Collaborative Cross-System Leadership

The Leap From Technical to Relational Leadership

The world we operate in is becoming increasingly complex.

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It is now common practice for large infrastructure and construction projects to be delivered by multiparty consortium - comprised of teams who not long ago were competitors. Under extreme time and financial pressure, the strangers must come together to 1st bid for and win projects and then build high functioning, high performance delivery teams.

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The challenge is that these bid teams are often thrown together at late notice, given minimal resources and then pressured to become high-performance teams immediately and operate as a seamless, unified entity. Even delivery teams are often cobbled quickly together and expected to start performing on day one.

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The challenge is that these teams are led by technical leaders - who may assume that unifying a team requires task allocation, responsibilities, timelines and deliverables. The technical solution alone rarely impresses a customer - they are looking for a passionate delivery partner who sees the uniqueness of their project. During delivery, technical leadership fails to capture the hearts and minds required to create a culture of high-performance and collaboration.

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These leaders need to reach across the system and unify people and teams. Failure to do so leads to disunity, silo thinking and slow responses or decision making.

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Without time, energy and commitment to a deep exploration of collaboration, there is the risk that the consortium remains a collection of disparate entities - pulling in different directions.

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During a bid phase, this elevates the risk of failure and the potential loss of hundreds of millions of dollars. During delivery, a lack of alignment risks miscommunication, wastage, delay and financial or brand damage.