Statoil Exec: Effective Leaders Should Empower People and Machines
Leadership within the oil and gas industry is more critical than ever before. That’s the message Jim Claunch, Statoil’s vice president of operational excellence for development and production for U.S./Mexico, communicated to attendees of the Houston Energy Breakfast March 24.
He said leadership is critical to the success of a company’s team and people. And it falls on leaders to inspire and motivate their team members.
“The culture change that’s coming for engineers is huge. [Engineers] have got to let go of their data,” said Claunch, addressing the engineers in the room. “We’re not going to live just on spreadsheets anymore.”
With the increasing prevalence of disruptive technologies such as automation and data analytics in oil and gas, the idea of diversity within companies will take a different shape. In fact, Claunch said through automation and analytics, the Great Crew Change takes care of itself.
“We’re going to redefine what the word ‘collaborative’ means because a lot of the collaboration will be done with analytics,” he said. “Diversity will look different. We need people who understand data – data scientists – those people who think differently and really love data. We’re going to have to deal with some people that think way differently than we do!”
Claunch also gave an unconventional piece of advice to leaders: fail fast.
“We don’t need long drawn-out projects where we’re waiting on results. I don’t even use the word ‘failure’ anymore. I call it ‘when you don’t get the results you expected,’” he said. “We need to fail fast and we need to learn faster.”
With technology changing so rapidly, leaders should act as a safety net for employees – to encourage them to experiment.
“These guys don’t have it all figured out, but they’ve got to keep experimenting and we need to encourage that,” Claunch said. “When they don’t get the results they want, we need to catch them.”
And just empowering people is not enough, said Claunch. Leaders also have to empower machines.
“As a leader, ask yourself ‘what decisions do I really need to make? What can the machine learn? What can the machine decide better than I can?’” he said. “It’s about empowerment of our people and empowerment of machines … and that can be scary.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.
- ExxonMobil Racks Up Discoveries in Guyana Block Eyed by Chevron
- Oil Market Sentiment Has Improved Significantly
- EU, US Eye Collaboration on Nuclear Materials
- USA Driving Activity to Increase to All-Time Highs
- TC Energy to Sell Prince Rupert Gas Pipeline Project to First Nation
- EU Electricity Export to Ukraine Up 94 Percent in Two Years
- China Coal Output Falls for First Time since Government Ordered More
- BP Pulse Buys One of Europe's Largest Truck Stops
- UK CCUS Plans Outdated: Think Tank
- North America Enters Rig Loss Streak
- Norway Regulator Blasts Proposal to Halt New Oil and Gas Permits
- Chinese Mega Company Makes Major Oilfield Discovery
- EIA Drops 2024 Henry Hub Gas Price Forecast
- EIA and Standard Chartered Offer Up Latest Oil Price Predictions
- Red Sea Region Sees Another Watershed Incident
- Chevron Oil Project in Kazakhstan to Cost $48.5B
- OPEC Voices Encouragement after IEA Affirms Support for Oil Security
- Biden Govt Bares Strategy for Freight Charging, Hydrogen Fueling Infra
- Ukraine Hits Third Russian Refinery In Escalating Drone Strikes
- Rystad Looks at the Buzz Around White Hydrogen
- VIDEO: Missile Attack Kills Crew Transiting Gulf of Aden
- Norway Regulator Blasts Proposal to Halt New Oil and Gas Permits
- Chinese Mega Company Makes Major Oilfield Discovery
- What Is the Biggest Risk to Offshore Oil and Gas Personnel in 2024?
- Is Peak Oil Demand Close?
- Vessel Sinks in Red Sea After Missile Strike
- JP Morgan, Standard Chartered Reveal Latest Oil Price Forecasts
- Exxon Rights in Stabroek Do Not Apply to Hess Merger with Chevron: Hess
- Rystad Forecasts Net Production of Top Permian Producers in 2024
- Analysts Reveal Latest Oil Price Outlook Following OPEC+ Cut Extension