At midnight on 21 September 2021, MOSL was geared for the launch of one of the most significant improvements to the non-household water market since it opened in 2017 – the launch of the new bilateral transactions hub. The hub, which was developed through a MOSL-led, but market-wide programme, allows retailers and wholesalers (trading parties) to better communicate and work together to resolve customer queries quickly and effectively.

Since go-live, trading parties have successfully raised more than 3,000 service requests via the hub. Whilst it’s still early days, our initial analysis of the benefits realisation is extremely encouraging. Feedback from trading parties and from across the market has been very positive pointing to the truly collaborative, industry wide achievement, we can all be proud of.

So perhaps a key question is, how essential is collaboration to a programme or project? In most cases a programme is seldom successful when created in isolation. Collaboration has been integral to the success of the Bilateral Transactions Programme, enabled by three key working principles:

• Understanding clear goals and outcomes
• Consistently applying the fundamental skills of cooperation
• Reviewing, reviewing, and reviewing again!

Taking each of these in turn let me expand on what I believe are the critical elements that sit behind these principles.

Having clear goals and outcomes is often taken for granted, and not always easy to define. In the example of the Bilateral Transactions Programme, it was critical that we developed a well thought out, evidence-based business case. In short, a business case allows you to explore and fully define:

• A Purpose: This is the ‘why’ we are making the change. This is critically important so that everyone can understand the desired outcomes.
• Stakeholders: Who are we undertaking this work for/with? How will they be involved?
• Success criteria: How will we know/test the ‘product’ is fit for purpose? (our stakeholders are key to developing the criteria)
• The end result: What are we delivering and by when.

Understanding the above allows us to start high level and detailed planning, ensuring clear accountability and therefore employing our second principle – Co-operation.

Consistently applying the fundamental skills of co-operation, such as observing, listening, giving and receiving feedback, and building on ideas, has been a core strength of the programme. It is of course a two-way process and one that has involved a clear structure of advisory groups with industry representatives. However, it is not just the formation of these groups, it is the fore-thought, planning and effort that goes into integrating people that creates value-adding discussions. For the Bilateral Transactions Programme, we thought about integration through three levels:

• At a task level: What is the task we are asking people to contribute to? It essential to be clear on the scope/boundaries of the task and create a common understanding. If this step is missed or under prepared, there is a danger the task is unintentionally taken off in a different direction, commitment can be lost and decision making can begin to wane
• At a process level: This is where we plan and communicate the processes/tools we intend to use. Doing this allows other people to understand the methods that are being applied and can contribute and help refine these methods. With a diverse set of stakeholders, it is critical we do this before starting work. We all bring our own experiences of ‘how to do things’ which needs to be recognised and that diversity of thought can give you a better view of the issues and potential solutions, but problems can occur if there is no clear process or methodology. In turn this leads to delays, confusion, and in many cases, frustration 
• At a relationship level: Let’s not kid ourselves – effective relationships are key, as is the need for ‘critical friends’. We used formal and informal feedback in the Bilateral Transactions Programme to understand, foster, and monitor these relationships with stakeholders and those involved in developing the bilaterals hub - the aim being to establish the ‘feedback loop’ and ensure communication was two way and part of our everyday ways of working.

Finally, reviewing is an essential aspect of any programme. If you don’t review, how can you improve? We need to be open and recognise that new information, healthy challenge and unknowns will certainly impact the plan. This is not a failure of planning, but an outcome of effective planning. Through the Bilateral Transactions Programme, we therefore incorporated frequent and meaningful reviews as part of our weekly work cycle and advisory group discussions.

The scope of reviewing should not be reserved just for the ‘mechanical’ aspects of the programme (progress against plans, budget, milestones etc.), but actively extend into team working, to test and learn about our procedures. The big question - how are we working? How well are we working? Where can we improve?

Sharing these learning points (the good and the bad) with our stakeholders encourages and fosters openness and trust and ultimately enables us to deliver a better outcome.

Or put another way – “Collaboration divides the tasks and multiples the successes”. The launch of the new bilaterals hub is the first successful step in a multi-year programme. As we act on lessons learnt from its launch, we look forward to continuing to collaborate with the market to deliver more successes and benefits to customers. 

Interested in more information go to our Bilaterals web page or read my interview in The Water Report .