Page 18 - Suncor 360 - September 2014 - English

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FEATURE
SEPTEMBER 2014
360

A LITTLE TOO BUSY?

COUNCILS TO TAME THE TRAFFIC WITH GATES

A quick snapshot of Suncor shows lots going on. In fact, many
employees will tell you there’s a little TOO much going on. One

large project inishes, but there’s no time for a breather before

the next starts. Maybe you’re already juggling more than one.

Marc Mageau likens the situation to a That now falls to two new ELT sub-

crowd of people trying to push through a committees and their supporting councils:
narrow doorway. “We’re trying to jam
• The Operations Council is about what’s
through too many priorities at the same
time,” says Suncor’s SVP, oil sands needed to improve the way we operate

operations. “But if we just got in line and across the company. Marc is the chair.
took turns, we’d all get through the door.”
• The Enterprise Council is about how

After the merger, attempts to organize and well we work together corporately, and
is chaired by Gary Hart, SVP supply
manage the work included Suncor The councils’ irst task was to determine
Technical Excellence Networks (STENs), chain & ield logistics.
how many initiatives make up Suncor’s

Enterprise Cross Functional team and 20 per cent. The initial inventory found
Operational Excellence Management “The councils will give senior leaders a about 50 large chunks of work, many
better line of sight into how projects it
System (OEMS) steering committee.
associated with OEMS.
with everything else going on,” Marc
explains. “The sequence and priority will be The councils built these pieces into an
Yet there was still too much work. Getting
the go-ahead for a project might come clear, and we’ll be able to see where plans integrated ive-year roadmap, detailing the
must be adjusted to line up with our value
from multiple places. Priorities were order and stage of the various projects and
unclear. Duplicate or re-work added to drivers and resources, making sure we their tie to Suncor’s strategy. The plan also
execute well.”
costs. The result was a sense that Suncor identiies who ‘owns’ each initiative and
was not as effective as it could be in when it would be implemented, the stage
Change is a given
choosing, authorizing and executing work.
demanding the most effort and resources.
How much change can we handle?
The roadmap outlines how the work can be
Our executive leadership team (ELT)
A typical operating company like Suncor done effectively without doing everything
discussed the issue at a senior leaders’ spends about 80 per cent of its energy at once.
forum in fall 2013. The team hammered
to run the business. The remaining
out a way to take on the right work in the 20 per cent goes to improving the “Before, we didn’t always take into
account the different needs of the
right order without overwhelming company or moving it ahead.
employees. This thoughtful, disciplined way businesses, so we might not discover until

of introducing and managing large “There will always be change,” Gary says. rollout that a project didn’t work well for
initiatives through a gated process is a “So we need to do a better job of setting every site,” Gary adds. “The new structure

cultural shift that HR VP Pat White dubs up the big changes instead of dropping has collaboration and stakeholder input up
“planful change.”
them on employees out of the blue.”
front so we can address these issues well

before implementation.”