For the successful implementation of mega projects, the impact on the community of the project is crucial.
In the continuation of their essay on the elements of success in implementing mega projects, the writers underscored that the support of the community or communities plays a pivotal role in a “smooth running” of mega projects, saying that “their support accelerates progress and curbs cost.” “Community resistance has the opposite impact,” they noted.
They said that communities at the onset embrace mega projects because they bring significant economic enterprise. Down the road, “buyer’s remorse” may set in when the community questions whether the impact of the project is worth all the trouble. In general, communities muddle through this human reaction to change and restore their enthusiasm. Part of getting things back on track is realizing buyer’s remorse is likely to occur and how it can best be offset.
In some communities however resentment can build and obstruct project progress. All too often mega projects have ignored community enrollment in their cause as essential to cost containment and schedule performance. The community determines the quality of life for most who work on the project. “The more in harmony the community is, the smoother work goes and the better the life style in the project,” they said.
Mega projects are broad-based in their impact. Basic and different infrastructures are interrelated and need timely maintenance. And the community is frequently the “interface” to the project, they said.
“One project for example forgot that workers use the community infrastructure to reach the project. The project had funds for improving bus service to the project but held back on the money to use the funds to cover a shortfall elsewhere. It was not long before the bus system was overwhelmed and workers began to arrive late. The community’s bus service had become a major project bottleneck,” they pointed out.
The community creates an important commercial base for the project. Talent, materials, equipment, and service are drawn from the surrounding project communities to satisfy the consumption of the mega project. Community’s can harass or facilitate service providers and suppliers in addition to direct influence to the project. If communities are in discord with the project, there are dozens of ways to make life difficult. In the reverse case, communities can provide support and a sound quality of life for project workers and managers, permitting them to focus on the enormous complexities of a mega project.
One corporation had similar mega projects in two different locations. One had fine rapport with its community and progress was impressive with no impact to fundamental cost. The other had delays and constant friction with the community that added unanticipated costs.
Project communities may provide their own community services such as law enforcement, fire protection, emergency response and public works. Most often project communities rely upon the larger community to expand their services to include the project community. Determining the impact on the larger community is important work that stabilizes the project-community interface, the said.
Labor policy is another influence within the community. Project sites are sometimes chosen on the basis of whether there is union activity. Labor’s influence to local politics needs to be factored. In collaboration, this can be a positive force for the project.
In confrontational labor relations, the overflow of labor unrest can sink into local politics and add to the challenge for the project.
Relationship between a mega project and a community may be positive, they said. What communities need is assistance in infrastructure, help in planning civic services growth, and good business advice to the local commercial community. Projects that help build the small- and medium-sized businesses surrounding them find a smoother path. It does not take much assistance in the form of advice, training or loans, to help a community to become a strong advocate and ally for the project.
An important investment for a mega project is shareware/groupware technology that invites into the project the community and all vendors, service providers and suppliers. Sometimes called enterprise systems, these technologies embrace involvement according to planned access. Security can now be set to permit people to have only what is appropriate to them.
Moreover, they emphasized the critical role of latest telecommunication equipment such as PDAs, cell phones, and media announcement — such as internet and broadcast, as they are important for timely response that saves lives and protects assets.
Another essential element of a successful mega project is collaboration. The writers said the greater the complexity in any human enterprise, the more important collaboration becomes. Teamwork is another strong determinant of a smooth running mega project. So many things must work in harmony that cooperation is critical to progress. “When adaptation occurs, people must be willing to sacrifice their comfort to ensure another work group’s continued progress, so as to ensure the overall project’s success,” they pointed out.
However, collaboration rarely happens of its own accord, they said. There are tools that project leaders can call upon to build a high performance, collaborative work environment such as organization design and development, team skills training, teambuilding, collaboration audits and monitoring by managers and supervisors/team leaders.
Mega projects are a system of systems. This means, the overall project functions with each individual system contributing in concert with the others in addition to each individual system doing its own thing, they said.
For example, a maintenance function must support the equipment of construction. Maintenance with engineering and accounting service construction and ensure construction progress. Maintenance is a system supporting another system, namely construction, in concert with the systems of engineering and accounting. Yet that is not the end of maintenance’s contribution. Maintenance must maintain its service vehicles, own equipment used to make repairs and fabricate parts and so on. In the mode of self-maintenance, the maintenance function is an independent system.
“Fitting all the systems together requires cooperation or the friction between systems adds to cost and delays progress. And as organizations are work systems made up of people, they too have the same need to cooperate. From the organization interface all the way to the individuals who must work together, teamwork gets results,” they explained.
It is always cheaper to work with teamwork. Teamwork functions with human dynamics like caring, trust and honesty. “With teamwork, you can count on the other person to carry their load or to help out when you may get overwhelmed. You can trust and turn your back on them, relying on them to even represent your interests if something comes up. In teamwork you are more likely to have all the information you need to do your job because others are proactively sharing information and looking out for you as they would themselves. Good teams are like good families in their loyalty and willingness to help. And of course they do so; in teamwork, their destiny is tied to yours.”
Moreover, collaboration is further intensified through third-party facilitation, which is the infusion of an objective person into mega projects human dynamics. In the early application of a mega project, this element is mostly reserved for the board of directors and senior management, and as value grows, the more pervasive third-party facilitation would become in the project community.
With facilitation, project implementation moves faster with less friction and cost, the pointed out. “Facilitation encourages reflection and conflict resolution. The focus shifts back to the project’s progress and away from distraction. Less resentment is built that weighs down the project again and again. Rivalries are not established that misdirect resources. Instead creative problem solving is encouraged and cooperation is thought through to move faster on tasks with teamwork,” the writers stressed.
Mega projects are human enterprises and third party facilitation can be a critical catalyst for conflict resolution and restoring energy to the project’s momentum.
Mega projects are highly involved human systems with many overlapping and competing works. It is very easy for human communication errors to happen and the have conflict emerge, with no malice by any party. Simply roles are placed at odds with other roles. Add human emotions and feelings, and it does not take much to get things off track.
Third party facilitation is most thought about in terms of mitigating problems. It is just as much about seeing people as the best they can be. The task then is encouraging the individual, the team, interfaces for the individual and team, and the project as a whole to help the individual realize their best contribution to the project.
“Experience indicates third party facilitation is more effective when it divides its time between putting out fires and coaching people to realize their full potential and solve their own problems,” they said.
Third-party facilitation can be augmented by internal facilitators who receive special training to help bring about fast resolution of conflict.
Third parties should have access to the command center. They will look for potential problems and anticipate, directing their energy to prevent problems with organization design or early intervention.
Last, but not the least, effective execution of mega projects requires the use of state-of-the art technology. From software to automation and robotics to earth observation for monitoring assets and the environment and other technology can advance project performance. A major challenge in this respect though is getting people to innovate and use the technology, they said. “The tendency is to do things, especially in construction, the same way they have always been done it,” they observed.
The writers prescribed three things in order to achieve best results in a mega project, they are: invest in distance learning; demonstrate new technology frequently; and sponsor experiments and load them for success.
Distance learning engines with simulations engage young people in particular and capture their attention leading to improved retention. Retention is further stimulated by online coaching in the work situation. Most importantly, the distance learning gives the worker confidence to step out and use the new tool or procedure.
By frequently demonstrating new technology, workers are given the opportunity to have their hands on the latest scientific knowledge and equipment or gadgets.
“Seeing is believing. Practical application and ownership to make the technology transfer to users become more apparent,” they further said, adding that “they see the value to them and they make it happen.”
Likewise, sponsoring experiments and load them for success would complement and complete the tools for effecting success in mega projects. Sometimes leadership must instill innovation by implementing experiments. Every effort needs to be made to sponsor success as many will be looking on, they said. “Choose good teams inclined to innovate. Give them the time and resources to prove out the technology. Communicate the success widely so others in the project follow in the footsteps of the experimenters,” the writers said in the essay.
In this way, project employees will get the signal as to the importance of technology and learn how it helps project progress.
Much has been learned from past mega projects. Coupled with current technology, this knowledge advances mega project performance. In the 21st century, technology offers many means to fully leverage lessons from the past. Those lessons are the architecture for smoother projects and the application of technology.
(The writers are managing directors of TTech LLC, a technology-transfer engine with offices in the US, and can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected] )
