One of our goals for this Masterclass was to provide you with an environment where you could share and explore ideas around the implementation of the circular economy with your SLB colleagues. We also wanted you to be able to develop effective strategies to deal with problems and challenges that you might encounter along the way, as you try to support the organisation’s journey or transition to the circular economy.
In week 1 we asked you to take a helicopter view of where SLB is presently in the shift from linear to circular. In week 2 we asked you to exercises your systems thinking abilities and co-develop a value map with your colleagues to identify opportunities around circular value creation and leakage. In week 3 we asked you to consider with your team catalytic questions, potential opportunities and key priorities for action to move forward in this area. In week 5 we then asked teams to present the results of their discussions and ideas on how to advance CE in different areas of the company. Finally, last week we asked you to produce a short presentation video or text/presentation submission, summarising your key learnings and takeaways from the course.
This week, after all these steps and learning journey, you are now in a position to start developing your personal Action Plan.
Submit
Final Challenge: Action Plan
140 points
Challenge brief
Your Action Plan is a statement of how you will move forward in order to deliver a potential circular economy solution or solutions to SLB.
It is not an Action Plan to solve all the problems/challenges that your organisation faces in transitioning towards circular economy and bridging the implementation gap. It is an Action Plan to solve only one.
It will also draw on your learning over the past 6 weeks, linking in with your:
other challenge submissions and any feedback you received
participation in the various discussions
engagement with the different content – Readers, Case studies, Videos, Webinars
You can either base your Action Plan on the idea(s) that you have been discussing with your Team colleagues, or you can propose a whole new idea, inspired by your learning, and linked to your specific role in the company. Perhaps you can also pick up on one particular element covered in your group discussions and team outputs, and develop that one further, exploring how you could be well positioned in your role to help develop that idea.
Instructions
Your Action Plan should cover the following, as a minimum:
Scope:
What is the problem that your project would be aiming to solve? Include a clear and unambiguous statement of the nature of the problem/challenge.
Timeline:
What would you believe would be a reasonable duration of the project implementation until its launch? Do you have a clearly defined timeline with milestones/dependencies for the stages the project should follow?
Impact on Circularity Metrics:
Were the circularity principles assessed? What would be the business impact in terms of metrics like: % of renewable material; % reuse; % repair; Waste by % .
The metrics above are examples of circularity metrics currently being considered by the company. If these are not applicable to your project idea, what would be good alternate impact metrics for your proposal?
What do you need to succeed?
What are the resources needed to make the project successful?
This should also include a stakeholder mapping, identifying the types of organisational roles that need to be involved (not need for specific names).
Beyond the points above, other suggestions of questions that you could also explore include:
what questions you have asked in order to come up with a potential solution or solutions?
What have you tried so far?
What are your next steps?
What learning can you draw on from the past 6 weeks?
What further knowledge and learning do you require to solve this problem?
Could your Action Plan also solve other problems/challenges that you or the company faces in helping SLB move towards circularity? Are these potential synergies that could be explored with other parts of the company?
Or any other questions… At the end-of-the-day, your Action Plan is your own idea and proposal. It can be as bold or incremental as you wish. It should reflect where you are currently in your role within SLB, what you believe the organisation can realistically achieve and, if that is the case, how you think you could help implement it.
SLB initiated in 2023 a Circularity Incubator Challenge for staff, with participants from previous cohorts in this course being invited to submit ideas for Circularity projects for the company. This involves a shortlisting process to select a number of pilot projects that the company can then support. The company aims to run further editions of the Incubator Challenge, and participants in the current cohort and course will be invited to submit their project ideas to those future Challenges.
Your Action Plan developed for this course can act as the foundation for a future project idea you might want to submit to the company’s Incubator Challenge. The minimum requirements listed above for the Action Plan are similar to the ones used in the Challenge. This should allow you to use this exercise as a formative activity, that you can then continue to explore and develop for a potential future internal submission.
Your Action Plan submission can be in any form you choose – a short written report, slide pack, video, or any combination of these, but don’t over-complicate it!