Management support is absolutely essential to the success of a multidisciplinary team, and its absence can negatively impact a team and its final results.

The quest to find and develop hydrocarbons requires the knowledge of numerous specialized subjects. The need for multiple specialists has led to the creation of multidisciplinary teams in many exploration and production companies.
Multidisciplinary teams are not unlike individuals. Each team has a different mix of talent, applies various decision-making procedures, operates with a multiplicity of communication processes and uses diversified problem-solving and conflict resolution techniques, not to mention the multicultural team makeup, leadership styles and corporate politics.
From a Utopian perspective, multidisciplinary teams are developed in order to function synergistically, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In the real world, however, the range of productivity, success or failure, efficiency and output in terms of quality and quantity can be as diverse as the teams themselves.
In the upstream exploration and production business, geoscientists and engineers work with a single earth model. The model each discipline develops in a multidisciplinary team must, therefore, be compatible with the model of every other discipline if the resultant model is to be correct. The model of a portion of the earth that incorporates the observation, interpretation and data of each specialist involved in its development often is referred to as a shared earth model (Tearpock and Brenneke 2001).
Within multidisciplinary teams, project work is done in parallel, and information should flow in all directions. For a multidisciplinary team to become a successful synergistic team, the team members must share common objectives and deliverables, possess a high degree of interdependence and share ownership in the assigned project.
A significant, often overlooked, ingredient is the role of management. Management support is absolutely essential to the success of a multidisciplinary team. Likewise, the lack of support by management can negatively impact a team and its final results. During the past decade, several articles, seminars and books have addressed the subject of multidisciplinary teams, team building and synergy. Most of the information relates directly to team members, project managers and team leaders - the composite members of the team. However, little attention has been directed to the responsibility of management or the organizations and how they can negatively impact their various teams' performance.
Expanding on Spiegel and Torres (1994), at least eight characteristics define effective teams. To begin with, teams are made up of diverse people. Team members should:
• share a common identity;
• have common goals and objectives;
• share common leadership;
• share successes and failures;
• cooperate and collaborate;
• have specific roles;
• have adequate authority and responsibility; and
• make decisions effectively.
With these criteria met, corporate conditions still can impact a team's performance positively or negatively. And not all organizational forces may favor or support the team concept.
At least nine common factors can cause a team to underperform or fail its assigned project (Tearpock 1994).
Corporate organizational structure or conditions. Successful teamwork knows no level within an organization. The understanding and acceptance of multidisciplinary teamwork from all levels of management is crucial to the success of a project. The lack of acceptance of teamwork from any level of management will negatively impact and thus limit a team's effectiveness and success.
Does the management of an exploration and production company understand, recognize and believe in the benefits of successful teamwork? These benefits may include increased productivity, improved morale, increased quality or lower total overhead. If management does, then it should ensure that the company is structured to encourage teamwork and possesses the conditions necessary to implement and operate successful multidisciplinary teams.
Lack of management or supervisory support. Effective teams need support from all levels. Top-down management practices, inflexibility and one-way communication are signs of potential failure. "Synergistic multidisciplinary teams" has been a buzz phrase in the industry for more than a decade. Does the concept truly mean something to management, or does it merely give the activity lip service with no substance?
To achieve success in multidisciplinary team endeavors, managers must openly support such activities. By encouraging teamwork and touting various teams' successes, they help develop an atmosphere of support throughout the organization (Figure 1).
Misunderstanding of team organization. Multidisciplinary teams are a unique group, unlike departments, committees, task forces or other groups within a company. For one thing, multidisciplinary teams work on specific projects with defined goals, objectives and deliverables within a specific timeline. In terms of an exploration and production company, a multidisciplinary team may be formed to generate leads for an upcoming lease sale, prepare an exploitation and development plan for a new discovery, conduct a major producing field study to identify the remaining upside potential or undertake a specific reservoir study through geocellular modeling and reservoir simulation. Since a multidisciplinary team is composed of people from various departments, managers and supervisors must understand that for a given multidisciplinary team project, an employee may have more direct involvement and accountability with his or her team and team leader than with the supervisor. This can be confusing and misunderstood by supervisors, at times resulting in serious problems.
Management not willing to give up power. A supervisor or manager can deliberately or unknowingly sabotage team effort. The focus, effort and commitment of a team member is highly influenced by a direct supervisor or manager's behavior and style. A manager may be afraid of losing power or believe he or she must control the work people are doing. Managers may be unwilling to delegate authority and responsibility. This may come from the fear they no longer will be needed or because the belief in their "superior knowledge, experience or ability" (Maddux 1992) leads them to conclude they must always establish and set the goals to be met by others. A team cannot be accountable for its actions, positive or negative, without empowering the members with the appropriate authority necessary to conduct their multidisciplinary team project. Responsibility and accountability go hand in hand with the authority or empowerment to make decisions.
Lack of trust and respect. A manager may not trust in the ability of team members (competence or character) to complete a complex project on their own, or some managers or supervisors may not respect the team process. Human resources is the most critical part of any team's success. A team should be formed by recruiting, evaluating and selecting its members from a qualified pool of professionals. This team selection process should strive to obtain the individuals with the most appropriate technical and human interaction skills for any given project.
Managers need to build confidence in the team formation and performance process. This takes time because team results do not always prove successful overnight. Consider an exploration team's effort. The team may recommend the acquisition of some frontier basin for future exploration and development, such as deep water. However, it may take years before the decision is proven successful.
Lack of team support. A corporation that uses multidisciplinary teams must be able and willing to support these efforts. Support comes in a variety of ways:
• the necessary time to complete a project;
• human resources;
• the required budget;
• the tools needed to accomplish the defined tasks (workstation, software, workplace);
• the requisite training in technical and interpersonal skills areas; and
• authority and control over the teamwork process and overall project.
Lack of standards and methods. From the human resource processes used to form and manage a team to the technical philosophy and best practices used by a team, an exploration and production company must have well-defined standards and methods that are adoptable by its multidisciplinary teams (Tearpock and Bischke 2002). It is impractical and uneconomic for each team in a company to develop the corporate-level human resource and technical standards by which they are to function. The corporation should establish the overall guidelines, including standards and methods, based on its vision, values, mission and goals by which teams are to operate.
Failure to provide adequate training. Team performance can be affected negatively by inadequate training of management or technical personnel. When a company makes the commitment to use multidisciplinary teams, it also must train its managers to understand the team process and develop the ability to approve, form, implement and support teams as well as operate in a multidisciplinary team environment. The levels of technical and interpersonal skills may vary greatly between individuals; therefore, certain defined training is often required before and during a team project for team members as well as team leaders.
Failure to properly reward team effort. Do managers offer various incentives to reward increased productivity or efficiencies as the result of synergistic team effort? Organizations often wish to foster the teamwork process but fail to complete the cycle with additional means of motivation and reward. Managers need to understand what motivates each team member. An annual performance review 6 months after the completion of a successful team project will not motivate an individual.
Managers need to create a working environment in which team members can meet team and individual needs while achieving team goals. Linking individual performance to team success is critical to achieving corporate goals.
Planned success
Successful multidisciplinary teams do not happen by accident. They are the result of a corporate structure that supports teamwork through education, careful planning, training, experience and nurturing. Exploration and production companies, like other organizations, vary greatly in their levels of team performance and success.
The success of multidisciplinary teams lies in their ability to develop synergy, work in parallel rather than in sequence and create an atmosphere where information flows freely in all directions. Synergistic multidisciplinary teams find answers to questions that other types of groups never recognize.
The development of a successful multidisciplinary team culture is worth the hard work and effort required from the top executives to the rank and file employees.
References
Maddux, R.B., "Team Building: An Exercise in Leadership," Crisp Publications Inc., Menlo Park, Calif., 1992.
Spiegel, J. and Torres, C., "Manager's Official Guide to Team Working," Pfeiffer & Co. International Publishers, San Diego, Calif., 1994.
Tearpock, D.J. and Bischke, R.E., "Applied Subsurface Geological Mapping with Structural Methods," 2nd edition. Inglewood Cliff, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002.
Tearpock, D.J. and Brenneke, J.C., "Multidisciplinary teams, integrated software for shared-earth modeling key E&P success," Oil & Gas Journal, Dec. 10, 2001.

Comments