Key success factors of collaborative planning processes

Abstract

Building design and planning is a typical instance of coordination and collaboration processes, where experts work together in fulfilling their own distinct planning tasks that build the basis for the realization of the joint building project. Increasing requirements on building performance, like resources and energy efficiency, resulting in growing project complexity call for a holistic view of the project rather than a fragmented one, as strengths in one domain cannot easily offset weaknesses in others. Traditional sequential planning processes fall short in fulfilling this requirement. This study compares sequential and integrated building design in a large laboratory experiment with student participants. The focus of the study was to examine the impact of personality traits on team performance in different planning procedures in a building planning experiment. We identified that the success of design processes relies on both skills and the personality traits of the team members. In the integrated planning treatment groups with higher level of conscientiousness achieve worse results, whereas groups with higher level of conflict and workload achieve better results. We conclude that, when choosing or designing the optimal planning procedure for a team, personality traits should be taken into account since they significantly influence results.