1 Lead cost savings by example: you’re already over-compensated, get rid of your special perks like parking, executive jets, special employment contracts, special severance, guaranteed stock options and RSU’s, special-access office suite, free food and drinks, higher charity-matching, furniture budget, etc.
2 Listen: there are smart people out there warning you of mistakes in production, reserves, contracts, and costs, but you don’t listen to them.
3 Learn from your mistakes: post-audit everything. Apply lessons learned.
4 Create a devil’s advocate position for the ELT. You think your plan and ideas are always optimal, dare I say perfect, but they’re not.
5 Gut Exploration 80%, this function can’t find hydrocarbons.
6 Zero base the organization, cut once, size accordingly, and don’t cut again.
7 Benchmark, learn from this, and apply these lessons.
8 Get rid of the hi-pot program.
9 Find the people in the company who understand net cash flow and balance sheets and listen to what they recommend.
10 Change the performance system to one based on value creation rather than results achieved.
11 Walk around and talk with your employees rather than talk to employees.
12 Get rid of CDQ. All this does is bias your uncertainty and give you confidence in your bad biased decisions. Garbage distributions in results in garbage scalars out.
13 Learn that more production and more reserves don’t necessarily mean more positive value.
14 Send all ExPats home.
15 Get rid of every process and activity which does not create value. You know what I’m talking about.
16 Bring in meeting productivity facilitation.
17 Gut the planning and forecasting processes.
18 Apply ethics equally across the company so that “integrity” is not just a word.
19 Drop functional leadership. All these managers do is reward and promote the best brown nosers.
20 Stop force-fitting performance ratings. You say you don’t do this, but then you do it. If you have a lot of good performers reward them, don’t take turns with ratings.