Roads to Resilience

together like the Musketeers, one for all and all for one ” (Chief Risk Officer, ODA). An important factor supporting this collective culture was a stable and cohesive top management team, who developed trust and confidence through working with each other and sharing a common goal. This shared purpose meant that “ it was a very positive environment to work in, there was no political bickering, no infighting, no one stabbing you in the back, you were all part of a team ” (Chief Risk Officer, ODA). It was felt that this absence of internal politics had a major impact on reducing the stress of the project, making it fun and a challenge, rather than a high-stress assignment. The sense of shared purpose was apparent across the entire project. “ If you went on to the park and you had 30 people lined up in front of you, you couldn’t tell if they were ODA, CLM or a contractor, it was like a seamless team and everyone was committed to delivering this goal of the Olympic Park ” (Chief Risk Officer, ODA). As a result, staff turnover was very low. This was critical to knowledge retention, which featured high up on the risk register as a key element of resilience. Effective communication with suppliers and customers Whilst risk management is commonly associated with the financial services sector, it has not been so widely adopted in construction. This presented some initial challenges and led to “ one or two skirmishes in the early days ” (Chief Risk Officer, ODA) in defining risk management methods and terms, as well as in embedding working methods that addressed risk management. It was found that the way to effective risk management was through communication and “ to present things in a way which shows the person you are talking to that it is beneficial to them. If you can explain why it will help that person achieve their objective, they will buy into it … some risk managers make it too academic ” (Chief Risk Officer, ODA). A second important aspect of communication was with government stakeholders. The ODA team were open and honest in discussing risk internally and in their relationships with key stakeholders. When presenting on risk issues to government, they made sure that “ we were presenting government with solutions not just problems … and because we built a good track record they had confidence in us we could deliver ” (Chief Risk Officer, ODA). This combination of openness, solution focus and trust allowed the team to maintain a very positive relationship with the government – their key stakeholder. particularly true of major construction projects. The ODA had a dedicated and very effective H&S team and “ invested a lot of time in training people in health and safety and having a uniform approach ” (Chief Risk Officer, ODA). This was felt to play an important role in the development of good relationships with contractors and unions: “ if we were seen to be treating our staff properly, that would cascade down to people wanting to work on the project. It also meant the unions could see we were serious about health and safety … so we had a very good rapport with the unions and mitigated the threat of union action ” (Chief Risk Officer, ODA). As a result of this investment and focus, the ODA won a number of significant health and safety awards. Health & Safety focus – improved employee relations An important aspect of programme risk is health and safety, and this is

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Appendix A Case study: The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA)