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.
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.