A Lesson in Organizational Change Management

July 13, 2010 – Calgary, AB. - BP’s underwater gusher just 60 km off the Louisiana coast spilled about 105 million gallons of oil in the waters off the U.S. and Mexico. The perception of many is that BP then slowly moved into react mode.

The common view is there was insufficient thought to the possibility of this disaster before it happened. Experts are now scratching their heads to explain how this disaster, perhaps the worst in history, was not anticipated beforehand even though the world has experienced more than 20 oil spills and disasters over the past 40 years.

At the heart of this disaster it appears key people ignored the signs of danger and BP didn’t have tried and true disaster recovery and business continuity plans they and the rest of the world could rely on; a plan everyone could immediately enact with appropriate accountability and full awareness of the consequences. The results, an environmental, economic, financial, and P.R. disaster.

Imagine if BP had been prepared for the possibility of such a devastating scenario by learning from the past. What would have happened if the principles of Organizational Change Management (OCM) had been applied in advance of this horrific event?

The Principles of OCM:

• Awareness of the need for a change.
• Desire to support and participate in the change.
• Knowledge of how to make the change.
• Ability to implement the required skills and behaviours to support the change.
• Reinforcement to ensure the sustainability of the change.

Looking at it from a lessons learned perspective industry, government, and the courts could utilize change management principles to avoid a repeat of these devastating circumstances. The key to preventing another disaster is to learn from this one, to identify what needs to change, and then to ensure all the changes are implemented.

“The benefit of implementing organizational change management in advance would have been direct, defined and deliberate identification of the potential human risk factors and of not having sufficient disaster recovery and business continuity plans,” says Cathy McIsaac, Managing Partner of Agility Factor Inc. (AFI) “The compounding risk that happened was human error. A problem was evolving and people were not appropriately dealing with the signs. In the end the risk became a reality as a result of poor decision making.” With OCM, risk can be more definitively anticipated and more often than not, mitigated and managed effectively.

“OCM supports continuous improvement to the plans, processes, principles and people that work within the system,” says Kevin Litzenberger, Partner, AFI. “In the case of BP there was and still is an opportunity to learn from this mistake. If lessons are not learned this type of disaster could definitely happen again.”

AFI is a consulting firm based in Calgary, Alberta. Specializing in organizational change management, AFI helps leaders make distinct, lasting and significant improvements to the performance of their organizations.

For more information or to request an interview:

Janice Andersson
Associate, Communications, Agility Factor Inc.
info@agilityfactor.net
403.270.3342