Building a Collaborative Network

Creating and building a cross government network is like embarking on a quest, you start with intentions, good ideas and meet a myriad of challenges and opportunities along the way. The quest to create a departmental network may be challenging but expanding it across government, into the unknown is even harder, almost impossible?. How do you find the right people? How do you energise your members and get their buy-in? How do you deliver real change? The Cross Whitehall Estimating (CWEst) Group is doing exactly this. You will hear from the Chairs and Co-Founders of the group who have grown from a good idea – to bring technical experts from across UK Government together to share practices, process, training in order to build capability – to 30 government departments, arms-length bodies and counting. You will learn how the group built their impressive network and how they are raising the profile of Cost Estimating across government. Moreover, you will understand how they created a culture of collaboration, gained official recognition and how they embraced their mantra of Simplify, Systemise, Professionalise and Standardise. While many challenges and adventures lie ahead, you will understand how the group will continue its mission and its mandate for change.