On Tuesday 18 November 2026, the John Grill Institute for Project Leadership in collaboration with the Institute for Collaborative Working Australia held a panel discussion exploring collaboration in major projects and how it can help leaders unlock productivity within their organisations and teams.
The discussion was led by Peter Colacino (Principal, Modifica Advisory) and featured industry leaders who shared their experience with inspiring collaborative behaviours within their projects. On the panel were: Andrew Battishall (Project Director, Transurban), Brett Ackroyd (Director, Institute for Collaborative Working Australia), Camilla Drover (Interim Chief Executive, NSW Motorways), and Pouya Razavi (Commercial Director – Major Projects, Sydney Water).
Some of the learnings discussed on the evening were:
- Keep the focus on technical issues, rather than commercial implications.
- Continue the conversation, even when there’s nothing to talk about.
- Co-locate offices.
- Pick up the phone before sending a contract letter.
- Consider collaborative contracting.
Another topic was the insights uncovered by our Major Projects Leadership Forum Collaboration Working Group, which have been collated into a toolkit we will be publishing soon. The toolkit will contain practical tools, including spectrums on organisational maturity in collaborative behaviours and collaborative contracting.
We would like to thank our panellists and the attendees for making this a fruitful and insightful event.
