The Day I Almost Got Fired
Bob Keiller
Doing Core Values | Business Storytelling | Practical Leadership | Inspiring Entrepreneurship | Growing Businesses
Everyone has the right to get home safely at the end of their working day. I expect to get home safely from work and I expect you do too.
I think the biggest single issue in the oil & gas industry is the safety of our people. The commitment to safety is genuine (at least from the people we deal with) and everyone should have the courage and confidence to insist that safety matters are properly addressed.
Our primary responsibility to our people, and to people affected by what we do, is to make sure that people don’t get killed, injured or suffer from ill health because of what we have or have not done.
At Wood Group, safety is our top priority. Our Safety & Assurance Core Value is our top priority because lives depend on it and because we passionately care about the safety of our people.
Watch Bob's Safe Home message
As a company, we provide our people with the training, knowledge and tools to work safely and prevent accidents. We are focused on assuring the safety of everything we design, construct, operate and maintain. Our biggest enemy is complacency.
This message is crystal clear within the business - if we can’t do a task safely we don’t do it, if we see an unsafe job we stop it and make it safe, if a design is not safe we change it, we do everything we can to make sure that any plant, systems or equipment that we design, build, operate or maintain are safe.
I am passionate about safety and I wouldn’t want to be part of an organisation that was not.
A few years ago I was running an offshore oilfield - a big platform with more than 200 people living on it with production, maintenance, construction and well intervention activities all taking place at the same time. There were a string of near-miss incidents in the well intervention activities, some of them high potential and I was really worried that things were out of control.
I decided to shut down all well intervention work and asked the team to travel back onshore. Within a few hours I got a call from the company CEO who told me that my career was on the line if I had made the wrong decision.
I felt sick. My job was hanging by a thread. What had I done?
But I also felt incredibly let down by the CEO and he was right - it did change my career.
Firstly, I realised that I couldn't work for a company that did not put safety above all other business priorities and secondly I knew that I would never put anyone in that same position.
Had I stayed in the company, the next time a difficult decision came up I probably would have hesitated and instead of taking the ‘safe’ decision, I might have convinced myself that it was okay to keep going. The outcome could have been a tragedy – a tragedy that I might have prevented.
My job as a CEO is to ensure that we don’t give mixed messages and that people understand that our commitment to safety is genuine and our singular, clear, unambiguous, top priority. If we don’t feel we can execute a contract safely we turn it down. If we don’t believe an airline is safe we won’t fly on it and if any of our leaders fail to live up to our commitment we ask them to leave – it has to be tough to be real.
The Head of HR at Wood Group – Sue MacDonald - puts it nicely: “Core Values are not touchy-feely, they are kicky-punchy!”
Photo: mmeida, Flickr – platform image
30 years of experience in many aspects of joinery
10yGreat story and great to see people in a higher postion makig these desion.I myself work in construction I asked to go on a safety course last year I lost out on pay as my was told to do it on my own time company did not think it was inportant and was asked what use it bring since then I no feel ive been well lets just say things have started to happen which never happend before my course,but this story gives us hope,as my uncle had bad acident on site and so thanks for this
Legal Services Professional
10yThis is profound. I am proud of your decision. It is always hard to be the person making unpopular decisions. However, if it is the right thing to do, do it and let the chips fall where they may. Leadership is about setting good examples. Core values are what drives and keeps you relevant. It is not " ...feely" , it is "... punchy" . You are for the better today and that is how you have become not just a better human being, but a CEO of a better company than you worked. So stay true to your values.
Perhaps the most important safety lesson that I've learned from time in the nuclear space is that a production first mentality should never trump safety. Also, in progressive and top quartile nuclear stations, they have Safety Stand Downs before near misses even start popping up. I've heard some leaders say that if they are getting near misses, they are too late to the game. Have the Safety Stand Downs before the near misses even start. Must say that I love the courage of Bob in this article--
Design Engineer | Mechanical Engineering
10yHaving the courage to make a different is great. I hope that you will also have the courage to make a different in recruitment aspect, as an international student Engineering graduate, I found that lacks of opportunity out there. I believe Mr. Keiller you have the vision and courage to Think different.
Business Transformation, Multi-functional Shared Services Center, Organisational Performance Plan& Analysis, Strategic Procurement, Project Management. Solid experience:PMI, Canvas BOM, 6Sigma, Lean, Agile, ITIL, COBIT)
10yExcellent example. People is the top priority: safety, ethics, care and courage the way to engage all and get as consequence: sustainable value growth