The Flowline Of Understanding (1960s)

[Music] [Applause] how many times have you started what you thought  would be a normal routine day that ended like this it happens to us all more than  a few of us have spent many Restless hours wondering how we got into such a mess  what went wrong how can the situation be corrected and prevented from happening again  whether it's an equipment problem or a problem involving Personnel of course we could be  talking about one of many problems and one of many causes but let's narrow it down  to just one communication the flowline of understanding hardly a day goes by that there  isn't some type of communication mixup in the field let's let's take a look around and see  if anything that's happening would interest us this is Joe glass a new rough neck  on one of the drilling rigs a new man on a new job has lots to learn and during  his first few days on the job Joe was told lots of things by the other men the driller  and the tool pusher one day Joe was called to help condition the mud but before he reached  the Mud House the tool pusher called him a side to talk to him about mud handling Joe was  told to be careful when you're treating the mud with chemicals particularly costic when you're  handling costic said The Pusher be sure always to check the wind direction so that the costic  won't blow on you wear protective equipment such as goggles rubber apron and rubber gloves  these items will keep you from getting burned seriously well mud conditioning was started  and of course Joe went right to work what happened he was burned seriously around the eyes  he hadn't worn the protective equipment and hadn't bothered to check the wind direction was this poor  communication Joe had been told shown and warned the tool pusher had given thorough instructions  for some reason the message hadn't soaked in why this is Rous about Bill Brown he's worked  around here for several months no complaints about bill or his work he's always tried hard one day  the Farm Boss instructed Bill to go to a certain lease and the words he used were take a meter out  of service well Bill returned with the meter and when the Farm Boss found that Bill had brought  the meter with him he blew his top he jumped on Bill for being so stupid and told him that the  whole job merely consisted of shutting off three vowes that was what he meant when he said take  the meter out of service but Bill did what he thought he had understood the Farm Boss to say for  some reason he hadn't gotten the message correctly why maybe these sound like exaggerated cases  but they actually happen and other similar cases happen every day I know that you can recall like  examples but let's consider some other factors in the problem of giving and receiving information  correctly a few careless or misunderstood words that are not clear in their meaning could lead to  a lot of trouble maybe a filed Up Mud situation on a drilling rig or a serious injury any number  of things could happen and if the truth was known a great percentage of our troubles could  probably be traced to [Music] misunderstanding it may not not be a case of unclear meaning  of the spoken word only it could be that the information wasn't written clearly leaving  you just as confused as before it could be the manner in which the order or instruction was  given was not acceptable to the men for instance if the man in charge is not getting along with  his men anything he says no matter how important is bicced off by the men and of course there  are many other reasons that we could mention where does communication start and where  does it end that's a good question and let's see if we can figure it out we all  know that major decisions and policies are made here and are carried out by  all departments branches divisions in a company right on Down the [Music] Line  however important decisions are made at the field level too but they generally involve  the group concerned with that particular Department other decisions involving a  yet smaller group may be made here and so on down through the organization  now how are all these decisions coordinated primarily through a  well-planned communication system management relies on this man the  supervisor to get the job done to convey the right information to his men  but communication Works two ways it's the supervisor's job to get the information  back up the line through the various levels of management clear to the top it is only  in this way that everyone is kept informed [Music] what kind of information are we talking about well  one type of information is a daily drilling report some others are production reports equipment  order sheets maybe work Improvement suggestions or new safety suggestions all are forms of  information but all are useless unless they are understood remembered relayed correctly  and used the right way by the right people how important it is that we convey the right  information with the right meaning in order to have decisions and policies carried  out the supervisor must receive and give information the success of the job or policy  depends greatly on how well the supervisor understands and the manner in which he gets  across the ideas and information to his men if the correct attitude has been established among  the workers an attitude for wanting to learn and do things correctly the supervisor's job is much  easier this is true at all levels of the company efficiency depends on how much information is  given and the manner in which it is given but don't forget that someone has to be listening to  what is said and the supervisor should make sure that he is understood the oil industry is a big  one composed of hundreds of companies why is it that so many of these companies can operate so  efficiently is Communications an important part how Bigg a part does it play in any company  operation you remember the cases of Joe glass and Bill Brown who actually was at fault in  these cases what causes Communications to fail is there a remedy what can we as supervisors  do to improve Communications among our men