Meet Anders Instebø

Who is Anders Instebø and what is your role at EGGS?

”I’m Creative Leader in EGGS Stavanger, with a background in graphic design. For me design is communication, because intentionally or not, it always tells a story. I’m driven by finding ways to simplify complex things and boiling them down to their essence to make them understandable. One way of doing that is by visualizing them. But to make ideas actionable, you need to also understand how people think, behave and collaborate, which is why behavioural science is something that I find very interesting as a designer.”

You have extensive experience from the energy sector. Can you tell us about that?

“The energy sector is interesting for the obvious reason that it has a significant impact on society. But what interests me perhaps even more than that are the people in this industry – it’s full of knowledgeable, skilful, and interesting people. Having the chance to work with them and drink from the same source, is inspiring. And, I believe our role as designers is centred very much around people. It’s as facilitators, co-creators and enablers of conversation and collaboration that we bring the most value.

I have worked in many energy-related projects, where we have used design methodology to help break down silos, and simplify complex concepts so that everyone can understand each other. Getting people on the same page is a prerequisite for succeeding with any innovation project.”

In EGGS, we work with three main areas related to our purpose, one being the mission to create greener, safer and smarter industries. What role does the energy sector play in this?

”The energy sector is very impactful in the sense that it’s the basis for basically every other sector. All services and products use energy in one form or another. So, you could say that if you manage to transform the energy sector, you will transform every sector. That’s pretty powerful. And, adding to that, the energy crisis that the world is experiencing right now impacts both individuals, companies and society at large in very direct ways. So, there are infinite ways that the energy sector plays a role, both in the short, and long term.”

“The energy sector is the basis for basically every other sector. All services and products use energy in one form or another. So, you could say that if you manage to transform the energy sector, you will transform every sector. That’s pretty powerful.”

We are, no doubt, as a society facing challenges related to energy. What are the main ones? ”I’d like to give a surprising and unique answer to this question, but I’m afraid the answer is the obvious – sustainability. We have to secure ways to a green, affordable and reliable energy supply. That said, this is a complex problem to solve, that currently doesn’t have a quick solution available. It’s often said that you can’t have a solution that is fast, cheap and good at the same time. You can only have two of the three at the same time, and that’s where we are with energy at the moment. I think what is really important, and sometimes underestimated when discussing the green shift, is the relevance of harnessing all the existing knowledge in the current energy industry. The oil and gas industries will need to be transformed, yes. But there is immense knowledge, technological resources and data that we need to tap into to succeed with the transition.”

What opportunities do you see in the industry?

“There’s an immense amount of research being conducted on renewable energy sources. That’s fantastic, and I see many possibilities in new technology that’s being developed. Also, like I mentioned before, exploring all the existing data and know-how in the non-renewable energy sector is a largely untapped source of future solutions. We have worked with many data and digitalisation-related projects in the oil and gas industry, and there is so much to be done when it comes to finding ways of using this data, both to make existing processes less environmentally harmful, but also to use for finding completely new ways of working.

Digitalization has come a long way, but there’s still a lot to be done there, and it’s a challenge that many energy companies need help with to be able to scale and reap the benefits from, both financially and from a green perspective.”

You have mentioned that you don’t believe in the trend of “going back to basics”- using little energy by living like we did in the past? What do you mean by that?

“Yes, I don’t believe in turning the clock back. We all have a responsibility to live smarter and more sustainably, but at the same time we cannot turn the clock back on advances in technology and living standards. It’s not an excuse to continue to destroy the planet, but a call for finding better solutions than trying to reverse development. Spending time and effort trying to make individuals downgrade their living standards feels doomed to fail. People easily adjust to comfort and high standards, but not so easily the other way around. In other words, I believe we have to solve the problem by finding sustainable ways of continuing to travel, fly, eat the food we enjoy, build our houses and dress our bodies. Do it in smarter ways. Not in more boring ways.”

“We all have a responsibility to live smarter and more sustainably, but at the same time we cannot turn the clock back on advances in technology and living standards. It’s not an excuse to continue to destroy the planet, but a call for finding better solutions than trying to reverse development.”

Do you have any tips for organisations wanting to work better with innovation?

”I think that in larger organisations it’s easy to lose the overview of the competence that you have inhouse. By doing a proper mapping of what competences you have – and don’t have – inhouse you get a much better starting point for working with innovation. Use the resources that you have, and hire the ones that you don’t have externally. Often organisations have solutions to many problems, but if you don’t take the time to take a step back and get a good overview, and perhaps also ask for a fresh pair of eyes from the outside, you can become blind to them. Also, don’t be afraid to collaborate. I often hear people saying that they are afraid of leaking information and important knowledge to the outside by collaboration across organisations. That’s a great shame. Innovation needs collaboration and cross-organisational partnerships. We’re way past the time where single companies solve big problems all by themselves.”

“Innovation needs collaboration and cross-organisational partnerships. We’re way past the time where single companies solve big problems all by themselves.”

Five quick questions with Anders:

• Electric car or train? Electric car, I must admit. I like comfort.

• Hytte (Norwegian cabin) or hotel? Hytte! With electricity.

• Sun or wind? Sun! Always. Even though I’m from Stavanger.

• Best energy booster? To turn off the Internet. Gives you energy and saves electricity. Double-win.

• Fried or boiled EGGS? Boiled. They keep the shape.