Tell us a bit about yourself. What got you interested in innovation and technology in the oil and gas industry?
I am a first-line supervisor in Research and Development at ExxonMobil in Houston, Texas. I joined ExxonMobil in 2007.
I grew up in a middle-class family in India. My most vivid memory of childhood education is studying for my math test in candlelight due to rolling blackouts and lack of reliable energy. Life has come full circle at ExxonMobil. I now work toward providing reliable, affordable energy to society, so that one day no kid in any part of the world will need to study in candlelight ever again. That purpose inspires me every day.
In my current role, I work in the upstream experimental laboratories at the Houston campus. The lab develops an array of industry-leading technologies that support ExxonMobil’s continued leadership in exploration, development, production, and gas commercialization. I serve a team of 14 outstanding lab professionals who are developing industry-leading experimental capabilities in support of high-value, high-impact technologies for our business units.
Innovation is a focus area for us. That’s how we support the business. That’s how we help discover, develop, and deploy technologies that bring value to our shareholders and society. Over the past 18 months we have been on an innovation journey—promoting innovation and transforming our innovation culture. We have been working hard to overcome barriers associated with innovation and have made significant progress. I’m excited about that.
What makes innovation in the oil and gas industry different from say, tech industry?
In general, large organizations can struggle to sustain a culture of innovation, but it is important to consider the context.
As an oil and gas company, we are interested in digital innovation, but also innovation in our facilities, operations, drilling, manufacturing, chemicals, which may not all apply to tech industry—we have a very broad focus. Specifically, in the lab, we are interested in innovation in our experimental techniques, workflows, safety aspects, capability portfolio, and agility. We have a wide range of opportunities to implement innovation.
What are some of the barriers to innovation in the oil and gas industry? How can we promote a culture of innovation?
There are a number of potential barriers that can stifle innovation. The primary ones we have encountered are
- A metric for what’s an innovative idea that can be too narrow or restrictive
- Too much focus on established processes that may stifle innovation
- General fear or potential fear of failure—the fear of failure can discourage individuals from pushing boundaries or not pursuing truly bold, innovative ideas due to a low chance of success.
I have been involved in an initiative to promote a culture of innovation and collaboration with my colleagues. We identified three questions to always ask in order to create clarity and direction:
- What is an innovative idea in the context of the lab?
- What is the role of the lab staff in innovation—what are the associated behaviors?
- What is the role of management—what support do we need to provide as supervisors and managers?
We don’t want to limit what innovation is; in other words, innovation is not limited to transformational ideas only; even small ideas can have measurable impact.
Additionally, the focus of our team is on outcomes, not output. For example, we mimic downhole wellbore pressures and temperatures in our lab tests to replicate drilling or completions operations. We have placed a focus on testing our assumptions about how many tests are sufficient to land on a reasonable answer that addresses business need. We want to ensure that the effort is right-sized and consistent with the technical and business risk.
Despite a global pandemic, we have made tremendous progress over the past year in strengthening our culture of innovation. I think it benefits everyone in the lab, our research partners, and business units through high-impact, high-value technology solutions aligned with a clear business need.
Clearly, it’s not sufficient for ideas to be innovative. They have to be valuable as well. How does that play into promoting innovation?
One of the fundamental cultural shifts for us was the engagement and dialogue with our internal customers: The researchers and business units. In the past, when our business units brought us an opportunity, the question of value wasn’t necessarily part of the discussion. The assumption was, “If the request is coming from researchers or business units, it must be valuable.”
Now, we still respond to business drivers. But the conversation about value happens as part of the early engagement. We are more deliberate and purposeful than we been in the past in terms of the engagement with our internal customers.
It’s very important to hold ourselves accountable to try out the idea rapidly with our stakeholders; to set standards and demonstrate the courage to stop the work and pivot if the idea does not work out. A culture that allows pivots without risk of consequences is vital. And, there is now recognition by the team that if you aren’t nimble and don’t pivot, and keep working on something that’s not going to deliver results, we are not serving the general interest of the corporation and our shareholders.
Culture change requires a change in behavior. What behaviors are key to promote a culture of innovation from your perspective?
Creating clarity on the behaviors to promote innovation was a key step in our journey. Focus on value is fundamental: Engaging our business partners, and confirming that the idea is valuable to them, is critical. Maintaining transparency with team leads and decision makers while pursuing ideas to ensure good use of resources is also very important. Turning setbacks into learning opportunities and not fearing experimental failure (if the idea does not work)—that’s a key behavior. Learnings come from successes as well as failures.
Collaborating, working with others to generate new ideas—that’s absolutely crucial. Here’s why: We recognized that some folks are better at coming up with ideas, others are better at converting them into reality, and we need both. When it comes to behaviors, we shifted our focus from the individual to the collaborative. We said ideas compete, people collaborate. The expectation was to bring forward ideas, demonstrate courage of conviction, confirm the value, and make sure the value proposition exists. We encouraged testing the ideas collaboratively. We recognized it may require multiple attempts. We had to accept that it was okay if the idea did not work.
Today, we are better at recognizing and supporting ideas that will not necessarily work out, and we understand that is part of the innovation journey.
What is the role of leadership in promoting innovation culture?
As we progressed with the work in the lab, it became clear that leadership recognition for ideas, big and small, was critical. Visible and tangible support was the key. It was important to walk the talk.
We started curating the innovation examples and spotlighting them using a variety of techniques: On our TV monitors all over the building, via emails, on our internal social media, and through our newsletters. Innovation stories were spotlighted with focus on the lab professionals and the teams that made the innovation possible. That got the momentum going. The buzz around the lab was “Bringing forward innovative ideas is valued.” This provided the traction we needed to further grow the innovation effort.
Other parts of the business heard about the innovation spotlights, and the momentum continued to build. This was a great way to share learnings with our colleagues, to show what people are working on in the lab. We highlighted the collaboration, the inclusive behavior, and the courage to try something new, something innovative. As a result, collaboration and visibility increased.
We have been doing this for a year and recently conducted a survey. Overwhelmingly, the response from our people was they want their ideas to be seen broadly. The recognition of their hard work before the widest possible audience—their colleagues—moved the needle in a measurable way.
There is a more to be done, but it’s a great start.
