More secrets of success

Following on from a joint conference with BSj, Secrets of Success in February this year, the Building Services Best Practice team will be offering advice on overcoming the pitfalls to partnering.
Delegates at the Secrets of Success conference held in February this year, highlighted a number of hurdles they could foresee in encouraging their companies to take the partnering route. These included the problem of what partnering really looks like in practice; a lack of understanding and appreciation of the massive cultural shift required in a business trying to achieve partnering; fear that clients will take advantage; susceptibility to weak links in the partnering chain; and the importance of understanding the benefits in order to lead others to the new way of working.
Methods of avoiding the pitfalls were also identified: education at all levels of the organisation; demonstrate tangible evidence of the benefits of partnering; good risk analysis; and a willingness to share knowledge, even outside the organisation.
BSj will be running a series of articles which will take these, and other, issues and tackle them head on. We'll be running case studies on organisations which are working through the partnering process, and which are sharing their experiences. The aim is to help our readers break down the barriers to a more effective, efficient and profitable way of working. Tony Matthews and Dr Judy Payne from the Best Practice team will be online to answer your questions about any aspect of partnering, supply chain management or Best Practice.