Recommendations for Offshore Team Excellence

Create the necessary context for stakeholders in the future of the energy sector to work together in the best interests of UK energy security and the UK energy transition. ?It is essential that North Sea energy stakeholders collaborate to prevail against an adverse operating environment, to survive difficult commercial conditions, and to ensure safe, efficient offshore operations.

Provide training and mentoring for frontline leaders to set them up for success and to shorten the learning curve. Ensure that readiness interventions such as planning workshops include a combination of social and technical activities. Formalise planning-and-review disciplines to build compliance before commitment. Learning and knowledge sharing is identified as critical but inconsistently and insufficiently applied offshore. Share the team vision and mission, and establish a team charter for non-negotiable behaviour. Select the right people to join the team; team players first and foremost. Agree what is valued by the team leaders, this should include a culture of communicated learning, and adherence to the agreed team system.

What leaders pay attention to becomes important to the team.

The team environment should be supportive, open, and positive. Commitment to the team system will promote learning and improvement which in turn will motivate the team and reinforce a positive environment: A virtuous cycle.

Formalise the right planning and review meetings offshore such that critical communication is not optional. Advocate more informal but necessary in-person advance planning sessions with the crews who will be doing the work. Create the right conditions to encourage input from everyone. Supervisors to note observations, changes, and learnings on a copy of the work instruction as the plan is followed. Mid-task reviews should be conducted to pause and reflect on progress, with adjustments agreed and applied where necessary. Awareness of communication style should be trained and coached as part of the increased Non-Technical Skills approach such that non verbals and facial expressions align with intonation and supportive language which motivates teamwork and effective performance. Assertive communication is recommended.