Applying relationship theory to project delivery

Mar 18, 2025 | News and insight

Projects, by their nature, are technical and commercial enterprises. However, what often makes or breaks a project is not a technical issue or even a commercial or cost one – but whether the relationships built can support and drive delivery.

It is easy to overlook the importance of these relationships as projects are driven to deliver quick wins or short-term gains such as “getting a shovel in the ground”. But focusing on these immediate wants risks undermining the long-term needs for our success, including the trust and collaboration that keeps things moving forward, particularly in modern mega- or even giga-projects where delivery is no longer a simple client/contractor relationship but a web of interconnected delivery partners and organisations.

Relationships between these organisations are what drive your delivery – but they are often not considered or worked upon in any meaningful way. At best, we might begin to think about interpersonal relationships, but what about interorganisational? After all, each component partner likely has their own ways of working, their own values, and their own ideas of what success looks like

We see the evidence of this lack of consideration everywhere. How many times have you encountered an organisation – client or otherwise – that is always in a ‘state of emergency’?  Where every ask has to be answered right now? Perhaps a few times their partners will go along with it (if they have a good relationship), but sooner or later someone will say “no” – and then where does that leave the asker?

Even within a traditional client/contractor relationship, the client may be constantly demanding that their contractor push costs down, or deliver faster, or deliver more, focusing on the client’s immediate ‘wants’ – but if this results in the contractor failing, both sides lose – the client has a failed project, and the contractor may be facing dire consequences, including insolvency.

Further, in complex modern project environments organisations will often be interacting outside of this transactional “I tell, you do” relationship, and so cannot even fall back on the (as mentioned, potentially unsustainable) “well the contract says you have to”.

So, if relationships are that important to project success, what can we do about them?

For interpersonal relationships, Schein & Schein set out a model with four ‘levels’:

Can we also apply these to the relationships between organisations? And what would that look like?

• Level -1 would consist of an exploitative relationship where one organisation is totally dominant of another, free to use and abuse them without accountability
• At Level 1, we would have the traditional transactional relationship – client/contractor, where one party holds all the power, and will only ever be thinking about their own needs – or more likely, their own wants, at any given time.
• Level 2 places parties in a position of openness – which enables a deeper understanding of other parties’ needs, as well as your own. Because only through understanding the needs of those you are relying upon to deliver, can you fully understand what yours are, and begin to evaluate your wants in terms of those needs.
• Level 3 would represent a level of intimacy between organisations which is likely unnecessary to most delivery environments. It may have a place in certain places where an acutely high level of trust and dependence is required, but otherwise, it applies far more to our personal relationships than our professional ones. It may even be detrimental, where clients favour one organisation to the exclusion of others, or two partners are co-dependent for any decision-making!

As with interpersonal relationships, Level 2 is the ‘sweet spot’ for delivery. Both parties recognize that achieving long-term goals means building mutual trust and aligning on shared objectives. Instead of viewing interactions merely as exchanges of services for payments, Level 2 encourages us to see our partners as collaborators whose success is intertwined with our own. This shift from a wants-based approach – built upon a system of ‘knowing your rights’, where contracts and legal obligations dominate – to a needs-based mindset opens the door for genuine problem-solving.

And, if those technical or commercial issues do raise their heads – you can proactively resolve or mediate them rather than resorting to costly disputes, where ultimately nobody’s needs will be met!

Tom Chick is a senior consultant at ResoLex specialising in building effective working environments in major projects. If you want to learn more about how to get the most out of your professional relationships, contact Tom here or connect with him on LinkedIn. 

The ‘Mobilisation Gap’ – failing to set-up for project success

Mar 11, 2025 | News and insight

From the moment a major project is announced, there is a societal, political and organisational pressure to deliver the intended benefits as quickly as possible. This pressure creates a culture that champions technical delivery above all else, pushing teams towards the ‘build’ stage of the project life cycle before they are ready. As a result, many of the key elements critical to the project’s success are neglected or poorly planned, and come back to bite us later.

Back in September 2023, we teamed up with the Major Projects Association to host a workshop called ‘Challenging the Mobilisation Myth: Driving performance through effective Contract Mobilisation’.
We brought together experienced project professionals from government and industry, including representatives from Costain, HS2, DEFRA, Jacobs, HKA, GBR, and East West Rail, to discuss the common issues affecting mobilisation. Since then, we’ve been busy in the background working with the MPA and some attendees of the workshop to develop our latest perspectives paper, ‘Mind the Mobilisation Gap: Why we’re still getting mobilisation wrong on major projects, and how we can do better’.

Co-authored by Lisa Martello and Tony Llewellyn of ResoLex, the Perspectives Paper brings together practical thoughts, observations and recommendations on how to plan and deliver project mobilisation successfully. Its objective is to:

• support project organisations to consider and embed mobilisation as a critical stage in the programme
• provide guidance on the time, attention and resources it needs and deserves in order to be successful.

Read the full report here. 

About the authors:

A project manager by trade, Lisa Martello has more than 15 years’ experience building and leading diverse, collaborative, and inclusive teams on major infrastructure projects in the UK and Australia. As a Director at ResoLex, Lisa specialises in strengthening the social, behavioural, and cultural components crucial to achieving desired outcomes within major project environments.

Originally training as a surveyor, Tony Llewellyn has spent over 30 years working on major projects, and is now an Author, Coach, Lecturer, and Thought Leader on the topics of performance improvement, interpersonal dynamics and the effectiveness of project teams. As a Director at ResoLex, Tony helps teams and leaders improve their outcomes by helping them to build trust, communication and collaboration.