July 17, 2025

Building by Collaborative Contracting

Lessons in aligning contractor and agency teams to deliver results.

Article by Clayton Gilliland, President, with insights from collaborative partner, John Haggerty.  

In today’s transit world, doing more with less has become the norm, which is a shared challenge for public agencies, designers, and contractors alike. Expectations are rising, timelines are tightening, and budgets are increasingly under pressure. Projects must be delivered in a more cohesive, collaborative way. 

But success doesn’t happen by accident. Rather, it depends on how collaboration is built from day one.  

Talk to any contractor, designer, or project owner who’s lived through a well-executed CM/GC or PDB project, and they’ll tell you: it’s a different kind of job. One that demands a deeper level of partnership is collaborative contracting that starts with intention and structure, and carries through commissioning and revenue service. 

Collaboration in Communication

I’ll be “Captain Obvious” for a moment: working together really is essential. But sometimes we think we’re collaborating—when in reality, we’re working in silos. We’re each in separate rooms, developing ideas, filling in information gaps, and then trying to stitch it all together later.  

True collaboration means getting in the same room, having a conversation together. That’s when communication becomes faster, decisions become clearer, and the whole process just works better. 

Let me give you one example... During preconstruction, we were invited to sit down and look at the contract together, really work through it as a team. I remember it clearly: not just emails flying back and forth or redlines going unnoticed, but physically sitting across the table from our partner, flipping through the contract, and having an honest conversation about our concerns. 

That moment really stuck with me. The ability to shape the agreement from the very beginning - not after it’s finalized, but while it’s still being defined. Now, that was powerful. It wasn’t just procedural, but rather it was validation that our voice mattered. 

And that, to me, is what working together truly looks like.

Collaboration by Structure  

What sets collaborative contracting apart is not just the intent, but the structure. When implemented correctly, it becomes the very condition that enables project success. 

I’ve learned in collaborative delivery that your own sense of leadership matters just as much as the structure of the partnership itself. This was especially clear to me on a project that spanned two years of preconstruction and five years of active construction - a long-term commitment that required real alignment from the start. 

“The most successful projects begin with alignment, not a drawing set.”

When we transitioned from preconstruction to construction, I was invited to attend a training session for all contracting teams and agency members. What stood out wasn’t just the content, it was who was in the room. It wasn’t limited to project managers or executives. The session brought together field engineers, quality control teams, superintendents, and supervisors - people from both the office and the field. Everyone involved in delivery was there. 

That kind of inclusive environment signaled early on that this wasn’t going to be a top-down operation. It was going to be a partnership where input from every level of the team mattered. That moment set a cultural tone that lasted through the entire five years of construction.

Collaboration in Conversation

Out in the field, I remember a training session with John Haggerty, former Director of Rail at San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), that stood out - not because it was long or complex, but because of how focused it was. The entire session was built around a single one-page handout. And that one page made a big impact. 

It highlighted something that seems small but is actually quite powerful: language. Specifically, how the words we use shape our relationships and behaviors in collaborative environments. 

At the top of the page, there was a simple table comparing traditional, often combative language with more collaborative alternatives. 
Here are a few examples: 

• Instead of referring to the owner, use “client” or, better yet, the actual agency name, that subtle shift adds a layer of respect and specificity. 
• Rather than just saying contractor, the preferred term was “builder” or the name of the joint venture, this emphasized partnership over hierarchy. 
• Instead of launching straight into a change order, the preferred approach was to say, “Can we open a PCO?”—a Potential Change Order. That simple framing encourages collaboration and problem-solving rather than confrontation. 
• And my favorite example: rather than saying, “Your estimate is crap,” the more constructive version was, “Our costs are coming in differently—let’s take a look.”

“The words we use can shape the culture of a project.”

The training reinforced that the way we talk to each other sets the tone for how we work together. And when you’re on a five-year project with multiple partners and high stakes, that kind of tone-setting matters.  

These weren’t word swaps. Instead, they were mindset shifts. You really have to have a collaborative mindset at the leadership level that disseminates throughout the contracting team. And sometimes, despite your best efforts, individuals simply can’t—or won’t buy in; when that happens, it’s crucial to remove or replace them quickly so you can keep building the culture you need. 

Across our major projects, I try to stay grounded in a set of shared mindsets. My approach is always rooted in the practical—not lofty strategies, but everyday actions people can take to work better together. It often starts with something as simple as terminology or human behavior. These small, often-overlooked details can either help or hinder collaboration. I’m always trying to catch those subtle cues.   

Collaboration in Onboarding  

I really want to drive home working together, this means creating joint work products – not working separately and volleying information across, whether it be a work plan or a quality resolution working together is just better and faster, 

We put in a lot of upfront work to get our initial onboarding foundation right. For example: when the Construction Manager (CM) was brought in, the contractor was already on board. That decision alone sent a strong message: we were committed to collaboration, not hierarchy.  

From the start, we worked as one team - especially when it came to the quality program. We didn’t just align on goals; we shaped and developed the quality plan together and presented it as a unified team, not as separate entities. That level of integration set the tone for the entire project.  

But collaboration didn’t stop at alignment. Rather, it meant creating joint work products, instead of just trading documents back and forth. Whether it was a work plan or a quality resolution, we rolled up our sleeves and built it side by side.  

“At the end of the day, a contract is just paper. But a collaborative contract? That’s the foundation for something better.” 

I remember one moment during the middle of an estimate review. Our chief estimator was being pretty stubborn about a particular assumption—we weren’t seeing eye to eye, and the room was starting to tense up. I had to pause and kind of take the air out of the room. I made a light comment—something like, “Well, someone had to pick a fight today,”—and everyone laughed. That little bit of humor helped reset the energy and got us back to problem-solving instead of posturing. 

It was a reminder that even during tough conversations, tone and trust matter. You need people who know how to stay engaged without getting adversarial and leaders who know when to step in and turn tension into progress.

Let me give you one example: during cost estimating, the client and contractor benefited greatly from having a neutral facilitator. This person worked between our two estimating teams and helped bridge the gap in how we approached things. Their presence not only improved clarity but also reinforced trust and collaboration—proof that with the right tone and support, even challenging moments can move a project forward. 

Collaboration in Estimating  

From a contractor’s point of view; our collaborative estimating process can look quite different than what clients may have experienced in the past. Many clients are used to seeing high-level pricing or conceptual figures that get shoehorned into a schedule of values. But with our approach—especially under an open-book arrangement—we unpack the entire estimate. Line by line. 

You can see every activity, subcontractor quote, labor assumption, indirect cost, fee, and contingency. We even walk through the risk register and how it ties back to the cost model. 

For some owners, that level of transparency is new - and honestly, a little intimidating at first. It’s a whole new way of engaging with cost data. So, we went through a structured orientation with the client team, just to help them understand what they’d be looking at and how we’d walk through it together. 

“Rather than just explaining numbers, we built trust in the explanation, showing that we’re partners in managing cost and risk from the start.”

Cost estimating and cost reconciliation are absolutely fundamental to the collaborative process. If you get that right, it permeates the rest of the project in a positive way. But if you get it wrong, it can unravel everything else.  

Cost estimating is, by nature, an iterative process, especially in CM/GC and Progressive Design-Build. You start with a baseline estimate, and then as the design evolves, you update the estimate accordingly. 

What’s critical is being able to clearly show how and why your estimate has changed with each design iteration. It allowed the contractor to weigh in early, align with the owner, and begin that estimating process side-by-side with the design team. If you can transparently walk through those changes - what shifted, why it shifted, and how that’s reflected in the numbers - then, you start to build real trust. Everyone begins to understand not just what the number is, but the reasons behind it. 

Collaboration as the Activator

At our firm, we’ve seen what happens when collaboration is embedded not just in the culture, but in the contract – collaboration becomes the “activator”, acting as a catalyst for better outcomes across cost, risk, and trust. 

“When collaboration is embedded in the contract itself, it becomes the activator that transforms performance.”

Collaborative contracting is what sets alternative delivery in motion. It’s the key differentiator from traditional models, creating the conditions where high performance can truly take hold.

In the end, collaborative contracting is not just a better way to deliver projects, but a better way to build trust, relationships, and strong teams. While structure creates the foundation, success depends on mindset and intention. Whether you are an agency leader, a builder, or a designer, the goal remains the same: show up early, stay engaged throughout, and remain aligned at every step.