Organisational Effectiveness: Oil and Gas
The Situation
A global vertically integrated oil and gas company has established Organisational Effectiveness teams in their Upstream, Downstream and Projects & Technology business units. The role of the Organisational Effectiveness (OE) team is to improve project and programme delivery from a change management perspective rather than from a technical skills (drilling, petroleum engineering, sub-surface etc) perspective. Operating as part of HR, their role is complementary to developing long term capability within the company in core activities. The OE staff are in effect internal consultants operating a highly leveraged delivery model- relying on short, part time and concurrent programme engagements. Due to project success and a growing reputation, demand for OE support fast out stripped supply; we were approached to provide consulting support that would be able immediately to integrate with client OE staff and use their methods.
The Approach
Our initial engagement was with the Projects & Technology business unit, who provide OE support to project work in both upstream and downstream. We deployed one consultant whose role was to provide additional OE support using their current approach as well as to identify areas of improvement in delivering OE within the organisation. The client's approach to OE incorporated well known change management tools, many of which we had initiated in other clients. During a year long engagement we worked on diverse projects including their China development strategy, the merger of two divisions within Projects and Technology, an organisation wide "Jam" session using IBM's technology platform, a range of leadership forums, The Top Quartile Project Delivery programme and the Asset Integrity/ Process Safety programme. The support included diagnostics, mobilisation events, team building and capability development.
The Outcome
The positive feedback we received on each of the projects led to further engagements and ultimately to the organisation deciding to recruit more staff for the internal team rather than rely on external consulting support. We proposed a re-alignment of OE (there were multiple internal teams within the company performing pretty similar roles) this work is being taken forward by OE management. We were able to identify and propose some solutions to the internal tension between long term capability development of operational staff and short term project specific capability enhancement through "free" OE resources.
Organisations wish to develop internal consulting teams for a range of reasons:
Our view is that successful internal consulting teams need a clear path from initial recruitment to more senior roles within the firm but outside of consultancy.
Many firms are very good at recruiting high calibre ex-consulting/ audit/ advisory/project management staff for their internal consulting practice, but then offer only "deadman's shoes" within the internal consulting group as a career path. The reason for this is that companies rarely have sufficient scale in their internal consulting teams to offer viable career development on a stand alone basis. It often relates to where the team sits in the organisation- under HR, Finance, IT or COO for example. The ambitious internal consultant finds themselves competing for functional roles (country head of HR, FD of an operating unit, GM of a manufacturing plant) that then favour a traditional functional profile.
To break out of this requires internal consultants to be more exposed to the subject matter of their projects rather than just supporting the process- and in a way that develops positive networks for the individual within the firm. It requires the constant refresh of the internal consulting team from both internal and external sources and demonstrations of successful staff placements at the end of their consulting roles.
Successful internal consulting teams need also to operate in an environment where the change (including the initial analysis) is owned by the line management. This requires a mechanism of both joint and several accountability- line managers and consultants have to work collaboratively but with clear, pre-defined hard targets. In a crisis or turnaround situation a more directive approach may be required; however this is the exception rather than the rule and even then it is a short term expedient. In these situations an external consulting team may be a more practical option.
A global vertically integrated oil and gas company has established Organisational Effectiveness teams in their Upstream, Downstream and Projects & Technology business units. The role of the Organisational Effectiveness (OE) team is to improve project and programme delivery from a change management perspective rather than from a technical skills (drilling, petroleum engineering, sub-surface etc) perspective. Operating as part of HR, their role is complementary to developing long term capability within the company in core activities. The OE staff are in effect internal consultants operating a highly leveraged delivery model- relying on short, part time and concurrent programme engagements. Due to project success and a growing reputation, demand for OE support fast out stripped supply; we were approached to provide consulting support that would be able immediately to integrate with client OE staff and use their methods.
The Approach
Our initial engagement was with the Projects & Technology business unit, who provide OE support to project work in both upstream and downstream. We deployed one consultant whose role was to provide additional OE support using their current approach as well as to identify areas of improvement in delivering OE within the organisation. The client's approach to OE incorporated well known change management tools, many of which we had initiated in other clients. During a year long engagement we worked on diverse projects including their China development strategy, the merger of two divisions within Projects and Technology, an organisation wide "Jam" session using IBM's technology platform, a range of leadership forums, The Top Quartile Project Delivery programme and the Asset Integrity/ Process Safety programme. The support included diagnostics, mobilisation events, team building and capability development.
The Outcome
The positive feedback we received on each of the projects led to further engagements and ultimately to the organisation deciding to recruit more staff for the internal team rather than rely on external consulting support. We proposed a re-alignment of OE (there were multiple internal teams within the company performing pretty similar roles) this work is being taken forward by OE management. We were able to identify and propose some solutions to the internal tension between long term capability development of operational staff and short term project specific capability enhancement through "free" OE resources.
Organisations wish to develop internal consulting teams for a range of reasons:
- Cost reduction- full time staff are usually cheaper than external consultants.
- Developing a missing capability- often in core consulting, change, IT and project management skills. The demand for these skills may be permanent or transient (for example during re-organisation, merger or transformation).
- Succession planning- developing general managers and business leaders.
Our view is that successful internal consulting teams need a clear path from initial recruitment to more senior roles within the firm but outside of consultancy.
Many firms are very good at recruiting high calibre ex-consulting/ audit/ advisory/project management staff for their internal consulting practice, but then offer only "deadman's shoes" within the internal consulting group as a career path. The reason for this is that companies rarely have sufficient scale in their internal consulting teams to offer viable career development on a stand alone basis. It often relates to where the team sits in the organisation- under HR, Finance, IT or COO for example. The ambitious internal consultant finds themselves competing for functional roles (country head of HR, FD of an operating unit, GM of a manufacturing plant) that then favour a traditional functional profile.
To break out of this requires internal consultants to be more exposed to the subject matter of their projects rather than just supporting the process- and in a way that develops positive networks for the individual within the firm. It requires the constant refresh of the internal consulting team from both internal and external sources and demonstrations of successful staff placements at the end of their consulting roles.
Successful internal consulting teams need also to operate in an environment where the change (including the initial analysis) is owned by the line management. This requires a mechanism of both joint and several accountability- line managers and consultants have to work collaboratively but with clear, pre-defined hard targets. In a crisis or turnaround situation a more directive approach may be required; however this is the exception rather than the rule and even then it is a short term expedient. In these situations an external consulting team may be a more practical option.