Successful Alignment

Building a Mine, Together, Safely, On Time and Within Budget

The Challenge:

How do you go from raw bush in a remote location to a producing nickel mine, harnessing the energy and contribution of a diverse team that includes a project manager, engineering companies, construction teams, laborers and consultants? And how to do this so that all risks are managed successfully when your new partnering model is being tested for the first time?

The Solution:

We tackled the challenge through a collaborative approach, first working with the project director and project manager to understand what success needed to look like – so that everyone was pointed in the same direction, talking the same language and focused on the same short and long-term goals. Next, we brought together 35 miners, engineers, construction personnel and managers to get their perspective on a successful outcome, both for the project and the project team.

Using a carefully designed and facilitated process, we then let them hash out the challenges together and create focused action plans to attend to them. The process was repeated five times over several years as each new phase of the project began, while progress on implementation was carefully monitored.

The Result:

• A best-in-class project that delivered a mine on time, within budget and with an exemplary safety record
• People on the project who were aligned, confident and high performing
• A team joined together around a solid plan

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