Worcestershire County Council: Construction of Phase 4 of Worcester’s A4440 Southern Link Road (SLR4)
Following an open tender process, Worcestershire County Council awarded a contract to Alun Griffiths (Contractors) Ltd for the construction of Phase 4 of Worcester’s A4440 Southern Link Road (SLR4). This was an extremely challenging project entailing capacity improvements to two major roundabouts, the provision of over 1 km of entirely new dual carriageway, a new road bridge over the River Severn, a new viaduct and a range of improvements for pedestrians and cyclists including what subsequently became an award-winning bridge over the A4440.
Initially progress was good, however, the challenges of some of the worst flooding on record, the restrictions imposed by Covid-19 and changes in personnel had led to a situation where both organisations felt that there was a risk that the target of opening the new road by autumn 2022 was at risk.
In March 2022, Worcestershire County Council and AGC jointly engaged the services of Dave Stitt of DSA Building Performance Ltd to lead his DeliverSprint2Finish programme. The aims of the programme were to:
- Ensure effective leadership to successfully deliver the project
- Develop relationships to enable successful delivery
- Focus everyone on the “plan to the finish”
A joint team of senior staff was identified to participate in the programme. The programme was based around monthly Team Focus meetings with Dave, at which priorities and actions were agreed.
Progress against the actions was monitored between meetings, and each meeting included a review of progress over the previous month. Agendas for future meetings were agreed by the participants, which helped to engender a sense of ownership. Dave encouraged the team to set its own performance criteria and promoted frank yet cordial discussions between the participants where, as far as possible, corporate loyalties were left at the door and the focus was on delivering jointly agreed objectives.
All participants were expected to take on actions or to “champion” completion of those actions, and this promoted a “one team” ethos. The programme was efficiently and professionally run and all agendas, progress collaborator surveys, summaries of the previous meeting’s actions etc were provided by Dave in a timely manner and accessible format.
Before the programme began, although both organisations acted in a professional and collaborative manner, the respective organisations’ objectives were not fully aligned, relationships tended to be transactional and formal, and there was limited understanding of the pressures the other organisation had to deal with.
As the programme unfolded, the participants soon gained a greater insight into each other’s priorities and pressures and with that grew trust, teamwork and shared objectives.
Dave’s coaching style encourages participation, and although his general style is genial, he won’t allow participants not to confront any “elephants in the room”. The alternative to this can often be that issues are not addressed and there is the risk of misunderstanding or, at worst, conflict. Dave shared numerous useful, insightful coaching techniques throughout the programme, all of which are transferable to other projects and many of which the participants are utilising elsewhere in their work.
Dave was not afraid to introduce new and innovative approaches, which the participants found both stimulating and effective. Dave was prepared to support individual team members between meetings and to hold periodic progress meetings with senior sponsors from both organisations. One of the key features of the programme was that it provided safe, supportive “thinking space” for the leadership team away from the day-to-day pressures of the job. The regularity of the programme also provided an “anchor” when there were personnel changes in the teams.
Dave’s DeliverSprint2Finish programme undoubtedly played a significant role in the SLR4 opening to traffic by autumn 2022, and we are actively looking at securing his services for other programmes of work in the future.
Andy Maginnis
Strategic Programme Manager – Major Infrastructure Projects
Worcestershire County Council