I attended a Behavior Based Safety (BBS) committee meeting today – they hold them every two weeks.  I attended one of these meetings on my first rotation; thought I should sit in on it again.  Not sure if every department in TCO has a member on the BBS committee; I do know that 2 people in my Designs Engineering group are involved (one is the co-chair) so believe it is beneficial to sit in and see how it goes, what is discussed.

For Richmond Refinery folks, BBS is LPS ultra-light.  We enter observations in a database, and track participation.  Each person is expected to perform one observation each month or rotation.  There are three written observations to choose from; site, office and driving.   The observations are very simple – no preparation required and takes about 10 minutes to do an observation and no more than 10 minutes to enter it from your PC.  I bring my BBS book with me when I perform field walks with engineers from my group – I fold it right into normal work.

Of course the BBS committee meeting looks at the numbers; percent participation by group.  The Designs Engineering group has one of the highest participation rates (averages 92%) – very difficult to get to 100% as it is measured by month and people who have a long off-rotation will not be able to perform an observation that month.  TCO as a whole is operating in the mid 85% participation each month.  Most of the committee meeting discussions are about various efforts to encourage the use of BBS observations, encouraging people to use stop work authority, etc.  Each of the committee members takes turns preparing a safety presentation related to their group, presents it at the committee meeting, and then it can be shared by other committee members with thier own groups if it is applicable.  I have sat in on two meetings and can see that the folks put some good effort into the presentations.

But what really tickles me is that the last item on the BBS committee agenda is “Speech by Management.”  When I attended the first time I was the only Expat in the room so when it got to this point in the agenda (about 50 minutes into an hour meeting) everyone turned to me expectantly.  I had noticed this on the agenda so I kinda of saw it coming but did not have much time to prepare.  I started with saying I am new here and therefore was attending the meeting primarily to learn.  I was about to thank everyone for their efforts when the Production Manager walked into the meeting room and I quickly segued into saying that I was sure glad he showed up so he could share some relevant comments.  So he did.  He sat down and thanked people, told them their efforts were important, and that it was difficult to quantify their efforts to influence safety behavior throughout the facility.  He continued on for a few minutes and people politely listened.  You have to put into context that everyone in the room speaks russian, with very few having a good command of english.  And therefore the Production Manager’s “speech” is translated from english to russian – he says a few words, the translators says a few words, back to the Production Manager, back to the translator, and so on.   

So I attend the meeting again today.  Luckily the Production Manager was at the meeting from the beginning, so I knew they would look to him when the “Speech from Management” agenda item comes up.  And this time I am closely watching the room, seeing what the reaction is to his words.  Our Production Manager once again thanks everyone, somewhat repeating his words from the last time I attended this meeting (six weeks ago) and also discussing a recent injury where a person fell off a ladder and broke both wrists.  And as I listen to our Production Manager, who is saying things that make sense and I know he believes, what crosses my mind is that most of the people in the room are processing “blah blah blah blah blah.”  From their body language, from their lack of recognition (no head nodding or smiling) it strikes me as going in one ear and out the other.  And that is the challenge of creating a safety culture where people are concious of their actions, understand how to assess risk, and believe that every incident is preventable – how do you energize people to change their behavior?  Even though the “speech” shared about a co-worker who was injured, the vast majority of people (99.99%?) believe it either does not apply to them or will not happen to them.  And so they tune out.

I do not have a solution to share – just sharing the observation that amuses me – speech by management is the same as blah blah blah blah blah.  I asked the translator to translate blah blah blah blah blah into russian – he said it is the same :).  Another russian phrase for my vocabulary – in additon to da (yes) and nyet (no) I now know blah blah blah blah blah!

This may be obvious, but I put some thought into how I was going to approach my new assignment.  I recently shared these thoughts with Don Kinkela (Don is my successor as Manager of Designs Engineering).  Don shared he was approaching his new position in a similar manner (does two people make it right?).

The learning I would like to share – when in a new assignment you should focus on three things – in order of priority:

1. People (who work for you, who you work for (customers), and who you work with (peers and peer organizations)
2. Plant (understand the process and technology that is currently in place)
3. Work Processes (how does work get done)

Earlier in my career I would have initially focused on the Plant (as most engineers) or the Work Processes (because I am interested in how things are accomplished).  But I realize that it is the People that make any place go so I have been consciously putting meeting people (my group, our customers, and the Facilities Engineering peer groups) at the top of my list each day.  I am working to learn their strengths and styles, as well as listen / learn from them on what they think is important.   I expect I will continue this priority focus over next several rotations as I get up-to-speed.  I still will focus on people once I feel comfortable with the assignment, but it will take less conscious effort.

Not sure if this is how all Upstream Facilities Engineering organizations are organized, but there are six groups within Facilities Engineering here in Tengiz:

1. Process Engineering (similar to a Refining Process Engineering group, supports both plant operations and capital projects)
2. Designs Engineering (similar to Plant Support in a refinery)
3. Capital Projects – Existing Plant Facilities (EPF) (similar to small capital projects in a refinery)
4. Capital Projects – Existing Field Facilities (EFF) – this is the group that handles projects in the field, specifically pipeline and injection work
5. Facilities Construction – builds the projects designed by both Capital Projects groups, EPF and EFF, but not for Designs Engineering.  Maintenance handles all the field execution, both turnaround and on-the-run, for Designs Engineering packages.
6. Reliability (similar to the Reliability organizations that report through Manintenance in a refinery)

Rotational work significantly affects the productivity of the organization.  I knew I was going to be coordinating my position with my back-to-back but I did not appreciate the complexity of everyone on rotational assignments.  Everyone in my group rotates – the Lead Engineers, first level Engineers, Translators and Admin Assistants.  All of our peers in Facilities Engineering rotate, all of our Operations customers rotate, all the Maintenance folks rotate.  And the rotations are not synchronized except in a few select cases (Operations Site Manager overlaps with the three Operations Superintendents is the only snych’d rotation I am aware of).  Therefore, there is a huge amount of hand-off between positions and invariably information does not get communicated, and further follow-up is required.  People do not get upset about this – realize it is in the nature of rotational work.  I found that I spent a lot of time documenting what was done / decisions made; at times I thought I would prefer getting more work done and not have to spend so much time documenting it.  And then you need to leave it in a place where your back-to-back can find it.  We use email PST folders – still getting used to it.

When you go home you really do leave the job behind.  After I finished my turnover I realized all the details of my position would be handled.  In the past I would work really hard before I went off for vacation, typically working late the last few nights to ensure nothing fell through a crack while I was gone.  Invariably I was tired when vacation first started.  I also worked late the few days before turnover but once home I truly did not worry about the job – my oldest son observed that I was relaxed while home – more so than previous vacations.

The opportunities here are very similiar to what we are faced with in Richmond.  Clearly Tengiz Chevroil (TCO) is a different business unit, with people who have a different background from mine.  But due to the large crude oil processing units a significant portion of TCO looks and feels very much like a refinery.

I promised Alan Lowell that I would not attempt to “fix” everything during my first rotation.  I attempted to listen (wasn’t as hard as I expected) and asked a lot of questions, sometime prefaced with “So I’m the new guy, so how does this ……. work here?”

During my first rotation I attended many meetings (what a surprise), met a lot of people, and explored how work gets done in Tengiz, from hiring to field execution.  Towards the end of my first rotation I met with the four Lead Engineers who report to me and reviewed a list of TCO Designs Engineering Improvement Opportunities that I picked up over my first rotation – I just wanted to capture the ideas and start flushing them out a bit before I left for home.

The feedback I received is I had picked up on many of the things the first level supervisors find as roadblocks or time consuming efforts, and they welcomed ideas / energy on how to improve in these areas.

We will develop this list over my next two rotations, and use the simple prioritization approach of “Business Value if Improved?” and “How Much Effort to Fix?”.  Of course we will work first on the High Business Value / Low Effort to Fix items.  I have asked each Lead Engineer to help flush out an area that they see as particularly difficult or frustranting, and then take the lead on improving here.  Of course I need to discuss / gain alignment with my back-to-back.  In any event, I am looking forward to the challenges to make improvements at my new work location.

1. Expertizing (this is similar to what Building Permit Services does to receive building permits from the City of Richmond but instead it is complying with Republic of Kazakhstan design review requirements)
2. Engineering Work Requests – work prioritization (~ 70% of work requests are initially prioiritized as P1)
3. Utilization of Engineering Contractors – Designs Engineering prefers the contract staffing approach, struggles with leverging through engineering contractors
4. Materials: Ordering, Tracking, Storehouse Availablity – believed that engineering spends too much time on this feel they are accountable to make sure the material arrives
5. Staffing / HR Work Processes – new hires, experienced hires, staff vs. contractors
6. Documentation Control
7. Funding Work Processes / Budget Control
8. Technical Training
9. Succession Planning
10. Safety – Behavior Based Safety (BBS) Observations / Safety Meetings (this is listed as 10 because it is working well, some minor improvement opportunities observed)
11. Cost Estimating
12. Approved Vendor (Supplier) List
13. Flare Diagnostic and Reduction Project (further flare reducion and improved accuracy of monitoring)
14. 1oo1 Project (improving reliaibility of safety shutdown installations)
15. Wireless Project (installation of wireless network)

The last three are projects that I plan to be involved in.  I marvel at how similiar this list is to the Richmond Refinery issues that continue to be worked.

Acronyms for $500.

Are you asking me or are you telling me?

Bonus meeting?  Do we need a bonus meeting?

Do you Wiki?

Get over it.

If I wanted your opinion I would give it to you.

If I knew we were going to have 5:30 am meetings I would not have chosen engineering as my major.

If you do not know where you are going, any road will take you there.

If you have a hammer in your hand, everything looks like a nail.  Chinesse Proverb (or crediting it to a Chinnese Proverb makes it sound good) – I used to work with an Operations Manager who represented this saying very well.

It’s all better (CURE).

Let me make my meddling visible.

Play me or trade me.

This isn’t the Post Office.

Vote with your feet.

Wanna see my Wiki?

Working hard is a cluster “2 -“.

Yes, that’s right, you are absolutely correct.

And a few more from home …………

Engineers fix their mistakes, Doctors bury theirs.

STD = Stop Talking Dad

Favorite Sayings from Friends (it must be good if I post it ;))

Tell us what you need… and we’ll tell you how you can live without it. (Ken Mertes)