Aug 27, 2025 | News and insight
The difference between a programme that delivers and one that drifts is the quality of the baton passes between teams and organisations.
Major projects are no longer simple, linear endeavours. They are complex ecosystems made up of multiple organisations, disciplines, teams and technologies intertwined in ways that demand more than technical excellence. In today’s infrastructure environment, programmes are rarely held back by technical design or commercial models alone. More often, it’s the gaps between organisations, including unclear handovers, hidden dependencies, and misaligned expectations, that stall delivery, create frustration, erode trust; ultimately increasing costs and delaying delivery.
In a major programme ecosystem, delivery depends on multiple organisations working together across multiple layers. Without visibility of interfaces:
- Handovers are unclear, slowing progress.
- Teams duplicate effort or work at cross purposes.
- Decision-making stalls because escalation routes are not transparent.
- Mobilisation of new partners takes longer and introduces risk or delays.
These are not small inefficiencies; they directly impact pace, cost, and delivery confidence.
ResoLex help clients address these challenges through Interface Mapping, bringing visibility and clarity to the handoffs and interdependencies that underpin complex delivery through a structured, behavioural-led approach. Rather than being a simple diagramming exercise, Interface Mapping is a delivery tool that systematically identifies and visualises the critical interdependencies, decision pathways, and behavioural friction points across a programme.
By providing an interactive map, we enable leaders to move from reactive coordination to proactive collaboration – ensuring that baton passes between delivery teams are smooth, efficient and effective. The value comes from embedding the outputs into everyday delivery, helping teams make better decisions and sustain momentum.
Benefits of Interface Mapping:
Interface Mapping provides practical support that strengthens both delivery pace and confidence:
- It helps teams understand who they depend on and why, reducing bottlenecks and preventing duplication.
- It gives leaders a clear view of delivery risk and decision ambiguity, so they can intervene early and keep programmes on track.
- It provides new partners with a faster, clearer route to integration, ensuring mobilisation is smooth and expectations are aligned from day one.
- It ensures governance aligns with ISO 44001 principles of shared risk, joint performance, and transparent ownership.
- It enables faster, better decisions by clarifying ownership and escalation routes, keeping delivery pace high.
At ResoLex, we combine the structural with the behavioural. Our approach doesn’t just show the where and when of handovers, it also surfaces how people interact, where friction accumulates, and how trust can be operationalised. We help clients transform collaboration from a statement of intent into a repeatable rhythm, building programmes that don’t just deliver faster, but deliver together.
For clients, the value is clear:
- Stronger mobilisation – partners are onboarded faster and with clearer expectations.
- More predictable delivery – leaders see where confidence is at risk and can intervene early.
- Reduced risk and cost – bottlenecks, duplicated effort, and delays are exposed early.
- Reduced behavioural friction – accountability is clearer, and issues can be addressed without blame.
- Resilient delivery environments – trust, pace, and collaboration are reinforced across the programme, into day-to-day delivery—not just into governance reports.
In a world where infrastructure programmes are becoming ever more complex, Interface Mapping is not a “nice to have”; it is critical infrastructure for delivery itself. Interface Mapping is more than creating a map; it’s about creating an interactive visual tool that enables collaborative delivery.
Aug 22, 2025 | 25 in 25, News and insight
Delivering complex infrastructure projects isn’t just about engineering excellence or hitting deadlines; it’s about the strength of the relationships that hold everything together. The lead-up to the London 2012 Olympic Games, one of the UK’s most ambitious regeneration programmes, highlighted this truth. Amid tight timelines, high technical demands, and multiple stakeholders, success was forged not only on design and construction but on collaboration, communication, and trust across project interfaces.
The preparation for the Games required extensive enabling works at the Marshgate Lane site in Stratford, with a critical project being the relocation of the Sortex factory. This demanded a highly coordinated effort across design, construction, operations, and equipment providers due to tight timelines and the technical requirements of a ‘precision cleanroom environment’ – a contamination-free space designed for precision equipment in simple terms.
ResoLex supported the project by introducing its RADAR tool (then called X-Tracker), designed to monitor the strength of working relationships across teams. Unlike traditional project metrics, RADAR provided real-time, perception-based feedback on collaboration, communication, and decision-making. This data revealed that strong relationships were the most reliable predictor of project success, enabling proactive issue resolution and preventing escalation of challenges.
A pivotal insight came from the site foreman, who observed that when relationships were strong, problems were swiftly solved, but when they were weak, even small issues became major setbacks. This realisation shifted the project team’s focus from tracking only the technical indicators to actively monitoring and strengthening relationships.
The client stated:
If the relationships were working well, any issues will be solved. If the relationships were poor, even small problems would escalate into major challenges.
The positive cultural shift fostered by RADAR led to improved collaboration, proactive problem-solving, and ultimately, project success. This early application proved the tool’s value and laid the foundation for its continued development as a critical enabler of performance in complex project environments.
Over a decade later, there is still a heavy reliance on technical indicators – schedules, budgets, and risk registers – in tracking progress. While essential, these measures only highlighted problems after they had already surfaced, whereas relationship health provides early warning signs of potential issues.
If relationships are the hidden driver of performance, what more can we do as an industry to build them deliberately?
Jul 18, 2025 | News and insight, Social value
My work experience placement at ResoLex showed itself to be a valuable and fun insight into the professional world. I thoroughly enjoyed the unique experience of meeting different employees in both one-on-one scenarios and group discussions. The structure of the day allowed for six different meetings where I had the opportunity to discuss their roles, responsibilities and career trajectories. I also had the chance to discuss my future with employees, including Jay, who studied business management, which I’m also planning to study after my A levels.
I loved coming to London and getting an understanding/ experience of business culture, which I feel was especially prominent in a small company like ResoLex. Not only do I feel more educated and confident in a business environment, but I also now look forward to working in one. I was given a busy, structured schedule full of a range of different meetings, both online and in person, including a group meeting where I was encouraged to share ideas and got to witness how professional meetings are conducted. Everyone that I had the pleasure of speaking to seemed to take a high interest in my time and reason for being there, which hugely contributed to why I enjoyed and learnt so much from my day here.
Overall, I deeply appreciate the time and effort put towards my day. It’s rare that students are given opportunities outside of simple tasks or shadowing others during work experience, with many spending their time not engaging in any actual activity. However, I was kept busy the entire day thanks to the team at Resolex and have genuinely gained so much from it.
Thank you, everyone.
Freddie Le Roux
Jul 16, 2025 | News and insight
Only 8.5% of mega projects deliver on time and budget*.
This was the opening line at the ICE event ‘Lessons from the Tideway Project’, and it’s certainly one that catches your attention!
Mainly because Thames Tideway, the £4.5bn, 25km super sewer under London, has managed to be one of those few ‘unicorns’ – despite the challenges of a major urban area, challenging stakeholders, and even being hit by a global pandemic.
So, how was this such a success? And, what can we learn to create the same environment for success?
The event began with a keynote speech from Andy Mitchell CBE, the CEO of Tideway, followed by a panel discussion with Chris Merridew, Roger Bailey, Wendy Gillies, and Rafael Foulquie, facilitated by Raj Pathak, that represented some of the key organisations within the Tideway Alliance. Andy’s speech highlighted four key themes to Tideway’s success, which were supported and reinforced by the panellists:
- Culture: Tideway built its culture from the ground up, with appropriate ground rules for ways of working that focused on the vision. Important to note that the culture always had to drive decisions and behaviours, rather than being secondary to ‘profit’ or the ‘mission’. As Andy put it: Culture that only works on good days is an inauthentic illusion! The project culture was fundamental to enabling the other themes, as well as the wider success of the project.
- Financing and contracting: Tideway had a practical approach to financing and contracting, with a sensible range of outcomes that would define success and straightforward supply chain contracts – and, importantly, a straightforward approach to using the contract in practice: It’s all well and good saying “the contract says that’s your problem”, but if it’s a big problem, you can’t hide your head in the sand! This requires practical, forward-thinking decision-making, built on trust.
- Effective leadership: Tideway set up an effective, independent board that enabled rapid decision-making so that they could get on with implementing those decisions!
- Clear relationships: Tideway focused on building good relationships with informed stakeholders, having regular meetings, with transparent information sharing to ensure that the key stakeholders, both internal and external, knew what they needed to know to do their jobs, and build the trust needed to effectively deliver together.
Andy was clear that embedding these themes was not an overnight job – it took years to build and define what success looked like and build the trust needed to deliver!
In the panel discussion, all the participants repeatedly echoed the vision: Reconnect Londoners with their river. This was clearly more than just a corporate platitude, but something that every person, regardless of their position or parent organisation, believed in.
So what were their big tips for ensuring success?
- Build trust with your internal stakeholders, those on the ground delivering your vision – through transparency, clarity, and doing what you say you will.
- Build an aligned and inspiring vision – make sure everyone knows why they are there and what they are working to!
- Embed behavioural safety – so your people dare to be the best they can be, knowing they are supported
- Introduce play – let people be imaginative, try new things, and transform the way we deliver.
- Finally, it all comes back to the Client – be clear on what you stand for, because ultimately the culture and behaviours that underpin project success start from you. Whether it’s an Alliance arrangement or a classic transactional environment, you are the leader, and you demonstrate the way things should be done.
Ultimately, it was inspiring to see a project that understood the need for and focused on the people, ways of working and the project culture – and got the right results from doing so!
* based on the research by Bent Flyvbjerg
May 30, 2025 | 25 in 25, News and insight
As we celebrate 25 incredible years of ResoLex, we’re shining a spotlight on some of people who make it all possible — our Associates.
We asked a few of them to share why they choose to be part of the ResoLex team, and their reflections have been nothing short of inspiring. Here’s what Russell Poynter-Brown had to say:
“I was delighted when Ed and Tony asked if I’d come and work with them on a high-profile, complex and multi-stakeholder programme, especially as a key workstream centres on collaborative working.
In all honesty, I’d almost given up on the construction and infrastructure sectors, as it is so rare to find clients, consultants and other advisers who fundamentally understand what it takes to work in a truly collaborative environment.
ResoLex is refreshingly different. It uses its 25 years of expertise and insights to constructively challenge clients and then work with them to think laterally, suspend judgement, and then co-create programme-specific practicable, long-term value-added solutions, with measurable programmatic benefits.
The ResoLex team is a constant source of creative ideas and solutions. I‘ve never felt freer to work in a psychologically safe environment, where I can test my thoughts or ask for comments and opinions without feeling that I’m being judged or fearing that the Team already has a ‘stock’ answer that I’d be forced to adopt.
Highly complex programmes invariably have their challenges which can often adversely affect working relationships. However, ResoLex has a fundamental understanding of how people work in teams, in particular the interaction between people, processes and the environment within which team personnel work. I’ve been fortunate to be able to tap into this knowledge bank and adapt several ‘in-house ‘ models for our programme client’s benefit, enhancing its ability to work in a more collaborative way.”
Stay tuned on LinkedIn throughout our birthday celebrations as we continue to showcase some of the voices behind ResoLex — the people driving impact and making a real difference every day.
