Building a High-Performing Project Culture at HMP Glasgow

Acorn has been supporting the senior leadership team from Kier Group on what is currently one of Scotland’s most high-profile infrastructure projects, the construction of the new HMP Glasgow.

As the project moves from early groundworks into full construction, the scale of the team and the complexity of collaboration has increased significantly.

The challenge: protecting culture as the project scales

When Acorn first began working with Kier on the project in 2023 the senior leadership team for the project comprised just 15. A key focus in those early days was establishing the project culture.

Today, that core team has grown to around 70 people, and will continue to expand as the project progresses. Over time the site will involve around 1,000 people including multiple specialist contractors and supply partners.

Rapid team growth presents a common challenge often encountered on large projects: how to maintain a clear, collaborative culture and behaviours as new people join from different organisations and diverse project backgrounds.

Many incoming specialists bring valuable experience from previous major builds, but also their own established ways of working. Without a deliberate focus on the culture, these different approaches could dilute the behaviours that made the original Kier team so effective.

Acorn’s role has been to help Kier define, embed and cascade a shared way of working across the project.

Establishing a shared way of working

Recent team development sessions in Glasgow brought together 70 members of the core Kier project team to revisit and reinforce the behaviours that underpin how the team operates.

The sessions focused on:

Clarifying expected behaviours on the project
Ensure the culture is accepted and adopted
That personnel take ownership and make it their own
Aligning the team around Kier’s core behavioural principles
Exploring how these behaviours translate in the specific context of the HMP Glasgow project
Ensuring the culture can cascade effectively to new team members and subcontractors

A key priority is maintaining a culture where safety and openness go hand-in-hand.

That means not only physical safety on the complex construction site, but also psychological safety; ensuring everyone feels comfortable, willing and able to raise any concerns, challenge issues and practices, and contribute their ideas.

Navigating the realities of large infrastructure projects

As the project accelerates, the leadership team is also managing the everyday pressures typical of major builds:

challenging ground conditions and weather impacts from a very wet winter
evolving work fronts as construction progresses
coordinating multiple contractors and suppliers
maintaining high safety standards on a complex site
ensuring the project contributes positively to the local community

These pressures can sometimes bring more directive or transactional leadership styles, particularly from experienced project managers accustomed to and highly experienced in the modus operandi of construction environments.

Acorn’s work – such as a recent 2-day workshop in Glasgow – affords the team an opportunity to pause, reflect and realign around the collaborative behaviours the project is aiming to model.

From core team to project-wide culture

Going forward the focus now is on cultural reach, ensuring the agreed ways of working extend beyond the core team and across the wider supply chain.

Over the coming year Acorn will continue working with the leadership team to:

monitor collaboration across key work fronts
support the integration of new teams and contractors
reinforce shared behavioural expectations
maintain momentum as the project grows in size and complexity

Acorn’s founder Keith Longney has been leading the work with Kier: “The aim is not only to support the success of the HMP Glasgow build itself, but also to leave a lasting legacy of collaborative working practices that individuals carry into future projects.”

“With construction gathering pace and the project expected to run for several more years [completion expected 2028], this leadership team recognise that culture cannot be left to chance.”

“By being intentional about how people work together and continually reinforcing that approach as the team grows, Kier is creating the conditions for a high-performing, safety-focused and collaborative project environment.”

Further information on HMP Glasgow:

HMP Glasgow has been commissioned to replace the 143-year-old HMP Barlinnie.

HMP Barlinnie is no longer considered fit for purpose at 30% above its capacity; many prisoners share cells designed to hold only one person.

The new prison will have a capacity of 1,344 and, as well as increasing capacity, is intended to help transform how prisoners are rehabilitated along with improving staff working conditions.

The total project cost is £998.4 million and is projected to be completed in 2028.

MHP Glasgow given the go-ahead (Scottish Prison Service, February 2025)
https://www.sps.gov.uk/about-us/our-latest-news/hmp-glasgow-given-go-ahead

Kier appointed by Scottish Government to deliver vital new prison in Glasgow (Kier Group, February 2025)
https://www.kier.co.uk/news-and-events/newsroom/press-releases/kier-appointed-by-scottish-government-to-deliver-vital-new-prison-in-glasgow/

Holmes Miller Leads the Design of Scotland’s Most Progressive Custodial Facility: HMP Glasgow (Holmes Miller Architects)
https://www.holmesmiller.com/news/holmes-miller-leads-the-design-of-scotlands-most-progressive-custodial-facility-hmp-glasgow