Partnering For Project Management Mastery
by Alan Patching
This article reviews certain personal skills aspects of the Partnering philosophy. It examines the concept of 'commitment' and then proposes stages through which level of commitment seems to develop as the human being passes through the various stages of psychological development. These stages are seen as the political, the experimental, the transitional and the spiritual.
The article recommends a number of communication skills that will assist practitioners in the successful application of the Partnering philosophy.
Finally, it emphasises the importance of education in the Partnering process.
Background
Partnering has now been used in various areas of business in Australia and many other countries for a number of years. There are key ingredients of effective Partnering that are quite often overlooked by inexperienced practitioners. Certain actions absolutely must be observed if Partnering is to be as effective as it can be in any of its applications.
Partnering in Project Management
Project management is as much the ultimate 'people skill' as it is an advanced management concept. For success in the people aspects of project management, there is a need to go beyond the exactitude and logic of process and methodology so often revered by project management practitioners, to something more subtle, something that recognises an understanding of human behaviour. Partnering, in its purest application, may well be the ideal tool.
The project management field was the first to apply partnering within a formal framework. Partnering in Australia, and I suspect elsewhere as well, suffered a little due to the timing of its introduction. Well presented as the answer to a myriad of problems by its introducers, it soon became the new skill of many who were process focused. Little more than lip service was paid to the attitudinal changes required for successful partnering, the communication skills essential for its ongoing success, and the human behaviour aspects of the philosophy, simply because, more often than not, early practitioners had little knowledge of, or experience in, these fields. An engineer or project manager doing it tough during the recession might well have seen Partnering as a saviour service to offer to gain a competitive advantage in a very tight market place. Where this occurred Partnering was often presented as yet another technical process, a procedural framework within which another process – contracting – could be progressed with optimum chance of success.
If that has been the case, as I suggest much evidence indicates, then Partnering has been sadly undersold, and has much magic to offer those interested in offering to the concept the ultimate Australian cultural respect of giving it a 'fair go'.
Commitment
Commitment is the key ingredient in the success of Partnering. Where the system does fail it is usually some misinterpretation of this principle that's central among reasons for the failure.
Many have a comprehension of the meaning of the word 'commitment' which is something less than its intrinsic meaning. Quite often the commitment that goes into Partnering is what I call 'dietary style commitment'. There would not be too many readers, I suspect, who have not at some stage (or perhaps at several stages) during their life committed to that change of lifestyle – that month of fasting or cleansing that would become a life changing experience. Six or seven days into the programme we are faced with the offer of a fine red wine in a fine restaurant and, hey, why would one waste the value of such a lovely red on something less than a mega meal with a sumptuous sauce and – there goes the commitment.
Tough as it might be to stick to the commitment to a diet, it might produce significant results, if one does. To honour commitment in a Partnering situation often does likewise.
So how do we educate those involved in the Partnering process – particularly those coming from quite often adversarial backgrounds in the construction industry in particular – to enter into Partnering arrangements in the spirit that will give them and the project, not to mention the industry, the full value of the philosophy.
The answer lies in focusing not on the process so much as upon the personal skills required to allow the process to be effective.
This in itself creates challenges. What is required is an essential change of attitude, and this must occur at a deep personal level. Australians in general and construction industry personnel in particular are not renowned for their responsiveness to such 'touchy, feely' suggestions, but 'touchy, feely' must be bridged and accepted if true attitude change is to take place.
Without this deep personal understanding of self, this getting in touch with the persona, one's attitude to change will almost invariably parallel in intensity the commitment given. There are at least three and possibly four levels of commitment and I've seldom seen Partnering applied at anything deeper than the first two levels. Commitment and attitude change can be approached on the following four levels in the Partnering context.
- Lip Service Level
Perhaps the industry has been conditioned for this level by the reaction of people to our legislative world, much of which legislation seems to be initiated to satisfy 'squeaky wheel' groups. In this context, those looking down the barrel of a hefty fee from involvement at some level in a construction project 'commit' to Partnering in circumstances where not to do so could be quite perilous to ongoing income. Certainly there is that feeling of liking to be involved experimentally with a new concept, with something different, with something which might make life during the course of the project that little bit easier. Essentially, however, that commitment comes after a workshop that looks in some detail at process and only in simple overview at the attitudes and personal skills so central to this entire philosophy. That commitment can have little more depth than lip service.
- Experimental
Here we have the intrigued mind of the professional practitioner, perhaps safe in his or her position on a project, and interested from a personal viewpoint in the growth that might just come, not to mention the opportunities that might unfold, from becoming involved in the new philosophy. From 'giving one's all to the process – up to a point'. That point normally being where it starts to hurt personally or at a corporate level notwithstanding the overall good to the project and the team albeit from some level of personal pain, and certainly notwithstanding the unequivocal and deeper level of commitment expected by a process seeking success.
- Transitional
At this level of commitment, personal experience, perhaps with the process, or some life experience in another field, has caused the person to take a look at his or her self, to reassess values, etc. It is not unusual to find people at this level beginning to move beyond the mid stages in the process of psychological development (according to the various stages of psycho social and psycho structural models). Of course, there will be problems tempting a fall back to old habits. Generally, however, those people experiencing the difficulties, and sometimes torment, of the transitional phase of attitude change or taking of commitment, or who operate at a level something closer to the dictionary definition of the word, even at an external level, really do have something significant to contribute to successful Partnering. It is important for project managers to continue to identify these people in the Partnering applications they manage, for around them, pearls of minor success will develop to take place in the continuing growth the philosophy deserves, whether it be within the context of construction project application, or in the general organisational management environment.
- Spiritual
(Do read on, it is not that scary). At the spiritual level, commitment is values based. There are no degrees. There are no qualifications. One's word is one's bond, even where it begins to unfold that the giving of one's word in a particular context is beginning to cost more personally or corporately (or both) than was ever anticipated or understood at the time of giving the bond.
True spiritual level commitment is an intrinsic force and will not be swayed by extrinsic pressures.
It is to this level of commitment that we seek to have Partnering raised - to a level where every commitment is spiritual and values based and in a spirit of 'being there for the duration, regardless of the cost'. The irony is when the commitment of Partnering reaches this level, there will be no further need for Partnering. It is in effect a philosophy that need not survive its own success. Unfortunately, it has an equal chance of extinction through its increasing role as a target for blame and accusation on projects in difficulty – projects where the Partnering philosophy, or any other, had no chance of success because the levels of commitment and the attitude of those involved were never raised beyond political or experimental levels.
Education
It can be extremely difficult to educate the educated. Successful people in particular often seem to continually operate at the fourth level of Maslow's stages of learning model – the 'unconscious competence' level where they are so good at the core skills of their profession that they don't even know how good they are.
They perceive no need to stop and take stock to see what else needs to be learnt, what else could be learnt, to improve their lot. They have reached or are hovering above the level that Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs model defines as self actualization – becoming all they ever wanted to be.
Life in the comfort zone can extend beyond satisfaction with one's level of technical skills to satisfaction with other areas of knowledge. Why would there be a need for an attitude change – or even consideration of one. The end result is predictable – in discussions in attitude change in Partnering workshops minds focus on the generic principles. However, when it becomes time to move attention of the group from the good fun explanation of the effect of attitude on all of us humans to just how it might affect us as individuals on the projects we team together to deliver, thoughts almost invariably are directed to others. We hear reference to the builder, the architect, the engineer who is unfair, unreasonable or plain stupid and doesn't understand us, to the client who is unreasonable and doesn't have a clue about this development game – and to any number of other excuses for refusing to submit oneself to some level of personal transformation of attitude. Seldom do we see attention turned to self, the only place where we can effect any meaningful attitude change whatever.
The core goal of education in a Partnering process is to focus on the attitudes that have been formed in the industry at large and among members of each project team and how these attitudes can affect the expected outcome for each particular project.
It should further emphasise how attitude operates at a sub-conscious level and many of us work for years on projects without ever realising that our contribution might have been quite significant in disruption to the human relationships on that project. The cost of this disruption in terms of claims and other costs against the project would often surprise if it were calculated.
Education in the Partnering process must aim towards getting a commitment to change of attitude and to improvement in communication, not at political or experimental levels but at the deeper transitional and hopefully spiritual levels.
In other words the education in Partnering must be aimed at getting real commitment based on real values to real attitude change.
A second key education area in which we must focus attention is the education of the unconverted in the benefits of Partnering. That can only follow achievement of a solid foundation of success in applying Partnering across a range of industries.
Communication
The manner in which we communicate is, among other factors, a product of our attitude formed by our life experiences. Attempts to improve attitudes as a single point of focus in Partnering workshops can often lead to a feeling of frustration in the Partnering application phase.
Effective Partnering procedure will always involve education of those involved in communication skills which will assist practitioners to effectively apply the benefits of softened attitudes. It is not the intention of this paper to cover in detail the features of such skills. However, it is strongly recommended that practitioners develop an understanding and practical application ability of effective listening skills, transactional analysis (perhaps read Games People Play by Eric Berne, I'm OK You're OK by Thomas Harris); thinking modality analysis (Learning Modalities, audio by Eric Jensen); behavioural style classification (Relationship Strategies, audio by Jim Cathcart and Tony Allessandra); rapport building skills and dispute resolution skills. (Those skills for which specific references have not been given can be found in any number of personal development and management application texts and audio tapes).
Partnering Generally
Much public discussion and debate has been held on the application of Partnering to the construction contract situation, I believe its application goes far beyond this. I see Partnering, in its true sense, becoming an essential tool that will allow more effective management in all types of organisational situations. I see Partnering as the sole tool that will allow more effective integration of high level management and staff in the workplace without creating the usual problems associated with over sensitive protection of control and hierarchical structures. In short, I see Partnering as at the vanguard of continuing the transportation of Project Management from the construction arena towards the broader playing field of business at large. Central to its effective application in this arena will not be just finely honed skills in the processes and procedures (such as preparation of Partnering charters and design of escalation systems) but rather a thorough understanding and application of analysis of individual and team attitudes and methods of communication, and a willingness of all involved in the Partnering process to look internally and make the commitment to adjust behaviour for long term personal benefit and that of the projects and organisations with which they are involved.
Further articles and e-books on project management and a range of other leadership and management related topics are available at www.alanpatching.com.
This article is copyright. The author consents to this article being reprinted for personal use or publication, on the condition no changes are made to the topic, content and author's name, and the words "Copyright held by Alan Patching and Associates Pty Ltd. Alan Patching is one of Australia's leading business presenters and inspirational speakers." are included at the end of the article.
For more information on this and other leadership, management or project management topics, please visit our e-books page.