NORA Oil and Gas Extraction Sector Council Spring Health and Safety Summit

Fred Sherrat, Construction Safety Research Alliance/University of Colorado: “Known Knowns and Some Known Unknowns: Putting Safety Culture into Practice”

• Abstract: Dr Fred Sherratt will unpack safety culture from philosophical, theoretical, and most importantly practical perspectives. This whistle-stop tour will explore how we can usefully apply the various concepts of safety culture in the field, what that means for its measurement and monitoring, and where and how safety climate should fit into the mix.  With increasing interest in safety culture as a regulatory monitoring tool, we need to know what we can and can’t know about it to ensure its optimal operationalization in practice.

Bertha Myhre, Equinor: “Psychosocial Risk Indicator – A way to measure our psychological risk”

• Abstract: Equally to all other risks in Equinor, the psychological risk is managed through a predefined process. The result of this process gives us an indicator used to define further actions and measures.
  PRI, psychosocial risk indicator, indicates to the risk owner/leader how employees perceive workload, opportunity for development, support by leadership and colleagues, roles and responsibilities etc.

Cindi Nandlal, Point Lisas Nitrogen Limited: “The Pull of the Past and the Push into Present: Human and Organizational Performance – An Introduction”

• Abstract: Just like the fourth industrial era, safety is going through another evolution. Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) has brought new illumination to approaching the organizational assumptions, beliefs, approaches and understanding for frontline work and the empowerment of the “experts of the blue line.” Cindi will discuss her perspectives on the history and context, the input and outcomes of the work we do and myths and misconceptions about how it is structured through the lens of a practitioner in the energy sector. She will introduce the five principles of HOP and what they are intended to do, including challenges and gains from HOP.

Robert Waterhouse, Energy Safety Canada: “Stories around HOP Principles and Concepts”

• Abstract:  Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) is a philosophy not a program and therefore requires a shift in thinking. Energy Safety Canada (ESC) has been at the forefront of this journey in safety thinking through the introduction of HOP principles. Robert will share a number of stories that center around the five principles of HOP and other HOP concepts. This will be an interactive presentation with the objective of expanding participants perspectives on how they view safety performance.

Norman Ritchie, vPSI Group: “New Methods for Learning from Incidents Involving HOP”

• Abstract: Human Performance issues may be complex and can cover a broad range of disciplines. Investigating incidents from a Human Performance perspective requires a different approach than conventional incident analysis methodologies allow. This presentation offers a pragmatic set of concepts that can be applied through the entire process of responding to the learning opportunities presented by incidents, including data acquisition, analysis, and developing appropriate and optimized corrective actions for Human Performance causal factors. Key takeaways from this presentation include differentiating between human failures types in an unplanned event and quickly developing and validating appropriate corrective actions.

Tom Knode, Vice President Industrial Safety, Quantum AI: “Safety Leadership and Culture Assessment: Are Employees Engaged in a Safety Program?”

• Abstract: Many companies in oil and gas have used Safety Culture Maturity Models for the past few decades.  Understanding the progression of safety culture maturity helps leaders and safety professionals design and implement strategies to improve productivity, operational resilience, and safety performance.  However, most of these models describe where an organization is on a maturity continuum rather than indicate what is expected from workers.  A new way of looking at safety culture involves assessing safety maturity against a measure of employee engagement.  Employee Engagement has been identified as a critical factor for improved safety performance and an increase in financial and quality performance.Rather than focusing solely on perceptions and opinions within a survey, questions can be asked about participation and action within a program.  An example of this change would be moving from “The Company is concerned about my safety” to “I report all incidents and Near Misses, no matter how minor.”  Then follow-up questions can be asked to gauge trust in how the organization will respond to incidents and stopping work.  The results of this change will provide an understanding of how employees are engaged in a safety program, and if there are concerns over how an organization will treat the employee’s concerns.

Kenny Baker, Cactus Drilling: “How to Build a Successful Rig Team and Cultivate Relationships with the New Generation”

• Abstract: What you do and how you react affects those around you. Being conscientious in your acts towards your coworkers can have tremendous affects in not only their success and growth as an individual but the overall health of the team. These actions and behaviors can automatically tie back into creating a successful culture within the organization, cultivate employee ownership and “buy in” and help bridge the gap between multiple generations.

Emily Haas, NIOSH: “Navigating Safety Culture in High-Hazard Industries: Myths, Interventions, and Key Takeaways”

• Abstract: It is common to focus on occupational safety and health when referring to an organization’s culture—hence the arrival of the heavily used term safety culture. Discussed as employees’ perceptions regarding their organization’s priority toward safety and health, an organization’s safety culture is often a leading indicator of workplace incidents. Although regarded as important by practitioners, there is little evidence that targeting safety culture perceptions, alone, is effective. Rather, concrete advances in safety-related policies, procedures, and practices have been shown to lead to such improvements (i.e., “walking the talk”). Consequently, after highlighting the landscape of safety culture in high-hazard industries, including prevalent myths surrounding safety culture, the focus turns to interventions aimed at improving safety culture using a series of case examples completed across NIOSH within high-hazard industries. Key takeaways emphasize the iterative nature of safety culture assessment and maintenance, the interconnectedness of safety culture with management systems, and the importance of holistic approaches in identifying and addressing safety culture challenges.

Justine Organ, Enbridge: “Driving a Positive Safety Culture”

• Abstract: If we want a positive safety culture, what actions should we take? From training and communication tactics to measuring and monitoring safety culture health, this presentation explores the actions that Enbridge has taken to drive a positive safety culture. Justine Organ will also speak to and provide data gathered from the INGAA-API (Interstate Natural Gas Association of America-American Petroleum Institute) safety culture perception survey, including the changes seen over time.

Sam Minifie, API: “The Importance of Safety Culture for Pipeline Operators”

• Abstract: This presentation will focus on over a decades-long initiative to assess safety culture and action plan to close any identified gaps. While the previous session will highlight one pipeline operator’s journey to conduct the survey, analyze results, and close gaps, this session will touch on the pipeline industry’s efforts since 2013 to measure and improve safety culture among transmission and distribution operators as well as contractors. Pipeline regulators are increasingly viewing safety culture as a mechanism to achieve the goal of zero operating incidents beyond regulation alone, and the industry has proactively undertaken efforts to assess current sentiments, analyze results, and exchange leading practices among operators. This session will highlight over a decade of safety culture surveys, the importance of culture in safety and pipeline performance, and next steps.

David Renz, Slippery Rock University: “Worker’s Perception of Leader Intelligence, Safety Climate and Safety Participation in the Oil and Gas Extraction Industry”

• Abstract: The presentation will share results of a research study evaluating the association between workers’ perception of the person in charge (PIC) leadership under the framework of the leader intelligence model and its dimensions (emotional, spiritual, and rational) with both safety climate and safety participation in the onshore oil and gas extraction industry (OGEI). Outcomes include: 1) Defining leadership intelligence and its components; 2) Workers’ perceptions of current PIC leadership style using the leadership intelligence model; 3) Workers’ leadership preferences about PIC leader intelligence as compared with their perceptions of actual leadership in the Oil & Gas industry; and 4) Workers’ perception of safety climate and safety participation in their worksites.

Jerry Eubank, Oxy: “Cultural Impacts on Safety Culture”

• Abstract: Culture impacts everything we do, especially in the oil and gas industry. As workers move from a technical to a management role realizing cultural differences becomes increasingly important. A variety of cultures are available at any given time from the Corporate to the field level. Although host country companies employ local labor, they often employ expatriate workers that offer in-country and rotational labor. Safety, workplace, religious, popular, folk, national, dominant and subcultures affect oil and gas operations and would be briefly reviewed. How those cultures affect the safety culture in the oil and gas industry would be briefly reviewed. Information within academia will be used to support the findings. The 30-minute presentation would provide an overview of cultural influence on safety cultures.

Brett Sutton and Jeff Lyth, Learning Teams Inc. North America: “The Value of Learning from Normal Everyday Work with the 4Ds (Dumb, Dangerous, Difficult and Different)”

• Abstract: Understanding how learning from everyday work with insights from the frontline teams, using tools that enable people to share their stories, experiences, and the system rubs that they encounter will enable the organizations to develop better work design, system improvements, task demands of psychosocial risks, and enhanced operational outcomes.

Andrea Baker and Matt Florio, HOP Mentor, HOP Facilitator: “The Elephant in the (HOP) Room: Tackling Accountability Head On”

• Abstract: On my own HOP journey, I have wavered between feeling like the concepts were either describing a fluffy utopia destined to lead us into anarchy or forcing people to be realists…and everything in between. After years of studying and using the concepts (both professionally and personally), I’ve landed on HOP being synonymous with harsh realism…with the harshest of those realities landing squarely on my shoulders as a leader.  Prior to HOP, I was taught to act in accordance with a code of conduct that I now see as somewhat fantastical.  I had an illusion of control, with a parent-child view of accountability holding center stage.  This session is designed to talk through truths about what it “means to be human” to allow us to separate wishful thinking from strategy.

Marco Iafrate and Valeria Segura, Chevron: “The Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) Journey: Key Factors and Learnings for Successful Integration”

• Abstract: This session will provide attendees an opportunity to learn about developing a learning culture through HOP. The discussion will include:
  • Managing the integration of HOP through its different phases,
  • Lessons learned from moving to HOP from Human Performance, and
  • Approaches to operational learning and the tools involved.