Category: Nyheter

“It is essential to meet in peacetime, as we call it, to connect with those responsible for planning and executing various tasks in crisis situations, and to secure a common, complete understanding. This makes it easier to find each other when it really counts,” says Pål Erland, Neptune Energy’s point of contact and emergency response manager at OFFB.

This is not the first time OFFB and Neptune Energy assemble collaborating actors for an emergency preparedness gathering in Florø. But the pandemic has made it more difficult to meet in person.

Erland is very pleased that 30 people from Neptune Energy, A/S Norske Shell, Avinor, Kinn municipality, Securitas, Quality Hotel, the police, Equinor, Bristow and Sintef were able to dedicate this day to get to know each other better, to discuss professional issues and enhance their skills.

This year’s assembly was particularly focused on collaboration at the operators’ centre for evacuees and next of kin (OSEP) in Florø. Kinn’s municipal chief physician Kjell-Arne Nordgård and Truls Eide, professionally responsible doctor at Neptune Energy, presented their own roles and gave advice on how to interact.

Against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine and the threat level in Norway, representatives from Norway’s oil and gas industry were also introduced to ways of handling these challenges.

“Neptune Energy, Avinor, the police, Equinor and research director Maria Bartnes at Sintef all gave valuable input on various topics, and suggested tools we can utilise in our coming emergency planning activities. The key points are to prepare oneself, and to exercise and practice together with relevant actors,” Erland says.

Text: Alf Inge Molde

“When does a crisis actually end?” professor Odd Einar Olsen asks, rhetorically.

For those affected, it may never end. For those who have an operative role in handling the crisis, the answer is: When the fire is extinguished and everyone’s gone home.

But putting out the fire does not necessarily mean that the crisis is over.

“Politically speaking, the crisis is not over until trust is restored. Which implies that people must have faith in the crisis management, accept what has happened, and believe in the involved parties’ representation of the events. It also means that people are willing to accept the findings of the investigations,” Olsen says.

A credible ending may therefore be the result of a long-lasting process.

A neglected topic in the literature on crisis management
On February 23, OFFB assembled emergency response personnel, from the second-line operational and third-line strategic levels, for a workshop on strategic emergency management beyond the initial phases of a crisis. The workshop took place at the OFFB’s offices at Forus outside Stavanger, and was initiated and chaired by the Competence Centre’s staff.

Odd Einar Olsen gave a though-provoking presentation of the political dimension of crisis management, and the art of ending a crisis. He was followed by Øistein Johannessen, vice president of communications at Equinor, who shared Statoil’s learnings from the handling of the helicopter accident near Turøy island, North-East of Bergen, in 2016.

Olsen is a professor of risk management and societal safety at the University of Stavanger, and has researched and written a number of textbooks on crisis management and media coverage of crises. In addition to this, he has 20 years of experience from relief work, crisis handling, development aid and technology transfer in 18 countries, working for the United Nations and the Norwegian Refugee Council.

He believes the closing of a crisis is a neglected topic, both in textbooks and political documents - despite the fact that it will affect how the crisis is understood and explained in the future, and the reputation of those responsible for handling the events.

“The focus of the literature on crises, is first and foremost on preparedness and the handling of a crisis itself. When it comes to ending a crisis, it mostly concerns the debriefing of staff and the learning afterwards. Very little is written about the political closing of crises, and the risks involved when this is handled in a poor manner,” Olsen says.

Clear and well-considered strategies wanted
This is a subject that should be addressed, he believes. Big crises do not end by themselves. Someone will have to declare them being over. By then, both operational and political tasks should be completed, preferably in parallel. At the same time, the public – the media included – should perceive the crisis to be over. When an ending is declared too soon or in the “wrong” manner, big problems will loom in the aftermath.

Classic examples include the offshore platform Alexander Kielland capsize in 1980, the plane crash near Mehamn in 1982, and the ferry disasters Scandinavian Star in 1991 and Estonia in 1994, he argues.

“The common features of these incidents were: Many casualties and massive attention at the time. Many were left with the impression that not all the facts were included in the investigations, and new information not taken into consideration later on. The identification of scapegoats was disputed, and the events attracted a lot of media attention,” Olsen points out.

Could these discords and problems afterwards have been avoided? It is difficult to say for certain. It is also difficult to produce a consistent scenario for how to achieve an acceptable ending, he admits. Each incident will have its own distinctive characteristics and challenges.

Doing the right things is not enough, Olsen adds. Credibility is also about form, content and trust. The closing process also involves other actors than those engaged in operational tasks. The real acid test is whether the general public accepts that the crisis is over.

“I would like to see a clear and well-considered strategy for how this can be achieved,” the professor says.

“Do not underestimate the follow-up work”
Øistein Johannessen, vice president of communications at Equinor, was invited to share experiences from the way Statoil’s emergency response organisation handled the helicopter crash at Turøy, which happened on April 29 in 2016. Two pilots and eleven passengers lost their lives in the most serious accident within the Norwegian oil and gas industry since the turn of the millennium.

“Do not underestimate the follow-up of next of kin,” he advises.

Be sure to have clearly defined roles, tasks and reporting lines. Prioritise those directly affected, and the people closest to them. Do not underestimate their insecurity. Have sufficient staff available. Put internal resource personnel to use. Be consistent in your communications. And exercise!

“Crises and serious incidents will leave a deep imprint on the organisation for a long time afterwards, both on a human level and on the company’s security efforts. Serious incidents are both epoch-making and defining events,” Johannessen says.

Continuous improvement and progress
The Operator´s association for emergency response (OFFB) is working continuously to improve and develop itself. It is constantly seeking new knowledge – both from academia and from other organisations’ handling of real incidents.

The workshop is part of a goal-oriented effort to further develop work tools and training- and exercise concepts for crisis management beyond the initial phases. This is a focus area for OFFB in times to come.

Whenever offshore personnel need to be evacuated to shore, an extensive system is mobilised to meet and look after it in the best possible manner. Persons with physical injuries are of course transported directly to hospital.

Everyone else is taken care of in a dedicated centre at the nearest airport, which is also the meeting point for next of kin in need of information, assistance, care and someone to talk to.

The operator´s association for emergency response (OFFB) has established such centres for evacuees and next of kin at several locations along the Norwegian coast: In Stavanger, Bergen, Florø, Kristiansund, Brønnøysund and Hammerfest.

In Florø, OFFB has an agreement with Nordic Choice Hotels. In all other cities, agreements are signed with Thon Hotels.

See also: What happens if

See also: OSEP

Should an incident occur on board the Petrojarl Knarr FPSO, operator AS Norske Shell will mobilise its centre for evacuees and next of kin in Florø. The same OSEP will be used by Neptune Energy, if an incident should occur on the Gjøa field.

All centres are required to carry out regular exercises, and to keep their expertise and systems updated. The corona pandemic has occasionally made it challenging to gather many people for this type of exercises. When an opportunity to do so is offered, it should therefore be taken advantage of.

On November 30, personnel from OFFB, AS Norske Shell, Petrojarl Knarr FPSO’s owner Altera Infrastructure Production, Neptune Energy, Nordic Choice Hotels and Securitas met up for a guided tour of the hotel’s facilities. There was also a plenary review and discussion of the plans and guidelines for handling a possible incident, and the way key actors should collaborate in crisis situations.

The meeting was followed by an exercise on December 1, involving representatives from AS Norske Shell, Altera Infrastructure Production, Securitas and staff from the hotel.

See also: Looking after people affected by crises

Beredskapskonferansen, som er et samarbeid mellom Petroleumstilsynet, Norsk olje og gass, Industri Energi og OFFB, har siden oppstarten samlet personell som jobber med beredskapsfaglige spørsmål i petroleumsnæringen og akademia, organisasjoner, politi og forsvar til å dele kunnskap og erfaring.

I år gjennomføres konferansen på Clarion Hotel Stavanger 1. og 2. desember, med en «ice breaker» om kvelden 30. november.

Programmet er delt inn i fire tema:

• Beredskapshåndtering og læring etter hendelser
• Kostnadskutt – hvordan håndterer vi beredskapen
• Strategisk krisehåndtering
• Digitalisering og beredskap

– Beredskapskonferansen er en viktig møteplass og arena hvor trepartssamarbeidet i næringen får anledning til å møtes, dele kunnskap og lære av hverandre. Vi har også i år fått med oss svært gode foredragsholdere og det er fortsatt mulig å melde seg på, sier Ole Jacob Haug, daglig leder i OFFB og medlem i programkomiteen for konferansen.

Mer informasjon finner du her: www.beredskapskonferansen.no

“Gas leak on platform. Red helicopter deck. Work permit for three persons in the area. Several detectors triggered. General alarm activated. All personnel mustered in lifeboats, except the three persons mentioned. Resources underway.”

The initial dispatch to the 2nd line emergency response manager is short and concise, and leaves no room for doubt: The emergency response team must be mobilised immediately. As well as the search and rescue (SAR) helicopter at the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre and other SAR’s in the vicinity, and a whole range of supportive resources.

“Three persons found, severely hypothermic. Two persons in the task team complain about respiratory problems. Remaining personnel mustered in lifeboats. Resources underway.”

As soon as the emergency response team is in place, and the most important initial actions taken, the emergency response manager decides to go ahead with the first meeting.

The entire process is based on proactive methodology.

Proactive methodology in practice
In the initial stages of an incident, the window of opportunity is wide open. At the same time, there is little information available. The question is: Should I push the big, red button and muster all resources? Or: Should I wait and see how things develop – and risk having too few resources in place, too late?

The principles of proactivity give clear guidance:

• The principle of certainty-uncertainty: If uncertain about whether resources should be mobilised or not, you are in reality certain that it should be done.
• The principle of moderate overreaction: You should mobilise as many resources as to be sure of an overcapacity, to avoid the risk of undersizing the effort.
• The principle of first information: You should always aim to be the first provider of information about the emergency situation. And the information provided must be correct.

What is the worst case scenario implied in the dispatch? What is the potential outcome to people, the environment and material assets? What do we do? What does the plan look like? And what about other factors, such as weather conditions and forecasts?

Long-term investment
Emergency response manager Geir Haakonsen usually has a well-trained team at his disposal. On November 1st, a team of master’s degree students of societal safety at the University of Stavanger had a go at handling an emergency situation.

Afterwards, Haakonsen’s colleague, emergency response manager Magnus Klem Huseby, presented the findings from a similar exercise —based on the same scenario — a few days earlier.

OFFB has gradually built a long tradition of inviting students from the University of Stavanger, to demonstrate and explain how an emergency response organisation thinks and acts. Managing director Ole Jacob Haug acknowledges the great value of imparting insights to the crisis handlers of the future, by showing how theoretical knowledge can be put into practice inside the emergency room.

“We believe young academics can help us develop, and contribute to our continuous improvement. They visit us and get a glimpse of how we work. They observe and write papers and articles, which help us to advance as an organisation. As such, we see this as a long-term investment,” says Haug.

Total defence is a collective term for Norway’s military defence and civilian emergency preparedness.

By the Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency’s definition, the term implies mutual support and collaboration between civilian and military actors — to prevent, to plan for and to handle crises during peacetime, security policy crises, armed conflicts and war.

During the cold war, total defence was mainly about utilising the civilian society’s resources to support the military in times of crisis. This has changed since 1990. Now, the main idea is rather that the military’s resources and capacities should support the civilian society.

One key condition for a successful collaboration, is that everyone involved in emergency preparedness — be it in the voluntary, public or private sector — is familiar with one another, and knows how best to collaborate in handling future crises.

This is also the starting point for the latest issue of NATO’s ‘The Three Swords’ magazine, published by the Joint Warfare Centre. Norway’s total defence system is the main theme of this edition.

Among articles about the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre, the Norwegian Cyber Defence Force and Norges Lotteforbund, OFFB is presented to the international public as a unique collaborative organisation.

The entire article is available here (external link): https://www.jwc.nato.int/application/files/8216/3280/9670/issue37_15.pdf

Full version of the magazine (external link): https://www.jwc.nato.int/newsroom/The-Three-Swords-Magazine/three-swords-37

More information about the total defence concept:

Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Justice and Public Security (2018): Support and cooperation. A description of the total defence in Norway. https://www.regjeringen.no/contentassets/5a9bd774183b4d548e33da101e7f7d43/stotte-og-samarbeid-en-beskrivelse-av-totalforsvaret-i-da.pdf

Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency (2016): Reportage about the total defence (in Norwegian only) https://www.dsb.no/reportasjearkiv/sammen-for-et-tryggere-norge/

This year’s issue 3 of the Norwegian scientific journal ‘Magma’ is dedicated to exploring how strategic thinking and management are affected by the pressure from the coronavirus pandemic.

The subject is discussed in four peer-reviewed articles. One of these is «Håndtering av langvarige beredskapshendelser: Læringspunkter etter covid-19-utbrudd på West Phoenix» (The handling of long-term emergency incidents: Learning points from a COVID-19 outbreak on board the West Phoenix drilling rig) is written by safety researcher Riana Steen and Alf Inge Molde, head of the strategic crisis communications team at OFFB.

Article summary

Today’s emergency preparedness plans are founded on traditional risk and vulnerability analyses. These include frameworks and procedures for the handling of defined situations of hazard and accident (DSHA). Turbulent changes, increased mutual dependency across organisations, as well as rising uncertainty, create challenges beyond the boundaries of a traditional emergency preparedness approach.

The handling of emergency incidents linked to the corona pandemic, highlights the way uncertainty, time pressure and escalating consequences strengthen the need for resilience in emergency preparedness work.

Through this study, the authors are taking learning points from the way the COVID-19 outbreak on board the West Phoenix drilling rig in August 2020 was handled at an operational and strategic level.

Based on method triangulation, the article explores the roles of the oil companies’ emergency preparedness organisations, and the manner in which they handled the outbreak. Analysing the empirical findings, the authors underscore that the key to resilient emergency response lies in coordination and the ability to improvise, together with openness, collaboration and trustful communication between the actors involved.

The full article is available at Magma’s website (In Norwegian only). External link..

Further reading at OFFB.no:

Research: New modelling method enhances emergency preparedness

In order to close the gap between emergency response plans and the way tasks are carried out in real life, far more factors and aspects must be mapped and included in the planning, Riana Steen believes. In a new research paper written in collaboration with the Operator's Association for Emergency Response (OFFB), she explains how this can be done.

Read the article here (internal link).

Sharing experiences from the coronavirus outbreak on West Phoenix

A close dialogue, a focus on details and the ability to improvise were some of the key factors in the handling of the COVID-19 outbreak on board the West Phoenix drilling rig in the beginning of August 2020.

Read the article here (internal link).

Studies OFFB and Safety-II

HSE-work is facing a paradigm shift, safety scientist Riana Steen believes. She now sets out to study the way principles and models in resilience engineering and Safety-II may strengthen crisis response and coordination inside the emergency preparedness room. (Article in Norwegian).

Read the article here (internal link).

Text: Alf Inge Molde

“In our experience, there is a big difference between organisations with an emergency preparedness in place, and those who are less prepared. It is difficult to start with a clean slate during a crisis,” says Heidi Wittrup Djup.

She knows what she’s talking about. In addition to being a psychology specialist, she is general manager of the Clinic for Crisis Psychology, formerly Centre for Crisis Psychology, in Bergen.

This group of experts has more than 30 years of experience from clinical handling and research on crises, grief and trauma. It has been engaged in emergency response and psycho-social follow-up in a number of very serious incidents over the last decades. These include the plane crash into the mountain of Torghatten in 1988, and the helicopter accident near the island of Turøy in 2016.

More information: Clinic for Crisis Psychology

In addition to partnerships with a wide range of public and private actors all over Norway, Clinic for Crisis Psychology has for many years formed an important part of OFFB’s emergency preparedness.

Helping the emergency team first
Three persons are on call at all time, all year round. If the first person on the list is unavailable, the phone call is automatically transferred to the next person on duty. All calls are answered.

“The first thing we do when the emergency phone rings, is to gather an overview of what has happened and who is affected. The situation is sometimes relatively clear. At other times, it is more chaotic and confusing,“ says Wittrup Djup.

During the first phase, the most important task is to assist the emergency management team, and to support the organisation of psycho-social follow-up activities.

Subsequently, the team agrees on the way forward, whether this implies travelling to an offshore platform to meet those directly affected, going to hospitals to meet the injured and their next of kin, or to assist in the follow-up of evacuees and their relatives at the Operator's Centre for Evacuees and Next of Kin.

More information: Operator's Centre for Evacuees and Next of Kin

The psychology specialists do not necessarily involve themselves in all relations, she emphasises. Their task is to strengthen the emergency preparedness teams and the operator’s personnel; to give advice and provide guidance, to keep sight of who is in need of extra care, and to keep track of what information is passed on and how. Some may also need to be told to take a break, in order not to exhaust themselves.

There are many factors to keep in mind. Which is why training and exercising is essential.

Care, safety, calm
“For people who have been involved in serious incidents and accidents, the most important thing is to be met with compassion, protection and calmness. We must prove to them that they are being looked after, that the worst is over, and that they are safe.”

“Many of those who have experienced serious incidents say, in retrospect, that they feel safer now than before. They have seen how the organisation stands up for and takes care of them. This is a good thing to carry with you into the future,“ says Wittrup Djup.

Some may need to see a psychologist, but everyone needs care.

Heidi Wittrup Djup

To others, the incident may mark the beginning of a life that is not going to be the same as before. They may enter a time of uncertainty, fear and anxiety. They need a professional, fellow human being who can bear their pain — someone who is calm, safe and trustworthy.

The most common “mistakes”
“Which are the most common mistakes one can make, when given a role in the follow-up of persons and their next of kin, who have been exposed to serious situations?”

“The fear of making mistakes may be the biggest challenge. You may be afraid of invading the other person. Instead, you are standing around waiting, stumbling over your words. But words may not be necessary. A glance, a hand on a shoulder or a cup of coffee in silence might be enough for this person not to feel alone. We must dare to show emotional courage.”

“Some may need to see a psychologist, but everyone needs care. I don’t think it is wise to professionalise being a fellow human being. Not everything has to be technically and professionally founded.”

More information: Call-centre

Some also raise the bar for what they would like to achieve, very high. They want to help, fix and arrange, but things may not turn out quite as they thought it would. Things are going to hurt, and grief takes time. Maybe they should aim to try to alleviate and make things easier for the person in question?

Be careful not to offer up clichés, she warns. They may be well-intended, but it is extremely hurtful to hear comments like “there’s a meaning to everything” and “you are lucky to have other children”.

Managers may become too focused on facts in their communication, and forget to recognise the purely human experience of those affected. Some also end up spending too much time explaining and defending what’s happened.

This is not the time for that.

Avoid focusing on emotions
“During the first phase, however, one should not pay too much attention to emotions. Stay clear of what people were thinking and feeling. Instead, stick to the facts about what’s happened, and the way forward. It is also essential to shield those least exposed from those most exposed,” she says.

It may be demanding to meet the affected in difficult circumstances. But some manage very well when the situation demands it. Real events are often characterised by calmness, and skilful people who shoulder responsibility, she explains.

“Some of the finest experiences I’ve had during crises, involve managers who are able to stand firm in the midst of a lot of pain—people who are wise and accessible, who are capable of keeping their focus on the way forward, and who take their share of the responsibility. It is touching, powerful and impressing to observe,“ says Wittrup Djup.

More information: Our members

Long-term planning is necessary
Experience from major incidents, both in Norway and abroad, indicates that the immediate emergency response is usually successful. Resources are in place, and a lot of people are willing to help. But if plans for the time following the immediate crisis are lacking, there are many who may find that help is no longer available.

When the affected are scattered among numerous employers and municipalities, we risk that the follow-up measures are distributed randomly. Who‘s responsible for these measures? The organisation? The municipality? This responsibility should be made explicit to everyone involved.

When people return to work, their workplace is also affected by the incident. One has to make room for reactions to surface at a later stage, and make sure help is extended. Some may decline the immediate offer for help, but may change their mind when reality kicks in, she says.

However, a degree of everyday normality must also be resumed in the workplace.

Coronavirus – restrictions and possibilities
“We’re still in the midst of a pandemic, where we are required to keep a distance, to limit close contact and observe infection control measures. Is it possible to offer good psycho-social follow-up during COVID-19?”

“It’s a challenge. We’re deeply affected by crises, and we need to be around other people and make physical contact. But we still have to be mindful of infection control, and take measures such as finding bigger locations, and more separate rooms, to accommodate several cohorts. It may not be optimal, but organisations should take responsibility and plan in advance.”

It is possible to create a feeling of closeness, even when interacting through a screen. For some, this may even work better

Heidi Wittrup Djup

At the same time, COVID-19 has demonstrated that there are good digital solutions for video meetings available, which may also work well in a crisis psychology setting.

“Psychologists are using video conferencing as a tool in therapy today, and research shows that this is yielding good results. It is possible to create a feeling of closeness, even when interacting through a screen. For some, this may even work better,” says Wittrup Djup.

It may also be a good idea to mobilise more supporters locally, who can come up with good and creative solutions together. This is something that often occurs in times of crisis.

“When facing a crisis, much energy is mobilised, and unique communities are formed. These fine qualities become visible during crises,” the psychology specialists concludes.

More information: Our partners

The Operator’s Association for Emergency Response, known as OFFB, is a member-led, non-profit emergency response organisation utilised by many operating companies on the Norwegian continental shelf. We provide professional 2nd line emergency response services to our members, and are an integral part of their emergency response systems. OFFB also acts as a resource and expertise centre for all its members.

More information: Become a member

This three-member alliance have co-created a new service offering called ‘STORM’ – an innovative approach to Emergency Response Training combining state-of-the-art simulation, Crew Resource Management (CRM) principles and an established network of response assets.

OFFB currently provides a unique emergency response collaborative partnership for ten Norwegian Operating Company- members.

RelyOn Nutec’s realistic Digital Simulation training for drilling and lifting operations, combined with CAVU expertise in Crew Resource Management and Emergency Response Management, will equip the Norwegian Oil Companies with the best possible preparedness training.

The companies have named this new service offering “STORM”, an acronym for Safety, Technical and Organizational Response Management.

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“Partnering with CAVU International will provide RelyOn Nutec and OFFB with a unique opportunity to combine in-depth safety, technical as well as organizational expertise into a single Emergency Response Management package,” says Tom Bremer, Managing Director of RelyOn Nutec Simulation.

“We look forward to being able to provide our members with a unique environment for Emergency Response Training. An environment where we integrate and combine advanced simulator technology with standard emergency response training programs”, says Ole Jacob Haug, Managing Director of OFFB.

“Our goal is that ‘STORM’ will equip companies with skills usually required in high-reliability organizations such as nuclear power and commercial aviation. This will enable them to tackle any potential emergency they may encounter,” says Leo Luft, CAVU Vice President Europe & Asia.

“Creating incredibly realistic emergency scenarios will allow the students to master critical CRM skills; situational awareness, decision making, communication, teamwork, leadership, and human performance factors.”

About RelyOn Nutec:

RelyOn Nutec is the world leader in safety and survival training. The company delivers end-to-end solutions within applications, simulation technology, managed services, consultancy and learning for safety critical industries such as oil & gas, maritime, offshore wind as well as other high-risk industries, from 34 training centres in 20 countries worldwide.

www.relyonnutec.com

About OFFB:

The Operator’s Association for Emergency Response, known as OFFB, is a member-led emergency response organization utilized by many operating companies on the Norwegian continental shelf. They provide professional 2nd line emergency response services to their members as an integral part of their emergency response systems. OFFB also acts as a training resource and expertise centre for all its members.

www.offb.no

About CAVU International:

CAVU International is a global consulting company that delivers the safety, leadership and performance coaching necessary to improve team behaviours and organizational culture in any organization where the consequences of human error are unacceptable.

www.cavu-intl.com

Text: Alf Inge Molde

Imagine that your arm hurts, and you see a doctor for help. The medical expert listens to your story, asks follow-up questions, and performs an examination. She now has many alternatives: Based on the examination and her experience, she may set a diagnosis, recommend treatment and perhaps prescribe medication.

If, on the other hand, the physician is unsure, she may order a CT scan of the arm for a better assessment. By using x-rays, the machine produces precise and sharp images of the tissue. These images are stacked on top if each other, and provide a picture of the tissue underneath the skin.

If the doctor is still not satisfied, the next step is to perform a MRI scan. This scan provides a very detailed and multi-dimensional digital image, which may reveal whether there have been any changes to the patient’s muscles, connective tissue or central nervous system.

MRI scans may also uncover changes to the skeleton, heart, chest, blood vessels, urinary tracts and bowel organs. The technology thus provides a complete, multi-dimensional picture of whichever part of the body one wishes to study.

An emergency management system is not that different from an organic system as one might think.

“Today’s emergency response plans, which are based on risk- and vulnerability analyses and defined situations of hazard and accident, correspond to an image provided by CT scans. By simplifying the world and a variety of situations, they provide an overview of input values and the expected outcome from adhering to the plans. They usually do a very good job,” says security researcher Riana Steen.

But by placing the plans under scrutiny, we see that they are based on a set of preconditions that over-simplify the world and under-communicate certain factors. When faced with unforeseen, confusing and complex crises, these plans may fall short.

Work as imagined, work as done
The analyses are too coarse. Or, in the scientist’s own words: “Work as imagined doesn’t necessarily harmonise with work as done.”

To fully understand how the response process works in practice —and thereby to ensure a deeper understanding of how the emergency response organisation may succeed or fail under different conditions — one has to consider far more factors than is common today.

This method, introduced by the Danish security researcher Erik Hollnagel in 2012, is called Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM). Hollnagel has for a number of years played a principal role in the development of Resilience Engineering, also known as Safety-II.

READ MORE ABOUT SAFETY-II HERE: Studies OFFB and Safety-II (internal link, only in Norwegian) 

The purpose of FRAM is to model complex socio-technical systems, and provide answers to how resilient an organisation and a system are – and thereby to assess how well prepared one is to manage the unknown and the unexpected.

To complete the preceding analogy: The result of a FRAM analysis corresponds to the multi-dimensional image derived from a MRI scan.

A closer look at OFFB
Put simply, traditional emergency response plans are concerned with the input from various functions and processes, and the potential output from these. But the output may not necessarily turn out quite as imagined.

Different variations may yield unpredicted consequences, both immediately and at a later stage. In order to visualise these contextual factors, four additional features are being mapped: Time, control, precondition and resources.

By drawing lines between the six corners of the emerging hexagons, one gets a far deeper understanding of the factors’ interconnectedness.

Together with researchers Riccardo Patriarca and Guilio Di Gravio, Riana Steen last year conducted a FRAM analysis of OFFB’s 2nd line emergency response plan, and the way the 2nd line handled a hydrocarbon leakage incident on an offshore platform in 2017.

Both Italian researchers are employed by the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Sapienza University in Rome. They are among the leading scientists in Europe within the field of resilience.

In their study, the researchers compared “work as imagined” with “work as done”, seen through the multi-dimensional FRAM lens.

Their analysis has been included in the research article «The chimera of time: Exploring the functional properties of an emergency room in action», which was published recently in the international journal «Contingencies and crisis management».

The article is available for free here (external link): https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1468-5973.12353

Several goals
The article has several goals, says Steen. One of them is to provide a step-by-step guide to how the FRAM method may be utilised to map systems and organisations in practice.

Another is to visualise the consequences of changing preconditions, and demonstrate how changes to one part of a system may affect the end result and outcome.

“The method underlines the complexity of emergency response work. We take so much for granted. But what if the infrastructure doesn’t work? What if the on-duty staff is exhausted? And what happens if one decides to postpone a decision because some information is missing?"

“Time plays a crucial role. In order to achieve the desired outcome, one may have to take action within ten minutes. If not, it may be too late. Training is also a prerequisite for being able to respond fast enough. Through the FRAM method, we are able to see how varying preconditions affect functions ten steps down the line. Context is very important,” Steen explains.

It is a demanding job, she acknowledges. It also requires a certain degree of expertise and an organisation that is willing and open to scrutiny. The rewards, however, may be great. The method provides management with a unique, in-depth understanding and an overview of success factors. It enables them to see what could be done more efficiently, and to identify which parts of the systems should be improved.

By capturing what may be hidden between the lines, it is possible to enhance the quality of the planning as well as the tasks carried out.

Continue planning, while introducing more dimensions
The scientific field of resilience and FRAM is still relatively new, but it has been applied in pioneering sectors such as aviation, the chemical industry, nuclear power generation and the oil and gas industry. Steen has also used the method to analyse Egersund municipality’s response plan for managing floods, as it was put into practice during the extreme weather “Synne” in 2015.

The article is available for free here (external link): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0951832020306517

“Does this mean that today’s emergency response plans are not good enough?”

”The plans we have today are generally good. They cover normal situations, the ones we experience most often. But the power of this method is demonstrated when faced with the unexpected. And this is the direction the world is heading, with more unexpected incidents occurring, and systems becoming increasingly complex. We therefore have to keep on making emergency response plans, but maybe develop them from a more multi-dimensional perspective, using for instance FRAM as a tool,” says Steen.

Read more (internal link, only in Norwegian) Suksesskriterier for god koordinering