From June 5 to June 7, 2017, Roger Laing and Rob Gulbronson attended and presented at the Operational Excellence in Energy, Chemicals and Resources Summit in Calgary, Alberta.  The summit brought together head of operations, HSE, operational risk and operational excellence, with a focus on identifying and closing performance gaps and reducing human, asset and environmental risks.  Roger and Rob’s session entitled “Implementing Sustainable Step Changes in Performance - Does it have to be this hard?” focused on these three questions:

1. Why is the realization of a step change in performance such an elusive experience?
2. Why are performance gains so often unsustainable after the initial enthusiasm?
3. Why is it so difficult to migrate from compliance to commitment in matters of reliability, cost leadership and proactive safety behaviours?

Participants left the sessions with concrete strategies and actions to close their performance gaps and help their organizations deliver a sustainable step change in results.