Reassessment of the relationship is beneficial
3.22 Where a relationship is on a downward spiral, it will continue to get worse unless the authority and contractor recognise that this is happening and take steps, jointly, to improve the relationship. Figure 30 shows two examples of relationships being re-examined and improved to the benefit of the project.
3.23 and contractors need to work as a team if they are to achieve a common goal. They need to build trust through team building and the development of partnering skills. It is not easy to secure this form of relationship and there are challenges to authorities and contractors in achieving this in projects.
30 | | Relationships being re-examined |
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| | The Defence Fixed Telecommunications Service contract
The project team for the Ministry of Defence's Fixed Telecommunications contract initiated, with external advisers, a reassessment of the relationship three years into their ten year contract with BT. The reassessment focussed on whether the full potential of their business relationship was being realised. The Ministry had become concerned that the relationship had been reverting to a traditional customer/supplier relationship and wanted to explore the scope for moving towards a greater emphasis on a partnering approach. The reassessment concluded that to realise the full potential of the relationship, new contract and management structures would be required. Following this reassessment, the Ministry and BT established a joint mission and objectives for the project, developed a joint business plan with milestones and performance measures and put in place a Business Planning Group to consider the management of new service requirements. They also decided to examine whether aspects of the contract needed to be renegotiated. In addition, BT committed themselves to co-locating staff alongside Ministry staff working on the project with a view to creating a single enterprise approach that would be capable of taking business decisions to satisfy the needs of their joint stakeholders. The National Insurance Recording System 2 contract
When the National Insurance Recording System 2 contract was in its original form, the contractor considered that the relationship was confrontational and it had no effective working relationship with the authority. After a change of authority, the contractor and the new authority used the opportunity presented by the need to create a contract addendum to enshrine their respective objectives, to establish a set of open monthly partnership meetings and a number of mechanisms aimed at improving joint working in an open and honest style. The contractor's relationship with the authority is now very positive. Jointly, 'off record' perceptions exercises to understand each other's mutual concerns and objectives were also introduced. The authority and contractor now consider they are working together in the spirit of partnership. Source: National Audit Office survey of authorities and contractors |