Leadership Programme

Refining is a unique business with a 12,000 strong workforce across over 20 separate business units. as a key part of BP s upstream business, it has undertaken a sea change in attitude over the last few years about how it presents itself, both internally and externally, as part of a drive for commercial success in the sector. key to this has been operation people    a project to instil pride, interest and engagement in its personnel. within this has been an ongoing leadership programme targeted at its top 200 leaders.
refining leadership programme 2 (rlp2) was instigated at the beginning of 2004 to involve the top 200 leaders within the organisation and engage them in new work and leadership processes that they would then drive deeper into their own business units.
refining were looking for creative consultancy and support in ensuring that the leadership models moved from theory to action.

  • Train the core leadership team in the delivery techniques required
  • Facilitate each programme alongside business leaders
  • Ensure that the programme recognized, appreciated and shared the heritage of both UK & US operations
  • Ensure the programme was culturally inclusive, as participants attended from a variety of countries
  • Develop concepts, models, interventions, and tools for supporting the leadership back in the workplace

Working as the architects and creative directors of the process, Purple Monster worked with an internal design team to create a uniquely engaging and powerful programme. RLP2 incorporated a mix of commercial content interwoven with drama-based experiential work on communication - behaviour, attitude and storytelling, and reflective time. We ran 5 programmes with 50+ participants in locations around the world, bringing a unique opportunity to work more deeply on business processes and soft-skill sets in a safe environment, with peers. The programme ensured leaders started to espouse the pre-eminent leadership principles within Refining..

The commercial objectives of refining were surpassed four months prior to their intended date. This was directly correlated to the creation of an inclusive culture amongst their people.

A field-book was developed that was filled with topics, tools, useful hints and stories that participants added to during the course of the week, made their own, to take back into their workplace for ongoing use.

The programme was an unmitigated success. The tools and practices outlined were driven so deeply into individual business units that programme content had already been assimilated by people coming on later courses.

Participants have so eagerly taken up some of the soft skills that storytelling has become a widely accepted form of instilling advice and best practice around sites.

the best organised, managed and most insightful leadership programme I have been on in my career ever

Walter Thunker - Regional Vice President