We read a lot these days about how to succeed at AWP, but it can be helpful to understand how to fail at advanced work packaging, too.

Don’t want to fail at advanced work packaging? Read on. 

Despite what some advocates say, Advanced Work Packaging is not a magic pill that will solve all your capital project execution problems with a quick swig and a gulp. It’s more like an organizational wellness program — a wholesale change in your approach to capital project management that will make your business much healthier over the long term.

In practice, adopting AWP requires a significant organizational transformation. There are prerequisites that need to be in place before you start, and a series of critical steps you need to take along the way. If you’re missing pieces or leapfrogging over key elements, it won’t work, and you’ll fail at advanced work packaging.

We read a lot these days about how to succeed at AWP, but it can be very helpful to understand what a failed approach looks like, too. If you’re looking to implement AWP in your organization, you can avoid these four pitfalls from the get-go. If you’re already in the process of adopting AWP and you recognize any of these mistakes, you’ll want to hit pause and get the basics in place before proceeding.

So, how do you fail at Advanced Work Packaging?

FAILURE OPTION 1

Allow your team to operate without clear accountabilities

Barrels of ink have been spilled on how to create accountability structures in organizations, and still many companies have weak or non-existent accountabilities in place. At the very least, your team should know who is responsible for what; you should be benchmarking success, and routinely evaluating progress (and failure) in a way that drives measurable improvement and builds team capacity. You should be modeling accountability, too.

FAILURE OPTION 2

Tolerate weak project management

The plain fact is that if you want your AWP implementation to be a success, you need to have a solid, mature project management team in place. Your project leads must be well-trained, competent team managers who have proven themselves capable of overseeing complex assignments. Project management maturity is absolutely critical to the success of your AWP program — if you don’t have it, you’re bound to fail at advanced work packaging. 

FAILURE OPTION 3

Don’t engage in Predictability Thinking™️

Predictability is the cornerstone of on-time, on-budget project delivery, and predictability thinking can help you achieve it. What is predictability thinking? It’s sitting down and thinking through the threats to predictable project delivery, and then working to mitigate those threats. It’s building systems that support and encourage predictable behaviour among team members, and identifying repeatable processes. Predictability can set you apart.

FAILURE OPTION 4

Buy a new piece of software and consider the job done

A safety licence won’t ensure that your worksite is safe, a quality licence can’t guarantee a quality product, and a software licence does not have the power to implement Advanced Work Packaging. There is no magic bullet: To achieve safety, ensure quality and secure the benefits of AWP, you must change your culture and your process. You must invest in your people, first.

Advanced Work Packaging cannot be entirely distilled into a software program. Algorithms, knowledge management systems and AI can certainly help your team implement AWP, but people do the heavy lifting — and believing that they will simply positions you to fail at advanced work packaging. Moving to a construction-driven approach requires a profound paradigm shift, followed by new practices and protocols. Changing the way we deliver projects requires nothing short of cultural transformation; don’t let anyone convince you that the solution is a software licence.

If you want to avoid these and other pitfalls on your way to a predictable Advanced Work Packaging mindset, get in touch with Concord^® by clicking here!