At Nape Expo 2025, The Crude Truth welcomes Leigh Haas and David Bowman from KnowledgeVine to discuss eliminating human error in the oil and gas industry. They explore how human performance training, adapted from nuclear power safety, enhances productivity, quality, and workplace safety. The conversation highlights the importance of positive reinforcement, the role of politics in energy infrastructure, and how reducing human error leads to safer, more efficient operations.

Highlights of the Podcast

00:01 – Introduction

01:29 – Guest Introduction

02:19 – What is KnowledgeVine?

04:00 – Improving Safety & Productivity

06:15 – The Role of Positive Reinforcement

08:31 – Politics & Energy Infrastructure

10:51 – Human Performance in Action Conference

12:27 – Closing Thoughts & How to Connect

Please reach out to Leigh Haas on Linkedin

Please reach out to David Bowman on Linkedin

Check out StatusJet HERE

The Crude Truth Ep. 119 Leigh Haas and David Bowman Live at the NAPE Expo 2025

Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.

Rey Treviño [00:00:00] As we go in 2025, there’s no doubt we need to be eliminating human error. We talked to two experts on that. On this episode from Nape Expo 2025 of The Crude Truth.

Narrator [00:00:12] In 1901 at Spindletop Hill near Beaumont. The future of Texas changed dramatically as, like a fountain of fortune, thousands of barrels of oil burst from the earth towards the sky. Soon, Detroit would be cranking out Model TS by the millions and America was on the move. Thanks to the black gold being produced in Texas, now, more than a century later, the vehicles are different, but nothing else has truly changed. Sure, there may be many other alternative energy sources like wind and solar and electric, but let’s be honest, America depends on oil and entrepreneurs. And if the USA is truly going to be independent, it has to know the crude truth.

Narrator [00:00:55] This episode is brought to you by LFS Chemistry. We are committed to being good stewards of the environment. We are providing the tools so you can be to. Nape Expo, Where deals happen. Air Compressor Solutions, When everything is on the line, Air Compressor Solutions is the dependable choice to keep commercial business powered up. Sandstone Group. Exec Crue. Elevate your network. Elevate your knowledge. Texas Star Alliance. Pecos Country Operating, Fueling our future.

Rey Treviño [00:01:29] Well, hello. And get ready because we are here at Nape again this year. So thank you so much to the Nape Expo Group and AAPL for having us back on. And guys, and thank you all so much for coming. As I’m diving in here, I’m just overly excited. My guests today are David Bowman and Leigh Haas from KnowledgeVine. Guys, how are y’all doing?

David Bowman [00:01:50] We’re doing great, right. Thanks for having us today.

Rey Treviño [00:01:52] Well, thank you all for coming all the way from far east Louisiana near Mississippi. Some would say rightly.

Leigh Haas [00:01:58] Yes, they. Saint Louis, Mississippi, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

David Bowman [00:02:01] Heavy on the pert near.

Rey Treviño [00:02:03] The oh my gosh guys. You guys are literally rocking it out. And you know, we talked about it in our pre-production meeting. It’s like you go oh, I do human error. I go, I know what you do. There you go. No you don’t. Oh you know David, what is KnowledgeVine and what are you guys up to.

David Bowman [00:02:19] Yeah. Great question. So human performance is what we’re teaching. We have a whole system. We have software that goes along with it training, field coaching, etc., etc. all the bells and whistles to make it easy for the client to, I guess, learn a new language and then use that language to eliminate human error in the field. It’s something we brought out of nuclear power years ago. A nuclear power is, you know, one of the safest places you can work, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics. And part of that is because of the Three Mile Island incident in 1979. Some of that that came out of that was we got to do better about human error elimination. We worked with pilots they did from federal aviation back then. And so, you know, we were blaming pilots, pilot error. Every time we crash a plane, we can’t do that anymore. We got to know what is going on and why this is happening. So getting our standards tighter to our behaviors and vice versa is how we eliminate that risk. That’s what we teach.

Rey Treviño [00:03:03] Wow, that there’s some impact there. Leigh, you are there. And, you know, tell us about you and your role there at at KnowledgeVine.

Leigh Haas [00:03:10] So I started out in politics, which is very much about human error. And then also I worked in oil and gas for the last ten years on building natural gas pipelines all throughout the country, which just as much, you know, there’s just as much need there as there is anywhere else, anywhere. There’s somebody that can make a mistake. Yeah. You know, so that’s where I came from. And so I’m trying to help knowledge bridge the industries across, you know, from nuclear power to oil and gas. You know, so that’s where I come in.

Rey Treviño [00:03:37] I love it. And I mean, you guys, you have been just putting so much thought leadership out there, Leigh. Really kind of adding a lot more value to what y’all are doing over there because again, with human performance errors and there’s so much to that. You know, safety is always number one in the oil and gas industry for us. Make things right. And how many things can still be eliminated and dangerous just by being cautious. Being sure.

David Bowman [00:04:00] Right. Yeah. I mean, you think about, you know, we just talked about this before is that, you know, people it’s almost an automatic belief that this is about safety. But I want to be honest with you, it’s really about productivity. It’s really about quality. And safety is a byproduct. Because if you think about it, if you’re doing things right and you don’t have waste, you don’t have a limit. You know, a lot of things to go and rework and that kind of thing. Because of human error by proxy, you’re going to be safer. It’s kind of we used to say in the total quality management days is that I’ve never seen a high quality group with bad safety, and I never see a high safety group with bad quality. They go hand in hand. And then the key to this whole thing is that return on your investment. I mean, if we can show you a way to spend this much money to to gain that much money because you don’t have rework and, and a lot of human error, that’s what we’re here for us. My, my job is the CEO is to give that return on investment to the C-suite and the companies I’m working with. You know, that’s to go,

Rey Treviño [00:04:52] wow. That is so true, Leigh. You know, when you are looking at things like that, how do you work with different companies and things like that?

Leigh Haas [00:04:59] Well, I think one of the most important things that knowledge does is we work from the individual all the way to the leadership to the executive level. So we’re teaching everyone on the front line how to how to behave or, you know, behaviors that will keep them safe. So, for example, myself, you know, I now back into my driveway. That’s from the knowledge Ron taught me to do the phonetic alphabet. You know, three part communication. It’s all these very you would think, you know, normal things that people don’t do on a daily basis. And the byproduct is a safer environment for everyone.

Rey Treviño [00:05:29] Wow.

David Bowman [00:05:29] One of the things I love to hear people say when we teach this, you know, we teach the course. Self checking is one of the primary human performance tools. Stop. Think about what you do and take the action and review to get what you wanted. And a lot of people, when we teach that, they say, well, I’ve been doing that for years. We’re like, oh, I know you did. But it wasn’t a standard until we gave you a language, right? That’s why I said language earlier. When you start calling it something and you have a repetitive behavior. Now you actually have a standard to follow, not just, yeah, just go out there and self check. I mean, this is actually something you can do, right? Very low level tool. But it’s a very good tool because I look at it this way. I did a lot of root causes of my life back in the days, and I’ve never had somebody look at me from a hospital bed and go, I really thought about what I did, and then I questioned how it would go wrong before I cut my own leg off with my chainsaw. No one ever tells you that.

Rey Treviño [00:06:15] No. Yeah

Leigh Haas [00:06:15] I think something else that’s very important is when when people think safety, they think OSHA or somebody is coming out to catch them doing something. Well, and I will quote my boss, you know, something he said when I first started is I want to catch you doing something right. Yeah. And I think that’s something very important to bring to the audience, is we want to tell you what you’re doing right. And if you are doing something wrong, we’re just going to tell you how to improve on that.

Rey Treviño [00:06:39] You know, that’s funny. You mentioned catch somebody doing something right. We never hear people say, oh, look at the great job they’re doing. I’ve seen a few operators in my day. I’ll bet, like when we’re working on Wells or our other other things, and all of a sudden, you see the president of a company come out, see a guy in all the proper attire, just hands up $100 bill right there. And it’s like doing a great job. Keep it up.

Leigh Haas [00:07:01] Positive reinforcement.

Rey Treviño [00:07:03] Right. Right. Positive reinforcement works. I mean, you know.

Leigh Haas [00:07:04] What’s all that? We we helped each of the leaders of the companies

Rey Treviño [00:07:08] that work. You know, we don’t need the clicker like they do with the dogs or anything like that. But I think I think the positive reinforcement is truly what works.

David Bowman [00:07:14] It’s scientifically proven. I mean, if you think about it, a 4 to 1 positive. I’ve gotten to some kind of a study on this, and I was looking at marriages that are successful. And they said in the first year, if you have more criticisms for your spouse than you do positive reinforcement, you’ll be divorced in five years. Oh, wow. So there’s actual science that goes into these things we’re talking about. Matter of fact, my mantra is science application data. If I don’t have the science to teach you why this works, and I mean, I don’t just teach yourself checking, right. There’s that’s one part of it. But you got to understand how the brain works and why you go to where you go to when you’re a worker and you’re doing the job or a C-suite person, how you make your decisions. We want you to know that science and then be able to apply that science. So if it’s not applicable, I’ve taught you nothing. I’ve sold you a PowerPoint that’s pointless. And then I got to give you data to prove it, show you that this is working, show you what you need to improve on. That’s the key science application data and it works.

Rey Treviño [00:08:06] Science application that I like that you know, you wouldn’t we don’t talk about science application data. That’s where the politics come into play. And you mentioned the pipelines and how you do work there. You know we need so many more pipelines for our infrastructure, you know, over the next four years. Obviously we’re all excited. Right? You can feel a difference here at this year like there’s. Right. But where do you see the policy and the politics coming into play to hopefully add more pipelines and build that infrastructure?

Leigh Haas [00:08:31] Well, I see the you know, there’s definitely the momentum is there. And drill baby drill. Everybody’s all excited. I’m hoping that there’s going to be a huge influx of pipelines being built, or the ones that they’ve stopped in the last administration that can, you know, get restarted, right. So with that, though, there will be a lot more construction. There’ll be a lot more tree filling. And, you know, so there will be a definite need for better safety protocol. You know, the land agents, they’re driving all over remote areas of the country. So there’s a lot of traffic accidents, you know. So we have, you know, certain programs like Star Driver, which will help teach behaviors that will increase the drive driver safety.

Rey Treviño [00:09:08] Oh, wow.

David Bowman [00:09:09] Well, I think this is a great point. You’re bringing up a great points that Leigh made. And I will say this. We have to do our job right. We have to do it right. We have to do it safe. We can’t give anybody any excuses for see, this is why we shouldn’t have built pipelines. We’ve got to make sure that human error doesn’t kick in, and we have some sort of event that causes a setback. And then another, another argument. Let’s make it right. Let’s make it productive. And that’s going to be the win for all of us.

Rey Treviño [00:09:33] Yeah I like that. You do it right and do it. Do it safely. So we’re going to do it right and doing it safely and getting the job done. You are literally a unofficial at six generation Texan. Is that correct? Correct. And that’s official. That’s official. And please tell us why I like to say that you get the job done. And we want to talk about your family for a second here if that’s okay.

David Bowman [00:09:55] Absolutely.

Rey Treviño [00:09:55] But please, please let’s let’s discuss the Alamo and you’re you’re literally path from the album.

David Bowman [00:10:01] Yeah. I’m a direct descendant. Fifth generation great grandfather was Jesse B Bowman. He fought in the Alamo. He came here from Ireland, landed in Pennsylvania, made his way over to Indiana, worked his way down to Arkansas, and he met a guy named Davy Crockett. And they moved from there to Texas. And he joined to get Land Ho and have a dream. Unfortunately, he tried to grow potatoes before he went to the Alamo and didn’t work out too well down here. But he went to the Alamo. Of course he was. He was killed there. Yeah. And then his son, Robert Bowman, he went and fought in Goliad and, you know, helped out getting a victory there.

Rey Treviño [00:10:35] Oh my gosh. Well, I tell you what, you talk about potatoes. My grandfather had this whole scheme random. So he had this whole potato dream himself, stored them and it froze. It ruined them all. But anyway. Yeah. So. So the potatoes are hit and miss, you know, I guess.

Leigh Haas [00:10:51] And speaking of the Alamo, we have our conference. The Human Performance and Action Conference is in San Antonio this March, March 17th through the night.

Rey Treviño [00:10:58] Yes. And thank you. Thank you. Please tell us about that and what you will be talking about if I’m correct. Right.

Leigh Haas [00:11:04] The Human Performance in Action Conference. It’s where all of the thought leaders from the Human Performance Organization, all the what would you call practitioner practitioners get together? And they actually teach breakout sessions on human performance. So we have a lot of leaders and CEOs, businessmen, you know, business and decision makers that come to learn about leadership training and how to better run their organizations from the ground up.

David Bowman [00:11:27] And you know that that’s a that’s a testament to the application piece. You know, we want to make sure we’re always helping any organization that’s trying to learn this, to have something to do on Monday. I don’t like going to conferences, and I listen to somebody tell me something all week long, and then Monday I go back and we just do what we used to do before. That was a waste of money and time. And so we want to have something that you can apply. Even if you don’t work with us, you can at least come get knowledge and a knowledge base. And even if you’re thinking about working with us, it’s a great place to come first to see this is going to be a good fit for your organization. We have so many repeat attendees that come to that thing because they want to learn and we bring somebody new. Think we had Jake Wentz, the CEO of Buffalo Trace and Sazerac was our guest speaker last year. Great guy.

Leigh Haas [00:12:08] Energy comes every year.

David Bowman [00:12:09] The Department of Energy’s there. We have a lot of people that that really use human performance in places you wouldn’t think they could. But it just again, it just shows you that if you have a human and you have a set of standards, you got a potential for error. And even in Buffalo Trace, you can make mistakes that cost you a lot of money. So it’s a good it’s a good time. We’d like to have you there.

Rey Treviño [00:12:27] To thank you. Thank you. Well guys, look as we get doing, you know, KnowledgeVine, how can we get Ahold of y’all? How can they reach out and get their productivity up and actually then keep your safety issues down?

David Bowman [00:12:39] Leigh is a champion on LinkedIn. I’m not so much. I’m. I guess I’m a boomer. So I’m not great with social media, but she’s great at LinkedIn and reaching out that way. You can go to knowledgevine.com. We have a male at KnowledgeVine that comes to all five of the lead team at me included. We can see what your questions are and anything you need from us. Just KnowledgeVine.com The easiest way to get in touch with us or LinkedIn.

Leigh Haas [00:13:01] LinkedIn. We have a KnowledgeVine has a LinkedIn page. We have a Facebook page. And then you can also just reach out to either Bowman or myself on our cell phones as well.

Rey Treviño [00:13:08] I love it. And, Leigh, you know, as as we are here at Nape, what are your thoughts on it so far?

Leigh Haas [00:13:14] Oh, I love it. I think it’s great. The the environment, the atmosphere, everyone’s wonderful and all the momentum is definitely up this year. You know the new political arena that we have. So I love it. I think it’s a great, great opportunity to really showcase what we can bring to the oil and gas industry.

Rey Treviño [00:13:29] I love it. And David, what are your thoughts?

David Bowman [00:13:31] This is my first one.

Rey Treviño [00:13:32] Oh, wow.

David Bowman [00:13:33] Yeah, I’ve spent a lot of time with my head in the utility sector, so I didn’t get a chance to come. Them any oil and gas? This is my first one. I think it’s amazing. I love the energy in the room. No pun intended. Yeah, but there’s a lot of people here that care and they want to do great things. And I think you have a just a tremendous set of people here that care about this country. And, you know, look, oil and gas is the is the blood. It’s the blood and the heart for our country. We’ve got to have it. We got to do it right. And we got to just eliminate the argument. Yeah. Keep on going, baby drill baby drill.

Rey Treviño [00:13:59] Baby drill I love it. Well, Leigh David, I cannot thank you all enough for your time. I know y’all have way more important things to do. So I just want to say thank you all again for the time and to everybody out there. I think you get into the Nape Expo and we’ll see you again on another episode of The Crude Truth.

Narrator [00:14:16] Again, The Crude Truth would like to thank today’s sponsors LFS Chemistry, Nape Expo, Air Compressor Solutions, Sandstone Group, Exec Crue, Texas Star Alliance, Pecos Country Operating, and Real News Communication Network.

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