BP Oil Spill: Leadership Failures and Lessons Learned

Introduction

As Garcia (2011) notes, the seeds of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe were planted well before the BP oil spill disaster actually occurred. They were planted by leadership that failed to be engaged, failed to conduct appropriate oversight, and failed to create a culture of accountability. There was no risk management. There was no situational awareness. There was no clarity regarding roles and processes. There was no quick action once the disaster erupted, and mistakes were compounded. This paper provides background information on what management did before, during, and after the spill, and examines how the role of leadership and teams, leadership practices, and leadership principles can help improve outcomes for organizations.

Management Before, During, and After the Spill

Prior to the disaster, management had engaged in cost-cutting exercises without conducting adequate risk management of the Deepwater Horizon site. The build-out of the well used cheap cement, which systematically weakened the operation (Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, 2011). The focus was on doing things as cheaply as possible rather than on doing things efficiently. Management was in a rush and promoted a culture of irresponsibility that was later reflected in the attitudes and conduct of BP's clean-up crew. The marine operations team of BP, when asked by U.S. Geological Survey director Marcia McNutt for a design review, answered: "You want a design review? Can't we just put this together with tie wraps and duct tape and say done? We want to get it done [and] get back to the dock and have Miller time" (Chandler, 2011). There was a nonchalance in the management culture that perfectly explained why the Deepwater Horizon explosion occurred.

During the disaster, BP led poorly. CEO Tony Hayward acted the part of the victim in a tragedy that killed 11 workers — and an additional 2 during the clean-up phase — and injured many more (Loftus, 2016). BP misrepresented the size and scope of the disaster, hoping no one would notice. Chairman Svansberg referred to the people of the Gulf Coast — whose lives and businesses were severely disrupted by the largest oil spill in industry history — as "small people," clearly not worth the trouble of treating the disaster with appropriate seriousness (Loftus, 2016). There was an overall attitude of insincerity in Hayward's public apologies and an overall lack of authentic leadership at a time when BP should have stepped forward and assumed accountability. Instead, it acted slowly, allowed errors to compound, and permitted a bad situation to become even worse. As Corkindale (2010) notes, BP tried to "spin its way" out of the crisis instead of addressing it directly and with candor. As a result, the company suffered severe damage to its public reputation.

After the disaster, leaders tried to deflect blame away from themselves (Corkindale, 2010). Instead of acting as stewards of the organization, they sought out scapegoats. Instead of acting as servants to the organization, the stakeholders, and the communities affected by the disaster, they acted aloof — as though the regulations that had been in place to prevent such disasters were only just coming to their attention for the first time (Corkindale, 2010). They essentially denied all blame for the crisis and attempted to wash their hands of the guilt. While locals all along the Gulf Coast banded together to help clean up the spill, BP's management distanced themselves as far as possible from the entire ordeal.

The Role of Leadership and Teams

The leadership practices of the BP organization were deficient at best. Leaders were not involved in meaningful oversight and placed elevated cost-cutting outcomes above safety and regulatory priorities. They failed in effective risk management, failed to hold themselves accountable to the public, and failed to create a culture of responsibility.

The practices that leaders use to create collaborative and successful teams include honest and effective communication, role clarification, role expectation, risk management, critical thinking, and servant leadership. Collaboration is about working together to achieve a common goal — but the goal of BP at the outset with Deepwater Horizon was to complete work cheaply and get the operation up and running. Leaders showed scorn for regulation, dismissing it as petty and intrusive. They demonstrated their own ignorance and inability to engage in critical thinking and critical decision-making by rejecting regulatory protocol. They showed no situational awareness, which meant they were not actively collecting information on the operation, nor were they hands-on in monitoring it before or after.

Teams cannot be maintained if there is no interaction, and goals cannot be reached if oversight and communication are not implemented. A team that does no reporting to a higher-up, and a team leader who does not pay attention to what team members are doing, invite disaster. The risk of failure is too great in any given situation for team members or leaders to take anything for granted. Risk must be managed — that means identifying possible and potential dangers, addressing them wherever possible based on a prioritized ranking, and monitoring the situation constantly for changes.

Leaders should, at the bare minimum, demonstrate the spirit of servant leadership, which means serving the vision and mission of the organization. The vision and mission of BP was to successfully drill a well, pump oil, and bring the product to market. To serve that vision and mission, certain steps should have been taken that were not; and when the vision and mission were compromised by the oil spill, leaders should have taken responsibility the way Eisenhower did when one of his operations failed during World War II (Loftus, 2016). By accepting responsibility, one can learn from a mistake. It is far more dangerous and damaging to turn a blind eye to a crisis or to scapegoat others, because it signals that one's leaders are still not serving the mission or vision of the organization, but rather only their own self-interest.

Conclusion

The case of the BP oil spill is one from which many lessons can be learned. BP's leaders did not show effective leadership principles or demonstrate meaningful accountability, oversight, or concern for what was happening throughout the entire episode. Leaders who fail to engage, who fail to create a culture of accountability, and who fail to make sound decisions ultimately prove themselves unfit for leadership. To succeed, an organization's leaders must serve the vision and mission, day in and day out.

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE)/U.S. Coast Guard Joint Investigation Team (14 September 2011).

Chandler, M. (2011). Marcia McNutt: Leadership lessons from the BP oil spill. Retrieved from https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/marcia-mcnutt-leadership-lessons-bp-oil-spill

Corkindale, G. (2010). Five leadership lessons from the BP oil spill. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2010/06/five-lessons-in-leadership-fro

Garcia, H. F. (2011). BP: A failure of leadership and management on a massive scale. Retrieved from

Loftus, G. (2016). The Deepwater Horizon disaster: BP's lethal leadership lessons. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/geoffloftus/2016/09/21/the-deepwater-horizon-disaster-bps-lethal-leadership-lessons/