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BUSINESS NEWS ONEGAS APPOINTS JACOBS FOR PLATFORM DECOMPLEXING PROJECT IN NORTH SEA Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. received a contract from ONEgas to perform engineering services for the decomplexing of its K15-FA platform in the North Sea. ONEgas is a combined business unit of Shell U.K. Exploration and Production and the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij B.V. The contract is the first to be signed under a new Enterprise Framework

Agreement between ONEgas and Jacobs. The decomplexing process involves transitioning K15-FA to an unmanned platform without gas treatment installations, as the gas will subsequently be treated on the centrally located K14. The project will enable ONEgas to reduce power consumption, operational costs, and enhance safety management.

“Jacobs’ oil and gas experience with the L13-FC project will have a significant impact on the successful delivery of the K15-FA platform decomplexing project,” said Jacobs Senior Vice President Upstream Oil and Gas Bassim Shebaro. “Our existing partnership with ONEgas and successful decomplexing of the L13-FC platform in 2016 was a key factor in receiving this award.”

ED FRIEDRICHS, from page 3

and recognize who is a member of the tribe. If you’ve ever worked in a larger office, you know how easy it is to ask someone you don’t recognize if they work there. On the 25-to-35 scale, this is a working unit where each person knows everyone else well enough to understand their individual strengths and weaknesses, which translates into great assignments. One of the Gallup book’s 12 indicators of “deep engagement” is: Am I doing work that I’m well suited to do? In other words, “Am I expected to do something I’m not very good at? Am I and others on the team each working to our individual strengths?” Making those kinds of assignments becomes a key skill of a studio leader. Finally, I learned a great deal from a book by Steven Quartz and Terry Sejnowski titled Liars, Lovers, and Heroes . I was fascinated by a section that talked about how the brain actually alters itself based on the environment in which it lives. I was curious enough to find someone who knew Sejnowski and asked for an introduction. After an hour on the phone describing why I thought this was happening in our studios, he said, “Of course it is! If people work together for a significant period of time, they learn how to become a truly integrated part of a larger construct. They get smarter by knowing how to leverage each others’ strengths and knowledge, producing much smarter work.” I was glad to have this wild-eyed notion validated and have told this story for many years, strengthening the bonds between studio members and the quality of work they accomplish together. It also improves their “deep engagement” with each other and, through the better work they’re doing, with their clients. EDWARD FRIEDRICHS, FAIA, FIIDA, is a consultant with Zweig Group and the former CEO and president of Gensler. Contact him at efriedrichs@ zweiggroup.com.

FOR YOUR BOOKSHELF 1) In this

with the resources in the firm that make the employee feel they’re appreciated, respected, and supported. That support involves someone in the firm who is committed to helping the employee grow as a professional. In the book, I also discuss styles of leadership, the way in which it is deployed, and how people feel about the leaders in their firm. I adopted a simple idea when I first found myself in a leadership role at Gensler. My mantra was: “You don’t work for me; I work for you. It is my job to be sure you have the tools, colleagues, and support to do your very best work.” “In early times, a tribe rarely exceeded 150 people because that was a threshold for the brain to know and recognize who is a member of the tribe. If you’ve ever worked in a larger office, you know how easy it is to ask someone you don’t recognize if they work there.” Seems to have worked for me. I found another definitive reason for longevity of the best talent and continuity of team members. We were organized around studios of 25 to 35 people, although the scale of projects today has caused those limits to be expanded. The same holds true for an office size which I always felt functioned best at around 150 people. In fact, there are firms that feel this is so important that if a business unit exceeds this size, they break a piece off to start a new business unit. The basic reasoning about why these numbers work begins with anthropology. In early times, a tribe rarely exceeded 150 people because that was a threshold for the brain to know

book, Gallup presents the remarkable

findings of its revolutionary study of more than 80,000 managers, revealing what the world’s greatest managers do differently. 2) Ed

Friedrichs presents a model for business design in the 21st century. Drawing on strategies that created

the world’s largest architectural practice, an archetypal long- cycle business, he makes the case for a quantum shift in thinking about organizational design in today’s creative business environment. 3) This book combines cutting-edge findings in

neuroscience with examples

from history and recent headlines to offer new insights into who we are.

Introducing the new science of cultural biology, born of advances in brain imaging, computer modeling, and genetics, the authors demystify the dynamic engagement between brain and world that makes us something far beyond the sum of our parts.

THE ZWEIG LETTER May 22, 2017, ISSUE 1201

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