Top 5 Questions That Can Protect Your Communication Pipeline From Costly Attacks
If you thought the Colonial Pipeline attack was bad, just wait until you see how vulnerable your company’s communication pipeline is to leaks, corrosion, bottlenecks, and other potentially catastrophic threats.
And to help you identify those vulnerabilities, this live episode of The Energy Detox will lay out the 5 most important communications-related questions you and other energy industry leaders need to ask so that you can:
1 - Eliminate corrosive communications—hidden problems that can lead to catastrophe
2 - Avoid dependence on “automated” communication strategies that can open you up to incidents far costlier than the Colonial cyberattack
3 - Re-route and think better on your feet instead of remaining over-reliant on a single (and often outdated) leadership communication pathway that is preventing you from reaching your stakeholders in a timely and effective manner
4 - Anticipate communications bottlenecks that will arise when your existing pipeline network can't handle the volume (or complexity) of the messages you're trying to share
5 - Reduce the odds of your audience declaring a dubious “force majeure incident” that can render your seemingly perfect communications plan even more useless than Colonial’s 5,500 miles of pipe were following the cyberattack
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Transcript
(AI training in progress; please excuse any errors)
00:00
Pipelines are no strangers to headlines. We've seen headlines for years about Keystone XL, Dakota Access, lines up in Michigan, MVP (Mountain Valley Pipeline). Headlines about pipelines are obviously fairly common. And if you're an oil and gas, you might even get desensitized to some of those.
00:18
But clearly this weekend's headline regarding the colonial pipeline cyber attack is one that catches everyone's attention whether or not you're a leader in the oil and gas industry, or, or you're just a casual observer who has to fill up a tank of gas every once in a while, when you see a headline like this one, pay attention because it's, it's real, it can impact your bottom line as an individual. And when I see that headline, I immediately think of the pipeline networks that are connecting you and then the things that you do to your end users to your stakeholders.
00:52
Because in this world of executive coaching that I'm in one of the things that I spend, the majority of my time working with people on is improving their communication networks, communicating more effectively, and being on guard against attacks, whether they're intentional attacks, like we saw this weekend, or whether they're unintentional things that just happened because of Mother Nature. And so today, we're going to take some time to step through five questions that you need to be asking, whether you're a leader in oil and gas, or whether you're just an individual trying to lead your life, because inevitably, you need to communicate what you do and what you think with other people.
01:28
And there's far more ways to do that incorrectly at times, then there are to do it correctly. And the ultimate goal of this conversation which I hope you participate in and comment in and feel free to opine and offer your own insights, the ultimate goal is to avoid a headline below that isn't saying, hey, there's been a pipeline issue. No, it's to say, hey, energy industry leader, once again, prove that he is an idiot because of some stupid communications that he went out either internally or externally. So that's the goal today.
02:16
Welcome to The Energy Detox, a petroleum-based blend of leadership conversations guaranteed to boost your professional and personal output by flushing away or running a pig through a pipeline, if you will, the hidden and often toxic barriers to peak performance. I'm your host, Joe Sinnott, a chemical engineer, executive coach and 15 year energy industry veteran, helping you tap into the same resources fueling today's most successful and sustainable leaders. And if there's one thing that can lead to unsustainable leadership, again, it is communication. And as I mentioned in the intro, one of the things I work on regularly with people is improving your communication. In fact, in the coaching framework that I employ the winning GPS for leaders framework, there's five pillars, and the fourth pillar is called transportation or midstream or communication, if you will, because communicating your message again, no matter how smart you are, no matter how much good stuff your team is producing, it doesn't do any good if you can't get it to your users.
03:20
And obviously, colonial pipeline stakeholders are feeling that right now, because of the 5500 miles of pipeline that are shut down, preventing refined goods from reaching the East Coast. That's a problem. But it can be even more catastrophic. If you in your regular communications or in your company's communications are susceptible to similar attacks, albeit figurative attacks, that could undermine your ability to flow seamlessly. So today, again, we're gonna step through five of the top questions that you need to be asking. And I invite you to introduce whatever other questions you might have, or whatever other forced analogies you might have that tie pipelines and leadership together, because the beauty of pipelines is it is ripe for leadership analogies, again, some more force than others. But again, the reality is, you're not going through all the motions, you're not investing all of the time and energy and all of your people's time and energy just for what you produce to stay in one spot. That doesn't make any sense. So again, today, the goal is to help you sustainably move your message, move your product, move your insights towards some ultimate destination, and avoid some of the common hazards that I see in leaders.
04:28
And that again, we can tie into common problems that we see with America's pipeline infrastructure. And so jumping into the first question, it involves corrosion. Are you eliminating corrosion? Or are you at least on guard against the hazards that corrosion can cause because obviously, in a pipeline environment, corrosion can be absolutely catastrophic. And in many cases, it's challenging. Again, when you have in case of colonial 5500 miles of pipe, it can be dangerous to stay on top of all of that corrosion, but obviously companies do that whether it's pumping corrosion inhibitors, Running pipeline inspection gauges, manual inspections of pipelines whatever the case is corrosion can be the leader of releases of uncontrolled releases that God forbid get ignited. And again, what do you have you have catastrophe that could be costly, if not deadly. But the same thing can happen when you're trying to communicate your messages, inevitably, you're going to have corrosive communication, some people listening to this right now might find this to be corrosive in some way, shape, or form. So you're not going to eliminate corrosion.
05:28
That's just that's by their nature, it's part of the deal. But you need to be on guard against it, you need to look for the most egregious examples of corrosion so that you can prevent catastrophe. And if you're not on guard against that, as a leader, then what are you doing? And why aren't you because the cost benefit analysis on preventing an uncontrolled release of a pipeline? Again, your uncontrolled release, you lose your social licence to operate. Worst case, obviously, you know, best case scenario, it's a small leak, but you know, you kill somebody, you lose your product, you're in the headlines for far longer than colonial probably will be because of the cyber attack, you're asking for trouble. And the same thing happens day in and day out with leaders. And so, through this, one of the things that you need to do is put yourself in your audience's shoes. Because the corrosion again, that might be coming out of my mouth right now that come out of leaders mouth.
06:24
Again, it's not always going to be preventable. But if on occasion, especially for more important messages, you ask yourself, Well, how might this be interpreted by the other person? How might your audience hear what you're saying? It's a simple question. But it's one that so many leaders, especially today who are hyper focused on executing upon their plans, or dealing with the energy transition, or integrating their companies or taking over other companies or trying to sell their companies. There's a lot of things on your plate as a leader no matter where you are in the chain. But the best thing you could do is ask, what are your stakeholders hearing from you? It's a simple question. But again, it's one that is not asked. So ask that. How might your stakeholders be hearing your message in a way that comes across as corrosive? get ahead of that answer that question on occasion. And you might choose to do nothing, and that's fine. But you also might see times where that corrosion can be catastrophic, it
07:14
could kill a deal. It can lead to mass exodus of employees. And again, this is something that applies well beyond the energy industry. But ask those questions. Are you on guard against corrosion at every step along the way? Are you ignoring the corrosion that might not be impactful it? But are you taking proactive steps to prevent your audience from hearing something that you don't need them to hear? And you certainly don't want them to hear? And the second question to ask is, are you over reliant upon automation? So already, the talking heads in this colonial cyber attack, of course, are talking about, you know, how antiquated are are some of the systems that are in place? Or if they're new systems?
07:52
And you know, they're automated? Is that a danger? Do we have enough human eyes looking at this 24? Seven, and again, the post mortem on this situation, of course, will reveal all of that. But in your own circumstances? Are you over reliant on communication measures? Maybe it's a communications department, maybe it's other people running with your message? Are you over reliant, and, and too, hands off? And is that leaving you susceptible to people coming in and causing issues again, as we saw this weekend with colonial pipeline, and the cyber attackers that attacked most likely some of the automation, some of the the technical stuff, which is good, and provides plenty of safety benefits? And obviously cost savings? But in our day to day, how is your message getting from you to your stakeholders? How many different stops are there along the way?
08:41
And how often is it somewhat automated? and more important than that? How often are those communication channels transactional, if you will, you know, we live in a world where, you know, even if you're, if you're not completely bought into the blockchain theory of things, much of what we do are automated transactions day in and day out. And if you're leaning too heavily as a leader on all of that automation on all of the transactional stuff that occurs with your message, well guess what your message is going to come across as transactional. So not only you're susceptible to people intercepting those transactions, but you're susceptible to people thinking that you're somewhat automated, and therefore, in some cases, expendable. And so one of the things when I work with people is to ask, Where are you on the transactional communication? bandwidth, if you will? And where do you stand on conscious intentional communication? Yes, it's impractical. Depending on the number of stakeholders, you have to be conscious and intentional about each member of your audience clearly.
09:44
But if you're not at least trying to come across as intentional, authentic, and if everything you do comes across as transactional, Well, again, guess what the transaction is going to be to kick you out the door because there's plenty of leaders that can go through the motions like that. And one of the things I think summarizing This is a fellow coach, Laura pres, who identifies herself as one of the premier experts on conscious leadership. Well, she often says she's not wired for transactional conversations. It's just not in her DNA. And for some people it is. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. But if you're not aware of the fact that you tend to be more transactional and less conscious, again, you're opening yourself up to attacks, if you will, from, you know, anywhere, doesn't have to necessarily be Russia, it could be from with own your own within your own company, it could be people that are looking to oust you as a leader.
10:35
And as soon as they again, find a chink in your armor that says, You know what, this guy or gal is expendable? Because, you know, they certainly don't communicate like they care. Again, you're asking for trouble. Moving on to the third question. Are you able to reroute as needed? Are you able to think on your feet? Or are you over reliant on a single thoroughfare to get you from A to B? And yeah, there's plenty of ways to exercise your mind and think more quickly, no matter what your background is, especially for people that have moved into areas where you know, it's beyond their expertise, expertise, people who have been in the production side of things and might move into midstream who aren't as familiar with things, well, they're probably not going to be the first people that you put on, you know, to be interviewed about this catastrophe, if you will that colonials dealing with but at the same time, they can grow and become faster on their feet well, so to with your messaging, you need to be able to reroute quickly instead of relying on the same pathway that has worked for you in the past.
11:39
And one of the best ways to ask yourself, whether you're over reliant on a single pathway, is to actually focus on what your ultimate destination is. Because, yeah, you might, you know, pat yourself on the back, because you found one way to get around some sort of blockage. But if that doesn't actually move you any closer to your destination, and that just got you around some sort of blockage or hurdle or whatever it happens to be like, it doesn't do any good. So when I work with people, the key is working backwards. Yeah, it goes without saying that if you
12:08
are a one trick pony, from a leadership standpoint, from from, from an organizational standpoint, again, you're probably not leading a very sustainable career, if you will. But what is your ultimate destination just because you can change hats. And just because you can dance around and, and dance in place and move from left to right. Again, it doesn't necessarily move mean, you're moving forward towards your destination. And one of the best ways that I find and helping people prepare for what the ultimate goal of yours is, is by asking hypothetical questions, putting them down on paper, what I used to work with executives forming their q&a ahead of quarterly earnings call or any sort of press release. I love that because you can come up with fake dialogue, basically coming up with questions and answers that might never be asked.
12:51
But it allows you to think on your toes. So to when I'm working with people who are going through a career transition, and they're preparing for interviews, coming up with fake questions, and then continuing that dialogue back and forth. And asking yourself, where do you want that dialogue to lead? And the more you practice that, again, even if those specific questions aren't asked, the better off, you'll be, but whether you're the CEO of a company, or again, whether you're a college student trying to interview for your first, you know, full time job, that's a great exercise that anyone can do. And to the extent you have people helping you prepare your messaging, preparing your responses preparing you for an investor presentation or media q&a session. That is a great exercise. But again, it's a combination of preparing those hypothetical questions and answers. And remembering what your ultimate destination is, when you do that, you'll have multiple routes that you can go down.
13:42
But when you don't, when all you do is you have your standard list of facts and figures that you're going to try to go to that doesn't move you any closer, you might be able to answer the question, but it's not going to move you any closer to what your ultimate destination is, which, again, if you put on the hat of a pipeline company, that's kind of what you're trying to do. The fourth question is, are you ignoring the potential for bottlenecks. And again, it's very easy for companies right now that are trying to communicate tons of different things, to have bottlenecks in their communication. But the problem is, you might not even realize it. If you have 10 perfectly scripted messages that are going out to the right stakeholders. And let's just assume that those channels are perfect. Well, the reality is all 10 of those messages, if they're too close together, or they're too complicated, they're not being absorbed by your audience. And that happens all the time internally with communications. If you're communicating something about safety, and about diversity and about keeping your head up amidst whatever trials and tribulations and consolidations are happening, all of those things can pile up and people get desensitized.
14:50
It's human nature, so to with your customers. The more you talk about all of the great things you're doing, again, especially about safety, as important as it is people get decent sensitised. So you need to ask yourself, are you overwhelming your audience, just like you inevitably are overwhelmed by the million things flowing past you on LinkedIn right now, or on Facebook or wherever you happen to be watching this. It's overwhelming. So guess what most of those messages, the vast majority of his messages aren't landing. But when you're the leader of a company, you can control which messages go out, you can control how much of your people are hearing from you or from your representatives. So ask yourself, are you overwhelming them? And while you do that, the next question is all under the umbrella of this this bottleneck is what is what is it that you want your audience to do?
15:46
What action Do you want them to take? Because again, going back to the analogy of having 10 different messages going out there, well, how many of those messages or just further information, we want to pat ourselves on the back, we thought you should know this, or we're letting you know this as a courtesy, whatever it happens to be, how many of those 10, for example, require some action. Because I would argue that the things that you want people to act on should obviously be the things that you'd want to emphasize that you want to prioritize and that you don't want getting lost. If a bottleneck is inevitable, then make sure that you pull back and the one thing that you're going to send through a given interconnect is the most important thing that's going to lead to action. If it's just flowery stuff that's for people's information, or maybe as a morale booster, or whatever it happens to be, that's fine. But understand that messages that require action and messages that are just for information are very different. And if you can't separate those in your mind, you're going to wind up with bottlenecks. And Murphy's Law is going to dictate that the ones that you want people to act upon are not going to be the ones that people hear. So again, ask yourself, are you avoiding bottlenecks by simplifying your message and paring down the amount of communication?
17:01
And are you emphasizing the things where you want people to take action. And this is particularly important, if you are an organization that is embracing a digital work environment, which can be great cut down on the overwhelm of emails, but at the same time, create, in some cases, a Facebook like environment where again, the overwhelm, things can get lost. And you can, ironically, almost have a bottleneck when you have unlimited communication, unlimited pathways for messages to get to people. But the bottleneck might be on their end on their eyes and their ears. And if you're not differentiating your message, you're going to have those bottlenecks no matter how fancy and slick your communication network happens to be. And the fifth and final question is, are you susceptible to dubious force mature incidents? And if you're not familiar with force majeure, it's essentially an act of God that allows someone like a pipeline operator to say they're Sorry, I can't deliver your product from A to B, because something happened beyond our control.
18:04
So you're out of luck. I know contractually obligated to move, you know, two and a half million barrels of oil or refined goods from A to B. But hey, you know, something happened, lightning struck. We had a monsoon and we had a slip or as some Russian hackers came and attacked us Well, again, those things happen. And thankfully, we have plenty of lawyers in this world to ensure that when they happen, they they either do fall into the often vague category of force majeure, or or there is some true contract violation that requires the the operator in the case of pipelines to be compensated. All that being said, Are you as a leader on guard for those times when a force majeure, or whether it's legitimate or not, causes you to sound like you're making excuses, because again, I've seen this too many times in my own career. And I see it too often. Now, even in the individual I work with when you know, COVID, for example, has has been a force majeure of all force matures. But we're getting to the point now where he probably can't continue using that as an excuse, but leaders do and leaders will. And those are the leaders that might not be looked to fondly upon by their stakeholders, by board members by their customers, because they're apt to make excuses when a force majeure incident pops up instead of asking, all right, what can we do? What can we do instead of just sitting on our laurels, obviously, colonial pipeline with this forest mature incident here, a fairly legitimate one is taking action.
19:39
Their press release about 45 minutes ago, you know, said they're still working on things didn't provide too many concrete updates. But again, they're working towards things they're doing their best. But what about those companies who are impacted? Well, no doubt they're, they're changing things around they're making. They're making decisions. They're trying to figure out how to move their product in some other manner other than through colonials pipelines, which are still mostly shut down. So again, that's happening in the business world but in your professional world or, again, if you're interviewing for jobs, are you allowing all of these various force majeure incidents in your life or globally? To let you make excuses. And, you know, you talk about a pandemic, the pandemic of excuses, is something that is preventing people right now from landing jobs, the people that want to go out and get jobs are still sabotaging themselves because they have in their mind and they're almost leading with this whole force majeure, or, oh, we weren't able to produce because x, y, z.
20:32
No, you want to be a leader, you want to be a job applicant. You want to be a human, who, during force majeure incidents, legitimate or illegitimate, says, alright, this is what we're going to do. This is how we're going to move forward, this is how we're going to react, you can't make excuses. And you can't come across like the person who has enjoyed the last, you know, 14 months of not having to go out to lunch with people because of COVID. You know, that person at some point is going to have to, you know, come to terms with the fact that Yeah, you know, what, that that's, you know, that excuses has gone by the wayside. So, don't come across like the person trying to avoid lunch. Two years after COVID is gone.
21:09
When a force majeure incident happens, whether or not it's legitimate, take action, make it clear, and communicate to your people that you're not here to make excuses, you're here to keep moving forward towards your ultimate destination, no matter what that is. So with all that being said, Thank you for bearing with me on my forest analogies, again, pipelines make great leadership analogies, I, I probably lean on them a little more heavily than than I need to. But if you have any that you wish to share, I certainly welcome those. I see here, LinkedIn user, why not just fire up the windmills? Well, again, it's a good question, you know, going back to rerouting why not fire up the windmills? It's a great question, especially if you're, you know, if you're if your slant, if you will, is towards renewables.
22:07
Now, again, I don't know if this question from this mysterious LinkedIn user happened to be asked tongue in cheek, or was actually serious and pointing to the, you know, the vulnerabilities, if you will, of the oil and gas transportation network. But again, the reality is, if your destination is to talk about the benefits of renewables, then you have those questions ready. You've rehearsed those questions you ask, and you go in that direction, where if you're there to point out how windmills and everything else probably has more vulnerabilities than again, you can ask that question and get you to the ultimate destination. And the beauty of it is, again, you can use that same question to reroute. So thank you for that question. Which, again, I think underlines the importance of asking good questions when when you need to do that.
22:55
Jim Kunkle points out that gas prices have gone up this past weekend and Pittsburgh, well, yeah, they're they're going up all around. But it's also worth noting that gas prices have been going up since November, I think I saw one thing they're on the order of 75 to 80 cents per gallon increase since the election. And obviously incidents like this aren't going to help in the short term. And, and perhaps, depending on what the reactions are, there could be long term implications. So yes, Jim, there are very, very real implications there. We have a link here just keeps getting better. Whitner? Oh, yes, line five. So, again, when it comes to pipelines, we can't forget about our friends in Michigan, where we have pipelines that have been in service for decades, for decades. And the narrative is, of course, that when you have these pipelines, you know, and they're in an area, if there have an incident, they can cause issues. If there's a big spill or leak, it could be catastrophic.
23:57
Well, again, there's lots of things that could be catastrophic. That's the analogy. I think Darren COVID, of course, was you hop in your car to go, you know, drive down the road, and you can get an accident that could be catastrophic for your family? Well, that doesn't mean I don't go run out to the store to get milk and eggs in the morning. Same to with the pipeline's up in Michigan, they've been working. They've been working safely. Yes, hypothetically, things happen. But as a leader, your goal is to reduce the odds of things happening. And obviously, all kinds of companies, not just pipeline companies right now are, you know, calling up every cybersecurity expert out there and ask them how vulnerable they are. Why to reduce the odds? Does that guarantee things? No. Is it a guarantee that even with the best maintenance up in Michigan that line five is is going to continue operating safely for another 70 years or however long it's been in service? Well, no, there's there's no guarantee. But when you're on top of these things, and preventing corrosion, you're asking yourself similar questions to the ones that we just went through.
24:55
Well, guess what? You're going to end up with good results because what is your ultimate goal? Well, your ultimate goal for people in Michigan, and those who are indirectly impacted by the line, of course is to continue having reliable, accessible and affordable fuel. That is the goal. And if there's a better way to do it, then line five then so be it. But asking the right questions when people and governors challenge the reliability of things like line five, well, that's what you need to do. ask those questions, be able to reroute and get the conversation to where it needs to go, which is the end users, the end users, and ultimately, what action do they need to take? What action does the citizens of Michigan need to take to tell governor Whitner that you know what, this line might actually be beneficial to me and to my life, so thank you for pointing out the link there, again, maybe somewhat tongue in cheek. Another mysterious LinkedIn user here begin with the end in mind, nice and then backwards plan. Again, that's a rule that applies in virtually any situation, whether it's with your family, whether you're running a business, whether you're a coach on the sideline of a football game, what's your end goal, it's to win.
26:19
And in some cases, you work backwards to win. You want to be able to kick a game winning field goals, time expires, well guess well, you don't just kind of go along and you know, do things as you were doing the, you know, the prior 58 minutes during the game. So you work backwards, you realize how many yards you need to get to to get to within field goal range. You look at the time on the clock, you figure out how many timeouts you have, how many timeouts the other team has, and you work backwards, you figure out where that that line is on the screen that says, you know, reasonable field goal range for the given kicker, and, you know, whatever the environmental conditions are, you work backwards. So I appreciate the comment there. appreciate all the comments. And I appreciate everybody who has chimed in
26:59
who's watched if you're watching this on replay. Again, I welcome your comments. And again, I always welcome a good solid forced analogy in the oil and gas industry, particularly when it comes to pipelines, because we're going to continue seeing headlines about pipelines. This headline will fade eventually, and we'll go back to talking about Keystone XL and line five up in Michigan and Dakota Access and the MVP, the mountain valley pipeline here on the east coast. That's several years behind, and seven, several, I'm not $7 billion over yet, but several billion dollars over run to this point. So we're going to continue seeing these headlines. And when you do again, run through these five questions, ask yourself how well are you communicating with your stakeholders? How well are you able to keep continually flowing?
27:49
And as you do all that, you can ask one final bonus question. And this involves picking and if you're not familiar with a pig, a pipeline integrity gauge, a pig is something that goes through a pipeline that can be a smart pig to investigate and look for signs of corrosion or changes in the diameter of the pipe. Or it can be a dumb pig that just pushes fluid and cleans out whatever junk might be in the pipeline. But regardless, you run pigs through pipelines to clear out that junk to glean information so that you can flow better and more safely.
28:19
So ask yourself, "Am I actively engaging in flushing my own communications pipeline with the occasional pig run...or am I letting junk build up that can lead to costly--if not catastrophic--incidents?
28:35
And as you ponder that, please allow me, Joe Sinnott, to thank you for tuning in either live on LinkedIn, Facebook, or YouTube or catching the replay somewhere in cyberspace. And if you have additional questions or comments, or you'd like to talk about the way that I help leaders improve their communication, and the way that I help leaders, get through bottlenecks, avoid various threats, deal with the inevitable force mature, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn or visit theenergydetox.com.
29:10
And until next time, be on guard for those times when your communication is only flowing in one direction. Because the key to override all these questions to your success is to understand the value of two way communication between you and your stakeholders.
29:31
Thanks again