The importance of collaboration

I had the privilege of working with an operations team this week on the topic of collaboration. This is what they taught me.

The hard truth

Collaboration is not a “soft” nice‑to‑have in the workplace; it is the operating system that allows complex organisations to deliver safely, efficiently, and sustainably – especially in oil and gas. In a company where complex projects stretch across continents, disciplines, and decades, collaboration is the only way to align risk, innovation, and execution.

Why collaboration should be the backbone of your work

For example, in energy businesses, nothing is done by a single mind or a single team. Floating production systems, subsea infrastructure, digital monitoring, and operations all have to work as one coherent system over many years. “Everything is connected. There may be different scenarios, but the foundations are the same.” That insight is painfully evident when a handover is missed or a design assumption is not shared.

“Collaboration is the essence of the company. It guarantees that the companies’ strategies and actions will work together and it minimises work and duplication.” In practice, this means engineering, project management, HSE, operations, finance, and supply chain must constantly synchronize their plans. When they do, a business can reduce rework offshore, tighten schedules, and improve safety performance. When they do not, small misalignments in the design phase become costly interventions offshore.

Roles, clarity, and the DARE model

Effective collaboration is not chaotic; it is structured. “Clearly establish roles in a team.” In high‑risk environments, people need to know who owns the decision and who is there to inform, challenge, and execute it. That is why the DARE structure – Deciders, Advisors, Recommenders, Executors – can be powerful for oil and gas projects.

“Having defined roles like Decider, Advisor, Recommender, and Executor makes the collaboration more efficient from the start of the challenge.”

• Deciders set direction, own risk, and commit the organization.
• Advisors bring specialist knowledge—technical, financial, legal, HSE.
• Recommenders frame options, analyze trade‑offs, and propose a way forward.
• Executors turn decisions into action on vessels, shipyards, and in offices.

When teams adopt DARE consciously, meetings shift. Instead of everyone speaking with equal (and confusing) weight, each person knows whether they are deciding, advising, recommending, or executing. Decision making becomes transparent, and “Decision making is fundamental for collaboration.” Roles give people the psychological safety to contribute without stepping on each other’s toes.

The discipline of structured thinking and shared information

Many oil and gas organizations already have huge amounts of data, reports, and lessons learned. The problem is not a lack of information; it is a lack of structure. “A lot of departments seem to suffer from the same issue: information is available, but not structured.” In the context of an energy or engineering firm, that can mean design calculations in one system, risk registers in another, and operational experience in a third—connected only by email threads and personal networks.

“Collaboration is the key to developing sustainable processes.” Sustainable here means repeatable, resilient, and improvable. To get there, teams must “Take more time to break down the problem you have to solve” and “Framing the problem correctly is key.” When you clarify the problem, you can then “Understand all the goals before setting a pathway,” whether that is reducing flaring, optimising uptime on an platforms, or accelerating digital monitoring.

Good collaboration also respects time. “Allocate proper time for each task. Many tasks are not vetted properly.” Rushed decisions, especially during tenders or FEED, create downstream technical debt. When teams slow down enough to vet assumptions together, they reduce future firefighting offshore.

Listening as a technical skill

In a sector obsessed with technology, listening is often the most undervalued skill. Yet “It takes effort to listen to others, but it is worth it.” Offshore and onshore, local and central, discipline and discipline—there are always multiple realities that need to be reconciled.

“Listen more. There are others with the same issues. Optimise solution within the team.” When pipe stress engineers, marine operations, and HSE actually hear each other, they can design solutions that are safe, buildable, and operable. “Actively listen to experienced team in the front line.” The technicians on the FPSO, the crane operators in the yard, and the site supervisors often see failure modes long before they appear in a risk register.

Listening is hardest under pressure. “Keep active listening while under time pressure and avoid pushing your own ideas.” That is precisely when the temptation to bulldoze a decision is greatest. But “Points of view can add more depth to analysis and avoid damaging first impressions.” In other words, the fastest answer is not always the safest or the most economical over the life of the asset.

Knowledge sharing and cross‑team learning

Oil and gas has always been about learning from incidents, near misses, and best practices. Today, with digital twins, condition monitoring, and data platforms, the potential is even bigger—if people are willing to share. “Sharing knowledge will always help with collaboration.” This is not just about uploading documents; it’s about turning experience into collective intelligence.

“When we openly collaborate with knowledgeable people, we identify and achieve common goals.” On a global project portfolio, SBM teams benefit when lessons from one FPSO are rapidly applied to another. “Implement your previous experience into innovative solutions!” Past failures and successes become the seedbed for new designs, new operational procedures, and new digital tools.

“When you discuss problems with others you find that they too have very similar problems. We are not alone.” That sense of shared challenge is more than comforting; it is productive. “Different opinions create a common understanding and better solutions.” When structural engineers, process experts, and local content teams challenge each other constructively, they find ways to reconcile cost, safety, and sustainability rather than trade them off.

Diversity of skills and perspectives

Offshore projects are inherently multidisciplinary. “Complementary skills and ideas make a group stronger.” A project only succeeds when mooring specialists, process designers, environmental engineers, finance, and procurement pull in the same direction. “Understand each group because we usually have a lot of common issues and solutions.”

This is where structured collaboration is a strategic advantage. “Wisely use all your resources i.e. people, budget, materials.” That means using not just the obvious technical experts, but also tapping into local partners, suppliers, and communities. “Find the team who can help you achieve your goals and interact with them.” Sometimes the critical insight sits in a shipyard supervisor, a supplier’s field engineer, or a younger graduate who sees a digital shortcut nobody else has noticed.

And with that diversity comes the question of consensus. “Looking for consensus only when the consensus is achievable. If not change the approach.” In other words, collaboration does not mean unanimity. The Decider still needs to decide. But they do so having genuinely heard and weighed different recommendations.

Communication as a continuous practice

“Communication is key.” It sounds obvious, but in a complex matrix organisation, it is incredibly easy to lose sight of who knows what and who needs to know. “Get questions from others. It gives you the opportunity to get their perspective & test your own assumptions & solutions.” Questions are not a sign of weakness; they are a sign that the system is thinking.

“It is important to gather feedback and experience from other teams.” For business, that means structured after‑action reviews, cross‑project communities of practice, and line‑of‑sight between strategic decisions and day‑to‑day work. “When you have more visibility of others’ mission it helps you adjust and adapt decisions/strategy. Get that insight first.” Before locking in a design choice or a schedule move, understand how it impacts operations, HSE, and the client relationship.

In this sense, “Collaboration creates value. It worth spending time to achieve common goals and solutions.” It can feel slower in the moment—more meetings, more conversations, more iteration—but it accelerates delivery over the lifecycle of a project and reduces costly surprises.

Staying focused on the challenge

Collaboration can also become noisy and unfocused. That is why direction and discipline matter. “The importance of always coming back to the challenge itself. Stay focused.” The DARE roles help here: Deciders keep the problem statement sharp; Recommenders bring structured options; Advisors highlight risks; Executors keep feasibility in view.

“Take more time to break down the problem you have to solve.” Complex challenges like reducing emissions intensity or extending asset life need to be decomposed into solvable parts. “First and foremost, do not forget to collaborate!” Under tight deadlines, it is tempting to retreat into silos. Yet the more uncertain and complex the challenge, the more you need the system’s collective intelligence.

“Collaboration brings more insights!” That is not just a slogan; it is an operational truth. In offshore projects, insights can be the difference between a minor adjustment and a major incident, between an over‑budget retrofit and a smoothly executed upgrade.

From theory to everyday behaviour

In the end, collaboration is not a workshop slogan on a wall in; it is a series of everyday choices in meetings, design reviews, and leadership calls. It helps to remember these four principles:

1. “Question the team on their own thinking.”
2. “Actively listen to experienced team in the front line.”
3. “Give everybody an opportunity to speak / contribute.”
4. “Collaboration is the key to developing sustainable processes and unlocking value.”

If the oil and gas industry can keep turning these statements into habits – supported by clear DARE roles, structured information, and a genuine curiosity about each other’s perspectives -then collaboration will not just make projects nicer to work on. It will make them safer, more efficient, and more sustainable for the long term.