Safety Leadership: Actions matter, not Mentions - by Adrin Shafil

As an avid watcher and self professed nerd fan of Game of Thrones (GoT), I am often exhilarated during action sequences. My mind actually goes beyond the drama, but I find myself trying to figure out, how did they do it? Of course, the screenplay and divine scripts and quotes in the series, especially anything uttered by the imp Tyrion Lannister, are complete gems, but the action sequences meticulously crafted in an elaborate manner, takes my breath away.

Take for example the Battle of the B**tards (BoB), an action sequence in the 9th episode of the 6th GoT season, it took 25 days to film, requiring 500 extras, 600 crew members and 70 horses. Kristofer Hivju, who plays Tormund Giantsbane, said about the intensity of filming the scenes: "It was pretty intense, actually. When you have 20 people running around getting squeezed together, and you're trying to chop at another bearded guy with a sword, you are not out of danger. You're laying down in the mud, and one wrong step, you won't have a face anymore.....It's hard. It's hard work. We had to shoot moment-to-moment, chronologically. We would shoot one sequence 80 times per day."

For the purpose of entertainment, film production typically use the highest technology available, the best talent money can buy and maximum allowed time to prepare, practice and execute for the enjoyment of the consumer, for relatively short 10-15 minutes of screen time. Let's now think of how much time and how much effort, we typically put in for real life projects and operations. In any industry nowadays in the 21st century, schedule/cost efficiency is always the focus, but safety is often touted as the main priority or a must have. For the oil and gas industry, anybody saying otherwise would be crucified at the derrick (my fellow drillers would understand:).

In preparation for any O&G operation, the typical HSE preparation would involve hazard identification, risk assessments, implementation of controls and mitigations, engineering out hazards, roll out of procedures and provision of training exercises/certifications. The actual startup will then be enhanced with supervision, behaviour based mantras, fancy posters and speeches. When the actual work is done though, all that hullabaloo is often then replaced with updates, management visits and lunch meetings patting our backs on what a good job we did preparing and kicking off the actual work. Unfortunately, the journey has just begun, because just like the BoB action sequence in GoT, we are now on the battlefield, with hundreds of different thoughts, humans of all sizes and backgrounds, coming together to coordinate into one harmonious choreograph, and absolute focus and direction is needed.

As I am a driller, I often marvel at the amount of energy and activity that can be found stepping on to a drilling rig. At least a hundred pax are there, from a cook all the way to an OIM, working to deliver 24 hours a day, and all of that kinetic, potential, electrical, chemical (and of course wind from everybody talking too much) energy is transformed to the ability to make hole and run pipe at the drill floor. In order to harness that energy, coordination is vital. Permit to work, job safety analysis, procedures are only early reminders on what the person or team should look out for. Unfortunately, early reminders or MENTIONS of what is supposed to be done, only helps a human so far. The thought process of the person doing the work cannot be controlled, and with only continuous reminders and assistance, can the human mind be nudged and directed. I am an advocate of buddy systems, continuous supervision, constant communication and even Q&A sessions throughout the duration of a task, as again, the human mind strays, and with provided attention, it will stay on point. Unfortunately, this approach is typically seen as overbearing, lacking in empowerment and demoralizing. On the contrary, if we do really care, then visibility of that care should be visible even during the task, start to finish.

Another aspect of coordination is muscle and neural memory. Practice drills or table top exercises ensures a team or persons learn and memorize the job via repetition. This normalizes the experience level of a team, where even the greenest member is able to enhance his/her ability with drills. The purpose of a drill is to ultimately mechanize the coordination of a multi team task, and goal is to find gaps and fix them, via further repetition. Interestingly drills are often done on a schedule basis, when people are free to do so, and well prepared. This planned approach defeats the purpose of the drill. A drill should be a surprise, where every single person in that team is tested, with flaws constructively shared in full transparency, which then requires further repetition until it is done right. Often, a drill makes some individuals look bad, which I sometimes find myself too when I can't think of the right practice decision spontaneously, but it allows me to do better in the next drill. A drill is not a drill until a lot of flaws are uncovered, competency enhanced and done many, many times.

I often ask myself, do I think enough has been done to ensure the safety of the operations under my care. And the answer is always no. I worry about the personal issues that my supervisors have, the accuracy of the drills done, the typos in the procedures that were left unchecked (do test vs don't test), and if somebody is left carrying out the task without a companion or supervision. My vision is to have a task done scene by scene, with the ability of a director being able to say 'CUT' and 'ACTION' with able bodied stuntmen and medical people onsite, with repetition of every scene up to 80 times in Game of Thrones. Unfortunately in real life on-site operations, there is no start and stop, the job is continuous 24/7, which really then requires focus above and beyond any other industry, even the film industry. To everybody working in mines, construction sites, onshore offshore oil and gas installations, or whatever form your operation maybe, stay safe, and ask yourself, what ACTIONS have you done to ensure your safety and others, and stop just MENTIONS of what is supposed to be done. Thanks.