The Discipline of Collaboration
I was recently working with a project team that is struggling with the act of collaboration. The team members have been working hard, they have been professional, and they have been resilient. But when the team has been faced with negotiating through ambiguity, they have struggled with the discipline to bring issues to a mutually agreeable conclusion. They were meeting frequently and talking through issues in a variety of formats. But they struggled to get items across the finish line in a predictable, consistent manner.
I was reminded that true collaboration requires a team to do multiple things right in a row and involves disciplined communication to work through the following stages:
1. Agree on the Mission
2. Create a Structure for Deep Work
3. Articulate your Needs
4. Seek Overlaps
5. Write up the Agreement
1. Agree on the Mission
It is important to start by defining what mutual success looks like. When working with a team that is struggling, this is the first area we dig into. Similar to confirming the objective of a meeting from the outset, when a team needs to solve a problem, they first need to agree and define the problem.
Focusing on concrete issues like a key submittal or negotiating a key change order can reveal that the team struggling to resolve an issue never was able to align on the mission from the start. The team I was working with had several meetings where they were trying to collaborate, but they were attempting to use two meetings as “catch-alls” and were giving status updates, but did not have a forum where they could do deep work and resolve one issue at a time.
2. Create a Structure for Deep Work
Structure is often essential to enable effective collaboration and a little goes a long way. Large group meetings (like the weekly Progress Meeting or Owner, Architect, Contractor (OAC) meeting), are best suited for status updates and emerging items that can be resolved within 5 minutes. If a longer conversation is needed (to resolve a design-related issue, finalize a specific submittal, or to resolve entitlement on a potential change order), identify the minimum number of people needed who are a) close to the issue from a technical perspective and b) have the authority to resolve it.
Simple ground rules around effective listening and the commitment to resolve at least one issue per meeting leads to throughput. Too many people prevents decisions from being made.
3. Articulate your Needs
I recently read an article by Amy Edmonson and Michaela Kerrisey’s entitled “What People Get Wrong About Psychological Safety.” There are six misconceptions they highlight around Psychological safety, but one of them really resonated with me – that psychological safety means being nice. Being nice or polite, does not necessarily represent psychological safety. When a team is “nice” they may be showing false approval even when they disagree. This is not psychological safety and it does not help the team – instead it is damaging. False consensus is a quiet killer for teams because the truth comes out eventually.
High performing teams and leaders model how to behave when they disagree with someone’s perspective and also show team members how to work through a problem until it is solved. As a leader, demonstrate curiosity when differences of opinion arise. Stay with issues until they are resolved. Extend the change order meeting until all in the room agree on what level of justification is needed by the subcontractor to resolve the change order. Don’t just be nice – be clear about what you need so your counterpart can begin anticipating what you need even before you work through the next negotiation.
4. Seek Overlaps
Collaboration is about the act of taking multiple perspectives and co-creating a new result. It is important to remember that great negotiators and collaborators are great listeners first and are creative problem-solvers second. They are able to hear someone’s perspective and restate it back to them and get agreement. Once a team understands everyone’s needs, the final agreement can often be revealed by identifying overlapping needs.
For example, one team was struggling with getting an approved submittal. They were on their fourth revise and resubmit and we heard repeated complaints about how the engineer preparing the submittal for review was not picking up the reviewing engineer’s comments. In that case we had the reviewing engineer draw a picture of the issue and “show” the problems they were seeing with the submittal. It was a complex submittal that was hundreds of pages long, but components of the design relied on measurements that needed to remain consistent throughout the entire document. Only after the reviewer had drawn a picture to reveal what was needed did the team finally nail the last revision and get an approved submittal.
5. Write up the Agreement
Something I learned from my mediation practice prior to working in construction is the power of a simple write up in a consistent format. Whether a team needs to develop a change order agreement, develop a change order request, or finalize a submittal, a consistent format can be really helpful and can streamline the write up of a final agreement.
Something we model in partnering is writing up agreements in real time while the team is in the room together. If something needs to change or be undone, that can be done only by the parties coming together to amend the agreement.
When your team works through an issue and gets to an agreement, do not be content with “agreement in principle.” Stay together to make sure you are aligned on how the agreement will be documented (e.g., confirming email, contract change order, approved as noted submittal, or updated design bulletin) and also make sure you agree on the justification and timeframe needed for implementation. I have seen many agreements unravel because one party couldn’t deliver on the stated timeline, which negatively impacted trust.
Note that all five of these steps take leadership and discipline to achieve, so making a list is not a panacea. Teams need to regularly work on and get comfortable asking for what they need as soon as the needs emerge… from there, they can build psychological safety and effectively collaborate.
Let me know what you have done to help team members improve their collaboration skills and practices! And to learn more – I hope you can join us at the upcoming International Partnering Institute Collaboration Conference and Awards Ceremony on April 30th!
Register here!
– Rob
Rob Reaugh is President of OrgMetrics LLC. He facilitates the City and County of San Francisco Collaborative Partnering Steering Committee and currently works with San Francisco International Airport, San Jose International Airport, BART, Caltrans, and others. He holds a Masters’ Degree in Alternative Dispute Resolution.
For more information please contact Rob Reaugh, RobReaugh@Orgmet.com / (925) 487-2404 (cell), or OrgMetrics, (925) 449-8300.