CS23C - Concurrent Session 23C: Partnering – More than meetings. A philosophy for successful construction projects.

Contractors often have a stereotypical reputation for being incompetent, untrustworthy, or money hungry. Similarly, Owners are often portrayed as unreasonable, perpetually changing their minds, and wanting additional work beyond the scope of the Contract at no additional cost. We often hear about relationships between Owners and Contractors become adversarial, large claims arising, and lengthy litigation. Inevitably, as construction progresses disagreements arise. Those disagreements may become claims which could become lawsuits.

In recent years, a growing emphasis has been placed on partnering. Partnering on a construction project is a commitment to work together from all key project stakeholders to foster a collaborative and cooperative environment for the greater good of the project. This term partnering is coming up more frequently and contractual requirements to participate in partnering is now common.
But what is partnering? And what is it not?

For starters, even though partnering can be a Contractual requirement, it is NOT in and of itself a legal relationship. That said, partnering is NOT ignoring or relaxing contract terms. It’s NOT circumventing processes. Partnering is NOT an excuse for poor performance or a cure-all for issues that inevitably arise during construction. Partnering is certainly NOT easy to achieve. Partnering is NOT simply attending an executive meeting once or twice a year.

Partnering IS working together. Partnering IS following the Contract. It IS a process for building relationships through a philosophy of teamwork and understanding. Partnering IS dedication to open communication and cooperation. It IS an attitude of trust. Partnering IS fairness and acting in good faith. It IS a “win-win-win” risk-sharing philosophy.

What happens on the jobsite and in the job trailers, after the partnering meetings, is where the real work occurs. Creating a collaborative environment by establishing trust so that all parties can openly communicate challenges, wants, and needs without fear of retaliation is the backbone for successful partnering. This involves listening to the other party’s positions and understanding their perspective. Partnering is empowering everyone on the project to communicate directly and solve problems at the lowest levels.

In this presentation, we’ll examine testimony from both Contractors and Owners that have participated in partnering. We will summarize some recent experiences with partnering relationships to see how they benefited the project in terms of quality, schedule, and cost. We will also summarize secondary benefits from partnering such as creating a much more pleasant working environment during the course of the project.