What’s “Collaborative Partnering?”

Introduced by the US Army Corp of Engineers into the public sector in the late 1980’s, partnering is a term used for a variety of approaches to manage relationships either externally among organizations in a supply chain or internally between different business units.

Collaborative Partnering:

· Moves the management focus away from contractual confrontation that is so often associated with traditional project relationships, to cooperation in the pursuit of common objectives and improvements for the benefit of all parties.

· Changes traditional relationships and behaviors to a shared culture without regard to organizational boundaries.

· Builds a relationship based on trust, dedication to common goals and an understanding of each other’s expectations and values.

· Delivers benefits including improved efficiency and cost-effectiveness, increased opportunity for innovation, and the continuous improvement of quality products and services.

The Value of Collaborative Partnering

In today’s economy, with margins and costs heavily influenced by market forces, improved cost-effectiveness and productivity afford a business or agency the most potential for positive impact on its return on investment or program budgets.

According to the American Arbitration Association, studies by the Construction Industry Institute indicate:

· Increased trust results in reduced project costs and schedules.

· Effective partnering yields improved productivity resulting in increased value.

· 90% of the participants surveyed said partnering improved the quality of the project.

· 5 partnering projects with total installed costs of $492 million averaged 7% savings.

· Of 30 partnered projects with a total cost of $684 million, 83% completed early or on time.

· The estimated cost of partnering including partnering consultants’ fees and project team time spent in

training and other partnering activities is less than 1%.

While these examples apply the collaborative partnering process in the post contract situation, the benefits of applying these principles before the contract is placed and with a contract that supports those principles rather than challenging them, can deliver much higher benefits with a similar investment. Click here for supporting case studies.

The Process of Collaborative Partnering

Collaborative Partnering is a process that must be initiated in a disciplined manner at the beginning of a project if its maximum potential is to be realized. It is best introduced as a change management process with a start-up workshop and follow-up training and review workshops led by independent facilitators that lead to a new way of working. Partnering engaged during the preparation of project basics can result in significant cost improvements and similar relationships for key project parameters such as quality, schedule, and safety can also be drawn.

Collaborative Partnering Key Components

Key components critical to the success of partnering are:

· Focus on improving cooperative attitudes and behaviors.

· Focus on the needs of the customer.

· Commitment to the new way of working from the top of all the organizations involved.

· Mutually agreed objectives stated in a comprehensive charter which is prepared, published, and signed by all stakeholders.

· Partnering Awareness and Alliance Workshops independently facilitated.

· Regular reviews and coaching to transform traditional attitudes and practices.

· Role modeling partnering behavior by senior management.

· Development of teamwork and cooperative working to overcome problems.

· Measures of performance that truly reflect the objectives.

· Incentives for meeting and improving on the objectives.

How does Collaborative Partnering differ from Project Management?

Collaborative Partnering manages project communications between as well as the behaviors amongst the project’s participants similarly to how project management already manages project scheduling and technical, craft and professional tasks. In other words, as Project Management manages the processes and tasks involved in a project or initiative, Collaborative Partnering manages the communications and behaviors of the project’s participants. It is not a substitute for Project Management or a different type of project management; Collaborative Partnering Facilitation and Coaching support the project management process and puts it on a different and much more effective footing.

In Summary…

Convivium Partners helps you define your (or your team’s) goals and supports your efforts in achieving those goals through custom-built partnering workshops that bring all the varied stakeholders together in an atmosphere of cooperation, trust and open communication. And, we don’t stop there. We also offer you and your team Executive Coaching to help sustain the success of your partnering initiatives.

If you would like to learn more about Collaborative Partnering, contact us and we would be happy to demonstrate the effectiveness of Collaborative Partnering. We’ll show you how you can establish a project team whose focus is performance rather than dealing with the frustrations of adversity, conflict, hidden agendas, or simply the reality of the various project participants looking out for their own objectives as a priority over the project objectives. Let us help you achieve a “win-win” for your next project!