THE ENGAGEMENT: PERFORMANCE SUSTAINABILITY

Context

The focus of this implementation was to enable process mapping, coaching, performance indicator development, and facilitation techniques with ConocoPhillips’ OSO Team.

This aligns with our goal within every Archipelago engagement: to leave skills and competencies with our client. The following summarizes what we have shared, what we have left behind, and some of the risks associated with failing to practice the right behaviors.

Insights

Over the 12-week engagement, we worked with our six OSO leads and the OSO Manager to explain, embed, and practice the tools and principles stated above.

As change management implementation experts, we have developed our own frameworks to ‘leave behind’. Artifacts (presentations, resources and one-page summaries) have been uploaded and shared within a centrally located folder within the preferred OSO communication and data management tool (Microsoft Teams).

For example, elements of our coaching and feedback model, in Figure 03 below, were shared and consistently emphasized with our coachees.

Teaching to Learn Recommendation: Formalize OSO Leaders

Out of all tangible goals Archipelago has, this is among those that requires the most balanced effort from consultants and clients. We coached leaders, developed a frequent reporting framework, and led a number of specific learning sessions.

However, for this endeavor to maintain its trajectory, tools must be used and principles must be practiced.

We worked with the OSO HR Business Partner to map out our Psychological Safety system to one already used by ConocoPhillips. We scored these metrics daily, distributed insights weekly, shared how and why we look at specific metrics, and how to course correct (if necessary). Beyond this, it is the responsibility of the OSO leadership team to consistently practice the right behaviors, and in this instance, cultivate a culture of safety.

The same depth and breadth applies for our meeting effectiveness toolkit, our facilitation techniques and our process mapping handbook.

Lastly, we ran four dedicated “learning sessions” multiple times across the OSO organization (with the functional leaders, and with various combinations of groups within each function). These are identified below, within our shared folder, and summarized within the appendices.

• Psychological Safety

• High Performance Teaming

• Design Thinking + Creative Confidence

• Focus

Process Recommendation: We introduced the concept of a ‘charette’ to the OSO Leadership team. This is a concept from a design context where creation is cross-functional and time constrained. In support of rapidly creating, testing, and iterating: use time constraints and inter-disciplinary perspectives to challenge the status-quo and sprint towards deliverable iteration.

RECOMMENDATIONS + RISKS

The primary risk is that implementation lags (or fails) the design of new processes.

A secondary risk is burnout of team members. A 12 week change initiative can be energizing. However, if poor communication, unproductive meetings, nonpsychologically safe environments, or lack of team support become the norms, the team’s collective energy will fade, and poor performance will follow.

Our recommendation for program sustainment is: periodic audits.

We recommend a 6-month time frame for the program to settle and take shape within the organization. We propose an initial audit in late Spring 2022, with subsequent assessments being proposed based on results of the audit and the required steps towards course correction (if necessary) .

An audit would assess at a minimum:

• progression against process design,

• process uptake,

• communication quality,

• coaching behavior

• meeting quality, and

• implementation of the Archipelago Learning sessions:

• High Performance Teaming,

• Design Thinking + Creative Confidence,

• Focus, and

• Psychological Safety

If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”

-Coach John Wooden, UCLA Men’s Basketball