HOUSTON—The rapid growth of technology—combined with a new generation of workers—threatens the oil and gas industry with a state of disruption. However, a few adaptations in the workforce could help company leaders leverage the growing challenges to their advantage.
In a room filled with talent managers at the WorkforceNext Energy Summit on March 29, Bill Fournet, CEO of the management consulting firm Persimmon Group, detailed a few strategy tactics that would reward opportunities even in the state of disruption.
Fournet said we’re living in an age of “exponentialism,” which is defined as a period where there is a rapid ascension on innovation that occurs in a much shorter time frame.
He said that because of exponentialism, the success of a company no longer depends just on efficiency and effectiveness, but also a fresh realm of unorthodox methods.
“[Efficiency and effectiveness] are no longer differentiators in successful companies…they are entry fees,” Fournet said.
In his assessment he said that adaptability, resiliency, simplification and judgement are the differentiators that are making organizations and teams more profitable. He added that efficiency and effectiveness are still relevant.
Procedurally, Fournet said companies in the industry are used to conducting their operations prescriptively in order to mitigate risks. Through adaptability, however, he said safety can still be reached without sticking to tradition.
“You can adapt because you have to or you can adapt because you believe you need to,” Fournet said.
The new innovation and demographic entering the industry requires adaptability, according to Fournet. He stressed that leaders and organizations have to make their companies receptive to change, thus making them resilient.
The best way to stay resilient, he said, is to make adjustments during disruption. Successful teams do well when “reflecting, assessing and adjusting [during] halftime,” he said.
Another initiative Fournet pointed out, critical to this era innovation, was simplification.
When welcoming modern technology, managers should expect to naturally adopt a new way of operating from beginning to finish. But, Fournet said to avoid overcomplicating things. He stressed that companies can adopt technology while still achieving the outcome in a simpler way.
Quoting one of Amazon’s leadership principles, Fournet said, “Invent, but simplify.”
The last tactic he stressed for all talent managers to adopt was judgement. “I believe the number one focus for managers, supervisors and leaders right now needs to be developing your team’s judgement.”
A company’s team will soon consist of the late-Millennial and early-‘Z’ generation workers, who are much more influenced by technology and have a lot of capability and drive, according to Fournet. In the oil and gas industry, where there is constant peril both onshore and offshore, he said it is important for leaders to trust their employees to make the right decisions
The tech-savvy workforce coming in must also be equipped with a strong ability to properly assess situations. Fournet said a company’s leaders and talent managers bear the responsibility of translating that knowledge.
Moving forward through the current digital shift, he said it is important to acquire people who support those technologies.
“Every company that is driving hard success has a strong defined culture,” he said. “It creates your own cycle of recruitment because people want to come and work for you [due to] the strong culture that you have created,” he said. “Culture is the foundation right now.”
Mary Holcomb can be reached at mholcomb@hartenergy.com
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