‘Delivering Programmes of work in a Collaborative Environment’ In December 2013 I delivered a presentation on the above subject as a guest speaker at the 3rd Advanced Project Management International Conference in Berlin. If you have any questions please email me on: danton@danton-progm.co.uk

1. Delivering Programmes of
work in a Collaborative
Environment
Dr D.N. Antoniadis
3rd Conference in the Project Management Series:
Advanced Project Management for the Utility and Power Generation
Industry
11th - 13th December 2013, Berlin, Germany
www.danton-progm.co.uk

2. 1. Lessons Learnt from Collaborative working in
Programmes of Work
2. What needs to improve for successful collaborative
working
3. Approach and requirements
4. How do we embed these in organisations
What will be covered

3. 1. LESSONS LEARNT

4. My previous alliancing and partnering environments:
– Water Utility – ‘A’ – Alliancing,
– Water Utility – ‘B’ – Alliancing,
– Infrastructure Company ‘A’ – Partnering
Approach:
– Establish long-term relationships,
– Improving delivery of programmes of work by capturing the
advantages of early engagement,
– Different types of contract (NEC, IChemE, etc.),
– Pain & Gain commercial initiatives,
– Some data integration,
– Tier 1 engagement
Lessons learnt - 1

5. Innovation UK (IUK) report (2012) findings:
– There is little evidence that companies are learning and applying
from the initiatives the new approaches more widely,
– Relationships rarely extended down the supply chains,
– There is no evidence that collaborative project teams have led to
improvements in the planning and management of work on site or in
the conditions provided for the work force,
Lessons learnt - 2

6. Innovation UK (IUK) report in late (2012) findings:
Need to examine if possibilities of current academic work in
behavioural science, innovation and management could be
used to better understand collaborative project teams.
Set up of four work streams:
a) Coordination of inter-organisational networks
b) Business models
c) Cross-organisational alignment of incentives
d) Technological and social innovation
Lessons learnt - 3

7. Lessons learnt - 4
IUK – Factors that shape collaborative project teams

8. What is the ‘environment’ in collaborative working?
We are looking at socio-organisational systems that come
together to deliver various parties’ long term strategic
objectives and at the same time serve their own ‘purpose of
existence’
The above indicates that there are hidden / masked
interconnections between and within the systems that need
to form collaborative environments and from earlier points
these are not addressed.
This is also confirmed by Martinsuo M (IJPM, Vol 31,6).
Lessons learnt - 5

9. 1. LESSONS LEARNT

10. • IUK identified clearly improvements required in:
1. Coordination of inter-organisational networks
2. Business models
3. Cross-organisational alignment of incentives
4. Technological and social innovation
Improvements required - 1

11. • Improvement and importance of Relationships:
– Tim Banfield Director of National Audit Office:
• ‘… I have been struck by how often the quality and honesty of relationships has
been a deciding factor in the success or failure of projects’
• ‘… importance of trust. Parties need to understand roles and responsibilities. The
minute you take the contract out of the drawer you have failed’
– Sir John Armitt, Chairman of Olympic Delivery Authority
• ‘Companies, big and small, were encouraged to work together in a truly
collaborative relationship that benefited all’
Improvements required - 2

12. Improvements required - 3
IUK indicated that we have not answered the question:
‘How do we see the collaborative organisation working’
Project /
Programme
Team
T C
P
The wider environment

13. – The initial conditions
– Roles and responsibilities
– Selection of team members
– Structure
– Leadership
– Behavioural changes
– Data and information integration
– Systems and processes
Improvements required - 4
We need to consider:

14. My previous alliancing and partnering environments:
– Water Utility – ‘A’ – Alliancing,
– Water Utility – ‘B’ – Alliancing,
– Infrastructure Company ‘A’ – Partnering
Approach:
– Establish long-term relationships,
– Improving delivery of programmes of work by capturing the
advantages of early engagement,
– Different types of contract (NEC, IChemE, etc.),
– Pain & Gain commercial initiatives,
– Some data integration,
– Tier 1 engagement
Lessons learnt - 1

15. Relevant research results - 1
Prevailing Conditions
4
17
14
50
14
0
17
33
36
14
2
14
34
42
7
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
More Static, Simple,
Friendly
Static, Simple, Friendly Half w ay Dynamic, Compex,
Hostile
More Dynamic, Complex,
Hostile
Percentageofrespondents
2q6a_Static-2-Dynamic
2q6b_Simple-2-Complex
2q6c_Friendly-2-Hostile
Antoniadis, D. 2009, Managing Complexity in Project Teams. PhD Thesis.
The prevailing conditions in projects
Dynamic
&
Complex
but
Friendly

16. Antoniadis, D. 2009, Managing Complexity in Project Teams. PhD Thesis.
Relevant research results - 2
According to the
practitioners surveyed
Management Style is the
biggest contributor to
success

17. % Drop in Performance - Only Construction Case Studies
0%
50%
56%58%
57%58%
55%
59%
56%
64%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
w k0 w k1 w k2 w k3 w k4 w k5 w k6 w k7 w k8 w k9
%DropinPerformance
Case Study G2.1 Case Study G1.1.2
Cnstr Average
Relevant research results - 3
Antoniadis, D. 2009, Managing Complexity in Project Teams. PhD Thesis.
Average drop in
performance due to not
managing the effects of
complexity:- 50%

18. • The initial conditions
• Roles and responsibilities
• Selection of team members
• Team Structure
• Leadership
• Behavioural changes
• Data and information integration
• Systems and processes
• Performance
Improvements required - 6
How are we doing against the areas discussed?

19. APPROACH AND
REQUIREMENTS

20. Innovation UK (IUK) report (2012) findings:
– There is little evidence that companies are learning and applying
from the initiatives the new approaches more widely,
– Relationships rarely extended down the supply chains,
– There is no evidence that collaborative project teams have led to
improvements in the planning and management of work on site or in
the conditions provided for the work force,
Lessons learnt - 2

21. We need to change our mode of thinking and consider
project and programme management especially in a
collaborative environment under a different view point and
in the context of complexity, but we need to look at the
definition first.
Approach & Requirements - 2

22. Since projects and programmes are defined as a temporary
endeavour in a dynamic environment project management
can be defined as:
The management of transient, dynamic and complex
adaptive systems/agents, so as to deliver the expected
change within certain parameters that are established by
seemingly ordered and stable environments.(Antoniadis, 2009)
Approach & Requirements - 3

23. But why complexity?
Complexity is defined as ‘the dealing with interconnections
between dynamic systems’ and has characteristics.
Classification of complexity characteristics by type (Antoniadis, et al., 2006)
Conditional:
Autonomous Agents, Instability, Non-equilibrium, Non-linear, Attractors
Developmental:
Co-evolution, Self-modification, Downward causation, Mutability, Non-
uniform, Emergence, Phase changes
Behavioural:
Unpredictability, Non-standard, Undefined values
Complexity under consideration

24. Autonomous Agents
Complex systems are generally composed
of independent or autonomous agents. All
of these agents are regarded as equally
valuable in the operation of the system
Non-Equilibrium
Energy flows will
drive the system
away from an
equilibrium position
and establish semi-
stable modes as
dynamic attractors
Non-linear
Complex system
outputs are not
proportional to
their inputs
Co-evolution
The parts are
regarded as
evolving in
conjunction with
each other in
order to fit into
a wider system
environment
Downward Causation
The existence and properties of
the parts themselves are affected
by the emergent properties (or
higher level systemic features) of
the whole
Unpredictability
In interacting
systems a chaotic
sensitivity to initial
conditions can
occur
Complexity Characteristics

25. Innovation UK (IUK) report in late (2012) findings:
Need to examine if possibilities of current academic work in
behavioural science, innovation and management could be
used to better understand collaborative project teams.
Set up of four work streams:
a) Coordination of inter-organisational networks
b) Business models
c) Cross-organisational alignment of incentives
d) Technological and social innovation
Lessons learnt - 3

26. Innovation UK (IUK) report in late (2012) findings:
Need to examine if possibilities of current academic work in
behavioural science, innovation and management could be
used to better understand collaborative project teams.
Set up of four work streams:
a) Coordination of inter-organisational networks
b) Business models
c) Cross-organisational alignment of incentives
d) Technological and social innovation
Lessons learnt - 3

27. • Manage collaborative work through the management of
complexity,
• Implement enablers through integration of data – in a
truly open and transparent environment,
• Look at the monitoring activities and make these as less
intrusive as possible.
Approach & Requirements - 4

28. Consider the following question, raised by Jeff Wilcox
(Lockheed Martin VP of Engineering – Oct13 ICCPM Seminar)
How can we develop less aggressive means of looking?
And from the above consider these questions:
• Is reporting an aggressive means of looking?
• Do you know how much ‘noise’ is introduced in reporting
by the authors?
• Do you trust what is reported and how much do you
know about what is reported before this reaches you?
• Do we need to change our approach?
Approach & Requirements - 5

29. HOW DO WE EMBED THESE IN
ORGANISATIONS?

30. Implementing properly and from the initial stages basic
project management processes, such as : Structuring and
Selecting team members, to the lowest levels. Not being
shy to implement and use these for continuous
improvement.
Embedding new approach - 1

31. Lessons learnt - 4
IUK – Factors that shape collaborative project teams

32. Implement proper Lessons Learnt (Captured, Analysed,
Recorded, Disseminated & Applied).
Follow and emphasise a ‘Learning in Experience’
environment on:
‘what we are doing while we are doing it’.
Embedding new approach - 3

33. • Accept the challenge that reporting includes unavoidable
‘noise’’ and embed means for non-intrusive reporting,
• Use of technology – BIM, live access to programmes,
common structures, systems thinking approach,
• Minimise man marking,
Embedding new approach - 4

34. • Focus on the attribute of Leadership for the team
members who will lead in a Collaborative working
environment,
• Consider complexity and its characteristics to manage
their effect on each process, and
• Importance of trust
Embedding new approach - 5

35. Contact Details: Dimitris Antoniadis
Tel. No.: (++)44 7754 522 049
Email: dnanton00@gmail.com
Website: www.danton-progm.co.uk
Thank you
3rd Conference in the Project Management Series:
Advanced Project Management for the Utility and Power Generation
Industry
11th - 13th December 2013, Berlin, Germany