Mission Control: smarter, simpler and better ways of working together

Change is happening across Adur and Worthing — not just in our communities, but in how we work together as an organisation. As we navigate new challenges, Mission Control is our way of ensuring that we make better decisions, collaborate effectively, and move at the right speed.

We’ve explored what’s working, what’s not, and how we can create a smarter, more joined-up approach to delivering projects and services. Here’s what we learned and what’s next.

What we heard from teams

The workshop brought together business partners from finance, legal, HR, digital, procurement, and delivery to discuss the current challenges and opportunities.

1. The big opportunities

🚀 Smarter decision-making — We need a clearer, more visible process for approving and tracking projects, making it easier to know what’s happening and why.
🤝 Better collaboration — Business partners want to work as one connected team, supporting projects with a joined-up approach rather than working in silos.
📢 More accountability — Decision-making needs to be transparent and consistent, so projects don’t stall when people move on or leave.
💡 Stronger prioritisation — Too many processes feel reactive, rather than focused on the long-term impact and strategic priorities.

2. The challenges ahead

⚖️ BAU vs. projects — Teams need a clearer definition of what is business-as-usual and what is a project, to avoid confusion about roles and priorities.
📂 Managing information better — Procurement, contracts, and legal processes are not always clear or consistent, making it hard for teams to get what they need.
📊 Capacity and visibility — Teams struggle to see what’s already in progress, which leads to duplicated effort and misalignment.

How we’re fixing it

We’re taking a Mission Control approach — making governance clearer, collaboration stronger, and decision-making faster.

1. Smarter governance

✅ Making processes easier to navigate — The PID (Project Initiation Document) process will be clearer and more user-friendly.
✅ Adding more transparency — Decision points will be visible to everyone, so teams know where projects stand.
✅ Defining when a project should stop — If something isn’t working, we need to be able to pause, pivot, or stop it completely.

2. More connected teams

✅ A shared business partner model — Business partners will work as one connected team, rather than separate functions with different priorities.
✅ Better information-sharing — We’re developing a service dashboard to provide an overview of active projects, making it easier to see what’s happening.
✅ Aligning governance with Mission Boards — Delivery managers will use Asana to track progress and support strategic decision-making.

3. More efficient ways of working

✅ Self-help tools for teams — We’re improving the procurement process to make it clearer and easier to use.
✅ Improved contract visibility — A better contract register will help teams track agreements and renewals.
✅ Standardised decision-making — A new governance process will prevent bottlenecks and ensure that projects don’t stall due to unclear accountability.

What’s next?

We’re rolling out these changes over the coming months to make it easier for teams to work together, get things done, and focus on what matters most.

By making our ways of working smarter, simpler, and more collaborative, we’re creating the right conditions for success.