A little less than three years ago Halliburton stepped way out of its comfort zone. In 2010 the technology effort was dispersed among the individual business units. Product R&D was embedded in product service line (PSL) teams in widely scattered locations. Technology – the company’s bread and butter – was being done all over the world in a PSL-centric network of silos. Collaborative, cross-PSL thinking was infrequent and cumbersome. The physical separation created an environment highly susceptible to territoriality.

Senior executives saw that this arrangement was an impediment to building the kinds of complex solutions that clients needed. As conventional reserves dwindled globally, operators were directing more and more effort to E&P in mature assets, deepwater fields, and unconventional plays. As the demand for integrated solutions mounted, the silo network with its “vertical” relationships was increasingly ill-suited for meeting customers’ needs.

Playing to its strengths

To make the most of the company’s strengths and to unify technology efforts in terms of strategy, governance, budget, and systems, a holistic view was needed that leveraged capabilities across business units rather than strictly within them. In other words, the company needed to integrate horizontally.

With a philosophy that says “technology is agnostic to business units,” the company set out to create a more unified technology functionality while maintaining business unit responsibilities. To address the culture, behavior, geography, and day-to-day working style, a technology center concept that addresses all of these concerns was developed. The challenge of making this philosophy tangible was embraced after an appropriate location was identified.

Technology teams were consolidated by relocating members to a single location in Houston, Texas. People from other fields and other industries – aerospace, automotive, chemical, and biomedical – whose skills and perspectives could bring fresh insight to the company’s challenges were brought onto the teams.

As the restructuring of the human component was planned, it became clear what the facility had to do. The new center had to physically promote collaboration in the design of the walls, the colors, and the configuration of the spaces. Everything about the building had to foster interaction among team members.

Creating a new atmosphere

The center had to be designed to create an atmosphere in which scientists and technologists were linked not according to PSLs but according to the kind of work they do. Another way to see it would be to put like with like – chemists with chemists, geologists with geologists. Make it easy for them to talk to each other. Minimize any factors that can hinder collegiality such as hierarchies and status consciousness.

Every feature of the technology center is directed toward one objective: horizontal integration. Lab configurations are the same by discipline regardless of the specific work being done. All chemical analytical work has been consolidated, so there is only one laboratory dedicated to analyses.

About 90% of the employees are in cubicles that have low walls and are identical in size. The remaining 10% were assigned offices based on objective criteria related to rank and number of people supervised. Public spaces provide printers, microwave ovens, refrigerators, and coffee makers – these items are not allowed in individuals’ cubicles – all to encourage mingling and dialog.

For roughly every 10 people there is a “huddle room.” These spaces are designed to accommodate noisier activities like phone conferences, meetings, and global information-sharing. The emphasis is on spontaneity and easy access to the spaces. No group owns the huddle rooms since the rooms are truly shared resources.

In fact, there are no signs posted that identify any part of the building with any PSL. The uniformity of the cubicles and laboratories is intended to blur the lines between structured groups, making it all but impossible to maintain a silo scenario.

Branching out

The strategy-as-structure approach is consistent among all of the company’s technology centers, including the newest centers in Saudi Arabia and Brazil. The centers are similarly configured inside and out, with similar color schemes, furniture, low cubicle walls, and all of the features that encourage collaboration. This global standard was established to incorporate uniform safety policies, housekeeping requirements, lab specifications, and every aspect of the business of technology.

One of the first things visitors to the technology center in Houston notice is that there is a lot of motion in the building. People get up and walk to a colleague’s cubicle or to a huddle room with a group of co-workers or down the hall to see what is happening a couple of cubicles away. Life is imitating design as the culture in the technology centers becomes open, organic, and collaborative. This is a reboot for Halliburton. The company “upgraded” to a new operating system for its technology team and established the standard. Now, wherever the company chooses to set up shop, the buildings are basically already designed, the policies and procedures are set, and expansion is a simple matter of picking the location.

Collaborative solutions across the board

Through collaboration across PSLs and with customers and by incorporating perspectives and approaches brought to its teams by employees from other industries, this new R&D environment has enabled Halliburton to develop a spectrum of solutions. A focus on green chemistry has led to its CleanStim hydraulic fracturing fluid system, made with components sourced from the food industry. The CleanStim system provides fracturing fluids whose standards for “clean” are higher than regulations require.

Halliburton is converting its pumping equipment to dual-fuel flexibility, replacing traditional fuels with LNG. It is working with polymeric resins such as those used in the aerospace industry to develop WellLock resin, a secondary annular barrier that withstands extremely high pressure to help prevent water and gas leaks.

The technology team is always questioning the conventional notions of how things are done. The company seeks to consistently push back on the limits of what’s possible in the oil and gas industry. Drilling with lasers, measuring reservoirs with nanoparticles, using new methods to control the hardening process of cement, miniaturization, fiber optics, robotics – Halliburton is not done thinking up innovations.

The company will continue to build the technology team around highly educated professionals with global aspirations and diverse interests. With the strategy and structures to keep those high-powered, talented people out of silos and in ready collaboration with one another, the company’s technology efforts will continue to thrive.