Yemen LNG Company (YLNG)
Cultural Change Case Study - Yemen LNG Company Ltd
PROJECT BACKGROUND
Yemen LNG (YLNG) is a multi-shareholder company formed by the Yemen Government and a group of five different private shareholders to design, construct and operate a Liquefied Natural Gas plant to extract, refine, market and export the LNG produced. The lead shareholder is the French company Total Oil.
As the country’s largest-ever industrial investment (budgeted at around US$ 4 billion), the decision to launch the Yemen LNG project in August 2005 was an important milestone for both the Government of Yemen and the Yemen LNG shareholders. This complex and ambitious project, which is 40 times greater than the average Yemeni large-scale investment, will be one of the top contributors to the macro-economic growth and industrial development of Yemen over the coming years. Conservative estimates suggest revenues for the Government up to US$30-50 billion over the 20 years of production, thereby providing the financial catalyst for future economic growth and modernisation.
In addition to the macro-level financial benefits, it will provide an opportunity for Yemeni citizens to develop a range of specialised skills in engineering and business disciplines enhancing opportunities for local investors to expand and compete at an international level. The Company is providing several thousand job opportunities during the construction phase with around 700 permanent posts and an additional 700 for contracted service providers over the lifespan of the project.
SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
Late 2007, following a rigorous tender process, Yemen LNG appointed TCP to work with them in implementing a ground breaking, company wide management and cultural development programme. In essence the challenge was to prepare the organisation to evolve from a construction phase company currently managed largely by a diverse team of expatriate managers recruited from different countries, to an operating company able to compete in a global market with 90% of its employees drawn from the local Yemen community by end of 2015.
Our principal role was to work with Yemen LNG’s management team and workforce to help the existing multi cultural managers and their staff work cohesively to develop and transfer their knowledge, skills and tools to facilitate the creation of a common culture and capitalize on their diversity to achieve the international management standards required for success in their highly competitive global markets.
OUR CONTRIBUTION
The project was researched, designed and delivered locally in Yemen by a team of 7 UK based TCP consultants working in 2-4 week rotational secondments in Yemen, with a virtually permanent TCP presence over a 13 month period.
Project Excellence was an enlightened and ambitious response to the challenges of cultural diversity in a developing country with 3 key aims -
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• to create a cohesive team spirit and clear behavioural performance standards at all levels
• to build and sustain competence, commitment and confidence within a culturally diverse and forming workforce
• to address and manage cultural differences through creation of a shared Yemen LNG culture for the workplace that would capitalize on the strengths in diversity
The key challenge for the managers, expatriates from 27 different countries, was to work in a culturally aware way to transfer their skills to locally recruited Yemeni staff. TCP worked with both expatriate contracted staff and local Yemeni employees, from Senior management to front line operators and met with the Executive team monthly to jointly steer the priorities and support their key leadership role. The prime focus was around changing attitudes and behaviour to improve cultural awareness, commitment to personal change, collaborative team working and helping managers embed the knowledge, skills and tools to empower the workforce and build their confidence to take greater ownership for project delivery and their performance. This was achieved using a mix of small group training workshops, team development days and 1:1 coaching and mentoring support.
The project, branded Project Excellence, had 3 distinct phases, the first two of which were supported by TCP before handing over to an internal project co-ordination team led by a Senior Yemeni manager. A jointly constituted TCP/ Yemen LNG senior management steering group, supported by working parties focused on cultural awareness, behavioural competency and project communication were set up to guide the project implementation.
Phase 1 (Dec 07 – May 08) focused on –
- Surfacing the current and anticipated performance issues, understanding the unique business context, current culture and performance drivers
• Clarifying the company guiding vision, values and aspirational operating culture
• Introducing key leadership and management tools, skills and techniques, adapted to develop the Sana’a based, multi-cultural head office management teams
• Starting to define ‘Excellence’ in meaningful behavioural competency terms
• Adapt the Sana’a programme design and materials for the Phase 2 roll out in the Balhaf liquefaction plant, recognising the very different operating context and environment.
Guided by the Project Vision developed during Phase 1 –
“Delivering Excellence Together” and the mission that existed before:
“To build a world-class company committed to the principles of safety, operational excellence, Yemenisation, business integrity, environmental stewardship and partnership with local communities, in accordance with shareholders and stakeholders expectations”
Phase 2 (June 08 – February 09) in Sana’a then focused on –
• Reinforcing the practical application of the learning, skills, tools and attitudes introduced in Phase 1
• Providing further on the job learning opportunities through facilitated team performance optimisation workshops and feedback sessions
• Providing further development and customised 1:1 performance coaching to key influential managers
• Developing and piloting a behavioural competency framework to guide performance management processes, development planning, feedback and measures of the Yemen LNG values in action
In Balhaf, the liquefaction plant site, the focus was -
• Introducing modified versions of the Sana’a development workshops specifically designed to meet the Balhaf requirements
• Facilitating Team Development workshops to build cooperation between the key Commissioning and Operations teams
• Providing specific personal skills induction training to newly qualified Yemeni technical operators and their expatriate supervisors on communication, relationship building, cultural awareness and personal effectiveness skills
• Providing development and customised coaching to key Operations managers
THE IMPACT
During Phase 1 and 2, TCP –
- helped the senior management redefine and communicate their long term Vision and Values
- Established some management development foundations and defined the behavioural standards to underpin a climate of professionalism, attention to detail, personal accountability and continuous improvement
- Supported the effective transfer of knowledge and skills from Expatriates to Yemenis by building a coaching, delegation and people-development culture.
Our three core Project Excellence leadership and management development programmes, “Leading, Managing and Delivering Behavioural Change” were accredited by The Institute of Leadership and Management. Candidates were required to submit learning case studies demonstrating application to evidence their effective participation in Project Excellence, with a 100% pass rate.
During Phase 1 and 2 -
• 360 employees took part in development workshops in Sana’a/Balhaf
• 132 employees completed team building events in Sana’a, 135 participated in Balhaf
• 44 key managers/supervisors received 1:1 coaching support over 3 sessions in Sana’a and in Balhaf
• A Behavioural competency framework was finalised and pilot programme developed for 25 middle/senior management positions
• 15 strategic KPIs were developed and proposed to the Steering Committee for rollout in Phase III some of which were chosen among the 2009 priority interventions
• A new Team briefing process was introduced across both sites and implemented in Phase 2 and continued on to Phase 3
• A Staff Opinion Survey questionnaire was drafted in readiness for finalisation and implementation during Phase 3
• A cultural awareness report complete with recommendations for future actions
NEXT STEPS – Yemen LNG Manager led Phase 3
In March 2009 as the company entered the critical and intense transition from construction to live operations phase, it was decided to handover the running of Project Excellence Phase 3 to a dedicated, full time Yemen LNG project team under the leadership of a Project Excellence Coordination Manager – Khaled Ishaq.
During the February 09 handover phase the following key challenges and priorities were jointly identified for the new PE team -
• Maintaining senior management commitment in the face of increasing time pressures and focus on start up particularly at Balhaf.
• Engaging a large number of new managers scheduled to change out in summer 2009
• Cascading and reporting PE KPI’s and measuring the business impact
• Reducing dependency on external consultants and transition to ‘self sufficiency’ and enhancing individual accountability for PE impact
• Reinforcing standards of team working and drive PE down through organisation
• Continuing the Balhaf change process through team builds,
• Developing and tracking Competence Assurance work already started with pilot groups of staff
• Continuing individual coaching programmes using local resources
• Implementing an independent Staff Opinion Survey to set benchmarks and help identify priorities for future interventions
• Continue teambuilding workshops in Sana’a
After handover, the Steering Committee of PE has identified the following additional areas to complement the work already started in Phases 1 and 2:
• Ensuring comprehensive PE induction for new staff
• Co-ordinating and aligning the portfolio of key Project Excellence, Company Management System and HR embedding processes required to achieve sustainability
• Managing the growing government pressure to achieve Yemenisation targets
• Developing and motivating an influential team of informal supporters to PE “Black Belt” and behavioural change role models
• Developing a set of post start up development interventions for Balhaf in 2010
• Introducing a Staff Consultative Committee in Balhaf and improving the effectiveness of the SCC in Sana’a in addressing staff concerns
• Coordinating alignment of internal company processes to embed values and behaviours
• Strategic development of the workforce in certain areas such as supervisory skills, coaching, project and team management, etc.
KEY PROJECT LEARNING REVIEW
During the Phase 3 handover a number of key learning’s from this complex, ground breaking and comprehensive project were surfaced to inform future similar development projects -
· Recognition that significant cultural diversity within an organisation requires specific and intense management attention
· Inclusion of a cultural diversity management plan in project development from the start
· Ensuring HR processes are aligned with a diversity management plan
· Early provision of sufficient internal, dedicated project management resources led directly by the senior management
· Recognition of the need for in depth understanding of cultural differences (national, regional, organisational, gender, religious) and the potential impact of these for project management
· Integration of a cultural benchmarking audit at an early stage in the management plan
· Providing managers and staff with specific training in self awareness, recognizing and dealing with cultural differences and certain soft skills related areas (such as supervisory, leadership, coaching skills, etc.)
· Recognition that alongside technical competence behavioural competence is an essential element in delivering sustainable business performance
· Making behavioural competence an explicit criteria in selection/ promotion of key managers for the project
· Recognition that visible senior management commitment is essential for success and that early, visible business impact measurement is important to securing such commitment
· Developing measurable objectives at an early stage, with benchmarking and reporting regularly against these with the inclusion of measurable objectives in managers’ individual objectives and appraisals with a significant link to reward
· Implementation of staff surveys is important to capture staff perceptions and bring them to the attention of management is essential at the earliest possible time in implementing such a major long term programme
· Understanding that such a programme will necessarily create some confusion/resistance at the beginning and that resistance has to be managed delicately over time
Client Feedbace
TCP helped YLNG during Phases 1 and 2 to begin establishing the corporate culture in a constantly changing corporate environment. Workshops and sessions were successfully implemented introducing the concepts of change and adaptation to one corporate culture to hundreds of staff at different levels of the organisation. TCP consultants also helped put the basic piloted model for developing a behavioural competency-based framework—a step which is currently being further developed and is increasingly becoming an area of focus for Project Excellence Phase 3 and beyond. They also helped many staff during one-to-one coaching sessions with independent support become more effective in their jobs.
Khaled Ishaq, Project Excellence Coordination Manager, Yemen LNG Company
