The $25 Hat That Got a $100,000 Job Done
"Confidential" on the North Slope means "read this." Richard knew it. He used it.
Pillar: #Pillar4-Empowering Teams
I was working on improving safety and performance on a drilling rig on the North Slope of Alaska, beside the Beaufort Sea. The rig manager was "Richard". Not his real name, but Richard's my brother's name, so that will do.
Richard was one of the best leaders I have ever seen. Calm under pressure. Great listener. Really cared about his people. Knew how to push back on instructions from "Town". "Town" meant head office. There was always a running joke when people said "Hi, I'm from Town and I'm here to help you." Most rig workers felt they didn't need help.
Richard was also a passionate learner, wanted to excel and was humble. The first thing he did when returning to the rig from his time off was open up his laptop, gather people around and show them pictures of his activities with his wife and children during his time off. They loved him for it. It was personal.
When I first started at the rig I did an assessment and handed the report to Richard. On the front of the report it had in large letters "CONFIDENTIAL".
Richard looked at it and grinned. "Do you know what 'Confidential' means on the North Slope?"
"No."
"It means READ THIS."
He roared with laughter and left the report on his desk to go over later.
Richard was true to his word. A bunch of people coming into his open-door office saw the report and read it. They were furious. In the report it had things that Richard could do to improve himself and his team.
"WTF, Richard. How dare that consultant say those things about you. That's totally unfair."
Now the question is, how should Richard have responded?
You're probably thinking you'd have done what most of us would do: close the door, agree with the team, and quietly bury the report.
Richard could have agreed with them, even encouraged their anger. But do you know what he said?
"Guys, this isn't a personal attack on me. It's a document that allows me to get better. And when I get better everyone will get better. So let's accept it and learn from it."
Great words from a leader.
He didn't just do it once. Which brings me to the $25 hat in the title.
One day I was in Richard's office in a coaching session. Word came that Edward was here to talk to him.
"Tell him to come in." Then Richard turned to me. "Watch this."
Edward came in and in no uncertain terms told Richard he couldn't get his equipment on site tomorrow to do the work the rig required.
This was $100,000 worth of work that Richard didn't have to pay for. It came out of someone ealses budget.
Richard didn't yell or scream. "I understand." A pause. "Have you seen the new Caterpillar hats?"
Edward stopped and looked at him kind of funny. "You have one?"
Now, dear reader, you have to understand that these hats were prized possessions on the Slope. They are rare and you have to be a special customer to get one.
Richard handed it over. "Thanks for all the great work you do for us, Edward."
Edward's jaw dropped. His bushy moustache quivered. "Thanks, Richard. Oh, and by the way, I think I can make the equipment work for tomorrow."
Richard thanked him and Edward left.
Richard turned to me, smiling. "How about that, coach. A $25 hat got me $100,000 of work for tomorrow."
Brilliant!
Over the year that I was there, Richard and his team reduced the rig's TRIR from 5 to 0.2. Incredible achievement. If it went above 5 the rig and its crew would have been fired by the oil and gas company that hired them. Getting to 0.2 made them the safest rig in the fleet.
The most important message is Richard didn't argue with his team. He listened and explained the purpose of the document. He consistently did this and that made his team trust him. Because of this trust they accepted what he said and worked hard at being the safest rig in the fleet.
The report was never the point. What Richard did with it in front of his crew was.
One next step: What report, idea, etc. are you neglecting to talk to your team about? Even if it has "CONFIDENTIAL" written on it. Pick one this week. Put it on the desk with the door open.
Further reading:
- Radical Candor — Kim Scott (St. Martin's Press, 2017). Care personally, challenge directly — Richard did both in one sentence to his crew.
- The Fearless Organization — Amy C. Edmondson (Wiley, 2019). Why teams that can speak up about mistakes outperform teams that stay silent — the mechanism behind 5 to 0.2.
- The Culture Code — Daniel Coyle (Bantam, 2018). How leaders build safety by showing vulnerability first; the laptop photos were doing more work than they looked.