On Wednesday the 13th of September, we partnered with the Major Projects Association to host an interactive workshop that challenged the myth of mobilisation – and what an event it was!
We’d like to extend a huge thank you to Liz Lawman, Head of Mobilisation at HS2 (High Speed Two) Ltd and Jonathan Wareham, Project Director at Costain Group PLC for sharing their insights from both a client and contractor perspective. During the workshop, we highlighted some industry best practice and then delved into a session designed to explore the experiences from around the room. We followed Chatham House Rules, but here are a few themes from the afternoon:
- The movement from traditional transactional relationships that prioritise the lowest tender cost, to a more collaborative relationship that can manage the complexities of major project delivery requires aligned mobilisation
- Project teams need to understand the need for, and plan to create a cross-functional workstream for the ‘social/behavioural’ elements of major projects, which includes contract mobilisation
- Ringfence time at the start of a project or programme with senior leaders to co-create with all parties, build the right environment and set the team up with the skills, processes, behaviours and ways of working to develop a collaborative environment
- Early engagement with the supply chain to co-create solutions is hugely important, and provides even more value when it is part of the procurement approach
- The team needs to be aligned behind a common purpose from the start. Work to reduce reliance on assumptions that people will work well together
We would like to thank everyone who attended and contributed to what quickly became an incredibly thought-provoking event. We hope to keep the conversation alive and support the development of a more systemised mobilisation framework alongside the MPA and some of the industry experts who joined us.
As a final lesson from the workshop, ‘don’t build the boat after leaving the port!’