John Hagel on Passion and Wisdom.

We have another excellent article written by John Hagel on the dynamic interaction between passion and wisdom. How these elements interactions increase organizational performance beyond what either can deliver in isolation. Hagel notes.

I want to challenge this belief.  In fact, passion and wisdom amplify each other – each one alone has far less impact than when the two are combined. Rather than opposites, these two are powerful complements.

It is my opinion, that the oil and gas industry has no passion; and is operated completely from the basis of wisdom. For that statement I would probably receive little argument and be perceived to not have insulted anyone. And I have not intentionally set out to insult anyone, its that the need to have a level of passion within the industry is something that is necessary, and that is what I and Hagel are arguing.

Wisdom in isolation falls prey to diminishing returns.  No matter how thoughtful and creative we might be, we ultimately run up against the limits of current capability.  The longer we work at it, the harder it becomes to find the next increment of value within current performance limits.

Today we have an economy that is in a major transition, that is redefining the players in all industries and in all marketplaces. We also have a set of technologies, the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) redefining how business is conducted throughout all industries. These transition are also defining how the oil and gas industry is being conducted in fundamental ways.

In a world of mounting performance pressure where current limits become prisons that ultimately crush participants,effectively integrating wisdom and passion is not just an opportunity, it is an imperative.

From my perspective little to no passion exists in the oil and gas industry. The wisdom that Hagel notes that can imprison organizations appears to have asphyxiated oil and gas firms with an overdose of paper. Over the past decade firms have been rewarded with higher commodity prices. However at the same time costs have escalated at substantially the same or even higher factors. Since 2005 world oil production has stalled with no substantial increases seen in any region, and no increases seen in the foreseeable future. Regions such as Canada, and others, are seeing steep declines in their natural gas deliverability. The industry is ripe with wisdom and lacking in passion at a time when the challenges are the greatest the industry has ever faced. If only the industry were to adopt the Draft Specification and commence the development of the People, Ideas & Objects software applications. Passion could begin to be effectively integrated with the wisdom resident in the industry, and affect the performance of the industry in the manner that Hagel notes in this article.

For the industry to successfully provide for the consumers energy demands, it’s necessary to build the systems that identify and support the Joint Operating Committee. Building the Preliminary Specification is the focus of People, Ideas & Objects. Producers are encouraged to contact me in order to support our Revenue Model and begin their participation in these communities. Those individuals that are interested in joining People, Ideas & Objects can join me here and begin building the software necessary for the successful and innovative oil and gas industry.

Product Owner - Position

The Agile / Scrum software development methodology has many predefined roles. The Product Owner is one of them, and Product Owners are a part of the Scrum team. People, Ideas & Objects will have many Product Owners. One for each of 20 possible Scrum teams. [Eleven defined modules of the Draft Specification, User-Interface, Architecture, Data model etc.]

Project Owners are "pigs" in the scrum world. Pigs, unlike Chickens, have everything invested at the breakfast table. An appropriate term in my opinion. Their job is simple, satisfy all stakeholder concerns. Working with the many Account Managers of producers and their users, the Community of Independent Service Providers, (CISP) and their Scrum Team members. Product Owners will be the individuals who magically prioritize the developments to meet the changing needs of the producers.

By adopting Oracle technologies People, Ideas & Objects inherits their entire technology stack. An Open yet integrated technology stack like no other. Making the Draft Specification and subsequent designs executable is no small task, we are grateful for the vision and execution of Oracle Hardware & Software. We are also constrained by those technologies, and it will be the Product Owners that feel those constraints the most.

By adopting Oracle we will have an advanced tool set and infrastructure to deal with. Our developers and particularly our Product Owners will have to be intimately familiar with Oracle technologies. This is the standard means of Oracle application delivery in the marketplace. There is a substantial marketplace of Oracle consultants available to People, Ideas & Objects and associated communities. In addition to the need to be familiar with the Oracle technology stack, Product Owners will need to be intimately familiar with the oil and gas industry, generic business needs and their "products". I'm just glad I already have a job at People, Ideas & Objects.

By way of a scenario, as the Product Owner of the Petroleum Lease Marketplace (PLM) Module a day might look similar to this... The Product Owner reviews a small sample of email messages, and prior days edits to the wiki. Edits and comments from the 500 Account Managers and 27,000 users who use the PLM. Account Managers are at times representative of the collective desires of these 27,000 users. These users have compiled a wish list of 1,000 user stories of what they need and want in the PLM software. Although daunting, the solutions to each can be represented by making 15 major changes in the PLM. The Product Owner has been blogging about these 15 proposed changes, for a number of weeks. These changes are also passionately felt by many of the members in the CISP. As always, major changes in the software can be brought into production with one two-week sprint. The Project Owner has recruited a representative group of users from 12 producers to work with the developers during that sprint. The Product Owner sets tomorrow for the team to begin these developments. Suddenly she realizes it's 7:30 in the morning and she has to get ready to catch a flight to Europe for the bi-annual People, Ideas & Objects user conference...

A little creative license is handy. If your an enlightened producer, an oil and gas investor or shareholder, who would be interested in funding these software developments and communities, please follow our Funding Policies & Procedures, and our Hardware Policies & Procedures. If your a government that collects royalties from oil and gas producers, and are concerned about the accuracy of your royalty income, please review our Royalty Policies & Procedures and email me. And if your a potential user of this software, and possibly as a member of the Community of Independent Service Providers, please join us here.

Technorati Tags: People's Project-Owner Passion Oracle PLM Development CISP Agile-Scrum
 

The issue in a nutshell.

The Oil & Gas Journal is covering The Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) annual meeting in Houston. The topic of discussion is the exact issue that this software development project is designed to solve. The key issue which I wrote about in the Preliminary Research Report in May 2004. From the Journal's opening paragraph.

Energy research and development challenges are becoming more complex, demand integrated and individual approaches, and are in need of wider funding sources, concluded a forum at the Society of Exploration Geophysicists annual meeting in Houston.

When I read these types of articles I get frustrated and angry. Frustrated and angry at the do-nothing bureaucrats who currently occupy space at the oil and gas companies. The last six years has seen my efforts to promote this software development project, community and associated research, with absolutely no support, and not one penny from the oil and gas companies. The Journal's discussion goes on to quantify the amount of effort that needs to be undertaken.

John McDonald, Chevron vice-president and chief technology officer, reminded SEG delegates that the world took 125 years to consume the first trillion barrels of oil and is using the second trillion in 25 years. It is estimated that another trillion barrels remain to be discovered, ostensibly at a cost of $20 trillion over the next two decades.

This current bunch of bureaucrats suggest and expect we just hand $20 trillion over to further line their pockets? Where is the outrage? How is it that I was able to write the Preliminary Research Report in May of 2004? Was I the only individual in the oil and gas industry to realize this? Of course not, what was known in May 2004 was that this was a trend that was developing in the industry. And as I state in that report, the industry needs to move away from the banking mentality of guaranteed returns on their oil and gas investments. And begin developing the necessary resources and organizational structures necessary to support an innovative and performance based organization to address the underlying sciences.

So what are you going to do, Mr. budget director? Will you now undertake to do a study of the issue? Spend time and money marshaling resources towards coming up with a new vision of how the industry will solve these difficult issues. Gain a consensus amongst budget directors on what that vision should be. Hire SAP or Oracle to build you a system that gets you closer to your customer? You should be finished well after 2029 and therefore, your retirement will be fully secured.

You had your chance in May 2004, and instead did nothing. Now the consequences of your inaction will be the result of you being removed from the industry. Besides I think your going to be busy explaining what the hell it is that you have been doing all this time.

Bringing six years of research and a governing vision to the industry today has to be worth something. The community is ready and willing to move, the financial resources are all that is needed to be dedicated to this software development and community. Interested shareholders and investors should email me here with commitments to move forward. And please join me here.

Technorati Tags: People's Passion Community CISP Ideas Management Failure

John Hagel on Pursuing Passion

Passion is something that is being discussed more and more in the business community these days. It's something that I feel fortunate to have discovered and have been able to focus my energies on this software development project. There is a comfort and peace afforded to those who find their passions, it is in many ways the reward for taking the risks and enduring the sacrifice. In terms of the discussion, passion is a difficult topic to define and describe what it is, and why it affects people in the way that it does. John Hagel has taken the time to define it from the point of view of a business necessity. I would highly recommend reading his document, I think he does the best job of it yet.

Hagel makes the point that with the economic conditions we find in the twenty first century, passion will be a necessity. As he states.

If we have not found a way to make our passion our profession or to discover passion in our profession, we will very quickly succumb to the growing economic and competitive pressures that are shaping our global business landscape.  The pressures will inexorably mount. Without passion, we will increasingly experience stress, our energy will be steadily drained and we will ultimately burn out under the mounting pressure. At best, we will be marginalized as we find ways to achieve “balance” and safety valves for the mounting pressure at work.

The definition of passion is broken into two distinct types. Hagel says there are "true believers" and "explorers." The true believer is described as "Their passion is enduring and it does focus, but it can also blind – leading the entrepreneur to reject critical input that does not match their preconceived views." Not a productive environment in my opinion. Collaboration is a major means of how ideas are developed today. To ignore the ideas of those that are involved is somewhat disrespectful. I'd like to think that this project would be defined as an "explorer" which Hagel describes as.

These are people who see a domain, but not the path. The fact that the paths are not clearly defined is what excites them and motivates them to move into the domain. It also makes them alert to a variety of inputs that can help them to better understand the domain and discover more promising paths through the unexplored terrain. They are constantly balancing the need to move forward with the need to be present in the moment and reflect on the experiences and inputs they are encountering.

I have prepared the supporting research that proves the Joint Operating Committee provides the innovative and organizational performance that the oil and gas producer must have. From this research I have been able to sketch out a vision of how a system based on the JOC would operate. The Draft Specification is the beginning of the involvement of the Community of Independent Service Providers. This is where the passions of many people will take the Draft Specification and build the software applications they will need in their day to day work in the oil and gas industry. Hagel notes;

Passion is also about pursuit. It is not passive. People with passion are driven to pursue and create. They may read books and observe others, but they are not content being bystanders. They feel an overwhelming urge to engage, to experience for themselves and to test their own capabilities. Passion compels us to act.

The heading of this blog calls to those with passion to act.

A global community of professionals dedicated to optimizing the performance and profitability of innovative oil and gas producers. We are focused on developing IT systems based on the Joint Operating Committee. The legal, financial, operational decision making, cultural and communication frameworks of all producers.

A community of people open to new ideas, who know that energy is the life blood of our global economy. People of action who demand more from IT, please join us.

I hope that I have designed a path for others with passion to follow. The comprehensive nature of John Hagel's article is best read in it's entirety, and please review his passion manifesto. The one comment that I would leave you with, if you are in oil and gas, is People, Ideas & Objects is the place where you can find your passion and act to make a difference in the industry. Please join me here.

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