Partner | Improving supply chain relationships

Client

Senior finance team from a UK government supply company and their counterparts in the government procurement department

Focus

Both teams were working on the finances for a major equipment programme. They recognised they were not working well together and there were many instances that decisions were delayed or argued about. As a result even minor actions were referred up to senior levels.

Formulation

Team members were asked to share their perceptions of each other using our Relationship Diagnostic Inventory©, a 360 degree feedback tool we have used extensively in working on supplier /customer and union /management relationships.  The data showed:

• Lack of trust of each others’ motives and values e.g. the company was only interested in profit not value for the taxpayer
• Poor decision making processes
• Lack of training in dealing with difficult negotiations

Intervention

There were three stages in moving the relationship forward:

• Confidential 1:1s with both teams to explore the RDI findings at the personal level
• Separate workshops with the company and government teams
• A joint workshop

The 1:1s and the separate workshops allowed the ‘unspoken’ to be aired and challenged. Using models of human behaviour the teams were supported to:

• Understand how the thoughts and feelings that were unspoken affected their behaviour with each other
• Learn how to address issues of concern through learning conversations
• Acknowledge personal responsibility for their own style of interacting and how to manage this at times of pressure

The joint workshop looked at aligning the business processes and behaviours needed to conduct their business effectively

Outcomes

The most significant outcome was the recognition that they needed each other to achieve success on the programme and that they had the same common goal. They also:

• Established a mechanism for identifying upcoming difficult decisions and dealing with them directly as part of routine business
• Revised decision making protocols to increase pace of decisions