No blame culture…

The world of offshore oil rigs is male dominated and a unique working environment.  Two rigs in the Gulf of Mexico decided to change how they worked.

The workforce on the rigs was 90% male, and they lived and worked together offshore for two weeks at time doing twenty hour shifts and on call twenty four hours a day.

The company was keen to improve safety and performance and in order to do this they decided to shift the focus from individual performance to long term goals.  They wanted to change the culture moving away from colleagues competing with each other to working with each other.

The first step was on the safety issue.  Workers were asked to shut down the platform at the first sight of a potentially dangerous situation, and there would be no blame attached if they had misjudged the danger, even though shut downs were costly.   They were also encouraged to intervene if colleagues breached safety rules.   By sharing information instead of hiding mistakes they started to be open about them and begin to analyse them as a way to learn.

The other unexpected outcome was that the workers stop hiding their emotions, and started talking about the toll of their job on their family.

Slowly the culture changed and the workers who cared about other workers and were good listeners and willing to learn rose to senior levels.  The accident rate fell by 84% and productivity, efficiency and reliability improved.

We can work with your business to change your culture please do get in touch  bev@nuggetsoflearning.co.uk