Program Management: Driving forward regional safety performance, Azerbaijan

In a program of safety forums, Concentric Consulting brought Health & Safety Directors from BP and principle contractors together to improve safety by performance review and a clearer vision of procedural conformance.

Brief

Aligning regional client and contractor safety objectives

To drive safety performance, BP sought to gather their own key leaders alongside contractors in the Azerbaijan, Georgia & Turkey (AGT) region to discuss and align leadership safety objectives. Since this involved an average of 95 contracting companies with 140 delegates, in addition to 70 BP team members, it would take a determined approach to Program Management – one that considered varying cultures, languages, and priorities.

Concentric was trusted to design, deliver, and program manage these forums, giving an average of 210 people per forum an opportunity to raise their ideas and benefit from knowledge sharing, while aligning around a shared sense of safety.

Delivery

Structured Project Management with a complex technical and human scope

Given the complexity of the forums, Concentric began by creating a clear, structured agenda. This was based on information gathered while engaging Health & Safety executives with direct involvement in AGT, via one-to-one calls and meetings. A dry run was then held to ensure that every stakeholder was clear on the agenda, time and process.

Facilitating the first forum

Concentric then went on to facilitate the first BP Contractor Safety Leadership Forum, including BP-led breakout sessions. As well as creating a positive environment for open dialogue and debate, Concentric captured live outputs and feedback at the end of each session and day. At the conclusion of the forum, Concentric used recorded outputs to create a post-workshop feedback report including detailed contractor action plans. These were then monitored through quarterly progress calls.

Continuing progress through further forums

Following the success of the first forum, Concentric were trusted to deliver Annual safety forums for the following 2 years. The BP teams in AGT recognised the value of continuity Concentric could provide, including tacit understanding of the people, projects and relationships.

This would give the AGT BP and contracting community a chance to come together, pause for breath, and further develop:

• Progress on previous commitments
• How leader procedural conformance is ensured
• What had been learnt, including incidents and near misses
• The work scope and emerging risks for the next year
• Challenges going forwards
• Next steps and actions to improve

Outcomes

With Concentric’s help, the forums allowed BP to drive positive change in Health & Safety practices by aligning people around a shared sense of the risks, privilege to operate, and expectations of senior leaders.

The forums were:

• An effective way for senior leaders to share ideas, best practice, and confirm personal commitments to Health & Safety
• A unique opportunity to bring the AGT contractor community together as one team, owning the Health & Safety improvement agenda
• A foundation for continued conversations, prompted through a robust follow-up process

As a result, BP was able to secure and reaffirm contractor commitments to:

• Verification/testing compliance to procedures with front line teams
• More ownership of H&S procedures like Stop Work and Speak Up
• Engagement in the line
• Competency standards and training provision
• Increased audits, assessments and surveys
• Increased leadership presence and communication

According to feedback questionnaires, the forums were very well-managed, on-time, and focused, with excellent encouragement of open communication rather than a glossy safety presentation from contractors.

Attendees recognised that Concentric kept people engaged, overcame key challenges associated with the scale of the forum, and enabled teamwork and communication that was given an >80% satisfaction rating.