Roads to Resilience

ODA moulded the culture of this (start-up) organisation to approach risk management differently and succeed where other major construction projects had failed 5 . The value of a shared common purpose and set of values is well illustrated. This extract demonstrates that when resilience is a shared aspiration, difficulties and challenges can be more easily overcome and success achieved.

Each section includes a short (boxed) extract from one of the case studies, relevant to the topic discussed. These are taken from the full-length case studies in Appendix A. In this section the boxed extract is from the Olympic Delivery Agency (ODA) case study which, although not a commercial organisation, did show many characteristics of resilience. It illustrates the importance of risk management and resilience in delivering a major construction project. Particularly interesting was the way that the Chief Risk Officer at

Case study: The Olympic Delivery Authority

When the ODA was established in 2006 it was a totally new organisation and it benefited from having a ‘start-up’ culture. The commitment shown by the whole team was critical to its success. Within the ODA there was a real shared purpose: “ We had this one team ethos, we were all in this 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.

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. For more insights into resilience at the ODA, refer to the full case study in Appendix A

5 In several other countries where the Olympics were held, the equivalent organisations were closed down before the Games. Interestingly, the ODA also succeeded in bringing a greater safety focus to construction and there were no fatalities and far fewer injuries than in previous Games. See: http://m.ehstoday.com/construction/exploring-record-breaking-health- and-safety-performance-2012-olympic-games

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Section 1: Introduction to ‘Resilience’