(156a) Know Your Target Audience - Building Leader Competency in Process Safety

Vision 20/20 identified the need for intentional competency development at all levels of the organization as a core tenant.  Chevron has developed and deployed two separate but interrelated programs specifically aimed at increasing the process safety competency of our leaders.  The initial program was launched in 2012 and was aimed at executives and senior leaders within the organization.  The goals were to reinforce the business case for process safety and to increase the fluency of senior leadership on the elements of process safety and how they are managed in Chevron’s Operational Excellence Management System.  The program materials included a short interactive video targeted at senior leaders from all of our business and support functions.  A more detailed CBT for leaders more directly involved in day to day management of process safety was also developed.  The CBT included illustrations of how failures in management systems cause accidents, examples of progressively more effective process safety management, and a review of leadership skills and behaviors. 

Deployment of the interactive video and CBT was followed by a series of leader-led workshops cascaded throughout the organization from the executive level.  During these workshops, leaders reviewed incident case studies, discussed the current state of process safety management in their business and developed action plans.  The workshop outputs were incorporated into existing business meetings. Follow up included routine discussions on process safety performance and review of action plans.

 In 2014, a companion effort was deployed.  This effort was focused on operations leadership down to the frontline field supervisor and was also implemented as a cascaded series of workshops.  The supporting materials were built in a PowerPoint platform. Within the platform are video sequences, simulations, and voice-over narration that support facilitation.  The effort included three components: 1) a brief summary of key findings from major incidents that have occurred at Chevron; 2) process simulation of five incidents that had the potential to result in fatalities; and 3) a tabletop exercise where facilitators lead participants in a discussion to identify unit-level potentially high consequence scenarios/activities and the safeguards in place to prevent those scenarios from occurring.  Sessions are supported by separate guides for Facilitators, Participants, and a Scribe and by facility level summaries for scenarios and safeguards.  These summaries are derived from existing process hazard analysis and other risk studies. 

To support the frontline field supervisor engagements, a series of video case studies were developed. The video case studies are designed for delivery by line leaders to reinforce process safety incident prevention, safe work practices, procedures and safeguards during regularly scheduled safety meetings or as extended safety moments.  The case studies were all filmed at Chevron facilities with employees and contractors recreating real-life field scenarios, and they include questions designed to generate unit-level discussion on process safety assurance activities.

This paper will review in more detail the structure and content of Chevron’s leader process safety competency development efforts at both the senior leader and operations leadership levels.   It will discuss some of the keys to a successful competency effort including

• Defining the target audience and desired outcome
• Gaining visible leader support
• Developing materials that are interactive and deliver content that takes into consideration adult learning principles
• Incorporating face to face interaction
• Considering sustainability from the beginning

 Lessons learned and results will be highlighted including what went well, what didn’t go well, and the impact on the organization.