As we seek to nurture collaboration as part of our Transform-ER project, culture change lead Stéphanie Ah Tchou shares why relational factors are critical to successful partnerships

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What springs to mind when you think of the word ‘retrofit’? Insulation? Heat pumps? Ventilation? All critical no doubt, but I’d love for you to also start thinking: "relationships.”

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Our Innovate UK funded Transform-ER (Transform.Engage.Retrofit) is tackling retrofit’s biggest barriers to scale to enable one million home upgrades every year by 2030. This includes creating innovative new deployment and contract approaches, prototyping products and kits-of-parts and developing new digital tools and finance mechanisms.

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But just as importantly, we’ve set out to develop a meaningful and impactful culture change programme to cultivate a shift to a collective mindset and more effective collaboration between stakeholders.

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As part of this, we shared an industry-wide questionnaire last year to gauge current perceptions of collaboration and levels of trust among various stakeholders to help shape innovative collaboration solutions that work for everyone.

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What do we mean by collaboration?

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Within the context of this project, the term collaboration is understood as ‘the act of working together with a common objective’.

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The distinction between explicit and implicit aspects of collaboration is informed by the research of Anne and Patrick Beauvillard. Explicit aspects encompass the tools and best practices we use; while essential, these alone are insufficient without recognising the implicit, human elements.

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The implicit facets of collaboration include “human understanding”—values, beliefs, motivations, and representations that underpin collaborative efforts.

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The questionnaire focused on uncovering these implicit, less apparent dimensions of collaboration, especially the role of trust. Three core components of trust were explored:

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• Competency (e.g., Do I believe they’re capable?)

• Benevolence (e.g., Do I believe they have my best interest at heart?)

• Integrity (e.g., Do I believe they will treat me fairly?)

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What did we find out?

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As the project’s culture change lead, I’ve spent time diving deep into the data and findings to create a research paper that will help us inform the design of a culture change programme for the Transform-ER project.

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We’ve decided to share our conclusions more widely, as we think they are valuable insights into people’s perceptions of collaboration, trust and effective (and enjoyable) partnerships in the sector.

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My overwhelming reflection is that driving meaningful change in the the industry requires prioritising trust as a foundation for collaboration. While technical competency is important, the findings demonstrate that relational factors—such as empathy, integrity, and shared goals—are crucial for fostering successful partnerships.

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Addressing systemic barriers and strengthening both individual and organisational relationships will be key to achieving progress.

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However, it’s important to note that the sample size for the questionnaire is small (25 respondents) and social housing providers are more highly represented than other organisations. The insights shared below represent only the views of the people who answered the questionnaire and we do not claim they paint an objective view of the state of the industry.

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Key findings

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1. Building trust requires more than just technical capability:  Benevolence and integrity outweigh competency as key trust drivers. The most trusted organisations—Social housing, Architect/Designer, and Local authority— also excel in collaboration, empathy, and being enjoyable to work with.
2. Relationships between people are ‘make or break’ for successful partnerships: Analysis shows that personal interactions can both enhance or diminish trust, with 24% of respondents’ ratings improving and 24% worsening when asked to rate individuals at a specific organisation (compared to the overall organisational rating). People with collaborative mindsets are a must for fostering stronger relationships across organisations.
3. Multiple factors influence enjoyable working relationships: Respondents highlighted learning, innovation, and a solution-focused mindset as key to enjoyable partnerships. Traits such as willingness to listen, seeking input, and showing the right attitude were also cited.
4. Rethinking ways of working could address systemic challenges: Main contractors, Installers, and Energy providers face trust challenges, often perceived as profit-driven or inconsistent. Our research into successful collaboration examples shows that a shift from adversarial contracts toward alliancing/partnering approaches that align incentives, objectives and values is key to improving collaboration, trust and transparency.
5. Strengthening shared goals and values across organisations is essential: While internal team dynamics scored highly, fostering collaboration across organisations remains a key area for improvement. Again, our case studies demonstrate that a partnering/alliancing approach can help establish shared goals, values, and accountability across projects.

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Do you agree with these findings? We have re-opened the questionnaire to hear from more people in the industry – have your say!

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If you are interested in reading the full research paper, please get in touch.