Answer extracted from the Beyond The Plan podcast — listen to the full episode below.
How do you build a collaborative culture that survives conflicts and contracts?
A collaborative working culture exists when people will act in situations without certainty of their commercial outcome to benefit the overall project, and when one party will take actions to their own detriment if it allows the achievement of the collective goal. It is fundamentally about resolving problems beyond individual functional or organisational boundaries.
The distinction here is crucial: collaboration is not simply agreement or cooperation on paper. It emerges when people prioritise the project outcome over their individual interests, even when doing so carries personal cost. This happens not because contracts force it, but because the shared values and behaviours of the team make it possible.
According to Brett Ackroyd in the episode, most project failures do not stem from budgets, timelines, or scope alone—they emerge from fractured relationships and misaligned incentives after the contract is signed. The real work of collaboration begins once the contract is executed, not before.
When Values and Behaviours Align With Systems
People operate because of their values and behaviours, not because of contractual clauses. This insight explains why two projects with identical contracts can deliver vastly different results. If your organisation has clarity around what values and behaviours are non-negotiable, you can examine the surrounding systems and processes to identify gaps or barriers that undermine those values.
This is where frameworks like ISO 44001 become relevant—they provide a structured approach to collaborative working that extends far beyond the contract document itself. Ackroyd discusses how elite delivery teams use such frameworks to embed collaboration as a cultural practice rather than a compliance exercise.
Real-world evidence supports this approach. Projects using collaborative working methods have demonstrated significantly reduced delay times compared to non-collaborative counterparts, as seen in infrastructure projects across Australia and internationally, including Scottish Water's experience.
"You will know a collaborative culture exists when one party will take it on themselves to actually act to their detriment for the other party, because that allows for the achievement of the overall outcome."
Brett Ackroyd — Commercial Lawyer with 25 to 26 years of experience in mega projects within the Department of Defence and Government Security, as well as other industries. He has spent significant time working within major organisations seeking to engage industry on complex project delivery outcomes, with particular focus on moving projects to success after contract execution.
What makes this definition practical is that it is testable. You can observe whether parties genuinely act in cross-boundary problem-solving, or whether they retreat into blame-shifting and contractual posturing when pressure mounts. The episode explores specific methods that defence and government projects use to maintain this culture at scale, even as projects become more complex and involve multiple organisations and stakeholders.
Key takeaways
- Collaborative culture is defined by action beyond individual interest—people must be willing to absorb cost to serve the collective project outcome.
- Contracts are necessary but insufficient; the critical phase for building collaboration is after the contract is signed and execution begins.
- Alignment of values and behaviours must be supported by systems and processes that remove barriers to cross-functional and cross-organisational problem-solving.
- Projects demonstrating collaborative working practices report measurably reduced delays and improved outcomes compared to siloed delivery models.