Guidebook for Integrating Collaborative Partnering into Traditional Airport Practices (2019)

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50 5.1 Introduction This chapter presents details of collaborative partnering best practices in relation to the airport organization’s experience with collaborative partnering. Specifically, the chapter presents an Organizational Readiness Model for Partnering in airports to aid in setting up and improving a collaborative partnering program. 5.2 The Organizational Readiness Model for Partnering For purposes of this guidebook, organizational readiness refers to the degree to which an organization creates and updates its institutional knowledge of collaborative partnering to facilitate and guide partnering implementation in construction projects. Using a model to aid organizational readiness for partnering has two objectives: • Improve project outcomes in preliminary partnered projects. • Optimize the organization’s implementation of collaborative partnering in projects over time. Table 8 presents the organizational readiness model for partnering in airports. C H A P T E R 5 Ground Control: Role of the Organization in Partnering YOU ARE HERE Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Effective Implementation Optimal Implementation Learn about COLLABORATIVE PARTNERING TOOLS SELECT tools and START using them at the right time in project delivery Manage KEYTOOLS effectively: PARTNERING FACILITATOR and STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT Assess and improve ORGANIZATIONAL READINESS to use Partnering Learn about COLLABORATIVE PARTNERING and its BENEFITS, and obtain TOP MANAGEMENT support Navigating through the guidebook—Chapter 5.

Required Practices to Move to A Higher Level * * To move to a higher level, the organization must have implemented all lower-level required practices Recommended Practices to Improve Organizational Readiness Within Levels LE V EL 5 O PT IM IZ ED 7. Task the partnering steering committee to measure organization-wide partnering performance, possibly in comparison to non-partnered projects. 6. Develop/participate in partnering recognition/ reward programs.  Develop a system to consistently record and report project performance.  Conduct periodic meetings to review, reflect, evaluate and improve the partnering program at the organization level.  Appoint an internal, full-time partnering program manager.  Task the partnering steering committee to recommend partnering policies and practices for the organization.  Obtain executive sponsorship for training and continuous improvement of partnering practices (e.g., regulatory agencies, cities, states sponsoring training).  Develop partnering values and institutional goals, reflect them in organizational documents, and integrate them into projects. LE V EL 4 IN TE G RA TE D 5. Establish a partnering steering committee to guide partnering implementation across the organization by setting policies and identifying and overcoming barriers.  Develop consistent partnering guidelines as the organization’s guiding document for partnering for its team and stakeholders.  Appoint partnering coordinators (champions) at internal construction programs and divisions to lead partnering efforts. LE V EL 3 D EF IN ED 4. Develop meaningful partnering performance measurement system(s) to measure partnering performance on each project. 3. Address partnering in project specifications.  Draft a generic Partnering Charter that reflects the organization’s partnering aspirations and which can be modified based on project needs.  Draft preliminary issue resolution guidelines. LE V EL 2 M A N A G ED 2. Use a professional expert to help set up an organization-wide, program-level partnering program for the organization.  Participate in a partnering mentoring program to learn from others and share lessons learned.  Use web-based and external resources/guidelines published by organizations experienced in partnering. LE V EL 1 IN IT IA L 1. Obtain top management support (e.g., money, time, manpower, authority).  Obtain support from regulatory agencies at the federal level (e.g., U.S. DOT, FAA, TSA) or at the state level (e.g., state DOTs). Some agencies can mandate partnering in grants (e.g., FAA’s AIP). LE V EL 0 N O PA RT N ER IN G PR O G RA M 0. No partnering program or partnering tool is used. N/A Table 8. Organizational readiness model for partnering in airports.

52 Guidebook for Integrating Collaborative Partnering into Traditional Airport Practices 5.3 Components and Application of the Organizational Readiness Model 5.3.1 Level 1: Initial Level of Organizational Readiness Required Practice • Obtain Top Management Support: As is the case with the successful implementation of any innovation, collaborative partnering works best when it is driven by the owner or the owner representative, needing top management support and resources for successful outcomes. Top management support can mean the following: – Allocating an appropriate budget. Refer to “Partnering Costs and Responsible Parties” (in Chapter 3) to get a clear idea of the costs of partnering that can help make the financial case of partnering to the owner. – Providing authority and help to the team in obtaining cross-departmental cooperation. Refer to “Follow the Partnering Implementation Framework” (in Chapter 3) to learn about the level of stakeholder engagement required for partnering implementation. – Incorporating partnering objectives into the vision and mission of the organization. – Encouraging speedy dissemination of the principles and practices of partnering. For large, complex, and expensive projects top management support also means actively participating in the project/program partnering sessions. • Keep Top Management Support: After completion of one or more pilot projects using collaborative partnering, the following practices can help make the case to keep top manage- ment support in upcoming projects: – Record lessons learned and key performance outcomes to improve partnering use. – Examine the profitability of partnering use. – Create a baseline of project performance in the pilot project(s). – Keep a database of project outcomes over time across projects. Recommended Practice • Obtain the Support of Regulatory Agencies and Local Authorities: Regulatory agencies can include: – Federal (e.g., U.S. DOT, FAA, TSA). – State (e.g., state DOT). – City or county authorities, including local authorities with specific jurisdictions (e.g., building code inspectors). � The cooperation of local and municipal agencies can be critical to the project schedule. Local authorities can be brought on board by keeping them apprised of the project’s inspection needs. � If necessary for large programs or projects, project teams can even partner with municipal agencies (e.g., to supplement their resources by hiring back recently retired inspectors on a temporary contract basis). • Enlist Other Types of Support: Agencies can extend support to an airport’s partnering program via: – Funding: � Collaborative partnering is eligible for federal grant funding under the FAA’s AIP pro- vided the airport adheres to the requirement of obtaining an independent estimate for the practice. This adherence is easily achievable through a qualified internal or external expert evaluation. – Advisory circulars and local directives: � Some of the advisory circulars released by the FAA’s Aviation Advisory Committee address the use of methods like partnering on construction projects. “Top down buy-in from all levels is the key.” —Senior Executive of an Airport “[T]he structured Collaborative Partnering process requires commitment and support from the senior levels of the airport and all partners.” —San Francisco International Airport

Ground Control: Role of the Organization in Partnering 53 � Directives from city or county governments may specify use of partnering. For example, in 2012, Mayor Edwin Lee of San Francisco issued Executive Directive 12-01, which called for “city departments with contracting authority” (including San Francisco International Airport) to implement partnering on all appropriate projects using practices such as:  Including partnering language in bid specifications and contracts.  Providing internal partnering training for the staff.  Developing internal procedures for implementing partnering practices.  Designation of a point person to promote partnering throughout the department. A copy of the complete directive is provided in Appendix A. Appendix A also provides a sample partnering agreement. 5.3.2 Level 2: Managed Level of Organizational Readiness Required Practice • Enlist a Partnering Professional (Expert) to Help Set Up a Partnering Program: This practice is akin to hiring a professional partnering facilitator for a project, but with the objective of setting up an organization-wide partnering program. The expert can be: – An experienced partnering facilitator. – A partnering champion from a similar organization that has successfully adopted partnering. – A professional organization that specializes in collaboration consultation services. (For more information, see “Resources to Learn More” in Appendix C.) The tasks of the partnering professional include: – Helping the organization delineate its partnering mission, goals, and objectives by assisting in drafting the generic Partnering Charter. – Sharing experiences, lessons learned, guidelines, field manuals, and other partnering resources. – Suggesting best practices based on the specific characteristics of the organization and helping to set them up. – Training an internal employee to take on the role of partnering champion of the organization. Recommended Practices • Participate in Mentoring: Airport organizations can experience desired outcomes in part- nered projects and rise faster in terms of their organizational readiness levels for partnering if immediate mentoring is available to the organization’s executives and partnering champions. Mentoring can be fostered and developed in various ways, such as: – Interacting with professionals who have partnering expertise from state DOTs that have established partnering programs (if applicable). – Training an in-house employee or local consultant via close interactions with a partner- ing expert over multiple partnered projects during which the expert potentially acts as the third-party facilitator. – Becoming a member in relevant organizations that offer networking opportunities as a part of member services. For example, IPI is a member-focused non-profit organization that serves owners, construction management firms, A/Es, contractors, and facilitators and provides partnering training opportunities and resources like education, research and development, recognition, guidance, learning opportunities and facilitator certification, and professional development. • Consult Web-Based Resources and Guidelines: Organizations in the early stages/at lower levels of organizational readiness for partnering are encouraged to refer to external guide- lines, including web-based resources, developed by other organizations that have successfully implemented partnering. See: A.8: Executive Directive on Partnering in Appendix A See: A.9: Sample Partnering Agreement Between City and County in Appendix A See: C2I: Participating in Mentoring Programs (Recommended Practice) in Appendix C See: C2II: Web-Based Resources and Guidelines in Appendix C

54 Guidebook for Integrating Collaborative Partnering into Traditional Airport Practices 5.3.3 Level 3: Defined Level of Organizational Readiness Required Practices • Develop Meaningful Partnering Measurement Systems: Measurement of partnering efforts is critical to: – Evaluate the usefulness of partnering on projects to understand what practices best fit the organization and to generate lessons learned for continuous improvement. – Identify “weak spots” where the organization might use training or seek help from external experienced partnering experts, entities, or organizations as a knowledge-sharing exercise. The following parameters can be used to measure the partnering performance of an organization: – Quality. – Communication. – Issue resolution. – Teamwork. – Schedule. • Address Partnering in Specifications: The level of detail included in partnering specifications indicates the organization’s commitment to partnering and a higher level of partnering organizational readiness. As a tangible outcome of mandating partnering on projects, organizations can draft standard (generic) specifications that outline a partnering scope of work. The specifications may include the following elements: – Definitions of collaborative partnering tools and practices. – Objectives of partnering for the organization. – Details of sharing costs of partnering, payment practices, and allocation of allowances. – Guidelines for selecting collaborative partnering tools (e.g., by using Table 4 in Chapter 3 of this guidebook). – Issue resolution process. – Partnering performance measuring and reporting criteria. – Criteria for facilitator selection, and other specifications. An organization may turn to partnering specifications developed by other organizations experienced in partnering to use them as a guideline when drafting their own partnering specifications. Recommended Practices • Draft a Generic Partnering Charter: As an organization implements partnering on more and more projects, the objectives, goals, and missions of adopting partnering become clearer. Organizations can draft a generic Partnering Charter reflecting these organizational partnering aspirations. The generic Partnering Charter should be a guiding document for use of part- nering on the project. The following components must be included in the generic Partnering Charter: – Mission statement. – Goals. – Guiding principles. This generic Partnering Charter is reviewed and accepted at the project’s kick-off partner- ing meeting to ensure buy-in from the project team and stakeholders, and the document is signed as an indication of commitment. • Draft Preliminary Issue Resolution Guidelines: Developing guidelines for an issue resolution process is one of the first steps an organization takes toward developing organization-specific partnering guidelines. These written guidelines can be incorporated into partnering field guides and manuals. See: C2III: Developing Meaningful Partnering Measurement System(s) (Required Practice) in Appendix C

Ground Control: Role of the Organization in Partnering 55 An issue resolution process is a vital project practice in collaborative partnering. It includes: – Development of an Issue Resolution Ladder. – A complementary issue escalation process with responsibilities assigned to specific individuals. 5.3.4 Level 4: Integrated Level of Organizational Readiness Required Practice • Establish a Partnering Steering Committee: Establishment of a partnering steering com- mittee reflects the organization’s alignment and high-level commitment to implementing and improving partnering practices. The partnering steering committee sets policies and can overcome barriers. The partnering steering committee should consist of: – Top-level executives. – Partnering experts. The partnering steering committee should guide partnering implementation across the organization by: – Identifying barriers to successful implementation of partnering. – Creating guidance manuals. – Supporting the project partnering champion(s). – Planning for organizational resources. – Budgeting funds to support partnering. – Organizing partnering training programs and workshops. – Conducting partnering recognition and awards activities. Recommended Practices • Develop Consistent Partnering Guidelines: Using partnering on multiple projects and adapting/maintaining practices adopted at earlier (former) levels of organizational readiness (e.g., developing measurements and the partnering steering committee) develops under- standing of the specific characteristics and needs of the organization. This understanding, combined with the development of standardized partnering resource materials, such as a generic Partnering Charter and generic issue resolution guidelines, can be used to publish the organization’s partnering guidelines. The content of the partnering guidelines can include: – Introduction and description of the organization’s history of partnering. – Roles and responsibilities of various participants of the partnering process. – Guidelines for project-level implementation of partnering on projects. – Guidelines for program-level implementation of partnering. – Samples of collaborative partnering tools (e.g., generic Partnering Charter, generic issue resolution process, generic partnering scorecards). The use of consistent partnering guidelines in the form of a manual or a field guide to guide current and new stakeholders associated with projects is considered a milestone in the partnering journey of an organization. The organization’s partnering steering committee should initiate creating such guidelines. • Appoint a Partnering Coordinator or Partnering Champion: An individual within the organization who has partnering experience may proactively assume the leadership role to drive the organization toward partnering implementation. Additionally, in an organization with adequate infrastructure (e.g., in-house partnering training and a collaborative culture), resident engineers in the organization’s construction programs and divisions can act as partner- ing champions for projects. See: C2IV: Establishing a Partnering Steering Committee (Required Practice) in Appendix C See: C2V: Developing Consistent Partnering Guidelines in Appendix C

56 Guidebook for Integrating Collaborative Partnering into Traditional Airport Practices 5.3.5 Level 5: Optimized Level of Organizational Readiness Required Practices • Have the Partnering Steering Committee Measure Performance: This practice is an exten- sion of the responsibilities of the steering committee as recommended at Level 4. In an organization with a mature collaborative partnering culture, steering committees measure performance across partnered projects and possibly in comparison to non-partnered projects to gauge organizational performance and calibrate practices as needed. • Develop/Participate in Partnering Recognition and Awards Programs: Partnering rec- ognition and award programs incentivize partnering teams. Additionally, such programs encourage teams to keep consistent and reliable documentation of the partnering process and measures of performance against goals. Recommended Practices • Develop a System to Consistently Record and Report Project Performance: This practice relates to developing intra-organizational partnering performance measures. Measurement of partnering efforts is critical to evaluating the usefulness of partnering on projects. These evaluations can be used to understand what practices are a best fit for the organization and generate lessons learned for continuous improvement. Performance measures also can help identify “weak spots,” which translate to opportunities for mentoring, training, or seeking help from external partnering experts, entities, or other organizations with partnering experi- ence in a knowledge-sharing exercise. • Hold Periodic Meetings to Review, Reflect, Evaluate, and Improve the Organization’s Partnering Program: Periodic meetings are an integral part of the partnering process on the project level, but meetings also must be held to evaluate partnering adoption and performance more broadly within the organization. These meetings must involve executive-level stakeholders as well as other internal and external stakeholders. The meetings can be scheduled as a part of the organization’s partnering recognition and awards practices or as part of an organization- level training program. • Appoint an Internal, Full-Time Partnering Program Manager: Within the organization, an individual with partnering experience may proactively assume the leadership role to drive the organization toward partnering implementation. Depending on the size of the organization, one full-time partnering program manager may be retained for the entire organization or several managers may be appointed to cover internal divisions. Top management generally provides autonomy and support to this person. Additionally, in an organization with adequate infra- structure (e.g., in-house partnering training and a collaborative culture), resident engineers in construction programs and divisions can act as partnering champions for specific projects. Hiring a full-time partnering program manager may be prohibitively expensive for smaller airport organizations. In such cases, the airport organization may wish to appoint a partnering champion within the airport, ideally at a higher management level. The partnering champion can then work collaboratively with state agencies or other organizations that have established partnering programs in order to take advantage of mentoring opportunities and information sharing to establish and support the airport’s partnering program and culture. • Have the Partnering Steering Committee Recommend Policies and Practices: This practice adds to the responsibilities of the partnering steering committee by requiring the committee to: – Analyze the measured partnering performance of the organization. – Recommend practices and policies to strengthen the partnering program, keeping the organization’s partnering objectives in perspective. • Emphasize Executive Sponsorship for Training and Continuous Improvement: This prac- tice entails financial support provided by the executive management, or possibly through grants available from regulatory agencies, for conducting organization-wide partnering “You take a champion, and [others within the orga- nization] will follow. . . . Personalities need to be a key factor in determin- ing who will champion the process. All projects and programs need a champion, specifically people who are trusted, have built strong net- works (especially in the contracting community), are known to be fair and honest, have developed a good deal of capital, and can stake the success of the program on the force of their character. While this may sound risky and hard to successfully complete, this appears to be the way [the State Highway Administration] has run the partnering program since its inception.” —Center for Conflict Resolution report on the Maryland DOT/ State Highway Administration’s Partnering Program and Process See: C2VI: Developing/Participating in Partnering Recognition and Awards Program in Appendix C

Ground Control: Role of the Organization in Partnering 57 training. During these trainings, intra-organizational sharing of lessons learned helps team members improve their implementation of collaborative partnering. • Develop Partnering Values and Institutional Goals That Are Reflected in Organizational Documents and Integrated into Projects: Incorporating partnering values and developing institutional mission and vision statements and goals related to partnering not only adds a solid collaborative aspect to an organization’s aspirations, but also declares that partnering is a way of doing projects at the organization, attracting like-minded entities. The process of developing these values and goals, whether at the project or organization level, inculcates alignment of stakeholders toward common project or organizational goals. The values outlined are used as guidance to behavior by all members tackling issues on projects.