Breaking organizational barriers, integrated teams for success!

In this episode of the 4PM Podcast, host Mounir Ajam takes us back to one of his early professional experiences in the oil and gas industry, where a $100 million project portfolio mired in conflict, resistance, and mistrust was transformed into a model of collaboration and teamwork.

Through four key parts, Mounir shares how strategic integration between the owner and contractor teams — once divided by competing interests — led to open communication, mutual accountability, and measurable results.

From overcoming pushback at multiple organizational levels to building a unified project control system and launching a continuous improvement process, this real-life story offers practical lessons for leaders, project managers, and anyone striving to turn barriers into breakthroughs.

🎧 Key Highlights:

• How collaboration defused conflict in a multi-project alliance
• Overcoming resistance from directors, managers, and team members
• Practical methods to improve estimating, forecasting, and reporting
• Building trust through shared responsibility and open feedback
• Lessons in transforming project chaos into cohesive performance

💡 Whether you’re leading teams, managing projects, or simply navigating complex collaborations, this episode offers valuable insights on how to lead with trust, structure, and purpose.

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Chapters

• 0:02 Host Intro & Mission
• 0:59 The $100M Portfolio Challenge
• 3:11 Breaking Through Three Layers of Resistance
• 4:04 Designing the Integrated Controls Team
• 4:44 Estimating Feedback & Training
• 5:27 Offsite, Root Causes, and Action Plan
• 6:16 Results, Continuous Improvement, Next Steps
• 7:05 Resources, Case Studies, and Closing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:02

Welcome to the 4 pm podcast where ideas take shape and strategies find purpose. I am Munir Ajam, founder and CEO of Uruk Project Management, and I have a deep-seated passion for project management and community development. Drawing on decades of global experience across diverse industries and roles, I am here to guide you through the transformative power of the 4 PMs, project, program, product and portfolio management, and our focus on business integrated project management. Let's explore how integration unlocks unparalleled value for you and your organization. Good day my friends, welcome back to the 4 p.m podcast. I am your host, Munir Ajam, and I'm delighted you're here with me today. In this episode, we'll revisit one of my early professional experiences in the oil and gas industry. A real story about how a$100 million project portfolio full of conflict and resistance transformed into a collaborative integrated team effort. From overcoming pushback at multiple levels to building trust through shared responsibility, I'll walk you through how we turn barriers into breakthroughs and achieve success together. Part one. A long story short, we got the approval. The second resistance. This resistance came from the contractor management team below the director. They were concerned about having their team and project control manager under my authority. After a few meetings, we the contractors, director, and I convinced them that success is to benefit all. The third resistance. This resistance came from the project control resources on the contractor side. They had seen me as strict and unwavering and were worried I would be a bad boss. I asked them for a leap of faith to collaborate for a short while and to see if we can make a difference. Part 3. As a project control integrated team, we were responsible for all projects in the portfolio and had to continue to support the ongoing work. That was our first challenge, and we redistributed the work to all integrated team members instead of having the contractors team do the job and the owner team do the oversight. Now we were all doing direct work, no duplication or added reporting. Next, we needed to improve persistent and repeated problem and project controls, estimating and forecasting. So here is what we did. We establish an estimating feedback process. Whenever we find errors in the estimates or the estimating system, we provide immediate feedback and make the necessary adjustment to the budget up or down. We established a training program in two parts. A project control members and B project and construction staff. We made a list of the recurring problems and then formed the sub-teams of two to four people from project control. Each sub-team had to identify the problem, its root causes, and the solution. Each team had a month to do this. At the end of the month, we all went to an off-site team buildingslash task force where each sub-team reported on their topic and all team members offered suggestions and improvements. Once all feedback was incorporated, we had our action plan. Then we repeated the process for the next set of topics. At the end of the three-day offsite, we had cleared many issues, the integrated team was refreshed, and trust began to build due to the open collaboration. We came back and immediately started to implement the change. Part 4. The results. The work's positive impact started to show immediately raising the level of trust with our management. Not everything was perfect, since many projects already had existing problems. However, our reporting, forecasting, and analysis improved significantly. Our estimating feedback led to improving the estimates. Finally, we implemented a continuous improvement program in which we identify lessons learned, issues and challenges, and address what we can immediately. For more episodes, tools, and stories, visit urookpm.com or connect with me directly on LinkedIn. And if you enjoy these real stories from the trenches, you can dive deeper into our case studies at Urukpm.com slash case studies. For related services, visit Urukpm.com slash services and for learning and development programs, head over to Urukpm.com slash learning and development. Before I forget, you can also schedule a confidential strategy session with me at calendry.com slash urukpm. This is Manir Ajam for the 4 p.m podcast. Until next time, keep learning, keep leading, and always deliver with purpose.