ICW Collaborative Working Awards 2015

Thursday 26 November 2015
House of Lords, London
Sponsored by BSI

2015 marked the 25th Anniversary of the ICW community. During this time the germ of an idea grew from strength to strength, and as an Institute we witnessed many examples of collaborative excellence. These have included individual organisations that have been pathfinders for industry, collaborative relationships where partners have fully realised the benefits of working together, and individuals who have been innovators and evangelists for collaboration. To recognise and acknowledge these achievements and outstanding performances we launched, as part of our 25th anniversary, our Collaborative Awards Programme as an annual event in which we can all celebrate excellence. We are delighted that the British Standards Institution, which has been working alongside the Institute since 2005, jointly sponsored the Awards Programme with the Institute and provided practical support. The winning submissions were presented at the House of Lords on the evening of the 26th November 2015.

The 2016 ICW Awards reflects the growing focus on collaborative working with more than double the number of registrations for the inaugural celebration last year. Since its inception in 1990 the Institute has focused on the identification and dissemination of good practice in the field of Collaborative Working. This year's Awards certainly brought forward a wide spectrum of submissions providing a significant challenge to our judges.

The publication of the world's first national standard for collaborative working, BS 11000, created a benchmark for both Government and Industry. Certification to the Standard is a notable accolade which many organisations have achieved and to which many more aspire. This year the Institute is proud to announce that the final draft of ISO 44001 has received its approval and will be published early in 2017. This development has been the result of a significant contribution from the ICW community alongside an international committee. So we will be looking forward to next year's awards embracing an even wider International community of practice.

As part of the ongoing drive for Collaborative Working to be recognised as a professional business discipline the Institute has expanded the approach to Collaborative Working capability development through an individual membership scheme and a growing portfolio of training offerings including the launch of an MSc module in Collaborative Leadership and working is progressing towards an Post Graduate Diploma in 2017. As these initiatives move forward the Institute has been able to witness and evaluate many examples of collaborative excellence. These include individual organisations that have been pathfinders for industrial, collaborative relationships where partners have fully realized the benefits of working together and individuals who have been innovators / evangelists for Collaborative Working.

The Institute believes that there should be further recognition for these outstanding performances through our Collaborative Working Awards Programme.

The British Standards Institution (BSI) has been working alongside the Institute since 2005. We are delighted that once again BSI is jointly sponsoring the Awards with the Institute and providing professional support for the evaluation and recommendations.

We congratulate all those who submitted and hope that whilst there can only be one winner for each category they will all take pride in their efforts and look towards next year's awards.

Award Categories

Given the wide range of organisations and varied applications for collaborative approaches we identified seven categories:

Collaborative Pathfinder Award

For an Organisation that showed both leadership and innovation in promoting and harnessing collaborative working approaches within its sector.

Public/Private sector

For an outstanding Public Private Partnership relationship that had demonstrated exceptional performance and benefits realisation, through the effective use of collaboration.

Industry Collaboration

For Collaboration between two or more industry partners representing an outstanding relationship that demonstrably highlighted the benefits of collaboration.

Skills Development

For an Organisation that implemented development and training to build collaborative skills as part of its people development.

Small and Medium Enterprise

For the smaller Organisation that had taken up the challenge to embed collaboration and thus promote the benefits of collaborative for all sizes of company.

Individual Award

For an individual that showed leadership and innovation in the development of collaborative working approaches.

Innovative Collaboration

Recognising innovative approaches to collaborative working, within Public / Private sectors or Academia, demonstrated by either an individual or Organisation.