Alistair Cameron, Senior Vice President QHSE for ALTUS Intervention shares his experience from the Learning from Normal Work Course.
Altus Intervention is a well intervention specialist company employing 1100 people globally with operations across 4 regions: UK & West Africa, Norway & Denmark, Americas and Middle East & Asia Pacific.
Why did you decide to take the Learning from Normal Work Course?
For Q3 in 2022, we planned to tackle the broad topic of ‘prevention of personal injuries’; this was timely in that it coincided with an uptick in minor injuries since the start of the year, seemingly correlating with the significant increase in activity levels which have returned very strongly this year.
A slightly different approach was needed to grab the attention, and not simply replay the same rhetoric regarding risk and staying focused etc.
I attended Dr Nazaruk’s SPE webinar on the topic of Learning from Normal Work and, for the first time in a long time as an HSE practitioner, I could see a new angle to explore that might just be the key to unlocking some further HSE improvement which always gets harder the further you progress.
It was a ‘lightbulb moment’, and I could see an opportunity to fine-tune our planned theme for Q3 to start introducing the concept of Learning from Normal Work as part of our successful ‘We All Make a Difference’ initiative where we use short videos featuring our front-line employees delivering the messaging on key QHSE topics..
Who participated in the training and why?
After completing the training myself I felt it was important for the wider QHSE team to complete the training and revert back for a group discussion to reflect, discuss how this might play a part in our immediate Q3 initiative, and also how we might integrate this thinking into our management system.
Most importantly, for the whole team to complete the training was key to ensuring an aligned and common understanding of the topic.
What were some of the most important insights from the course?
- How the type of questions you ask can influence the outcome and value of a conversation
- How we easily add in workarounds without thinking based on experience and previous operations.
- How we can use the workarounds to learn and enhance future operations.
- Listen to the end users to ensure that procedures and processes are fit-for -purpose (word as imagined vs. work as done).
What was the overall impact of the course?
It provoked the consideration of incidents and events from a different perspective, and how a different approach to investigation, communication, and questioning can have an impact on future outcomes.
With the Learning from Normal Work training, we are able to align and form a common understanding within our team and have a professional reference point from which to base our own internal initiatives, which means that our organization will benefit by having a more structured approach and richer content to support our initiatives, but also to align with the objectives on this topic with some of the key partners.
What are you going to do differently in the future because of this training?
We plan to revisit some of the fundamental materials in our QHSE management system to integrate the concept and approach of LFNW, and are already in the planning of our first proactive learning team session in collaboration with one of our key partners in our offshore Norway operations. Additionally, we also see the broader opportunity not just in respect of injury prevention, but also in further improving operational efficiency through the reduction of quality incidents.