Farscape Development — Reach Your Goals Faster

Case Study Stena Drilling

What were the challenges?

• Rig Managers and Safety Officers were finding that safety management systems were not being adhered to onboard rigs. Excellent processes were in place; however there was a need for increased ownership and accountability from staff in order to ensure that these systems were followed.
• With an anticipated influx of new, inexperienced staff who would not understand the stringent safety standards or safety culture within the organisation, the role of the Rig Management Teams was becoming even more critical. Training to develop their confidence and to identify leadership and safety 'behaviours' was necessary to ensure that safety was quickly embedded on new rigs and within new teams.
• In striving to continuously improve safety, some systems and processes had become an encumbrance rather than a tool for improvement. The Rig Management Teams needed time to identify what was working and to establish ways of implementing systems that would make a real difference rather than becoming a paperwork exercise.
• Face to face communication and sharing of challenges and successes was not happening as regularly as it should under the pressure of rapid crew changes and rotations and too much 'measurement'. Agreed ways of working and communicating were required in order to create a joined up approach to leadership and safety.

What happened?

Farscape developed a safety and leadership programme for Rig Management Teams and Safety Officers. Each delegate had the opportunity to:

• Identify what was currently working and what were the areas for improvement.
• Conduct a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of their current position and future aspirations.
• Agree the perfect operational and leadership days and what would be required to make them a reality.
• Identify personal values and drivers to help individuals understand themselves and others in order to communicate more effectively.
• Identify what good leadership looks like in order to agree a set of principles or behaviours that they would show and be measured against.
• Practice different skills and techniques to identify what styles are appropriate for different people and situations.
• Learn about the foundations of high performance team work in order to help build more effective teams at work.
• Develop a company-wide approach to safety, focusing on personal ownership, accountability and responsibility.

What are the outcomes so far?

With over 50 people having taken part in the programme, Stena have given the following feedback.

“Farscape's Safety and Leadership Workshops have focused on the importance of behaviours within our organisation and upon personal accountability. The feedback has been extremely positive with the outcomes now being used to create company-wide recommendations. I recommend Farscape wholeheartedly.”
Jim Houlihan, Operations Manager, Stena Drilling

Rig Management Teams identified the following outcomes:

• Enhanced safe operations within the organisation.
• Reduction in paperwork and focus on quality rather than quantity of safety monitoring.
• Improved communication and sharing of knowledge, leading to a more coherent approach to safety across the organisation.
• A greater sense of personal accountability and responsibility