The human element

May 21, 2018
Transformation is a recurring theme at oil and gas events, as was the case at this year’s Offshore Technology Conference held earlier this month in Houston. In 2017, OTC panelists discussed Big Data and the need for skilled workers to adopt and tackle the immediate and future needs of the oil and gas industry. This year, the conversation has inched forward from the what to the how, but the human element is still key.

Mikaila Adams

Editor-News

Transformation is a recurring theme at oil and gas events, as was the case at this year’s Offshore Technology Conference held earlier this month in Houston. In 2017, OTC panelists discussed Big Data and the need for skilled workers to adopt and tackle the immediate and future needs of the oil and gas industry. This year, the conversation has inched forward from the what to the how, but the human element is still key.

Panelists at a May 2 session at this year’s event recognized the disconnect between the wealth of oil and gas industry data and the adoption of various technologies—not only at field level, but in back office, day-to-day operations. Discussions centered around the many facets of the human side of digital transformation.

For folks sitting in offices thinking it will affect people other than themselves, that’s probably wishful thinking, said Preston Cody, head of analytics solutions at Wood Mackenzie. “Machine learning will have the most impact on internal workflows,” he said. Leaders at the top trying to change the talent mix will be the ones getting the most benefit from digital transformation, he said.

Patricia Vega

The ability to continuously attract the right talent to the industry remains of great concern to the industry moving forward but pulling top talent away from other industries remains a challenge. Millennials desire the power to disrupt and the ability to make an impact. Putting the need in perspective, Francesco Menapace, an exploration geologist at Shell, noted that 52% of the current US oil and gas workforce is over the age of 45.

Barriers exist, too, within the existing oil and gas workforce. Fear of the unknown was cited by the audience as an impediment to transformation as polled by panelist Patricia Vega, CEO and founder, Quantum New Energy. Change is hard. Change management can help, she said.

One needs to look at specific barriers to a successful implementation of data science and its accompanying change management strategy, Vega said. Often, there is not enough understanding of the strategic implications of the desired changes. “Companies need to be clear about their ambitions.” The goal is to instill a sense of purpose within an organization, she said. Going back to Menapace’s point about making an impact, he notes new technology is more-readily adopted when deemed helpful. Understanding the way technologies improve not only one employee’s work function, but the entire organization’s work, and that of the industry, can change the discourse.

It helps to begin with the end in mind, Vega said. What is the human behavior you want? Look for insights that will support that behavior and work on behavior-focused derisking: understand, discover, design, evaluate, and fine-tune. “Embrace incrementalism to achieve radical change,” she said, and stop trying to make digital technologies fit into existing operational models.

Industry minds will continue to create and refine the tools and technology to extract value from data. There’s work to be done, but recurring discussions about transformative technologies and their adoption and implementation in day-to-day operations spur forward momentum.

More collaborative data-sharing environments and a change in organizational structure from what-we-know to empirically statistics-based could change the playing field. That’s yet to be sorted, but transformation is happening. A nod to OTC’s 50th anniversary, a few ‘70s-inspired jackets were spotted at this year’s event. This editor saw a few. What stood out, while surveying the seemingly endless span of yet-to-navigate pavement outside the event, was a man of a certain age, in a suit. Not for a jacket from a decade gone by, but for his skillful and confident maneuvering of an electric unicycle. A variation on digital transformation, but adoption and transformation, indeed.