shoulder and tell them what to do, but they should be used as an additional barrier.”

Leadership self-evaluation questions

Consider the following questions and write your thoughts into the spaces provided. Have you experienced a situation where a problem occurred because of the remote location of a team member? What happened? What was the impact of this? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ When could you next try out the recommendations for improving remote collaboration? At which meetings or in which situations? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ How did it go when you tried out the recommendations? What difference did it make to the meeting and to the overall work? What did you learn from the experience? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Will you use these recommendations again in a future setting? How and when will you do this? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________

NOTES, THOUGHTS OR COMMENTS:

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How to build relationships in IO teams As noted earlier in this section, trust is an important prerequisite for effective teamwork; research has linked trust to improved information sharing and task-related advice. Trust is built on good relationships and IO leaders need to make time for building relationships, both between themselves and their team members, and between the team members themselves. This is even more important in a distributed team context.

STOP AND THINK What can you do as a leader to improve relationships between the different people in your team? What can you do to build relationships with those who are located in a different place? Write your thoughts in the space below. _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ “My experience” It is important to invest time in facilitating the development of good working relationships in your team. Leaders should make time to have face-to-face meetings with their peers and with their team members to build trust and develop better relationships. These meetings do not have to be formal; in fact, informal chats are often a better vehicle for developing relationships, as one ex-operations manager experienced. When he was starting out in his new leadership role, the ex-operations manager went out of his way to chat with other leaders whenever he met them in the cantina or by the coffee machine. He used this opportunity to not only talk about their expectations of him and the work that he would deliver, but also to build important relationships, and therefore develop trust between himself and the other leaders.

MY EXPERIENCE “To develop trust I think it is important to meet from time to time… Meeting by the coffee machine, in the cantina, a bit informally, I think is really important in relation to trust. When I started in my new leadership position I had informal chats with the leaders around me, discussing ‘What do you expect from my deliveries to you? What is important to you? What can I contribute with?’ … The informal and brief chats are important.” (Ex-operations manager)

Recommendation When starting in a new position or a new organization, IO leaders should take some time to chat informally to their own team members and to their peers (other team leaders, managers, etc.). These informal talks can be about work-related topics, but if done in an informal way (e.g. by the coffee machine or in the hallway) then people will be more relaxed and open. Of course, informal chats around the coffee machine or in the cantina are easier when you are located in the same building. Leaders should make an effort to try to bring together team members from different locations so that they can meet face-to-face and develop a more personal relationship.

Another platform manager described an experience he had when he first took over the role. He decided to invite the onshore risk analysis team to meet with his offshore staff to talk about risk. The analysts were suprised because they were not used to being invited to talk to offshore staff (many of them had never even been offshore). They were all willing to participate as they saw this as an opportunity to reduce risk by sharing their knowledge with the offshore staff who are executing the work tasks that they have analysed.

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 Face-to-face meetings provide the “glue” for your collaboration when you are separated by large distances. People tend to feel more comfortable contacting a person to ask for information or help when they have previously met that person in real life. However, it is not always feasible to bring team members together to meet in person. In these cases, the leader could, for example, place an emphasis on using video conferencing equipment for meetings, so that team members can at least see each other, and/or encourage team members to use the telephone to contact a person directly as this is slightly less impersonal than communicating solely via email.

Leadership self-evaluation questions

Consider the following questions and write your thoughts into the spaces provided. Do you set aside time to develop relationships and trust with and between people in your team and your peers? How do you create opportunities for informal interaction between team members, including those who are located further away? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ When could you next try out the recommendations for building relationships between team members? At which meetings or in which situations? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ How did it go when you tried out the recommendations? What difference did it make to the meeting and to the overall work? What did you learn from the experience? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Will you use these recommendations again in a future setting? How and when will you do this? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________

NOTES, THOUGHTS OR COMMENTS:

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How to lead cross-disciplinary teams In traditional organizational structures, people tended to work in silos and share ideas and information within their immediate group only. However, IO aims to break down these rigid silo structures and enhance cross-disciplinary collaboration. It is now more common than not to have representatives from several different disciplines working together in a single team. There can be obstacles to this new type of collaboration, such as the terminology used by the different disciplinary groups or having different expectations regarding how to approach work activities and solve issues. However, the common cause underlying many of these obstacles is communication. Effective management and leadership of cross-disciplinary teams requires good communication and facilitation from the IO leader. It is not enough to simply bring people together in a team and expect them to be able to collaborate. The team members need to have a shared understanding of why they are being asked to collaborate with other disciplines and what can each discipline brings to the table. The IO leader should ensure that everyone understands that different perspectives, experiences and knowledge are essential for more effective collaboration and problem solving and to generate new ideas.

STOP AND THINK What can you do as a leader to improve collaboration between different the discipline representatives on your IO team? What do you think are the main obstacles to effective collaboration? Write your thoughts in the space below. _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ “My experience” One of the key tasks for the leader of a cross-disciplinary team is to act as an interpreter between the different disciplines. As one platform manager found out his effectiveness as a leader and an interpreter had the additional benefit of motivating team members from different disciplines to want to work together again in the future.

MY EXPERIENCE “Being an interpreter and translator describes pretty well this way of [leading]. We have many examples that this is what stimulates high performance. We get good deliveries, while at the same time people afterwards are left with the feeling that ‘I want to be a part of this once more.’ It’s not just about solving the task, it’s about solving the task while at the same time having the participants say that ‘I would like to solve a task together with him again later.” (Platform manager)

Recommendation To enhance collaboration between people from different disciplines, the IO leader must set the example and demonstrate how they themselves work in a crossdisciplinary way, e.g. through consulting with leaders from other disciplines. The IO leader must also enable crossdisciplinary work in their team by ensuring that there is clear and effective communication between the different team members. The leader should join the first few meetings to: (i) introduce the different team members, (ii) identify if there are any problems due to different expectations, language or terminology and (iii) act as an interpreter to clarify expectations and explain or translate between the different disciplines.

The leader should make sure that everyone understands why a cross-disciplinary team has been assembled for this work and the importance of working together. The leader should illustrate how the different disciplines contribute to the overall common goal, and how working together in an effective collaboration will strengthen the overall output.

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 Leadership self-evaluation questions

Consider the following questions and write your thoughts into the spaces provided. When you have assembled or been assigned as leader to a new cross-disciplinary team, what are the techniques that you use to create a cohesive, collaborative working atmosphere? Has this been successful in the past, or have there been problems? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ When could you next try out the recommendations for leading cross-disciplinary teams? At which meetings or in which situations? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ How did it go when you tried out the recommendations? What difference did it make to the meeting and to the overall work? What did you learn from the experience? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Will you use these recommendations again in a future setting? How and when will you do this? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________

NOTES, THOUGHTS OR COMMENTS:

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How to develop contextual awareness In IO teams, misunderstandings can arise more easily than in co-located settings because of: (i) the geographical distance between distributed and remote team members, (ii) the fact that most communication between distributed team members is via electronic media such as email, telephone, video, etc., and (iii) that team members work in different contexts. It is important that the leader knows about or is aware of the context within which distributed and remote team members work every day. If the leader is not familiar with the work context of all of their team members, this increases the probability of making what are called “attribution errors”, meaning that the leader misinterprets or misunderstands why distant team members behave in certain ways. There may be local work policies, conditions or cultures that create obstacles for the distant team member and make it difficult or even prevent them from successfully contributing to the IO team.

STOP AND THINK What can you do as a leader to be more aware of the local context within which distributed and remote team members operate on a daily basis? Write your thoughts in the space below. _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ “My experience” An operations manager discusses the challenge of knowing and keeping up-to-date with the local activities, behaviors and preferences of the platform manager who is located offshore whilst the operations manager is located onshore.

MY EXPERIENCE “I need to understand the platform manager and his day-to-day work because I am to lead the platform manager and his organization… it can be a challenge when I am located far ware to understand his day-to-day work, his ways of prioritizing, and what he needs to do out there during the day. And I need to understand the changes with shift rotation, with a new platform manager coming in with his or her preferences, who has the same deliverables but who must be allowed to do it in her or her way. Understanding that is a challenge because we meet very seldom.” (Operations manager)

Recommendation IO leaders should make an effort to get to know the contexts within which distant team members operate. The best way to do this is to visit their locations (onshore or offshore) to see the environment in which they work. Run a video meeting from the distant location to get a feel for their experience of participation in collaboration meetings. IO leaders should also give distant team members the benefit of the doubt if they do not perform as you expect. Try to find out if there are other explanations for their behavior by talking to them after the team meeting or by visiting them at their location. Although it takes time and effort to visit distant team members, especially in remote locations, it is worth it, as

this platform manager points out: “If you are sitting in the same corridor you take many things for granted. If you believe that kind of leadership can be transferred directly to a context such as this one [the IO context] where you are dispersed when it comes to geography, time and people, you are not making things easy for yourself.”

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 An additional benefit of visiting team members in distant locations is that you develop a better relationship with them, which subsequently increases their trust in you as their leader. This demonstrates that you care about their contribution to the IO team and that you are committed to removing any obstacles that might prevent them from collaborating to the best of their ability. And, because people lead by example, this will inspire commitment in the distant team member.

Leadership self-evaluation questions

Consider the following questions and write your thoughts into the spaces provided. Have you ever been in a situation where you misinterpreted a distant team member’s behavior and later found out that there was some other, local explanation for this? How did you find out that you had misunderstood the situation? What was the impact of your interpretation of their behavior? What did you do when you found out that there was another reason for their behavior? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ When could you try out the recommendation above to develop a better contextual awareness of the work environments of your distant team members? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ How did it go when you tried out the recommendation above? What difference did it make to you as the IO team leader, to the distant team member and to the IO team as a whole? What did you learn from the experience? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Will you use these recommendations again in a future setting? How and when will you do this? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________

NOTES, THOUGHTS OR COMMENTS:

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How to inspire commitment and motivation Building and sustaining motivation and commitment can be a challenge when leading teams that are distributed over a geographical distance. When the people you lead are dispersed across several locations it can be more difficult for you to be a leading presence and be visible to distributed and remote team members. Furthermore, geographical distance makes it more challenging for team members to see how they contribute to the larger vision, as the work that is done at other locations can become more vague or even “invisible” when collaborating over distances. One reason for this is because there are fewer opportunities to communicate informally, to see what others are working on or to ask for help or advice. In traditional office settings, a lot of important information is exchanged during unplanned, informal encounters such as meeting someone in the hallway, or when walking by their desk. These kinds of encounters can be difficult to recreate in a virtual IO setting.

STOP AND THINK How could you as an IO leader inspire team members at your own location or other distributed and remote locations to be motived and committed to doing their job well? Write your thoughts in the space below. _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ “My experience” A platform manager had the following experience about what it takes to create motivation and commitment when collaborating with team members located onshore and offshore. He emphasizes the importance of giving feedback and encouraging each other, or “playing each other good” (“spille hverandre gode” is a well known expression from Norwegian football).

MY EXPERIENCE “Everyone, no matter who, needs feedback. If we sent a problem onshore to a supplier [to examine and investigate], the mechanic [offshore] should get the feedback saying ‘this is what we saw… and this is what we plan to do with it.’ Then we have reached the goal. He who sent the problem onshore got feedback on what the problem was, and then he feels that he is fully a part of the loop and the value creation… You need to think ‘the guy offshore helped me do my job well, now I must help him do his job well the next time.’” (Platform manager)

Recommendation Try giving positive feedback in a meeting or other arena where all of the team members are present, so that everyone can see how the collaboration has worked to solve a problem. As the platform manager says: “Everyone on the team needs to be made aware of what Per and Pål participated in, without everyone knowing exactly of what it was.” The rest of the team don’t need to know the details of the collaboration; rather, they need to see that the collaboration took place and that it was successful, and so it is possible for them to use such a collaboration in the future.

Leaders can also inspire commitment and motivation by highlighting how and why individuals’ contributions are valued and important to solving a problem, achieving a goal or working on some other activity. When people can see and understand how they fit into the overall picture, they start to care more about the work that they do and will want to do their best to live up to expectations and to achieve the vision.

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 Simon Sinek encapsulates this idea in a simple sentence: “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” A good IO leader makes sure that their team understands why they have been selected to be part of this collaboration, and what they each bring to the table.

Leadership self-evaluation questions

Consider the following questions and write your thoughts into the spaces provided. How have you tried to inspire motivation and commitment in your team in the past? Or have you worked for a leader who excelled at this? What techniques did you/they use, and how well did they work? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ When could you try out the recommendation above to develop a better contextual awareness for the work environments of your distant team members? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ How did it go when you tried out the recommendation above? What difference did it make to you as the IO team leader, and to the IO team as a whole? What did you learn from the experience? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Will you use these recommendations again in a future setting? How and when will you do this? _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________

USEFUL RESOURCES! Click on the links below to learn more about how to inspire commitment and motivation: • Jody R. Rogers describes his 4-step roadmap for leaders to inspire commitment. • Simon Sinek gives a short talk on his model for inspirational leadership. • Brian K. Muirhead describes how he used “high velocity leadership” to motivate his team to overcome nearly impossible constraints on the Mars Pathfinder mission. NOTES, THOUGHTS OR COMMENTS:

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Further IO reading The following IO Center handbooks are also recommended for managers and leaders: • Drøivoldsmo, A., Reegård, K. & Farbrot, J.E. (2014). The Capability Approach to Integrated Operations. IFE/ HR/F2014/1591. Center for Integrated Operations in the Petroleum Industry. • Nystad, E., Skjerve, A-B., Reegård, K., Rindahl, G. and Sarshar, S. 2014. Integrated operations teamwork handbook. IFE/HR/F-2014/1600. Center for Integrated Operations in the Petroleum Industry. • Haavik, T. K., Rosness, R. and Wærø, I. 2014. Robust work practices in the petroleum industry - A handbook. Trondheim, Norway: Center for Integrated Operations in the Petroleum Industry.

References References from the text • M. Alvesson & H. Willmott (2102). Making Sense of Management: A Critical Introduction. SAGE Publications Ltd.: Second Edition. • J. P. Kotter (2012). Leading Change. Harvard Business Review Press; First Edition. • S. A. Kirkpatrick & E. A. Locke (1991). Leadership: Do Traits Matter? Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 5, No. 2. • J. P. Kotter (2001). What Leaders Really Do. Harvard Business Review. • R. J. House, P. J. Hanges, S. A. Ruiz-Quintanilla, S. A. Dorfman, P. W. Javidan, M. Dickson, M. Gupta & GLOBE (1999). Cultural Influences on Leadership and Organizations. Advances in Global Leadership. Stanford, CT: JAI Press, Vol 1., pp 171-233 References used but not quoted in the text • J. Comfort & P. Franklin (2014). The Mindful international manager. How to work effectively across cultures. Kogan Page. • R. M. Steers, C. J. Sanchez-Runde, L. Nardon (2010). Management across cultures. Challenges and strategies. Cambridge University Press.

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Useful resources TED Talks about leadership

TED talks are short, interesting, often humorous videos from engaging speakers covering a range of topics from science to business to global issues. There are a number of videos on the topic of leadership, many of which are relevant to Integrated Operations and the challenges that IO leaders face. All of these videos are available online and are free to watch. Click on the links below to view each video. • What it takes to be a great leader - Roselinde Torres (9:19) The world is full of leadership development programs, but the best way to learn how to lead might be right under your nose. In this clear, candid talk, Roselinde Torres describes 25 years observing truly great leaders at work, and shares the three simple but crucial questions wouldbe leaders need to ask to thrive in the future. • Why good leaders make you feel safe - Simon Sinek (11:59) What makes a good leader? Management theorist Simon Sinek suggests it’s someone who makes their employees feel secure, who creates a circle of trust. But creating trust and safety means taking on big responsibilities. • Dare to disagree - Margaret Heffernan (12:56) Most people instinctively avoid conflict, but as Margaret Heffernan shows, good disagreement is central to progress. She illustrates how the best partners are not echo chambers, and how great leaders allow people to disagree. • Everyday leadership - Drew Dudley (6:14) We have all changed someone’s life, usually without even realizing it. In this funny talk, Drew Dudley calls on all of us to celebrate leadership as the everyday act of improving each other’s lives. • Listen, learn... then lead - Stanley McChrystal (15:38) Four-star general Stanley McChrystal shares what he learned about leadership over his decades in the military. How can you build a sense of shared purpose among people of many ages and skill sets? By listening and learning, and addressing the possibility of failure. • How great leaders inspire action - Simon Sinek (18:04) In this talk, Simon Sinek presents a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership, all starting with a golden circle and the question “Why?” His examples of great leadership include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers. His key message is “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” • How to start a movement - Derek Sivers (3:09) With help from some surprising footage, Derek Sivers explain how movements really get started. (HInt: it takes two). • Lead like the great conductors - Itay Talgam (20:51) An orchestra conductor faces the ultimate leadership challenge: creating perfect harmony without saying a word. In this charming talk, Itay Talgam demonstrates the unique styles of six great 20th-century conductors, illustrating crucial lessons for all leaders.

Leadership books

• Leading Change, by John P. Kotter (2012). This book is an excellent, easy-to-read guide on how to develop leadership to drive change in any organization. Kotter describes an 8-step process for managing change and includes real-life examples of successes and failures from people he has worked with over the past 40 years. • High Velocity Leadership: The Mars Pathfinder Approach to Faster, Better, Cheaper, by Brian Muirhead (1999). When Brian Muirhead took over as Chief Engineer of NASA`s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), he was given the task of sending a craft to Mars, the first one in 21 years. He was also told that he had to do it at a fraction of cost and in a fraction of the time of the previous Mars missions - “faster, better, cheaper” - and he was told to “take risks, but don`t fail”. In this book, Brian describes how he overcame barriers by discarding the familiar and replacing it with innovative new technologies, organizational structures, and business solutions.

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Leadership blogs

• The 8-Step process for leading change, by John P. Kotter. This blog explains the eight steps that leaders should follow in order to successfully implement change in their organization. • From manager to leader, by Leslie L. Kossoff. This blog outlines six questions that managers need to ask themselves in order to become a better leader. • The five steps it takes to go from manager to leader, by Alan S. Bernson. This blog asks five questions to prompt thinking and to help make the successful transition from manager to leader. • 5 ways to encourage your employees to lead, by Peter Economy. Leadership is about more than the person at the top. This blog offers five suggestions to encourage team members to take on leadership roles.

The IO Center website

You can also access these resources (and resources on additional topics, such as conflict resolution and using IO technology to enhance communication) on the “Leadership in Integrated Operations” page on the IO Center website: http://www.iocenter.no/ongoing-activities/leadership-integrated-operations

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Center for Integrated Operations in the Petroleum Industry S.P. Andersens veg 15 A, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.iocenter.no

Authors/contributors Claire Taylor

Institute for Energy Technology P.O. Boks 173, 1751 Halden, Norway Work phone: + 47 452 53 183 E-mail: [email protected]

Grete Rindahl

Institute for Energy Technology P.O. Boks 173, 1751 Halden, Norway Work phone: + 47 971 08 618 E-mail: [email protected]

Sjur Larsen

NTNU Social Research Dragvoll allé 38B, 7491 Trondheim, Norway Work phone: + 47 958 52 913 E-mail: [email protected]