“Kill the well. Just kill the well. Why aren’t you killing the well?

Kill the well!” I mutter

into my clenched hands. Every muscle in my body tense. My eyes open wide. The person
sitting on my right keeps glancing in my direction. Clearly, I’m not whispering very
quietly. I’m too immersed in the world playing out on the massive screen in front of me.
I am growing increasingly frustrated as I witness one bad decision after another. The
snowball effect caused by a culture that doesn’t support constructive conflict. I know
how this ends. I read every single word in the 126-page investigation report 5 years ago.
I exhale with force and frustration, “Just do the right thing. You know what you need to
do. Why won’t you do the right thing?”

I struggled with the decision to watch the Deepwater Horizon movie. It hits too close to
home for me. There were so many details they could miss. So many ways they could
misrepresent such a devastating loss of life and environmental disaster. In the end, I
decided to go and judge for myself. I left the theater angry and frustrated. I don’t claim
to know what the culture was really like on that particular rig. I don’t believe anyone
should take the film literally since it was designed for emotional impact. It is not a
documentary with an accurate portrayal of events. I don’t think it was meant to be. I
don’t think it needs to be. Even with my frustration at the characters, I was thoroughly
fascinated. The storyline plots a multi-layered cultural failure. The beauty is in the
subtle details. The small actions that betray a strong organizational culture bubbling
below the superficial words. I firmly believe that as a leader, culture starts with you.
Depending on who you ask, this movie has been described as being a drama about
relationships or being an action flick all about the explosions. When I watched this, I
saw a film about organizational culture gone awry. I saw ineffective, yet well-
intentioned, leadership strategies.

*All observations are based on the behavior of the characters in the film: Deepwater Horizon.
I do not mean to imply or assume the motivations of the real life people these characters were
loosely based on.

Observation: Integrity is observable through actions.

On a rig, and in the oil and gas industry generally, safety is considered everyone’s
priority. Working on a rig will always be a high risk, dangerous job. Everyone has the
right to stop work when they believe something isn’t safe. Everyone. It’s an industry
standard. But feeling empowered and supported in that right, that is completely
cultural. I cringed when the character Mike, Chief Electronics Technician, pulled the
smoke detector out of the ceiling during one of the earliest scenes. It may have been a
small detail for some, but to anyone in the industry it sent a clear message. There was a
growing number of “small” safety matters that were routinely overlooked. I believe it’s
cumulative. When you let the little stuff slide, where do you draw the line? How does
everyone know where the line is? If a core value is safety and you continually disregard
small safety concerns, the larger safety issues become questionable as well.
Leadership Lesson: Leaders set the expectations and hold the teams accountable.
Make sure your actions and decisions reinforce your values. The cliché about actions
speaking louder than words is very true. Ask any parent.

Observation: Empowerment comes with responsibility.

Another one of the problematic cultural elements I observed was the strict hierarchy for
decision making. In the movie, no one felt comfortable making a decision. Even when
they knew what the right decision was. Everything had to funnel through Jimmy, the
Offshore Installation Manager. One of the most obvious problems with this is that
Jimmy couldn’t be everywhere at the same time. Jimmy’s effectiveness as a leader was
significantly reduced when conflicting demands on his attention arose. The team relied
on his authority for important decisions. As a consequence, there were a few
opportunities to kill the well that were not taken because Jimmy wasn’t present to make
the decision.

At one point, the rig was in flames with explosions occurring regularly. Evacuation had
started and the rig was drifting off-center. It was clear that the bad situation was about
to get worse. Gina, the Dynamic Positioning Officer, decided that she had to activate the
Emergency Disconnect Sequence (EDS). She was stopped by a, presumably, more senior
team member and told that she did not have the authority to make that call. It was
pretty clear to both of them that it was the right thing to do. But the culture and practice
in place was strong enough to override common sense.

In an earlier scene, Jimmy is pulled away during an important negative pressure test.
Jimmy had requested the test to evaluate the safety of the well, the safety of his crew to
continue the operations as planned. Jason, a Senior Toolpusher, was left to oversee the
test. The end results, the final data, indicated they could continue. But there were some
significant anomalies observed leading up to the end data. Jason is clearly
uncomfortable with the anomalies observed during the test. He is clearly uncomfortable
making the decision to continue. Under pressure from BP, he calls Jimmy to pass the
decision making responsibility. What is most significant to me is that Jason decides not
to tell Jimmy of the observed anomalies. He only tells Jimmy of the final data point.
Jason seemed to also pass responsibility for the decision quality and outcome. He never
lied. He spoke the truth of the results. He presented the data. But data is very often open
to interpretation. In this case the interpretation of the data was dangerously wrong.
Jason did not trust his own judgement and feared the consequences of voicing his
concerns to Jimmy. By ignoring his own concerns and deferring to Jimmy’s authority,
Jason was able to keep BP happy and Jimmy happy. It seemed like Jimmy had created a
culture of ‘my rig, my rules, my responsibility’. The team's collective ability to problem
solve and react with speed completely broke down when Jimmy wasn’t available.

Leadership Lesson: We need to build a culture where effective decision making takes
place at every level of the organization. Putting in a process to empower employees isn’t
enough. Telling employees that they have the right to stop work isn’t enough. They need
to feel empowered to make decisions. They need to feel responsible for decisions. They
need to feel accountable for the quality of their decisions. Culture will always override
process in times of crisis. We spend a lot of time focusing on the right processes. We
should focus just as much on the culture we create, if not more.

Observation: Conflict versus collaboration comes down to trust.

Taken at face value, it is easy to view the BP managers as evil and greedy. Donald, BP
Executive Nighttime Rig Operator, was portrayed as particularly rude and manipulative.
In general, the BP characters were portrayed as aggressive bullies that were only
concerned with money. There was not only a lack of trust between the Transocean team
and the BP team, there was also a concerning lack of respect and empathy. Coupled with
unclear roles and responsibilities between the two companies, this created conflicting
priorities that drove an ugly power struggle. I personally believe that the vast majority of
people strive to do what they believe is the right thing to do. When there is
misalignment on what the right thing is, you can get conflict as people continue to
pursue their own priorities and frustration that others don’t see the importance. Project
delays cost real money. When millions of dollars are slipping away, someone needs to
care. Healthy tension to meet deadlines and avoid unnecessary cost is not an inherently
bad thing. But there was no trust. No respect for each other’s concerns. No alignment of
priorities. There was also no accountability to follow the standard process. The BP
executives dismissed the Schlumberger team without having them perform a test that
would validate the cement work, presumably to save money. When Jimmy arrives to
find no Schlumberger people and no test, he is incensed. There wasn’t agreement on the
risks associated with skipping the test. The behavior between the two leadership groups
is so completely adversarial that it is hard to interpret as customer/contractor.

Leadership Lesson: I can’t help but believe the BP and Transocean leadership
decisions and actions in the film would have been different if they had approached the
project timeline with openness. If they had an attitude of problem solving and not finger
pointing. If they had mutually agreed upon priorities. If they had open discussions about
risks and mitigation plans. If they had respectful communication. Creating a culture of
trust and respect starts with you. Your attitude and behavior shape the outcomes your
team can achieve.

The film closes with survivors facing their emotions in the aftermath of such a life
altering event. As an industry, we know the real story is far from over. We know the days
and months following this tragedy were a testament to how much we can achieve when
we come together as an industry. We saw collaboration between equipment
manufacturers, rig owners, operators. We saw collaboration between competitors. We
felt the momentum of an industry that is united with a common goal. We learned that
we are better together when facing big challenges. Let’s remember these lessons. Let’s
pass these values on to the leaders of tomorrow.

“When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier.” - Roy E. Disney
Deepwater Horizon began showing in United States theaters on September 30. As with
most historical films, the post-release flurry of critique and dialogue about the film’s
accuracy has ensued, and BP’s blunders have become a conversation topic around
most dinner tables. While we all love a great villain, and the portrayal of BP fits so well
into our definition of evil, the basic formula of a good movie, by design, does not leave
much room for the complexities of reality. At most, it serves as an opportunity to have a
deeper conversation about the multitude of factors that orchestrate such a catastrophe.

In the real world, major events such as the Deepwater Horizon explosion are never
black and white. This is evident in the fact that it took the Chemical Safety Board (CSB)
six years to release their Investigation Report Executive Summary. After such a long
period of investigation, the CSB found that this was not just a case of technical failure or
individual negligence, but a failure in safety culture. The CSB’s final investigation report
concluded, “the BP and Transocean [owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig]
organizational cultures did not promote process safety.”[1]

“Culture is part of the context we operate in – it

tells us what is valuable, what is acceptable, and
what the priority should be.
So, what is culture and how does it relate to the Deepwater Horizon? In practical terms,
culture is ‘the way we do things around here.’ It is the shared values, beliefs, and
assumptions that govern organizational behavior, including safety.[2] Dr. Krause and
Kristen Bell have done extensive research, consulting and innovation on organizational
culture and safety climate. Their work demonstrates that culture is created by
interactions between people at every level of an organization– from the board of
directors down to the worker standing on the well deck.[3] Culture is part of the context
we operate in – it tells us what is valuable, what is acceptable, and what the priority
should be.

For over a century, the work of getting oil out of the ground has been viewed much like
early gold prospecting – extremely risky, but with the promise of enormous payoffs, a
risk worth taking. Today, this value for risk still has a subtle existence that affects the
culture of the offshore drilling industry. Anyone can be influenced by this value for
“prospecting”, which can foster a low value for safety and an increase in risk-seeking
decisions. When this happens at the top of an organization, as the movie suggests
happened at BP and Transocean, the effects on decision-making and culture are
pervasive.
Although the movie may not be completely historically accurate, it does shed light on
the effects of culture on decisions in any given circumstance. As an example,
Halliburton, the company responsible for cementing the well shut, decided not to
complete installation of the cement barrier. They were under enormous time pressure
coming from their client, BP, who at the time was $58 million over budget and were
incurring a loss of a $1 million per day to lease the Deepwater Horizon.[4] When this
was communicated to the Halliburton crew, they evaluated their next action based on
the values of the culture they operated in. Therefore, the cement barrier was not
effectively installed.[5]

The CSB concluded that at the heart of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy, “the problem
rests with companies’ entire safety culture.”[6] Furthermore, the National Commission
concluded that the oil and gas industry must make “sweeping reforms, no less than a
fundamental transformation of its safety culture.”4 Government agencies as well as
organizations are beginning to see the importance of safety culture in order to avoid
further accidents like Deepwater Horizon. The value for safety must be cultivated,
starting at the top. This is not a short-term endeavor, but requires major changes
throughout an organization that can take years. Changing the way people think is a
daunting task, but with the right plan, tools, and measurements, improvements can be
made incrementally that could keep such events as the Deepwater Horizon in the
history books, and we won’t have to see future tragedies portrayed on the big screen