Energy Report 2022
Collaboration
How can collaboration help the energy sector?
Over 80% of replies to our survey said that collaboration is ‘very important’ in the delivery of major projects in the energy sector.
What is collaboration?
Collaborative working is defined by the Institute for Collaborative Working as: ‘Business relationships formed by committed organisations to maximise joint performance for achievement of mutual objectives and creation of additional value’.
Business relationships built on collaborative principles have been shown to deliver a wide range of benefits, which enhance competitiveness and performance whilst adding value to organisations of all sizes. For this reason, the concept of collaborative working is being adopted in the development and delivery of major projects within the energy sector.
What is needed to deliver collaborative working?
There is much talk about collaboration but for many the concept seems ad-hoc and unclear as to whether it is collaboration, co-operation or just an alliance.
ISO 44001 is an international standard that addresses collaborative business relationships, with the objective of providing an integral framework for an organisation’s established operations, activities, processes and procedures, to optimise the benefits of collaboration.
The standard focuses on behaviours, organisational culture and management processes — providing a common platform to underpin sustainable business relationships and harness the benefits of collaborative working. Usually applied to multiple partners for major energy projects, the model can also be applied to one-to-one relationships.
Of respondents to our survey, 56% said that the organisation they work for is ISO 44001 accredited.
Many organisations are already using the standard as it provides a consistent framework to establish effective collaborative working relationships and maps the key areas that organisations should address. It also enables partners to effectively share knowledge, skills and resources to meet mutually defined objectives and to provide new levels of value creation.
There must be a recognition of the benefits of collaborative working and a commitment to start the journey at the highest level within participating organisations — nearly 80% of our survey replies were that collaborative structures should be embedded into contracts.
This is more than a ‘nice to have’ that is instigated at the beginning of a relationship or project but is something that participating organisations can continually monitor to ensure the joint objectives of collaborative working are delivered.
What are the barriers to collaborative working and contracting?
Challenges identified in our survey include:
- Individual company requirements/expectations/limitations conflicting with the goals for collaborative working
- Perception/different levels of understanding of collaboration between the parties
- Collaborative intentions and structures not cascaded down the supply chain
- Personality clashes may cause friction and slow down output
- Recognition that collaboration is about working jointly to deliver a common goal and developing trust between the stakeholders. This still requires contract administration, accountability and challenging of underperformance
- Poor project initiation in establishing collaborative protocol
- Communication breakdown/non-maintenance of behaviours
- A lack of understanding that ultimate objectives for each party may not always align perfectly, so time should be taken to ensure alignment as best as possible.
Are collaborative principles being used in the energy sector?
Gleeds is helping clients to deliver collaborative working arrangements, including supporting the Sizewell C new nuclear power plant project.
We have also been nominated as the lead to deliver collaborative working for the Project Development Organisation (PDO).
Made up of three participating organisations, the first task of the PDO has been to agree a collaboration charter; the purpose of which is to:
- Commit and align the three parties to work together, evidenced by executives from all parties signing the charter
- Act as a guiding beacon for collaboration for the PDO and the wider Sizewell C project
- State an agreed purpose, vision, mission, values, success factors and goals for the PDO
- Set high level principles to further develop collaborative working for the Sizewell C PDO.
The PDO is in the early stages of embedding a working environment, whilst developing an operating model that has collaboration at its heart, followed by the agreement of a joint relationship management plan (RMP). The RMP formally recognises the collaborative relationship between the three parties and captures each of the ‘stages’ of the ISO 44001 operational lifecycle.
There has been recognition of the benefits of collaborative working in the energy sector and we have also supported other clients in developing and embedding similar working arrangements, including Sellafield Ltd, Westinghouse, and BAE, to name a few.
Overall, it is important to set up projects/programmes to be collaborative from the outset to ensure that all parties are aware of requirements. If these arrangements are not embedded in the contract, it becomes reliant on best endeavours and good faith, which could be strained when challenges arise.
