Our Partnering program establishes a deeper appreciation of team member values, needs, strengths and differences. Participants will learn and practice the 13 behaviors inherent in high trust/high performing teams. Team building has huge potential in completing complex projects, developing new products and creates a culture that enables new and innovative ideas to be discovered.
World class teams require a carefully selected mix of individuals working together towards well-defined goals. The foundation of trust between team members created during the workshop build on the synergy to allow the team to create and effective manage healthy conflict, force clarity and closure to key issues, the ability to effectively confront difficult issues, the confidence that all the team members will hold each other accountable and focus on collective outcomes. The benefit of which will be:
- Lowered project costs
- Improved relationships and job satisfaction
- Timely resolution of issues and challenges
- Increased opportunities for innovation and value added ideas.
- Improved quality
- Improved safety
- Decrease in claims and disputes
Most significant projects involve bringing together groups of people from different companies, with different skills and outlooks, with divergent interests and aspirations. These people are more often than not brought together and expected to perform as a team almost instantly. They are required to develop working relationships and an understanding of each other in the heat of the moment as the project progresses. It is not uncommon to experience increased tension, lack of full cooperation and a divergence in ideas and solutions as the project unfolds. Imagine the disaster that would develop if a national football team coach simply picked the best 11 available players from top teams and put them on to the playing field with no team preparation. You could have the highest paid, most talented individuals assembled and yet remain a mediocre team. Such management behavior would be unthinkable and extremely unprofitable in that industry, yet it happens within construction on a regular basis.
The key to successful partnering is building successful teams. Research by the Construction Industry Institute in the USA shows that partnering and strategic alliances contributed directly to the success of projects 80 percent of the time. On average, schedules were reduced by 15 percent; costs by 12 percent; and change control, safety, and quality were all enhanced.