Insights
Let’s open some windows
So, here’s a theory that I have had in my head for many years..
I have held this view that due to the structured approach to everything in our lives, that over time the windows in our brains/minds (the receptors of knowledge) that were wide open as babies (even when in the womb) have been systematically closed/shut off and even locked by our own actions and worse, by others.
Think about it. A baby learns how to walk, learn language/s, read, write, have values and emotions - generally by the time they reach four or five. The five year old goes off to school and is bombarded (in a positive, constructive way) with a myriad of learnings that over the next few years are streamlined into topic areas (to suit the education system) that culminate in say nine or ten GCSEs (or whatever they are called now), then streamlined again into three or four ‘A’ levels that get streamlined again to one university course or occupation.
Naturally, especially given the connected world we now live in, everyone’s ability to access knowledge is huge whether in terms of academia, hobbies, skills, news and so on – there are so many opportunities to keep all of our windows open and broaden learning. My question is, how many get to use what is hiding behind those windows in their everyday working lives? How many leaders recognise and enable that knowledge, those perspectives, those experiences and positively encourage such a culture – or, how many of them actually spend more time shutting & locking those windows, blocking those voices/views rather than helping them open?
The tape on the mouth – let’s face it, most of what we are talking about here is related to emergent thinking – too often considered to be disruptive, disrespectful and ignored by many leaders – let’s give ears to earless, unlock the windows, and unblock those voices – the benefits are huge!
We have been working with a number of major organisations to access learning, to build knowledge and to identify what is inside those windows and how best to utilise the learnings. We have an ‘As it is’ approach – we search the truth by running interviews/workshops that look at the difference between what is being said and what is being thought. We work with leaders to spot the windows, to help them open, which in turn has always delivered a stronger, leaner and more driven team culture and set of behaviours.
Do get in touch to find out how we go about it, and to also let me know how you do.
Mick Hill – Behaviours Director
Learning legacy - a social value initiative for the professions?
Learning Legacy – a social value initiative for the professions?
Learning Legacy is a structured approach to the capture and dissemination of lessons, good practice and innovation from major projects aimed at raising the bar in industry. Ten years after London 2012 launched the industry’s first learning legacy to much acclaim in the industry, and building on the subsequent learning legacies of Crossrail and Thameslink London Bridge, High Speed Two (HS2) has taken the metaphorical baton and launched its own Learning Legacy at an industry event in October
I led the development of the London 2012 learning legacy framework as part of my role as a Programme Assurance Executive for the Olympic Delivery Authority, and also set up the Crossrail Learning Legacy and the HS2 Learning Legacy. What is particularly brilliant however is that, having published the Learning Legacy Framework on the Crossrail Learning Legacy website, Thameslink developed their own Learning Legacy for the London Bridge programme demonstrating that the Learning Legacy is becoming embedded as an industry standard approach.
Whilst I was scoping out the HS2 Learning Legacy, one particularly engaged main contractor that I interviewed described the Learning Legacy back to me as a social value initiative for the professions – that’s the best description I’ve heard to date. Giving back to the industry and supporting professional learning and ultimately raising the bar is the goal of learning legacy.
Project to industry knowledge sharing (public)
So how effective is learning legacy? The KM purists amongst us argue that you can’t codify knowledge. Others say that 20% of knowledge is explicit and can be captured whilst the other 80% is in people’s heads. I say that, whilst the articles and the resources on the learning legacy websites focus on sharing the 20%, learning legacies can also tap into the 80% through active dissemination programmes with industry partners, which enable experts from across the project (including the supply chain) to connect with peers through presentations, discussions and conversations - further increasing the chance of knowledge flow. On London 2012 we had the Ambassador programme, and at HS2, we’ll be rolling out the Author Speaker Programme to do this.
Project to Project Knowledge Sharing (private)
HS2 is the first project to launch its learning legacy programme this early in the lifecycle of the project at 20% complete (versus 60% at Crossrail and 95% at London 2012). This has the benefit of being able to capture the learnings around the early stages of a project such as procurement, initiation, enabling works, mobilisation which were distant memories on previous learning legacies.
However starting this early means that there is still some way to go so it is important that learning legacy is not a one way vehicle, that HS2 can both share its learning but also learn from other projects. We are setting up reciprocal knowledge sharing agreements/mutual NDAs between HS2 and other major projects to enable the detailed learning between projects, to support candid conversations behind closed doors that you might not want published on an open forum. Whilst this is necessarily a very HS2-centric approach, I can see a future where there is a major projects knowledge sharing network with a standard approach to knowledge sharing.
Individual knowledge sharing – what’s in it for me? (personal)
At the launch of the HS2 Learning Legacy we asked the question of attendees “What would make you more likely to share knowledge?” 55% of the 159 people who responded said “Recognition of your contribution to the profession” and 39% said “Being published”.
There has been a huge level of engagement of engagement on the HS2 Learning Legacy, not just in HS2 Ltd but across the whole supply chain – 220 authors across 39 organisations in the first two tranches of content. This is a real step change from previous learning legacies in which the majority of content was from the client body and where my conversations with the supply chain inevitably led to their concerns over guarding their IP.
A systems approach to learning
Learning Legacy provides a social value platform for knowledge sharing across industry, between projects and provides professional recognition for individuals. However Learning Legacy is just one cog in the system of learning and innovation across our industry. A joined up approach to lessons learned, innovation, continuous improvement and knowledge provides much greater opportunity to leverage major projects knowledge to raise the bar in industry.
I saw a good example of this systems approach recently by the Enabling Works Contractors on HS2 who have developed a series of learning legacy papers to hand over their learning and innovation with the Main Works Contractors and then got together at a Safe at heart knowledge sharing event to discuss them and transfer that learning.
A systems approach to learning and innovation by major projects is the next big opportunity for improved productivity in our industry.
Karen Elson - Knowledge Director
connecting the mycelium
Increasingly, we work in complex adaptive systems; a polite way of saying messy, chaotic, and ever-changing environments filled with a seething mass of those annoyingly unpredictable things called relationships, where the sum of the parts certainly does not add up neatly to the whole. And all of this at a time when we need to come together to face an existential crisis of our own making; the climate and biodiversity emergency and the associated volatile political environment.
Mycelium
Ecologists are only just discovering the role mycelium plays within our eco-system as ever changing, active transporters of nutrients and information between trees; much like the ‘shadow’ organisations which operate in our businesses sharing corporate knowledge and creating the cultural glue
So how do we continue to deliver projects successfully in this environment?
Co.Cre8 is built on a foundation of Knowledge, Networks and Behaviours with each of the directors an experienced innovator in these fields. This three pronged approach is designed to build the capability, engagement, resilience and innovation required to adapt and flex within uncertain environments, through enabling people to connect effectively and by simplifying how we work together.
From a network’s perspective we work deep within projects designing pathways for knowledge to flow through, connecting people to bring forth different ways of thinking, working and ultimately building.
The guiding principles for this work are;
Minimal Interference
Rather than seeking to adapt a particular project management methodology (Prince, Agile, Lean etc) to a project, we seek to understand and listen to the project network with a focus on identifying key influencers within the network to work with in removing barriers and building bridges, leaving as much of the existing ways of working in place as possible.
This was the approach used in setting up the ways of working between High Speed 2 and Transport for London. This change programme impacted around 7,000 people across 200 different organisation and was delivered by a single external consultant. It had a high adoption rate and required no contract variations in order to be implemented down the HS2 supply chain.
Connecting the mycelium
Rather than focusing on a specific poor performing team, we recognise that issues do not occur in isolation and are typically a symptom of a disconnect within the wider project network (the mycelium). On this basis we tend to focus on the interfaces between teams. Through the use of interactive forms and flowcharts we simplify the interactions between teams ensuring a common ‘language’ and agreed ways of interacting with each other which are in line with the often complex contractual obligations. This removes friction and misunderstandings and encourages consistent routines to develop, which strengthen the relationships between teams.
At the start of our assignment at the TfL/HS2 interface the issue was seen as primarily a contractual one with continuous disputes over the terms of the contract and payments, it soon became clear it was a systems issue, there were no clear ways of working agreed across the programme leading to delays, rework and continuous misunderstandings, which showed up as commercial/contractual disputes when it came to paying the bill. We developed bridging processes for the interfaces between HS2 and TfL consisting of 12 processes ranging from commercial strategies and project controls to engineering approaches (requirements and assurance) and communications, which were developed with the specialist teams from HS2, TfL and the main contractors. These were then tied together through end-to-end processes, which were simplified into interactive forms and flowcharts, which are designed to adapt and flex with the changing needs of the project effectively building in continuous learning. Commercial disputes have significantly reduced and are focussed on actual points of difference and teams now have clear ways of working with each other. The Blue Book processes have been short listed for awards and put forward to the DfT’s Project Speed as an example of an effective, innovative approach.
Rewilding organisations
As organisations become more complex over time, there is a tendency to shift away from a relationship based approach with its strong connections and reliance on implicit knowledge, toward a more structured corporate approach, where processes and hierarchy seek to replace the previous connection between senior leadership and our wider teams. This can unintentionally create barriers to the way people want to work. Co.Cre8 recognises that projects are delivered by the quality of the relationships within project networks and we focus on identifying the key influencers to work with to implement changes that suit the environment and will be adopted in order to create an environment where teams can flourish and connect in ways which lets knowledge flow through the project networks.
The Blue Book was initially created with a small group of key influencers, not only ensuring that it reflected the ways people wanted to work but also ensuring that others were willing to adopt the changes. The processes themselves focus as much on ensuring the correct relationships are established with single points of contacts, regular working groups and clear distribution lists for each package of work, as it does on the process itself. At the working level, people are clear who they need to work with to get work done.
Jo Lucas - Networks Director