Realignment for powerful teaming on the Elizabeth Line
We partnered with this major infrastructure and large-scale construction delivery organisation in their work in complex collaborative partnerships with joint ventures companies (JVs), undertaking the various elements of the Elizabeth Line. This programme was designed to help them more effectively deliver ‘safely, on time, on budget, and sustainably’.
The various JVs delivering the different modules of the overall construction tended to be led by prime contractors with very different management styles and civil engineering philosophies – in part heavily influenced by their home/HQ country construction business cultures.
Focus
There was an acute need for an intervention to facilitate an alignment process between the client delivery organisation and a joint venture contractor responsible for a major element of the construction programme after a breakdown in trust. This misalignment was focused in three main areas: commercial tensions, safety performance, and organisational issues working with a newly formed team. Working with the leaders individually first, we then brought together the teams on both sides, before finally integrating the two parties. Establishing trust required patience, perseverance, and an impartial facilitator.
Action
We developed a simple four-stage process:
Impact
Following the alignment process, there was a major improvement in the effectiveness of the relationship between the client and JV, based on new ways of working and continued open and constructive dialogue. There was also a significant improvement in the JVs performance in terms of safety, cost and schedule leading to accelerated delivery of major project milestones.
This approach formed a template for subsequent interventions in other areas of the construction programme as issues of misalignment arose. Increasingly, learning on the client delivery organisation (CDO) side led to fewer issues arising between them and the various JV organisations; and the focus of the interventions shifted to alignment issues within the JVs and their supply chains, work either commissioned by the CDO in support of the JV or directly commissioned by the JV itself.
