Enabling high performance collaboration
The Owner and Contractor Project Controls teams working in a mega Oil & Gas project appeared un-responsive and consistently produced poor quality product during the early stages of the project. There was a lack of recognition within the contractor team that controls were not functioning as they should be and the owner team was compensating for the shortfall.
Establishing the root causes of non-performance
GBPA conducted interviews with team members, leaders and customers to establish the underlying causes and perceptions leading to the poor performance. From the resulting analysis it emerged that work was being duplicated in several areas, contributing to general confusion of message and insufficient information to enable appropriate management action. People were not able to engage with each other effectively, roles were confused with people ill equipped to deal with the level of performance required of them. This was leading to stress and frustration within the team and among its customers.
Facilitating the combined team through a process of alignment, GBPA helped the team to explore and validate the issues and agree the critical improvement actions. By aligning the leadership of the owner and contractor teams, it became clear that collaboration through integrating the work would unlock the level of performance required. This was further emphasised by both parties understanding that neither could succeed without the other, and therefore they had much to gain personally and organisationally by working more effectively together.
Benefits achieved
Drawing on GBPA’s insights into high performing teams, GBPA has helped create the impetus to integrate and achieve shared goals. This has been underpinned by:
- Improved access to data
- Greater task ownership and ability to influence outcomes
- Better team spirit with more cooperation
- Improved workload distribution
Decreased activity duplication - Greater ability to influence outcomes with the wider project
- Capability gaps closed
- Introduction of a tiered structure so the right person is available
- Clearer understanding of expectations of what is required