Jul 8, 2026 | Events, Roundtables
Conflict is inevitable on complex projects, but escalation is not. As major infrastructure programmes become increasingly complex, the industry’s ability to manage relationships is becoming just as important as its technical capability. Hosted by ResoLex in partnership with the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and the Conflict Avoidance Coalition (CAC), Turning Tension into Trust brought together industry leaders Edward Moore, ResoLex, Sue Barrett, Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal Programme and Veronica Flint-Williams, Environment Agency to explore how projects can create the conditions for healthy challenge, identify behavioural risks early and create the conditions for productive challenge before issues become disputes.
The discussion reinforced a clear message: collaboration is not a soft option. It requires structure, openness, commercial discipline and the courage to have difficult conversations early. When done well, conflict avoidance can protect relationships, reduce cost and delay, and help teams remain focused on delivery rather than dispute.
Collaboration is not a soft option. It requires the most rigorous conversations.
Creating conditions for healthy challenge
One of the strongest themes throughout the discussion was the importance of creating a project environment that allows space for challenge and healthy tension from the outset. Tension is inevitable in project environments with so much complexity and uncertainty, but by establishing clear communication channels, defined escalation routes and psychologically safe environments from day one, organisations can harness it to drive challenge, innovation and better decisions. When those conditions are absent, issues are more likely to go unspoken, relationships come under strain and tension can quickly develop into destructive conflict.
To get healthy tension and challenge, it needs explicit permission.
Edward Moore illustrated this through the analogy of a farming community preparing for harvest. Crops are ready, cattle need moving, and success depends entirely on timing and communication. If everyone understands the plan, both objectives can be achieved. If communication breaks down, the crop is destroyed and everyone ends up firefighting. The comparison reflected the importance of establishing communication channels before pressure builds, rather than relying on them once problems have already emerged.
The client sets the tone
A strong theme throughout the event was that clients should be shaping the relationship from day one. Transparency about constraints, active listening when suppliers raise concerns, and the willingness to face problems early-on creates the conditions for trust.
The role of leaders was also highlighted, encouraging leaders to do more than simply permit challenge – they should actively model it by asking difficult questions, thanking people for raising concerns and demonstrating that constructive challenge is valued rather than merely tolerated.
Behavioural risks appear long before conflict
One of the panel’s key observations was that behavioural risks often emerge long before contractual disputes. Differences in perception, misunderstandings and unspoken concerns are often the first indicators that relationships are beginning to deteriorate.
The conversation reinforced that trusted relationships are built on rigorous honesty. Creating regular opportunities for open, honest feedback helps teams identify the early signs of conflict before issues become entrenched around commercial pressures, roles or ego. Practical mechanisms such as Conflict Avoidance Panels, project resets and tiered escalation processes provide structured opportunities to surface concerns, test assumptions and resolve differences before they become formal disputes.
What we end up seeing is the seed of conflict.
Prevention is an investment
The panel challenged the perception that conflict avoidance represents an unnecessary overhead or, worse, an admission that a project is expected to fail. Organisations can be reluctant to invest in prevention because they believe success is measured by never needing formal intervention in the first place. This creates a stigma around conflict avoidance, where investing in mechanisms to resolve issues early can be wrongly perceived as planning for failure, rather than planning for successful delivery.
Early intervention is almost always less costly than adjudication or litigation. More importantly, it keeps teams focused on delivery rather than becoming absorbed in dispute resolution.
Spending a little on a predictable outcome is a much better investment.
Key takeaways
- Plan communication and escalation routes before pressure builds.
- Invest early in prevention to protect delivery focus, reduce cost and avoid the distraction of formal disputes.
- Give challenge explicit permission and model it through leadership behaviour.
- Clients set the tone by being transparent about constraints and listening when suppliers raise difficult issues.
- Behavioural risk often first appears as a divergence in perceptions, making safe feedback loops essential.
- Treat conflict avoidance mechanisms as good project governance, not evidence of failure.
- Use resets, panels and tiered processes before issues become formal disputes.
The audience discussion reinforced the practical challenges of applying these principles in live projects. Topics ranged from managing uncertainty transparently and responding to change, to creating collaborative cultures where clients are still on their own maturity journey, and giving people the confidence to have difficult conversations early.
While every project is different, the panel agreed that trust is built through openness, clear expectations and the confidence to address difficult conversations early.
The evening concluded with a challenge from Richard Bayfield, Chair of the Conflict Avoidance Coalition: “What’s the one thing you’d encourage people to do differently tomorrow morning to turn tension into trust?”
While the answers varied, one message stood out: contracts provide the framework, but people determine the outcome. Trust is built through early conversations, disciplined collaboration and leaders who create the confidence for others to challenge constructively.
Tension will always exist on complex projects. The opportunity lies in creating environments where it leads to better decisions rather than destructive conflict. By addressing issues early and fostering collaboration, organisations can strengthen relationships, improve delivery and build greater confidence in the infrastructure sector.
Mar 6, 2026 | News and insight, Tools
In the previous article, we explored why successful projects depend not just on technical expertise or commercial strategy, but on the strength of relationships between individuals and, importantly, between organisations. The focus was on how we can apply relationship theory to improve project delivery. Schein & Schein’s “Level 2” relationships, where partners are open, aligned on needs, and view each other’s success as intertwined, represent the theoretical “sweet spot” for effective delivery.
These relationships can be foundational to the delivery of a project or programme, and so it is vital that they are developed in the right way. This is not just about building an environment where everyone is nice and friendly, but where they have an aligned vision, are able and willing to constructively challenge, are comfortable raising issues and know what is expected of them. These relationships will not materialise just because we’d like them to. We cannot assume that because everyone in an environment is experienced and professional, that they will also seek to understand the need for and value the relationships needed for successful delivery.
The desired relationships, therefore, need to be intentionally built into the way a project or programme is set up from day one. As Professor Bent Flyvbjerg references a project leader observing: Projects don’t go wrong. They start wrong. So moving beyond the theory to the practical, how can we set up to ensure we start in the right way?
Here are some principles to project setup that we’ve developed over time at ResoLex to begin building the relationships, teams and environments needed to deliver successfully:
- Don’t assume good will ‘just happen’
As touched upon above, good relationships require space and structure to grow, and if you do not take the time to proactively drive this aspect of your delivery approach, it will languish. In the early stages, you may get away with this, but when complexity grows and challenges hit, the lack of adaptable or resilient relationships will undermine every aspect of delivery.
- Understand and align values and goals
This is especially relevant for complex programmes that comprise multiple interconnected projects, but is applicable to any environment comprised of multiple teams or organisations. Each group comes in with its own culture, language, and definition of success. Bringing these into alignment – and creating a shared vision – is essential if you want a “best for project” mindset. As we discussed last time, fundamental to this is taking the time to properly understand and appreciate one another’s needs and wants, and where those differ.
- Value difference
While it’s important to ensure you understand and align values, it is equally important to ensure you don’t stifle innovation. Alignment should provide a ‘north star’ to work to, not set a single way of working or thinking. It is the differences between people that drive change and improvement, and the key in project setup is creating a proactive management framework that identifies and uses these differences to drive positive behaviours rather than conflict.
- Make it a leadership priority
If leaders are measured on elements of team development and relationship quality, they will make time for it. If they’re not, it will always slip down the agenda. The social aspect of delivery is, unsurprisingly, a cultural item. If it is not driven from the top and given priority, it will be forgotten. This leadership then also grants permission for others to invest the time and effort needed to build effective working relationships across the project and programme.
- Build psychological safety into how your project operates
Psychological safety is a cornerstone of effective working relationships. If the people in your project feel unable to openly constructively challenge, they cannot build the trust needed to achieve true Level 2 relationships. Embedding a culture that values this supports an environment where issues can be openly raised and addressed as early as possible, driving effective project delivery.
The look ahead…
Setting up relationships is only half of the job, because too often, great starts are undermined by complacency and erosion over time. These relationships need managing, maintaining, and developing as the project evolves. We’ve explored some of the initial steps you can take and questions to ask yourself here, however, we will look at the longer-term approach, including how we can ensure that what we’ve built is embedded, enduring and adaptable, in a follow-up article.
Relationships are foundational to delivery. And like any foundation, they have to be deliberately laid.
Tom Chick is an Associate Director 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.
Feb 25, 2026 | News and insight, Social value
We are incredibly proud to see Concordis International nominated for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, a truly significant and well-deserved recognition.
Concordis’ work is grounded in the patient building of sustainable relationships in places where conflict has fractured trust and stability. By working alongside local leaders and communities, they help create the conditions for dialogue, understanding and long-term peace.
We are proud to support Concordis International, an organisation whose impact is shaped by the courage and commitment of local peacebuilders working in some of the most challenging environments in the world.
Congratulations to Concordis International and thank you to the Quaker organisations who have recognised the importance of this work.
Read the full article here.
Concordis International is an international non-governmental organisation (INGO) based in the UK, operating in the Central African Region: Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Sudan, Abyei and South Sudan. We are peacebuilders. Concordis staff support those who live in conflict zones. We only go where we are invited. We have twenty years of experience – our expertise lies in building trust with all conflict parties and bringing them together to have those difficult conversations. We work hand in hand with communities, helping them find workable solutions that address the root causes of conflict and contribute to lasting peace and economic development. We are committed to finding sustainable solutions that benefit all those involved: women and youth, as well as men; local administrative authorities, community leaders, and civil society; those who choose to take up arms and those who don’t. We engage for the long term to build trusting relationships and leave a legacy that enables future conflict to be managed peacefully within the community.
To find out more about Concordis International, visit their website.
Feb 13, 2026 | Social value
National Apprenticeship Week is an opportunity to reflect on how we build the capability that major programmes rely on!
Delivering in complex environments requires more than technical expertise. It demands leadership, sound judgement, commercial awareness and the ability to navigate governance, stakeholders and organisational dynamics. These capabilities are developed over time – through structured learning combined with real responsibility.
We were proud to see Sam Platten complete his apprenticeship while contributing within live programme environments. His progression reflects the strength of integrating academic development with practical delivery experience, building transferable skills that apply across sectors and contexts.
As someone who has completed both Project Management and Business & Management apprenticeships, I’ve seen first-hand how powerful this route can be.
Combining work and study allowed me to:
- Apply theory directly to real projects
- Progress through multiple roles while learning
- Gain experience across tunnelling, rail, consulting, and the nuclear industry
- Earn while learning and make higher education financially viable
One of the biggest misconceptions about apprenticeships is that they limit career progression. In reality, they accelerated mine. Apprenticeships build practical, transferable skills that are essential in complex industries, and they open doors well beyond traditional expectations.
Apprenticeships are not a ‘second option’ – they are a credible, respected pathway into incredible careers. If we want to widen access, grow talent, and challenge outdated perceptions, we need to keep championing them.
Sam Platten, ResoLex
For organisations responsible for major projects, investing in people is fundamental to long-term performance. Supporting apprenticeship pathways forms part of our wider commitment to social value, widening access to opportunities, strengthening professional capability, and contributing to more resilient, effective programme delivery across the industries we serve.
This National Apprenticeship Week, we celebrate Sam’s achievement and the steady development of leadership capability that underpins successful outcomes in complex environments.
Jan 28, 2026 | News and insight, Social value
At ResoLex, insight, creativity, and partnership shape how we work with our clients and how we contribute beyond our projects. Mentoring is one way we put these values into practice, creating positive impact by sharing experience, building confidence, and supporting the next generation of professionals.
Mentoring allows us to offer practical guidance and encouragement to students as they navigate key transitions, from university into working life. It’s a natural extension of our client work: building capability, fostering collaboration, and creating environments where people feel supported to thrive.
Over the last year, Joanna Jarvie, one of our Senior Consultants, has been part of a mentoring programme with City St George’s, University of London, which connects students with industry professionals for guidance and support.
For Jo’s mentee, that support took many forms, including preparing for interviews and assessment centres, practising case study presentations, connecting with other professionals for a research project, and offering advice on the first steps of working life. Together, these conversations helped build confidence and clarity about what comes next.
The student reflected:
“Jo was a fantastic mentor and provided brilliant support and guidance during my final year at university. She was always approachable, patient, and generous with her advice. The feedback she gave really helped me grow in confidence and feel more prepared for life after graduation.”
Mentoring benefits everyone involved. For the mentee, it builds confidence, skills, and direction. For the mentor, it offers space to reflect, share experience, and gain fresh perspectives. And for the wider industry, it helps create a pipeline of motivated, well-prepared professionals.
Jo is continuing her mentoring work throughout 2026, and we’ll keep sharing stories that show how our Social Value initiatives contribute to lasting impact.
