What company initiative sounded good on paper but was actually useless or made the job worse?
Curious what people actually think.
19 replies (most recent on top)
@zp
Any initiative with a name ending in "MS" (Management System) was suspect... even if initially well intended. Eventually the bloat would outpace the value; especially if there was a need to justify billable hours.
Having to rate good performers as bad performers to accommodate the required numbers of each, regardless of performance.
I never fully understood what CSOC stood for and how it related to 4+1. It was a mess.
WDMS. Half of them are full of unrealistic deadlines that are always delayed by a week or two while the other half are a check-the-box exercise. And then we pat our own backs for having accomplished a bunch of items in a module that should only be counted as one.
The Reservoir Management Framework was slapped together as a way to standardize subsurface processes for development in the same way Exploration was standardized with regard to risk and volume assessment. But it was an utter failure and was not needed. Exploration needs apples to apples to figure out funding. Fields don't need 500 page development plans and opportunity catalogs that nobody every looks at. It was a colossal waste of time from one of the worst process guys in the company (MA) and one-time SASBU guy. SASBU always seemed to have the worst middle and upper management, decade after decade.
Back in the day, low-level PSG 23 technical ladder individual contributor with zero P&L responsibilities and having to complete the entire CSOC program in three months. Complete waste of time that I never used for the rest of my Chevron career. I probably spent about eight hours every weekend on that mess.
@nx noting says fail fast like a blowout taking out a rig in seconds
Digital Core
Fail fast.
Anything with the words "must-win technology".
That internal “skills marketplace” (the Airtasker clone). Sold as a way for people with real skills and passion to help other teams. In reality it was just another way for useless people with nothing delivered to manufacture “leadership” and get ahead. Pushed by the usual no-skills crowd who’ve never produced anything themselves, already got promoted, and still act like the place owes them more. Perfect system for padding CVs without doing the actual work.
@dd
"Remember, it's not about the numbers, it's about the behaviors. That said, it's after the 20th of the month and I see that about 30% of you haven't submitted your forms yet...."
Anything MKW touches
Winning in any environment
Agile!
There were some bad ones (I did like lean sigma on some level). But what made them terrible was the VPs would always have some lap dog weasel that would always go around forcing it on everything. I remember in SJV that was a lean sigma project every year for like 10 years, shame opex never actually went down after I think they booked billions in savings.
BBS obsevations!
hiring McK
All of them