Embedding Barrier Thinking into the ‘Day in a Life’ Using Competency Based Learning Principles

In the current energy market environment where technical and financial resources are constrained, ensuring the safety and integrity of offshore assets continues to be part of the company business driver. The challenge for process safety professionals is to assist senior management in optimizing the investment in risk control measures such as maintenance and inspection, production operations and training to minimize the potential for major accident events (MAE). The question remains; how would a company know that ‘facilities continue to be operated safely and with acceptable risks’.

In mid-2015, Hess Corporation senior management posed the challenge to the EHS team ‘how do we demonstrate assurance that our assets have and continue to maintain integrity?’ In response, EHS team together with offshore production management developed a global Program to improve overall risk management by integrating company-wide barrier based thinking though the application of bowties in the ‘day in the life’ operations.

This paper outlines how the Hess Corporation is fulfilling the CCPS Vision 20/20 industry tenets of ‘intentional competency development’ by adopting novel adult learning principles to embed barrier thinking at all levels of the offshore business. Lessons gained from initial application to Gulf of Mexico facilities study are highlighted and how this approach will be applied to other global assets in 2017 and beyond.

At the heart of the Program, is the development of a competency based training package that sets out the learning outcomes, caters to the participant’s learning style, background and individual goals. The Hess Corporation recognized that the training Program should be delivered by ‘champions’ familiar with day to day operations to other field personnel. Strategies to improve development and delivery of training sessions included moving away from a classroom lecture style to an open learning forum that fosters learner interaction. Key adult learning principles are used to create a tailored program, taking advantage that adults are internally motivated, goal oriented and learn by real-life experiences and practical relevant examples. Therefore the training session must address individual goals of personnel and the content must be contextualised so that personnel can draw parallels with their own experiences.

The paper outlines the process of developing training programs based on adult learning principles for the Barrier Thinking global project. The initial competency based learning was aimed at facilities engineers, production personnel, technical safety and EHS representatives.

The first step involved context setting where the training objectives were defined; and learning outcomes and required competencies were established. The training syllabus and training plan was structured to ensure all learning outcomes were addressed. The training plan included the number of sessions required, training methods (e.g. group discussions, brainstorming activities), and assessment methods (e.g. practical scenario with checklist, quiz). The content was mindful of the different experiences and backgrounds of personnel. Training materials were written in simple English and visual aids were used to cater to personnel from different geographical locations. Simple examples from the class’ typical daily activities were incorporated into the training material to contextualise the content. Personnel’ existing familiarity with bowties and technology was also taken into consideration.

The second step involved conducted the training in three stages, comprising two virtual sessions and one face-to-face training session. The first two virtual sessions covered the foundations and were scheduled to allow learners to process information in stages and undertake homework based exercises in their own time to understand the basics and share with the team. The staged training delivery also ensured that personnel had achieved the pre-requisites required prior to attending the face-to-face training session. The delivery method involved visual, kinaesthetic and interactive methods designed to encourage participation and dialogue. This was adopted to facilitate a fresh way of thinking, group interaction and learning about major accident event bowties. Examples of group activities and delivery methods will be detailed in the paper.

The third step involved follow up sessions to determine how well personnel had applied the barrier thinking and bowtie learning in daily operations. Based upon team feedback, there are early indications that safety culture of the organisation has improved whereby all levels of the organisation, from management to the maintenance team, engineers to EHS specialists has adopted barrier thinking and thus taking active ownership to prevent major accidents.

Hess Corporation strives towards the CCPS Vision 20/20 by ensuring that Champions understand and meet the technical and behavioural requirements of their role to promote bowtie and barrier thinking. In turn, the Champions are able to influence and train field personnel to adopt barrier thinking and improve process safety where it matters. Hess will provide continuous commitment to ensuring intentional competency development by sharing lessons learnt from the Gulf of Mexico at other Hess assets in 2017.