Individuals understand the need to collaborate at a personal level because they depend on each other to achieve agreed outcomes. Collaboration is equally essential at corporate level but is sometimes less well understood. Therefore, effective leadership and performance management are essential to support collaborative procurement.
Clients have a key leadership role, and reversion to traditional behaviours by the Client has a significant adverse impact on the development of a collaborative culture. A Client also depends extensively on other team members, and any lack of clarity in the Client's role may dilute or confuse the roles and responsibilities of other team members.
A collaborative Client should clarify its required outcomes and other expectations. It should work with other team members in defining and developing the scope and objectives of the project. It should be a focal point for the team and take an active role in a Core Group or other joint decision-making group.
Client leadership needs to be matched by collaborative leadership roles fulfilled by the Principal Designer, the Principal Contractor and all other consultants, subcontractors and supply chain members engaged on an in-scope project.
Commitment to the continuity of leading individuals is important throughout a collaborative project. An example of this is the requirement in NEC4 at Option X22 for the contractor not to replace any key person unless instructed by the project manager or unless that person is unable to continue to act. This NEC4 requirement for continuity could be extended to the key persons working for the project manager and for other team members.
A robust performance management system is another key component of effective collaborative procurement, both at a tactical level and at a strategic level. At the tactical level, an effective performance management system connects the success measures or key performance indicators to the stated goals and objectives of the project. There should be evidence that these measures have been tested by reference to pre-agreed targets, so as to ensure that they are both workable and equitable.
At a strategic level, the performance management system should assess how well the project contributes to the principal business objectives of the Client and the other team members. The metrics should be customised for individual projects but typically might include:
■ Financial
■ Internal business processes
■ Learning and growth (for example, innovation and creativity)
■ Customers (internal and external).
Collaborative procurement is not a substitute for a robust system of quality control. Clients need to put in place an appropriate method of inspecting and verifying work in progress in order to satisfy themselves that the team are achieving the required levels of safety and quality and the other agreed project outcomes. Client officers and external consultants all have roles to pay in quality control, and some Clients are again exploring a role equivalent to the 'clerk of works'.