On Friday, 21 October 1994, three parallel tunnels being constructed as part of the Heathrow Express link collapsed. This led to a huge increase in the cost of the project, a Heath and Safety Inspectorate successful prosecution and a long delay in the project. Rather than blame each other for this disaster, British Airports Authority (the developer) and Balfour Beatty (the contractor) set up a ‘solutions team’. Initially this was to examine technical problems but it led quickly to a £1 million staff development programme being set up. The emphasis at the earliest stage was to encourage all the staff to forget their differences and difficulties, and work together as one team rather than two suspicious warring factions. The plan was put into place not just as a routine training exercise but to help change the culture and way of working in the light of the severe difficulties.
This programme included a series of strategy workshops involving managers of both companies, extensive training in managing people skills for supervisors and a monthly information exchange meeting with groups involving suppliers. The latter meetings fostered an atmosphere of openness and supported the way the two main companies worked together. The front line training sessions took place as close as possible to the tunneling sites. A number of ‘champions’ were identified – people who volunteered to take an active role in influencing the single-team culture and in leading discussion groups. They benefited from a personal development programme and were instrumental in deepening the culture change. Despite initial cynicism, most of the staff came to approve of and support the culture change. In turn the two companies made every effort to meet the immediate needs and requests of the staff if they co-operated with the programme.
BAA estimated that the single-team approach made a saving of atleast £1.5 million, chiefly from non-duplication of roles between the two organisations but also from the way staff approached the management of people and the problem-solving techniques learnt on the development courses. The programme won the 1997 People Management Award.
