WE
COLLABORATE
The WHY
Construction projects in particular require multi-disciplinary teams to enable the delivery of the end product.
Each team member often works for a different company and has different responsibilities and different demands from their team member counterparts. The respective company each team member is representing will almost always have quoted fees for the project based on a scope, program and hours.
When projects become problematic; scope, timescales or budgets are changed, tensions can rise. This rising tension often leads to non-productive ‘blaming’ behaviour or personal tension and stress. This in turn leads to a loss in productivity, an increase in the cost of delivery, as well as a reduction in over all quality as the focus on solution based outcomes reduces.
The HOW
Successful projects do not happen by chance…They are delivered through project governance that recognises the causes of delivery failure and actively seeks to avoid these causes, as well as through the provision of high quality decision making, flexibility and dynamism.
Other key aspects include;
- Ensuring tendering processes assess behaviour of the individual team members, not just past company performance or price.
- Early contractor involvement, to avoid the ‘them and us’ mentality between the design team and the delivery contractor.
- Inclusion of key suppliers and subcontractors in the same procurement practices.
- Facilitated workshops to ensure that all parties understand the goals and objectives; risks, scope, time, cost and quality
expectations, leaving no ambiguity of roles, responsibility or accountability. This is where developing trust between team
members begins.
- Generate and live a ‘one team’ ethos and values for the
project, irrespective of individual companies. - Identify challenging behaviours or areas where team members consistently fail to deliver their priority tasks. Work through the cause and effect and collectively agree and enact solutions.
- Ideally use forms of contract that support collaboration.
As collaboration is ultimately about working with others to
produce an end result, facilitating collaborative behaviour through contracts which enable team members to successfully work with one another is vital. - Clear delivery metrics so that the team can learn to self
monitor and self regulate. - Project based assessment tools developed and managed by
facilitators. This can often include a 360-degree evaluation of the project at key milestones with feedback sessions to identify behaviours and build on those that are positive and productive.
THE BENEFITS
The key benefit is a positive team culture which leads to healthy team members who have a focus on innovation and solutions.
This in turn leads to lower costs, on time delivery and an overall improvement in quality.
A UK Cabinet Office case study identified the following benefits:
A UK Cabinet Office case study identified the following benefits:
- Agreement of up to 15% post tender cost savings
- Improved whole life value, including enhanced warranty provisions
- Improved quality control through joint risk assessments
and integrated team management of risk - Improved commitment to training and apprenticeships
- Lean programming of individual tasks, leading to overall time savings
- Innovation through collaborative working, specifically recycling and waste reduction
OUR CLIENTS
“North Star Housing Group has worked with Jacqui as a consultant on a range of asset management and investment
planning reviews and projects. Jacqui is an expert in the field of asset management and assisted us to better
understand our assets, that led to improved focus on investment and the release of loan capacity. We now have a
very robust and reliable asset management strategy and asset condition information and a return on assets model
with highly effective planning. Jacqui blends her expertise, with helpful challenge and organisational understanding.”
“Durham City Homes asked Jacqui to help us with a root and branch review of our approach to asset management
and then work with us in developing and delivering an action plan to deliver the improvements that were identified.
She worked with us in completely overhauling our approach to stock condition and programme development,
procuring delivery partners and ensuring statutory and regulatory compliance. Her in-depth and comprehensive
knowledge helped guide us through this process, while her supportive and practical approach ensured that it was
implemented in a timely and efficient manner that was never forced and with a minimum of friction. She is particularly
good at working with teams of people to identify the best way forward for the group, not imposing her own
agenda and is very strong in knowledge transfer and developing teams to deliver their best.”.
“Being able to get into the detail and work alongside the foot
soldiers yet be strategic with project principals– and how to
flip between the two approaches, is a rare yet very valuable
skill in project management that’s not seen amongst most consultants.
Thankfully for us and the project, Jacqui possessed it
in spades.”
"Paul has great design and technical knowledge, this enabled him to provide pragmatic decisions in a timely manner to ensure that the project was delivered on time and under budget."
"Jacqui worked with me on several projects as Partnering Adviser where among other things, she chaired collaborative contracting workshops, conducted 360 degree reviews of the project team, identified risk and removed delivery ambiguity. Her work on bringing the teams together and working with them to define their roles, responsibilities, tasks and actions has been first class and delivered real results."
"The professionalism, emotional intelligence and insightfulness , Jacqui brought to the project cannot be overstated, as the above points were achieved in days not weeks. It was this achievement and those key attributes which I believe differentiated Jacqui from her many peers in the industry. Given the opportunity I would not hesitate in employing Jacqui directly or via her new entity “Collectiveight”"
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