In the oil and gas industry, where operational risks are inherently high and safety failures can trigger catastrophic consequences, leadership emerges as the single most critical determinant of safety outcomes. The difference between an organization that experiences recurring incidents and one that maintains industry-leading safety performance is rarely rooted in better equipment or tighter procedures—it lies in the leadership’s unwavering commitment to making safety a lived reality, not merely a compliance checkbox.
Visible Felt Leadership (VFL) has emerged as the transformational approach that top-performing oil and gas companies deploy to build cultures where safety is genuinely prioritized above production targets. This leadership philosophy goes beyond traditional management styles by positioning leaders as visible, engaged, and meaningfully impactful in the daily work lives of their teams. In an industry where the stakes are incredibly high, VFL is not a nice-to-have leadership enhancement—it is a strategic necessity for ensuring safety, driving operational performance, and creating sustainable organizational resilience.
The challenge facing most oil and gas organizations is not understanding what good safety culture looks like; it is implementing and sustaining the behavioral and systemic changes required to transform from reactive compliance-driven cultures into proactive, values-driven safety environments. This transformation requires more than training programs and policy updates. It demands that leaders fundamentally shift how they show up every day—their visibility on the frontline, how they engage with workers, the behaviors they model, and the accountability they demonstrate for safety outcomes.
For companies aspiring to move beyond industry-average incident rates toward world-class safety performance, this guide provides a comprehensive roadmap for implementing HSE Leadership Culture Transformation through Visible Felt Leadership principles. The framework draws on empirical research from leading oil and gas companies, validated safety culture maturity models used across the industry, and practical implementation methodologies that have proven effective in geographically dispersed, culturally complex operating environments.
What is Visible Felt Leadership in the Oil and Gas Industry?
Defining Visible Felt Leadership
Visible Felt Leadership represents a fundamental departure from traditional hierarchical management models where leaders operate from corporate offices, making decisions based on second-hand information and periodic briefings. In contrast, VFL defines leadership as leaders who are physically present, authentically engaged, and demonstrably committed to safety in the daily work environment.
The “visible” dimension means that leaders are not confined to boardrooms but spend meaningful time on the frontline—where actual work happens. They participate in safety briefings, conduct field inspections, walk through work sites, and interact directly with workers from all organizational levels. This physical presence is strategic and purposeful; leaders are intentionally present in spaces where they can observe actual work practices, identify emerging hazards, and demonstrate that safety management is not delegated—it is personally owned by leadership.
The “felt” dimension is equally critical. Physical presence alone is insufficient. Workers must genuinely perceive that leaders care about their safety and well-being, that safety truly drives decision-making, and that leadership is not performing a compliance theatre. Felt leadership manifests through meaningful conversations, authentic concern for worker welfare, consistent action on safety recommendations raised by frontline teams, and visible consequences when safety is compromised. When workers feel their leaders’ genuine commitment to safety, psychological safety increases—workers feel empowered to raise hazards, report near-misses, and participate actively in risk identification rather than remaining silent about unsafe conditions.
Why VFL Matters in Oil & Gas Context
The oil and gas industry operates under conditions that uniquely demand VFL effectiveness. Unlike many other industrial sectors, oil and gas operations involve:
- Inherent Process Hazards – Hydrocarbon handling, high-pressure systems, and flammable atmospheres create potential for catastrophic loss of containment events that can be fatal.
- Remote Operating Locations – Operations spread across offshore platforms, remote onshore facilities, and isolated locations create command-and-control challenges where decisions must be made by frontline leaders with limited real-time oversight from corporate management.
- Multinational, Multicultural Workforces – Particularly in Southeast Asian operations like Indonesia’s migas sector, teams include nationals and expatriates from diverse cultural backgrounds with varying baseline safety awareness and different communication preferences. VFL leadership that demonstrates visible, felt commitment to safety bridges cultural differences and builds trust transcending nationalities.
- High-Stress Operations – Production targets, cost pressures, and operational complexity create constant tension between production and safety. When leaders are visibly felt to prioritize safety over short-term targets, workers internalize that safety truly cannot be compromised—creating an “interdependent” culture where peer pressure reinforces safe practices.
- Regulatory Complexity – Oil and gas operations are highly regulated, with governmental bodies like Indonesia’s DitJen MIGAS and SKK MIGAS imposing strict safety compliance requirements. VFL creates a culture where safety compliance is driven by internalized values, not fear of regulatory penalties.
How Visible Felt Leadership Enhances Safety and Operational Performance
Proactive Safety Engagement and Hazard Prevention
VFL leaders shift the safety paradigm from reactive incident response to proactive hazard identification and prevention. By being present in the field, leaders participate in safety briefings, pre-work assessments, and active observation of work practices. This engagement serves multiple functions:
- Real-Time Hazard Identification – When leaders spend time on the frontline, they identify unsafe behaviors, near-miss precursors, and environmental hazards that might otherwise go unreported. A supervisor working from an office will never observe the specific way a worker performs a task that creates unexpected risk. A visible leader directly observing operations can intervene immediately, preventing incidents before they occur.
- Demonstration of Priority – When senior managers conduct personal safety walkabouts, participate in toolbox talks, and ask workers about hazards they’ve identified, this visible action communicates more powerfully than any corporate HSE policy that safety is genuinely a priority. Workers observe that leadership allocates time and attention to safety, signaling that safety is non-negotiable.
- Feedback Loop Activation – When leaders ask workers directly about safety concerns and act on the feedback received, organizations activate a feedback loop that drives continuous improvement. Workers who feel heard become more engaged in identifying improvements rather than passively following procedures.
Modeling Safe Behavior and Creating Behavioral Standards
A fundamental principle of culture change is that organizational culture is shaped primarily through what leaders do, not what they say. VFL leaders understand that they are being watched constantly by their teams. Every action—from whether they wear required PPE when visiting sites, to how they respond when discovering a procedural violation, to whose safety feedback gets acted upon—sends cultural messages about what is actually valued.
In oil and gas organizations where VFL has been implemented effectively:
- PPE Compliance Becomes Non-Negotiable – When leaders personally model 100% PPE compliance, including appropriate footwear, high-visibility clothing, and hard hats even for brief site visits, they communicate that PPE is not optional or situational—it is a baseline expectation.
- Safe Behaviors Get Recognition – Leaders who recognize and praise workers demonstrating excellent safety practices create positive reinforcement that shapes peer behavior. When a worker observes their colleague receiving recognition from a senior leader for identifying and reporting a hazard, the behavioral reinforcement is powerful.
- Unsafe Shortcuts Are Not Tolerated – When leaders visibly address unsafe practices—even when such practices might enable faster work—they demonstrate that schedule pressure never overrides safety requirements.
- Leadership is Held to Identical Standards – In high-performing safety cultures, workers observe that leaders are held to the same safety standards as frontline workers. Accountability is non-hierarchical; a leader violating a safety procedure faces the same consequences as a worker.
Empowering Employee Ownership and Psychological Safety
VFL creates conditions for psychological safety—the belief that one can speak up about safety concerns without fear of punishment or embarrassment. This empowerment drives several performance improvements:
- Hazard Reporting Increases – When workers feel safe raising concerns without fear that doing so will mark them as troublemakers or create conflict with management, near-miss reporting increases dramatically. Organizations with strong psychological safety often report 3–5x higher near-miss reporting rates than industry averages, reflecting that more hazards are being identified before they become incidents.
- Peer Intervention Increases – Psychological safety enables workers to intervene when observing unsafe behaviors by peers. Rather than remaining silent, workers feel empowered to stop work and discuss the unsafe practice, knowing leadership will support this intervention rather than penalizing the interruption to production.
- Innovation in Safety Solutions – Frontline workers often have deep contextual knowledge about specific work practices and local operating challenges. When leaders create forums where workers can propose safety improvements without fear, organizations access frontline expertise for designing practical, implementable solutions rather than relying solely on safety department expertise.
- Reduced Incidents and Lost-Time Injuries – Empirical research demonstrates that organizations with higher psychological safety experience significantly lower incident rates. When hazards are identified before they cause incidents, and when near-misses are reported and analyzed for root causes, preventable injuries are eliminated.
Driving Operational Performance and Team Effectiveness
Beyond safety outcomes, VFL leadership drives operational performance improvements:
- Better-Informed Decision Making – Leaders who spend time understanding field conditions make more informed decisions about resource allocation, scheduling, and operational priorities. A leader who understands the actual challenges crews face allocates equipment and personnel more effectively than someone making decisions from an office based on abstract information.
- Stronger Team Cohesion – When leaders demonstrate genuine interest in workers’ concerns, spend time understanding team dynamics, and demonstrate commitment to addressing legitimate challenges, team cohesion increases. Cohesive teams communicate better, coordinate more effectively, and perform at higher levels.
- Reduced Turnover – Workers stay longer in organizations where they feel leadership genuinely cares about their development and well-being. VFL that includes mentoring, coaching, and recognition builds loyalty that reduces costly turnover and preserves institutional knowledge.
- Enhanced Stakeholder Trust – Regulators, investors, and clients increasingly assess company safety performance and safety culture maturity. Companies demonstrating visible, felt leadership commitment to safety build trust with regulators, potentially receiving more favorable audit outcomes; with investors, potentially accessing lower-cost capital; and with clients, winning contracts in competitive bids.
Five-Phase Framework for HSE Leadership Culture Transformation
Transforming an organizational culture from reactive compliance-driven approaches toward proactive, values-driven HSE leadership is a strategic initiative requiring structured phases, clear metrics, and sustained commitment. The following five-phase framework, adapted from organizational transformation research and validated through implementation in leading oil and gas companies, provides a practical roadmap.
Phase 1: Assess Current State and Build Leadership Alignment
Before designing transformation initiatives, organizations must establish a clear baseline of current safety culture maturity and understand the mindsets, perceptions, and behavioral patterns that characterize different organizational levels.
HSSE Culture Survey Assessment – Conduct a comprehensive, quantitative-qualitative assessment using validated safety culture survey instruments. Rather than simple questionnaires, effective assessments employ instruments like the Hudson Safety Culture Maturity Model or the HSE UK Safety Climate Tool, which measure culture across multiple dimensions:
- Leadership commitment and visibility
- Communication of safety expectations and feedback
- Engagement and participation in safety initiatives
- Training and competency
- Incident investigation and learning
- Resource allocation for safety
The assessment should include a representative sample across all organizational levels—senior management, middle management, supervisors, and frontline workers—with separate analysis by department and location to identify specific cultural gaps.
Perception Gap Analysis – A critical assessment element is identifying perception gaps between different organizational levels. For example, senior managers may believe workers are highly engaged in safety, while worker surveys reveal they feel unheard and that near-miss reporting is ignored. These gaps—when made visible to leaders—create the urgency for culture change.
Executive Alignment Workshop – Before launching transformation initiatives, conduct a facilitated workshop with senior leadership to:
- Review assessment findings and perception gaps
- Align senior team on the business case for culture transformation (safety, regulatory compliance, operational performance, retention, brand reputation)
- Establish explicit leadership commitment to model VFL behaviors
- Define the desired future culture and specific behavioral expectations for leaders
- Identify barriers to transformation the organization must overcome
This alignment ensures that subsequent transformation initiatives receive consistent leadership support and modeling rather than being delegated to HSE departments to implement without line management engagement.
Phase 2: Enroll Leadership and Build Commitment
Once executives understand current culture and agree on transformation direction, the focus shifts to building authentic commitment—not just intellectual agreement but genuine commitment to changing how leaders show up daily.
VFL Leadership Development Program – Implement a dedicated leadership development program focused on visible felt leadership competencies:
- Self-awareness – Understanding personal leadership impact, biases, and effectiveness
- Active Engagement – Techniques for meaningful interaction with teams, asking effective questions, active listening
- Modeling – Demonstrating safe behaviors consistently, ensuring personal compliance with safety standards
- Accountability – Setting clear expectations and holding team members accountable for safety compliance
- Recognition – Noticing and praising safety-first behaviors and near-miss reporting
- Decision-Making Under Pressure – Ensuring safety is prioritized even when production pressures increase
The program should combine classroom learning with field-based coaching, peer learning, and behavioral coaching to shift from knowledge to consistent practice.
Management Walk-Through Program – Establish a structured program where leaders conduct regular, purposeful field visits focused on observing safety practices, engaging with workers, and gathering safety feedback. Effective walk-through programs include:
- Structured Observation – Leaders use observation checklists focusing on specific safety elements: PPE compliance, work positioning, hazard awareness, environmental conditions
- Worker Engagement – Leaders conduct brief, authentic conversations with workers about what they’re working on, what hazards they’re concerned about, what safety improvements they’d suggest
- Real-Time Feedback – Leaders provide immediate feedback on observed behaviors, praise for good practices, and coaching for unsafe practices
- Documentation and Follow-Up – Observations are documented, and follow-up actions are tracked to closure, demonstrating to workers that leadership feedback is taken seriously
Phase 3: Build Organizational Systems and Capability
While leadership behavior change is essential, it must be embedded within organizational systems, processes, and training programs that sustain transformation even as personnel changes occur.
HSE Management System Integration – Integrate safety leadership expectations into formalized management systems:
- Leadership HSE Performance Metrics – Include visible felt leadership behaviors in leader performance evaluations. Measure frequency of field visits, near-miss reports from teams led by each manager, worker survey scores for psychological safety, and safety incidents under each leader’s accountability. This embeds VFL expectations into performance management.
- Decision-Making Framework – Formalize that safety is a non-negotiable criterion in all operational decisions. When production targets conflict with safety practices, the decision-making framework explicitly prioritizes safety.
- Safety Governance Structure – Establish clear governance for HSE Leadership with executive sponsorship, regular leadership meetings focused on safety culture maturity trends, and accountability for transformation progress.
HSE Competency Development Program – Develop and deliver competency development programs focused on HSE awareness, risk identification, incident investigation, and safety leadership capabilities. These programs should be tailored by role:
- Leadership Program – Focused on visible felt leadership, coaching, and culture influence
- Supervisor Program – Focused on toolbox talks, near-miss investigation, and team engagement
- Worker Program – Focused on personal safety accountability, hazard identification, and near-miss reporting
Programs should utilize blended delivery—classroom, e-learning, field-based coaching, and on-the-job mentoring—to accommodate the distributed nature of oil and gas operations.
Pulse Check and Feedback Mechanism – Establish ongoing mechanisms to assess culture transformation progress and gather feedback on what’s working and what needs adjustment:
- Quarterly Pulse Surveys – Brief, focused surveys assessing specific culture dimensions and leadership behaviors
- Focus Groups – Periodic facilitated discussions with worker groups to gather qualitative feedback on culture change progress
- Leading Indicator Dashboards – Track metrics like near-miss reporting rates, safety training completion, safety observations, and hazard identification rates to assess cultural engagement.
Phase 4: Execute Transformation with Sustained Momentum
With leadership aligned, systems in place, and competencies developed, the execution phase focuses on embedding new behaviors and practices into daily organizational operations.
Communication Campaign – Deploy a sustained communication effort that:
- Frames culture transformation as essential strategic initiative, not optional HSE initiative
- Shares the vision of desired future culture in terms workers relate to
- Celebrates early wins and visible examples of culture change
- Addresses resistance and misconceptions transparently
Site-Level Implementation – Cascade transformation to site level with:
- Site Safety Culture Plans – Each site develops specific plans for achieving culture maturity objectives, tailored to site-specific challenges and opportunities
- Site Leadership Alignment – Site leadership (plant managers, operations managers) align on visible felt leadership expectations specific to their site context
- Work Team Engagement – Work teams establish safety commitments, define what good safety culture means to them, and identify specific behaviors they’ll model
Sustaining Mechanisms – Implement mechanisms that sustain transformation momentum:
- Monthly HSE Leadership Meetings – Regular forums where leaders discuss culture progress, barriers, and strategies
- Recognition Programs – Formal recognition for leaders demonstrating visible felt leadership, workers demonstrating safety leadership, teams achieving culture milestones
- Learning Events – Regular forums to share near-miss lessons, success stories, and continuous improvement insights
Phase 5: Measure, Sustain, and Continuously Improve
The final phase establishes measurement systems, embeds transformation into organizational DNA, and creates mechanisms for continuous improvement.
Culture Maturity Assessment Cycles – Conduct assessments at defined intervals (typically annually) to track progression against the Hudson Maturity Model or similar framework. The goal is moving through levels:
- Emerging (Level 1) – Ad hoc safety practices, inconsistent leadership engagement
- Managing (Level 2) – Formal safety systems in place, management-driven compliance
- Involving (Level 3) – Workers actively engaged, communication improved, shared responsibility
- Cooperating (Level 4) – Strong teamwork, peer intervention, learning organization
- Continuously Improving (Level 5, also called “Generative”) – Safety is foundational to how organization operates, continuous learning and adaptation
Sustainability Planning – Embed culture transformation into:
- Leadership Succession Planning – Ensure incoming leaders understand and are capable of demonstrating VFL
- Organizational Values – Integrate safety leadership into organizational core values statements and recruitment processes
- Strategy and Objectives – Include safety culture maturity targets in strategic objectives with executive accountability
Real-World Case Studies: Transformation in Practice
Case Study 1: PT Pertamina Drilling Services Indonesia—From Managing to Proactive Culture
PT Pertamina Drilling Services Indonesia (PT PDSI) provides an exemplary case of comprehensive HSE culture transformation using structured, phased approaches aligned with McKinsey 7S Framework and the Hudson Maturity Model.
Baseline Situation (2015): PT PDSI operated primarily in the “Managing” level (Level 2) of safety culture maturity. While formal HSE systems existed and management drove compliance, the culture was characterized as management-dependent—safety was something management imposed rather than something employees owned. Near-miss reporting was low, suggesting workers were not empowered to raise concerns. Safety performance metrics showed adequate but not exceptional incident rates.
Transformation Strategy (2015–2020): Under the “Salam Lima Jari” (Five Finger Salute) program, PT PDSI implemented a multi-faceted transformation:
- VFL Leadership Program – Implemented comprehensive leadership development focused on visible felt leadership, with regular management walk-throughs becoming standard practice.
- HSE Engagement Initiatives – Established HSE Talk/Sharing sessions, HSE Meetings, and HSE Personal Leading programs to increase leadership visibility and engagement.
- Systems Integration – Integrated HSE expectations into management systems, performance metrics, and decision-making frameworks.
- Competency Development – Deployed HSE training programs across all organizational levels.
- Culture Monitoring – Implemented regular culture assessments and pulse checks to track progress.
Results (2020): PT PDSI achieved progression to the “Proactive” level (Level 4–5) of safety culture maturity. Specific improvements included:
- Significant increase in near-miss reporting, indicating workers felt empowered to raise hazards and concerns.
- Improved incident rates—despite increased reporting of minor incidents, serious and lost-time incident rates decreased notably.
- Enhanced leadership engagement—regular field visits by leadership became standard practice with documented feedback and follow-up.
- Stronger peer safety culture—workers increasingly intervened when observing unsafe practices.
- Sustained transformation—culture change became embedded in organizational DNA, not dependent on specific individuals.
Key Success Factors: PT PDSI’s success derived from executive commitment, systematic phase-based implementation, integration across all organizational systems, sustained focus over multiple years, and regular measurement of culture progress with transparent communication of results.
Case Study 2: Saudi Arabian Oil Company—Bridging Multinational Workforce Challenges
A major Saudi Arabian oil company implementing VFL faced the unique challenge of a highly diverse workforce including Saudi nationals, expatriates from multiple nations, and varying baseline safety awareness and cultural norms around hierarchy and reporting concerns.
Challenge: In highly hierarchical organizational cultures and diverse workforce environments, frontline workers—particularly non-nationals—often hesitate to report safety concerns to leadership. Cultural backgrounds in some nations discourage speaking up to authority figures, creating safety blindspots where hazards go unreported.
VFL Solution: The company implemented visible felt leadership specifically designed to bridge cultural differences:
- Regular Safety Walkabouts – Leadership conducted purposeful field visits where they engaged directly with workers from all backgrounds, asked about safety concerns, and documented feedback.
- Psychological Safety Building – Leadership explicitly communicated that raising safety concerns would not result in negative consequences, that worker input was valued, and that all workers—regardless of nationality—would be treated with respect.
- Trust Development – By consistently following up on worker-raised concerns and visibly taking action on recommendations, leadership built trust that transcended cultural differences.
Results:
- Increased hazard reporting from all cultural groups.
- Improved incident prevention through early identification of hazards.
- Enhanced workforce cohesion and reduced tensions between nationalities.
- Positive regulatory recognition for strong safety culture and inclusive workforce engagement.
Key Learning: VFL is particularly powerful in multinational, multicultural environments because visible, felt commitment to safety transcends cultural and language barriers. When workers see leaders genuinely caring about their safety and well-being, this universal human concern bridges other differences.
Case Study 3: Shell—From Fear-Based to Values-Driven Culture
Historically, Shell’s safety culture, while maintaining strong technical safety programs, operated under what researchers characterized as a “fear-based” culture where safety performance was driven by the threat of consequences rather than genuine commitment to values.
Transformation Focus: Shell’s evolution centered on transitioning from “dependent” safety culture (driven by fear of consequences) to “independent/interdependent” culture (driven by commitment to shared values and concern for others).
Visible Felt Leadership Strategy:
- Leadership in the Field – Deliberate positioning of leaders in operations to visibly demonstrate commitment to safety.
- Authentic Engagement – Leaders listened to worker concerns, engaged in meaningful conversations, and genuinely responded to feedback.
- Values-Based Messaging – Safety communication shifted from “comply with rules or face consequences” to “we care about your safety because you and your wellbeing matter to us.”
Results: Shell achieved recognition as having “best in business” safety culture among major oil industry players, with superior safety performance, strong workforce engagement, and positive regulatory relationships. The shift from fear-driven to values-driven culture improved not only incident rates but also employee retention, engagement, and operational performance.
Overcoming Implementation Challenges
While VFL offers tremendous potential for culture transformation, implementing and sustaining visible felt leadership across complex, geographically dispersed oil and gas operations involves navigating significant challenges.
Challenge 1: Geographical Dispersion and Remote Operations
Oil and gas operations are inherently distributed—with facilities across offshore platforms, remote onshore locations, and isolated geographic regions where leaders cannot maintain daily, personal presence. Leaders cannot be everywhere simultaneously, creating the challenge of “visibility” when physical presence is impossible.
Solutions:
Technology-Enabled Presence – Leverage video conferencing, digital communication platforms, and collaboration tools to maintain leadership presence and engagement even when physical visits are not possible. Leaders can conduct virtual town halls, participate in remote safety briefings, and engage in digital dialogue with frontline teams.
Delegation of VFL Responsibility – Establish a cascading model where site managers and supervisors are trained as VFL leaders within their areas of responsibility. Site managers become the visible felt leaders for frontline workers at specific locations, while senior management ensures site leaders are themselves demonstrating VFL.
Structured Visit Programs – Establish regular schedules for senior leader visits to different sites, ensuring all locations receive leadership visibility on a predictable basis. While individual leaders may not be present daily, workers know leadership visits are regular and purposeful.
Metrics-Driven Remote Monitoring – Establish dashboards and metrics that allow remote leaders to monitor culture progress and identify concerns even when not physically present. Culture metrics, near-miss reporting trends, and incident analysis provide data that enables remote leadership decision-making.
Challenge 2: Cultural Resistance and Deeply Ingrained Management Styles
Many oil and gas organizations operate with traditional, hierarchical management cultures where leadership authority is maintained through distance and control rather than engagement. Shifting to VFL challenges established power dynamics and requires managers to operate in fundamentally different ways.
Resistance Manifestations:
- Senior leaders who see field visits as operational detail rather than strategic leadership.
- Middle managers who view worker engagement as threatening their authority.
- Workers skeptical that leadership interest is genuine, having experienced previous consultants or programs that came and went.
- Institutional inertia where “this is how we’ve always done things.”
Solutions:
Executive Commitment and Modeling – Culture change begins with top leadership explicitly committing to VFL and visibly modeling the behaviors being asked of others. When CEOs and senior executives personally conduct field visits, engage authentically with workers, and demonstrate that safety drives decisions, the organization understands this is genuine transformation, not a temporary initiative.
Transparent Communication About Why – Communicate the business case for culture change—the cost of incidents, the impact of near-misses becoming incidents, the value of prevented accidents, the role of culture in operational reliability and regulatory relationships. When people understand the “why,” resistance often transforms into support.
Removing Competing Incentives – Address performance management systems that may inadvertently reward short-term production over safety. If bonuses are based exclusively on production metrics, leaders rationally prioritize production. Restructure performance metrics to reward both production and safety culture indicators, removing the incentive conflict.
Leadership Development and Coaching – Provide managers with training, coaching, and support to develop VFL competencies. Many managers want to lead effectively but lack specific skill in active listening, meaningful engagement, and authentic communication. Coaching and practice help develop these capabilities.
Celebrating Early Wins – Identify and publicize early examples of VFL effectiveness—a leader who visited a site and identified a hazard that might have caused an incident; worker feedback that led to a valuable improvement; teams that increased near-miss reporting; incidents prevented. Visible success stories make culture change tangible and motivate broader adoption.
Challenge 3: Sustaining Transformation Momentum Over Time
Initial enthusiasm for culture transformation often wanes over time as competing priorities emerge, leadership changes occur, and the novelty of new programs fades. Sustaining transformation over the years required to shift from “Managing” to “Continuously Improving” maturity presents a significant challenge.
Sustainment Risks:
- New leaders arriving without understanding or commitment to VFL priorities.
- Operational crises or production pressures that cause temporary sidelining of culture initiatives.
- Consultant-led programs ending, leaving inadequate internal capability to sustain.
- Gradual drift back to previous behaviors if not continuously reinforced.
Solutions:
Embedding into Organizational DNA – Rather than treating culture transformation as a program with a defined end date, embed VFL expectations and practices into permanent organizational systems:
- Performance evaluation criteria for all leaders include visible felt leadership behaviors.
- Succession planning for leadership positions emphasizes VFL capability and commitment.
- New employee orientation includes HSE leadership expectations and safety culture norms.
- Organizational values statements explicitly include safety and HSE leadership.
Continuous Monitoring and Accountability – Establish systems for continuous monitoring of culture metrics and leadership accountability:
- Quarterly Dashboard Reviews – Leadership reviews culture metrics, near-miss trends, and culture survey results quarterly, maintaining executive focus on culture progress.
- HSE Leadership Accountability – Periodic reviews of specific leaders’ field visit frequency, worker survey feedback on their leadership, and culture metrics for their areas.
- Transparency of Progress – Openly communicate culture maturity assessments and progress toward targets, creating organizational accountability for transformation.
Invested Leadership Capability – Develop internal organizational capability to sustain transformation rather than depending on external consultants:
- Train internal facilitators to deliver HSE leadership development programs.
- Develop internal coaches to support ongoing manager development.
- Create internal mechanisms for culture monitoring and feedback rather than relying on periodic external assessments.
Celebrating Milestones and Progress – Maintain organizational engagement by celebrating culture maturity progression—formal recognition when organization moves from one maturity level to the next, anniversary recognition of culture transformation progress, visible celebration of safety milestones.
Measuring HSE Culture Transformation Effectiveness
Transforming organizational culture is inherently difficult to measure—culture is more qualitative than quantitative. Yet establishing clear, measurable progress metrics is essential for maintaining organizational focus, demonstrating ROI to skeptics, and identifying where additional attention is needed.
Leading Indicators: Measuring Proactive Culture Engagement
Leading indicators measure proactive safety efforts that predict safety outcomes before incidents occur. For culture transformation, leading indicators reveal whether people are genuinely engaged in safety management.
- Near-Miss Reporting Rate – A primary leading indicator of culture maturity. In reactive cultures, near-miss reporting is minimal—people don’t report close calls. In proactive cultures, near-miss reporting is robust, indicating workers are alert and speaking up. Organizations should track near-miss reports per 200,000 work hours and compare to industry benchmarks. High near-miss reporting often indicates strong psychological safety and engaged safety culture.
- Safety Training Completion – Measure percentage of workers completing required HSE competency development. Target is 100% completion, but more importantly, track whether workers can demonstrate competency through assessments rather than merely attending training.
- Safety Observations and Audits – Measure frequency of safety observations (VFL leaders conducting field walkabouts and documenting observations) and audit completion rates. In transformed cultures, safety observations increase as leaders spend time in the field and workers report hazards.
- Hazard Identification and Correction – Track number of hazards identified by workers and percentage of identified hazards that are corrected within target timeframes.
- Safety Climate Survey Scores – Administer validated safety climate surveys annually or semi-annually, tracking improvements in specific culture dimensions such as leadership commitment, communication, engagement, psychological safety, and training quality.
Lagging Indicators: Measuring Safety Outcomes
Lagging indicators measure the outcomes of safety culture—incidents that have already occurred. While lagging indicators alone are insufficient for measuring culture, they remain important measures of actual safety performance.
- Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) – Measures total recordable injuries and illnesses per 200,000 hours worked. Target is continuous reduction in TRIR as culture matures. Organizations should compare TRIR to industry benchmarks and historical performance.
- Lost-Time Incident Rate (LTIR) – Measures incidents resulting in workers unable to return to work; reflects severity of safety failures.
- Severity Rate (SR) – Measures total days lost due to incidents per 200,000 hours.
- Fatality Rate – The most critical measure—organizations should target zero fatalities.
- Environmental Incident Rate – Track spills, leaks, and emissions events as part of overall HSE performance.
Culture Maturity Assessment
Beyond individual metrics, comprehensive culture maturity assessments aligned with established models provide holistic evaluation of culture progression.
Hudson Safety Culture Maturity Model – The de-facto standard for oil and gas, the Hudson Model assesses culture across multiple dimensions and assigns organizations to maturity levels:
- Level 1 (Emerging) – Ad hoc safety practices, inconsistent leadership engagement, reactive responses to incidents.
- Level 2 (Managing) – Formal HSE systems, management-driven compliance, standards in place but not fully internalized.
- Level 3 (Involving) – Workers engaged in safety, communication improved, shared responsibility emerging.
- Level 4 (Cooperating) – Strong teamwork, peer intervention, learning from incidents, proactive improvement.
- Level 5 (Continuously Improving/Generative) – Safety integrated into how organization operates, continuous learning, safety leadership at all levels.
Organizations should assess culture maturity annually using validated assessment tools and track progression against maturity levels. The goal of culture transformation is typically progression from Level 2–3 toward Level 4–5 over 3–5 years.
ROI and Business Impact Metrics
Beyond safety-specific metrics, measure the business impact of culture transformation:
- Incident Cost Avoidance – Calculate avoided costs from prevented incidents. Industry data suggests average cost per recordable incident is significant; if transformation prevents even a few major incidents annually, the ROI is substantial.
- Operational Downtime Reduction – Safer operations with fewer incidents experience less unplanned downtime.
- Worker Retention and Recruitment – Strong safety cultures reduce turnover and improve employer branding.
- Regulatory Relationships – Proactive safety cultures typically receive more favorable regulatory attention and fewer penalties.
- Operational Efficiency Improvements – Engaged, psychologically safe workforces communicate better and problem-solve more effectively.
Conclusion: Making Leadership Visible and Felt
The journey from reactive compliance-driven HSE cultures toward proactive, values-driven safety leadership is neither quick nor easy. It requires sustained commitment, systematic implementation, and genuine transformation in how leaders show up in their organizations. Yet for oil and gas companies aspiring to achieve world-class safety performance, this transformation is not optional—it is the pathway to sustainable safety excellence.
Visible Felt Leadership offers a proven approach for this transformation. By positioning leaders as visibly present, authentically engaged, and demonstrably committed to safety in daily operations, VFL creates the foundation for psychological safety where workers feel empowered to identify hazards before they cause incidents, to suggest improvements based on their frontline expertise, and to intervene when observing unsafe practices. This proactive engagement prevents incidents that reactive systems can only respond to after workers are injured or production is disrupted.
The five-phase implementation framework—from assessing current state and aligning leadership, through building commitment, establishing systems, executing with momentum, and sustaining transformation—provides a practical roadmap that has proven effective in complex, geographically dispersed, culturally diverse oil and gas operating environments. Case studies from organizations like PT Pertamina Drilling Services Indonesia demonstrate that progression from “Managing” toward “Proactive” culture maturity is achievable within 3–5 years through disciplined, systematic implementation.
The challenges of implementing VFL—geographic dispersion, cultural resistance, sustaining momentum—are real and significant. Yet solutions to these challenges are well-established: technology-enabled presence for dispersed operations, transparent communication and modeling for cultural resistance, and embedding VFL into organizational DNA for sustained transformation.
For organizations ready to move beyond industry-average safety performance toward best-in-class, visible felt leadership represents the essential shift in how leaders understand their role. Leadership is not a title or position; it is the consistent, visible demonstration of values and commitment through daily actions. When leaders in oil and gas organizations understand that they are shaping organizational culture through how they show up—whether they spend time in the field, whether they listen to frontline expertise, whether they prioritize safety over production convenience—they unlock the potential for culture transformation.
The question for senior leadership in oil and gas companies is not whether visible felt leadership matters. The evidence is conclusive that it does. The question is: Are we committed to making the behavioral changes required to demonstrate genuine, felt commitment to safety in how we lead every day?
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