From Panels to Partnerships

It was so great to participate in the afternoon session today in #OzWater21. My fellow panelists Amanda Lewry (SA Water), Boris Ninkovic (Fulton Hogan), Kevin Werksman (Aurecon), Kate Miles (Sydney Water), Ryan Leon (Yarra Valley Water) and Joseph Otter (Urban Utilities) and I were all asked to speak for no more than 5 minutes. Thanks Julian Briggs for that constraint!

It was something like a TedX pitch on open mic night. But it really created discipline in the responses. As I listened to the others, I recounted my own work across 12 partnership arrangements in the last ten years, over six separate industries: Defence, Resources, Education, Roads, Employment and now Water! 

So much good material was covered by the panelists that I was left (as whip - last position in the team) to end with the following five points about moving from Panel arrangements to Partnerships - the why and the how:

1. Use the standard!

ISO 44001 came out a few years ago but I'm still amazed by how few people know about it and use it. The framework is for collaborative business framework for best practice. I highly recommend it, and as an ISO standard, it is actually very readable, usable and friendly. 

2. Start how you want to finish.

There's usually a lot of wonder and passion at the start, but don't blow all your energy on the ROI, RFT or Mobilisation phases. This is a long haul arrangement. You know the theory - forming, storming, norming, performing, high performing. 

3. Build structures and people

This is going to take building both modality - what we do together, and sodality - who we are together. Yes we need to get the operational aspects (our vision, values, roles, goals and measurements) sorted out, but equally important are the people aspects (trusting one another, encouraging debate, getting commitment to the goals, creating accountability and aiming for shared outcomes).

4. Use a range of assessment tools

Yes quantitative aspects like financial performance, savings over time, project time reduced, overheads and so forth. There are equally important qualitative elements in your assessment of performance - peoples actual experience of one another captured through sentiment analysis.

5. Decide how you will fund the investment

This is going to take your people's time, effort, focus, energy and some money. You can pay for it through efficiency dividends, as an impost on all projects (a capex position) or as an overhead (an opex position). Decide early and fund it properly.

Great organisation and coordination from #Aurecon as hosts