Enabling more effective ways of working

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THE PROBLEM

An Oil & Gas client established the Integrated Operations Centre (IOC) that co-located a wide range of functional teams; encompassing technical engineering, control room with full remote capability, integrated planning and optimisation, network operations, energy trading and commercial, operational technology incorporating telecoms/data/infrastructure and the related field assets comprising wells and gas plants. These diverse, and by necessity closely integrated business areas, conduct and manage the clients’ operations throughout South East QLD. Equipped with a suite of cutting-edge visualisation technology, this environment provided real time interactive information to its operational personnel and brought teams together that were previously dispersed across multiple locations, into a single location.

The client needed to build a culture that balanced short-term operational needs with an ability to reflect, review and adapt with a more strategic mindset.

THE PROGRAM OF WORK

The client engaged us to design and build a High Performing Team (HPT) program, incorporating the Team Management Profile (TMP) and Linking Skills Profile (LSP) – designed to enable the client to realise the benefits of this environment through collaboration, knowledge sharing and, importantly, developing the capability to leverage the diverse range of skills and experience of the 150+ personnel within the team. The TMP and LSP were selected as an integral part of the HPT Program offering a safe, interactive and fun way to understand the teams’ preferences and the preferences of others.

Although members of the team had worked together previously, the newly formed environment provided the opportunity for them to improve their ways of working. Conducting the TMP for all team members offered a framework that enabled them to exchange information and ideas using a common language and shared understanding. Additionally, the TMP afforded every team member the opportunity to gain an enhanced level of awareness of themselves and their colleagues.

The LLP was designed to provide middle and upper level leaders with a deeper view of their abilities to undertake the ‘linking’ activities in the TMP; thereby providing the team, as a whole, with the greatest opportunity to leverage the benefits it was designed for.

The workshop approach was designed to be a mix of ‘teaching’ about the TMP, ‘doing’ activities around the four measures of work preference (RIDO scale), ‘discussing’ the implication of the TMP in the workplace and scenario gamification to demonstrate collaboration and diversity.

THE OUTCOMES

The TMS solution in the HPT program laid a foundation for the team to explore more innovative ways to solve problems. The program provided a holistic exploration of how the team members could better interact and employ the diversity of team members to explore a range of potential solution pathways using a variety of perspectives.

The team members were debriefed on their profiles results over a series of 10 workshops held over a 2-month period. The core themes that emerged from the workshops included:

  • There is no single right solution to any given problem
  • People have different preferences, and these differences enable the workplace to be viewed in different ways
  • Our differences are a strength, being able to leverage these differences is a competitive advantage

By framing the workshops as a process of inquiry, we worked with the client to openly challenge their current ways of working. We also enabled the team to ask more insightful questions about their environment, their colleagues and their purpose, in preference to seeking a final all-encompassing solution.  By incorporating a variety of games, challenges and discussions, the workshops enabled participants to correlate the TMS learning to the activities performed.

The Benefits

As a result of the program, the client increased their awareness of team diversity and gained an understanding of the value of leveraging these differences. Through an enhanced awareness of one’s self and an awareness of others, it is possible to conduct more effective “coloured” meetings that deliver purpose and outcome, the identification of potential blind spots within team operations and the development of collaborative relationships based on a better understanding of how others may prefer to work or communicate.