In 2006, BP embarked on one of its largest global safety and operations training initiatives. The programme, Operating Essentials, driven out of the Health, Safety and Operations team was designed to bring a consistent way for Operations and Maintenance Leaders to manage their part of the operations, wherever they were located in BP’s global business.

An extensive curriculum was formulated on the back of needs analyses carried out with business units, including a range of leadership and technical training. Kineo was selected in 2007 at the start of the curriculum development to lead the blended design of the technical modules and be one of two co-developers of the e-learning produced in support of the curriculum.

The challenge

The brief was a complex and challenging one. The audience is very diverse, in culture, age and experience. It embraces 3000 BP Operations and Maintenance Leaders in the two main segments of business, Refining and Marketing, and Exploration and Production, and BP’s core businesses as well as some joint ventures, across all geographies. So the challenge was to develop an approach generic enough to work across the segments of business, but specific enough to be meaningful to this wide spread of knowledge and skills.

Kineo’s solution

Two of Kineo’s Partners, Matt Fox and Mark Harrison, have led the blended learning design and put in place an architecture aimed at providing a flexible and sustainable learning approach which will deliver the highest quality learning wherever the programme is rolled out.

One of the key modules we have led on is Process Safety. This topic underpins systematic operations across BP’s operations. Kineo’s team built on the extensive needs analysis and consultation with key stakeholders to develop a blended design which delivered custom learning experiences for the Operations and Maintenance Leaders.

The blend designed by Kineo starts well before learners get involved with a site engagement phase designed to ensure the all the aspects of the programme, e-learning and face to face are positioned to land effectively at the site it is being rolled out at.

BP’s Programme Director said of Kineo’s design approach:

“Kineo has brought a lot of rigour and innovation to our design and ensured we’ve got a scalable and sustainable solution that is proven to work for this key population. This is this first time that such a large blended programme has been deployed across BP’s businesses and Kineo has helped us to ensure we have a world-class design to make it successful.”

A consultant works with a site leader to identify Process Safety learning priorities, pick out site-specific case studies which will be included in customised exercises at a two day workshop. He or she also assures that the key learning messages are managed with the Operations and Maintenance Leaders.

The approach Kineo has set in place ensures that the consultant works out with the site leader how they will co-facilitate the workshop and prepares the leader to support the e-learning phase of the blend and prepare the action learning which will follow on from the workshop. Support packs and remote coaching have been designed to ensure site leaders position and support the rollout of the programme effectively.

For the Operations and Maintenance Leaders learners, the process designed by Kineo begins with a briefing from their line manager. They are then invited to complete an online diagnostic which will help them discuss with their manager what areas of the e-learning to prioritise for completion prior to the workshop.

E-learning Phase

The e-learning phase is completed over the six weeks leading up to the workshop. There are seven optional modules, completion of which is determined in part by the diagnostic, and five mandatory modules comprising around seven hours in total. Three of the mandatory modules are goal-based scenario simulations focusing on key areas of operational accountability for the trainees.

They are encouraged to use the scenarios as a personal gap analysis tool and a foundation for preparing their own continuous improvement projects.

Completion of the simulation scenarios is required for attendance at the workshop as the material is built upon during the two days.

Workshop

The workshop replaces what had been a four day lecture style event into two days of hands on practical application exercises. Kineo’s consultants worked closely with the BP Subject Matter Expert to create a highly interactive learning experience which helps them put into practice the theory of the e-learning and the practical application started in the simulation scenarios.

The whole package has been designed and documented in detail to allow for a consistent and scalable rollout across all of BP, and delivery by preferred supplier accredited vendors.

The blended learning approach at this scale is new to BP and will harness the expertise of the BP’s HR operations to deliver workshops at scale along with BP’s global e-learning platform, Skillport.

Kineo has led on both the development and extensive user testing and piloting of the materials to assure their widespread adoption into to 2009, across BP’s operations.

As well as designing the Process Safety module, Kineo’s consultants have led on the design of three other key areas of technical learning: Control of Work, Regulatory Compliance and Prioritisation and Planning. They have programme managed the vendors for the e-learning as well as leading on the production of over seven hours of technical e-learning.

BP’s Project Director says of Kineo’s input to the project: “Kineo ‘s consultants have worked closely with me as part of the core team, helping us to engage the business and developing a solution which is much more than training. It will help raise the bar for how BP conducts safe operations.”