Evolutionary politics

1605 and all that. Life was so much simpler back then. James I learned of the plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament, captured Guy Fawkes in the cellars beneath the House of Lords on 5 November, then tortured and executed him. And for the past 400 years we have celebrated the occasion.

Whether Bonfire Night and the burning of the guy are intended to serve as a warning against terrorism or to celebrate a healthy and popular mistrust of politics and politicians, I don’t know. But how many of the people who worked on Holyrood are wishing that another guy would return the insurance money to Treasury coffers?

Now that the ashes have settled on the bonfire of the insanities that was Holyrood and the Fraser Inquiry, I feel one last commentary is needed on its enduring legacy. After all, when a £40m project ends up costing £431m of public money, it’s not unreasonable to expect that lessons should be learned for next time.

So, rather than rake over all the mistakes that were made, I thought it would be interesting to speculate on how Holyrood might change the future course of major public construction projects.

On a political note first, devolution itself may have been permanently damaged by the very building intended to serve as its birthplace. On 5 November last year, ironically, we learned that the North-east had voted overwhelmingly against a regional assembly of its own. And time and again, the people who voted “no” cited the overspend at Holyrood as the reason for their decision.

It is ironic, too, that the government, which has driven improvement in construction procurement, should so spectacularly shoot itself in the foot with its control – or lack of control – regarding Holyrood.

At the risk of mixing my metaphors, public sector procurement is a dinosaur (although it is clearly ahead of the private sector in many areas). But it is an evolving dinosaur.

Like dinosaurs, our brain is small and any message sent to the feet can take an awfully long time

Undoubtedly there has been a significant shift in the industry towards collaborative working. When I left construction for the first time, in 1998, very few were doing it. Now the early adopters are beginning to learn lessons.

As one of my colleagues aptly put it at the recent Building Performance conference, 5% are trying, 25% are wishing and 70% are sitting on the sidelines watching.

I suppose, like dinosaurs, our brain is small and distant and any message we send to the feet to change direction can take an awfully long time to arrive.

But, for all the worthy initiatives taken by Latham and Egan, and all our benchmarks for best practice, Holyrood was screwed up good and proper. The government that was urging everyone to adopt best practice just did not apply it to its own project. The deadly combination of ego and adrenalin beat collaboration.

So, here are the questions that Holyrood should prompt us to ask:

• Will government departments adopt acknowledged best practice rather than persist with their “not invented here” attitude and continue to have their own view and do it their own way?
• Will all in the industry take a long-term view and work to develop trust, rather than spotting the next major opportunity and an inept client – and taking advantage of a situation to shaft the government?
• Will our universities start to teach team and collaborative working to the trainee architect who is undoubtedly brilliant at architecture and the surveyor learning surveying? After all, if the new guard isn’t coming through with that philosophy, what chance have we got?
• Will we all realise that it’s people (individuals!) who deliver, so if we can organise them effectively then we, like the England Rugby World Cup team, can be in a position to achieve the ultimate prize?
• Will the government appoint General “Stormin’ Norman” Schwarzkopf to police future big public sector projects and to kick some ass?
• And, if we really want to prove that we can learn from our mistakes and not end up extinct like the dinosaurs, will we clamour for the ideal team to be appointed to the next major public sector project – that is, the crowd who delivered Holyrood?