Data-Driven Partnering: Collaboration That Counts

Of the many things that I have loved in my 15 years of working at NIBS, topping the list is how we can collectively create "wholeness." We build on ideas from all sectors of the building industry, celebrate synergies among the Whole Building Design Guide's attributes-from resilience to aesthetics, and continually improve how the built environment serves its users by exploring together different permutations of innovative technologies and science.

Our collaborative ventures traditionally have embraced hard sciences-physics for structures, chemistry for new building materials, meteorology for climate change, computer science for BIM-with a segue into the soft side of science via economics for total cost of ownership and risk management. We embrace numbers for measurement, because, as physicist Lord Kelvin famously told us, "If you can't measure it, you can't improve it."

So, how can we measure-and add to our scientific wholeness-some of the soft-science attributes that we value intuitively for our "Improving the Built Environment Toolkit," such as the effectiveness of collaboration and teamwork? In that line of inquiry, the NIBS Collaboration Academy, launched earlier this year, has made it its mission to:

• Analyze what we do that enhances collaboration and how does it impact actual project outcomes
• Improve our collaboration knowledge on real projects
• Teach project managers and team members how to solve problems collaboratively

The Collaboration Academy is governed by a Board of Regents, thought leaders who serve the public in a most tangible way: by building and operating Federal projects. These high-powered Federal Agency representatives, subject matter experts, and organization leaders meet quarterly to foster data analytics and behavioral science that heighten team collaboration through what one of the Regents coined as "data-driven partnering." All agree that Federal projects are complex undertakings requiring cooperation among team members who often have disparate interests. Over the past several years, research by McKinsey and Company, among others, has shown that the single most powerful variable that impacts outcomes is team collaborative partnering. The move to Design-Build as the procurement method of choice among Federal agencies has only intensified the need for whole-team collaboration to orchestrate a successful project.

The Collaboration Academy is the brainchild of Joe Powell, architect, University Research Institute (URI) chairman, working closely with Dr. Matthew Cronin, professor of management at George Mason University, and Dr. Marissa Schuffler, associate professor of industrial/organizational psychology at Clemson University. Powell founded the Collaboration Academy with NIBS after a five-year pilot project for USACE, which employed the Collaboration Analytics process to aid and document the results of successful collaboration of the design and construction of the Fort Leonard Wood (MO) Army Community Hospital.

The Collaboration Analytics process, which requires whole team buy-in, includes measurement of leading indicators that can inform project managers of where trouble may be brewing before it erupts in change orders or shutdowns or fist fights-and adversely affects schedules and budgets.

The Collaboration Academy Board of Regents kicked off its first annual "Enhancing Professional Collaboration" study on November 7, 2024, with the exploration of two questions:

• What specific collaboration concerns would you like to see measured?
• What collaborative behaviors would you like to see recognized and rewarded?

If you, like me, are curious to learn more about data-driven collaboration: Rejoice! The Collaboration Academy will present results of its study at a workshop and series of presentations at NIBS' Building Innovation Conference, which will take place May 19-21, 2025 in McLean, Virginia, a suburb of Washington. Stay tuned.