Bringing BSEE’s Mission to Life
Within days of starting my new job, I was given a major assignment. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, otherwise known as BSEE (and pronounced Bessie), was about to get a new strategic plan, and I was going to coordinate the effort.
As I dug into the assignment, I quickly realized that my efforts could go in one of two directions: the plan could be a paper exercise that gathers dust on the shelf, or it could be a key document that helps a relatively new bureau solidify its identity. I locked my sights on option two and started to sketch a plan of action. Then I pulled together a team of colleagues and we got to work. I’m sure they thought it was funny to see me geek out on a strategic plan, but my mind was locked on the words, “help a relatively new bureau solidify its identity.”
Because the plan would focus on BSEE's identity as an organization, it needed to echo the bureau's mission and core functions. Consequently, the heart of the plan was to consist of six goals related to operational and organizational excellence. The operational goals match the three prongs of BSEE's mission to promote safety, protect the environment and conserve resources offshore. The organizational goals highlight inputs that support BSEE's mission: people, information and transparency. With this part of the plan solidified, we started drilling down to additional levels of detail, including the strategies and initiatives that would allow the goals to be achieved.
Fairly quickly I was stitching together a proposal from a bureau-wide working group with input from over a dozen of BSEE’s senior leaders. My team and I worked diligently to find common themes and a logical hierarchy that included everyone’s priorities. I lost count of the iterations, as we edited and reedited numerous times to tighten the prose and sharpen the message. Then, one great day, we were able to finalize the plan and I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Case closed. Well, maybe not. I knew the real test of whether or not we succeeded would be the reactions of people who had nothing to do with drafting the plan. Last winter I gave the plan that first test. I showed it to a manager in BSEE’s Gulf of Mexico Region and asked what he thought of the document. He spent a fair amount of time looking at it, and then pronounced that he could clearly see where his office fit in and said that the plan would be a useful tool. This was the first sign that we accomplished the goal, and those that reviewed the plan after him echoed his sentiments.
A few months later, during the spring of 2016, I found myself in a helicopter flying high above the cobalt blue Pacific with three BSEE inspectors. I was there to shadow their activities, and see an inspection up close. When our assignment ended, I found myself thinking about the strategic plan, specifically goal one of operational excellence, “Safety: We reduce risk to those offshore by advancing a culture of safety that encourages industry to go beyond baseline compliance.” I knew that a big part of the inspections was to check on compliance, but I saw several instances during the inspections where the interactions the inspectors had with workers seemed to advance safety culture, thus reflecting the spirit of that goal.
If I still had any misgivings about the plan’s relevance, they faded after I spoke to Lori Medley, chief of BSEE’s Oil Response Research Branch. Lori has been with BSEE since its start, and is someone I have really come to respect. What she said was straightforward enough: “Our research projects provide the science to support decision making in regard to assessing industry's preparedness to respond to an offshore oil spill.” Bingo, I thought. Operational excellence, fourth strategy: “Rigorously enforce all environmental protection and oil spill preparedness requirements.” Lori’s words also align with the first and fifth strategies of the organizational excellence goal strategies, both of which discuss the importance of research.
By October 2016 the strategic plan was in the hands of every BSEE employee and was inserted into a pocket inside the back cover of our annual report. When BSEE commemorated its 5-year anniversary as a bureau, I felt a sense of pride, not only because the plan might help us articulate our future, but also because the plan is being fulfilled by a dedicated staff that really understands the importance of what we do. We’re a focused bureau with a straightforward mission and now we have a strategic plan to point us toward success.