Collaboration doesn’t happen by accident: why contracts and commercial frameworks matter
True collaboration on major projects is often discussed in terms of behaviours, leadership and culture. Those elements are essential—but they are rarely sufficient on their own.
The recently published Major Projects Collaboration Toolkit, developed by the John Grill Institute for Project Leadership in partnership with the Institute of Collaborative Working, makes an important and practical point: collaborative behaviours are far more likely to take hold when they are supported by the right contractual and commercial frameworks.
Infralegal is pleased to have contributed to the development of the Toolkit, particularly in relation to how legal and commercial structures can either enable—or unintentionally undermine—collaboration on complex programs and projects.
Contracting for collaboration
The Toolkit recognises that collaboration is not simply a matter of goodwill. Traditional contracting models often embed risk transfer, misaligned incentives and adversarial remedies that make sustained collaboration difficult, even where all parties start with the right intentions.
By contrast, well‑designed contractual and commercial frameworks can reinforce collaborative objectives by:
aligning incentives and outcomes across participants;
supporting transparency and early problem‑solving;
reducing the structural triggers for defensive or opportunistic behaviour; and
providing governance and dispute avoidance mechanisms that preserve relationships while managing risk.
In other words, contracts do not create collaboration—but they can create the conditions in which collaboration is realistic and durable.
Understanding where your project sits
A particularly useful feature of the Toolkit is the “Collaborative Behaviours Maturity Spectrum” (pp 15–17), which provides a structured way for projects and programs to assess:
where they currently sit on the collaboration spectrum; and
what practical steps are required to move toward more mature, integrated forms of collaboration.
For owners, sponsors and delivery teams, this spectrum is a valuable diagnostic tool. It helps move conversations about collaboration away from aspiration alone and toward deliberate, informed design choices—including choices about contracting strategy, commercial models and governance.
Designing collaboration, not hoping for it
One of the Toolkit’s core messages is that collaboration must be intentionally designed into projects, not left to emerge by chance. From Infralegal’s perspective, that design task necessarily includes the legal and commercial architecture of the project.
As collaborative delivery models continue to evolve across Australia’s major project landscape, the Toolkit is a timely and practical resource for anyone involved in setting projects up for success.
