Roughnecks To Role Models: How Leading With Vulnerability Transformed An Oil Rig
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When he was 14 years old, Tommy Chreene started working on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico for Shell. It was an exciting job that he loved but it was also a dangerous job where people lost their lives. In an interview he did for NPR in 2016 accompanied by a brilliant article they published, he recounted a story of how we saw one such tragedy occur.
One man had just finished his shift and was standing in front of a massive pipe that workers had twisted into the ground. It was held in place with a handle that the man accidentally kicked, which caused all of the tension to release. As it swung around it caught the man’s ankle and whipped him around. As Tommy recounts, “In about three seconds, it spun him around about 80 times,” A few feet from the man was a post, and “his head was hitting that post like a rotten tomato.”
Tommy and his team were given 15 minutes to mourn the death of their colleague and then had to get back to work.
Even in the face of death, the men on the oil rig never showed any vulnerability. If they needed help they didn’t ask. If they felt they couldn’t do a job, they stayed quiet and did it anyway. If they felt burned out or unhappy, they put up a facade.
Sounds like many corporate environments today doesn’t it?
In most organizations we don’t ask for help because we don’t want to look weak, we don’t challenge or question our leaders because we don’t want to get in trouble, and we don’t show emotion because it’s not something that leaders do. It’s expected that we just show up to work each day, keep our heads down, and do what is asked of us…like robots. The problem is we’re human.
In 1997, Shell started building the world’s deepest offshore oil rig, called Ursa. It was over 48 stories tall and cost almost $1.5 billion.
Overseeing this project as the asset manager for Ursa was Rick Fox. He was aware of the high incidents or injury and death on oil rigs and with Ursa, the levels or risk were even higher. Rick understood that if Ursa was going to be a success in terms of construction and operation, then something had to change.
One day Rick got a call from a woman named Claire Neur, a leadership consultant and holocaust survivor. She had heard about the challenges of building the world’s deepest offshore oil rig with Ursa and said she could help Rick and his team.
Over the next 18 months Rick and his team of over 100 oil rig workers came to Shell’s headquarters in New Orleans to participate in workshops and sessions designed to create a safe environment for vulnerability. These were all-day sessions starting at 6am and oftentimes ending at 11pm.
At first there was hesitation and apprehension and some of the men didn’t understand what any of this had to do with an oil rig. But eventually the men started to share things about their families and lives. Some men talked about their failed relationships and parents who were alcoholics, others talked about growing up in poverty, Tommy, who had one of the biggest “tough guy” reputations, talked about his son with a terminal illness and began “weeping like a baby” in front of the other men.
One of the men was George Horn, who said of the workshops, “It felt vulnerable. You put your personal life out there for everybody to hear and everybody to see.”
The sessions forced these macho men to be open with their feelings. The workshops allowed them to talk about their mistakes and challenges and ask for help. As a result they completely changed how they communicated with one another.
According to an article published by The Harvard Business Review called “Unmasking Manly Men” by Robin J. Ely and Debra Meyerson, “the accident rate plummeted by 84% while productivity (number of barrels produced), efficiency (cost per barrel), and reliability (production “up” time) increased beyond the industry’s previous benchmark.”
The authors said, “the people who used to rise to the top — the “biggest, baddest roughnecks,” as one worker described them — weren’t necessarily the best at improving safety and effectiveness. Rather, the ones who excelled were mission-driven guys who cared about their fellow workers, were good listeners, and were willing to learn.”
These men became better fathers, sons, friends, partners, team members, and human beings.
If macho men working on oil rigs became comfortable sharing how they’re feeling and talking about their challenges and struggles, then I believe we can create a culture of vulnerable leaders inside of organizations around the world.
Going to 16-hour-long group therapy sessions and sharing the details of your personal life aren’t requirements for being a vulnerable leader, but being a human being is.
In May 2014, James Fish was at the Barclay offices in New York City surrounded by some of the world’s toughest lawyers, negotiators, and business executives. At the time James was the CFO of Waste Management and he was negotiating a multibillion dollar sale of the business to private equity. All the people in the room wanted to tear James to pieces.
His mom was sick in Austin, Texas, and he was skeptical about leaving her but she encouraged him to go saying that she knew how important this deal was and that she would be there when he got back. So James flew to New York, where he spent several days locked in a conference room from 7am until 10pm at night. In the middle of one of these tough negotiations, James saw that his twin sister called and he knew he should pick up. He stepped out of the conference room to get the news…his mom had just passed away. He knew he didn’t have much time to grieve even though he was a mess. He took some time to collect his thoughts and get his head straight before he went back into the conference room.
When he came back to the negotiating table after hearing the news, his demeanor changed. He was visibly upset, his eyes were teary, and he was emotional about the passing of his mom.
James told everyone in the room what happened and the attorneys on the other side of the deal offered to take a few days off and get back together later to finish negotiations. James said he was ok to move forward. At that moment he felt very vulnerable. James was sitting in a room with people who wanted to rip his head off, sharks who smelled blood and could now see that James was wounded. Normally when sharks smell blood they attack.
But something remarkable happened, the sharks didn’t attack, they did the opposite.
In that moment the impenetrable shields of all of the attorneys and negotiators disappeared and for the next fifteen minutes everyone started sharing stories, lessons, and memories of their parents. It showed humanity and that there is more to life than negotiating a business deal. The room was filled with sympathy, empathy, and vulnerability.
James said, “it was interesting because it honestly helped us move past a couple of points that we were all stuck on. They weren’t necessarily deal breakers but when negotiating for billions of dollars with some of the world’s top attorneys and business leaders, everybody was wanting to win on every single point. This situation caused both sides to say ‘you know what, let’s move past this, there are bigger things in life than just a business deal.’ Things went much more smoothly and less aggressively after that.
“I had an interesting call after that from the principal at the private equity firm. He said the fact that I allowed others to give me their empathy and sympathy, and that I was accepting of that and embraced it helped create a high level of trust. A lot of deals and negotiations don’t actually have high levels of trust which is why they fall apart. This happened over seven years ago and it proved to be a great deal for both sides and it taught me that being vulnerable can be powerful.”
Being able to accept sympathy and empathy is an act of vulnerability, especially for a leader. James could have hid his feelings and emotions, he could have been a rock, but he chose a different option.
Today, James Fish is the CEO of Waste Management and leads over 50,000 employees.
It’s time to lead in a new way, a better way, the vulnerable leader way.
If you’re a Chief Human Resources or Chief People Officer, then you can request to join a brand new community I put together called Future Of Work Leaders which focuses on the future of work and employee experience. Join leaders from Tractor Supply, Johnson & Johnson, Lego, Dow, Northrop Grumman and many others. We come together virtually each month and once a year in-person to tackle big themes that go beyond traditional HR.
