The Outcome Focused Model That Beat Covid-19!
In a series of articles, CEO Andy Steele will be looking at how the current crisis will affect the way we do business, and whether it will foster new thinking and new ways of working to help the construction industry address its deep rooted challenges on productivity and value.
When the first lockdown was announced back in March 2020, we were faced with the very real prospect of completely missing the September 2020 delivery date for the Elmstead Place project in Colchester. However, the combination of our agile, customer focused approach and model of building our own developments really came into its own in terms of being able to deliver a construction led solution.
We did not get bogged down in contractual issues and instead our project team were able to quickly switch focus to working out the best way to keep the site open and on a delivery programme that would allow safe occupation as close to the original date as possible. This included re-scheduling deliveries and phases of the build programme to optimise scheduling whilst minimising disruption to the academic year.
As complexity of projects increase the need to work with organisations that deliver true value through an understanding of priorities and sharing of information is becoming more acute.
To achieve this requires a culture that looks beyond technical capability to the mindset of the organisation. It is this that is driving the increasing distinction between those organisations focused on what they build and those focused on what they help customers achieve.
It can best be summed up as having an outward based value mindset, where processes fit the customer, rather than a more internal, production mindset where the outcome fits the business.
By remaining focused on the key customer priorities, we were able to adapt and develop the build programme to remain on target and have the facility ready for student occupation. The outcome-based approach has enabled our customer to have a streamlined process where acquisition, delivery and on-going operation have been fully managed on their behalf and completed to schedule, despite the disruption caused by Covid-19.
