What’s the Worst That Could Happen?

Three posts in, you have heard me make the case for collaborative capital planning, knock down the objections, and clarify what the data work actually looks like. If you have made it this far, you are probably either nodding along or curious enough to keep reading. Either way, the question now is what to actually do about it. 

This post is shorter than the others, because the answer is shorter than you might think. 

Pick a Dance Partner

Not every neighbor is going to be the right first partner. The good news is you do not need the perfect partner — you just need a reasonable one. A few things that make a neighbor a good first dance: 

Roughly comparable scale. A municipality with a portfolio ten times the size of yours is probably not going to find a joint procurement with you worth their time. Find someone whose portfolio is in the same general ballpark as yours. 

Aligned planning cycles. If you are doing your capital planning in the fall and they are doing theirs in the spring, the conversation is harder. Not impossible, just harder. Find someone whose planning rhythm is close to yours. 

Reasonable people on the other end. This sounds obvious but it matters. The first conversation goes a lot better if you already know your counterpart at the other organization, or know somebody who does. If you do not, that is fine — but the first call is going to be a bit awkward. 

The right first partner is not the biggest one, or the closest one, or the one with the most aligned mission. It is the one where you can both pick up the phone and have a real conversation without too much friction. 

Start a Conversation (That’s All It Is)!

This is the part everyone overthinks. The first conversation is not a contract negotiation. It is two people saying “we both have roofs that need doing in the next couple of years, what if we tried this together?” or “Why are we always competing against each other driving up prices that we pay our shared contractors?” 

That’s it. That is the whole thing. You don’t need a deck. You don’t need a business case. You don’t need a procurement framework worked out in advance. You need one phone call where you both agree this is worth exploring, and then a follow-up where you start to figure out the details. 

If the answer is no, the answer is no. Find another dance partner. Or try the same neighbor again next year. The worst case is that you make a phone call and somebody says they are not interested. That is not a bad worst case. 

However, if someone shows interest…

Pick a Pilot

Do not try to pool your entire capital plan with your neighbor in Year 1. That is overwhelming and unnecessary. 

Pick one trade. Pick one year. Pick something where you both already know you have work to do anyway. Roofing is often a good first candidate because most organizations have roofs, most of those roofs are aging on similar timelines, and the contractor market for roofing is the kind of market where pooling actually moves the needle. 

Alternatively, if you are not ready to share your specific needs, just pick a trade to focus on in Year 1 and let them pick something else – Roofing vs. HVAC for example.  In this case you don’t need to get into specifics with your dance partner, just high-level sharing.   

The point of the first collaboration is not to maximize savings. It is to prove to both organizations that this can work. You are running a pilot. The pilot succeeds if you both get through it and come out the other side willing to do it again. That is the bar. 

What’s the Worst That Could Happen?

This is the question I want to leave you with, because I think it is the one that actually gets people moving. 

• If you call your neighbor and they say no, you are exactly where you are today. Nothing lost. 
• If you call your neighbor, they say yes, and the pilot does not work, you have learned something, on a small scale, about how your organizations do and do not fit together. Still not nothing. 
• If you call your neighbor, they say yes, and the pilot works, you have just opened up a way of doing capital planning that almost no one else in your sector is doing. You have a better deal with your contractors, a more attractive package for the market, and a real working relationship with a peer organization that will pay dividends for years. 

The downside is small. The upside is significant. And the only way to find out which one you are going to land on is to make the call. 

Can We Help?

If you have read the whole series and you are interested but you genuinely do not know who in your area might be a good first partner, send me a note. We have worked with enough organizations across North America that we can often point you toward someone in your region who might be a reasonable place to start.  I can’t guarantee that I will have the answer, but I can guarantee that I will try. 

No pitch attached. Just an offer to help you make the first connection if that is where you are stuck. 

And that wraps up the series. Four posts in, I am still going to keep banging this drum until someone, somewhere, actually picks up the phone and tries it. When they do, I’ll let you know how it went.