Trust the bedrock for long-term construction collaboration

That message has been delivered loud and clear by the Construction Productivity Taskforce in its new private sector construction playbook, ‘Trust and Productivity’, (84-page / 4.8MB PDF) – a guide aimed at helping employers, contractors and consultants to embrace collaboration as a route to achieving better productivity and innovation across the lifecycle of a project. Pinsent Masons experts contributed to the contents of the playbook.

The Taskforce highlighted how project failure can often be traced to three things: “teams not collaborating effectively; team members pulling in different directions; and too much risk unfairly loaded onto one of the parties to a contract”. This, it said, creates tension and mistrust from the start of the relationship.

The Taskforce has advocated establishing “a well-structured, defined set of project principles and objectives which encourage trust-based relationships and a cohesive culture, provide firm foundations for project success” at the outset. It said this will “drive behaviour and set a course for the project”.

It advocates transparency and engendering trust by spelling out the behaviours expected from all parties involved in a project – this is an important step to moving away from adversarial contracting.

The playbook goes into detail about what can be done at the early stages of a project to establish the basis for its success. It includes documenting things like the project vision, defining the culture to be adopted by the team, setting out objectives and the project strategy or brief, and listing known risks or constraints. It further recommends defining success and establishing metrics to measure performance against, as well as stresses the importance of having clear systems of governance in place to avoid mistakes and support prompt payment, among other things.

Another important recommendation of the Taskforce is to involve contractors at an early stage of a project. This can help with aligning goals and ensuring there is collective decision-making in the best interests of the project, it said.

Involving contractors early should lead to better designed and priced buildings as the design team and supply chain can work collaboratively and integrate the design solutions prior to start on site. It also provides the best chance of ensuring innovative solutions are adopted, such as the latest technologies or modern methods of construction.

Trust and cooperation can also be fostered through equitable risk sharing – another of the playbook’s best practice recommendations. Doing that correctly, along with evaluating the value of overall project life cycle cost and agreeing the price at the appropriate stage of the procurement, will lead to better designed and sustainable buildings and more successful procurements.

The Construction Productivity Taskforce draws from construction industry expertise at organisations such as BAE Systems, British Land, Bryden Wood, Alinea, Cast, Gardiner & Theobald, GPE, Landsec, Lendlease, Mace, Morrisroe, Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska, SOM, Turner & Townsend, and Be the Business.