STATIONS

How working on Crossrail Transformed my Career

Dr Syinyi Phoon, Strategic Programme Manager at Jacobs celebrates a personal triumph with the opening of the Elizabeth Line

On the opening day of the Elizabeth Line, I jumped on the train. For several years, I had thought about this moment. How cool it would be to sit on a fully digitalised railway train and travel through tunnels I once walked while working on Crossrail. What surprised me was how many more memories flooded in as the train approached each station platform. In turn this brought reflections on the journey I’ve travelled in my career.

Crossrail was the first multi-billionpound programme that I was fully immersed in. Working on the Elizabeth line pivoted my career from a water technical specialist into complex major programmes. It opened up more opportunities for me to leverage my skills working on other major programmes.

My primary role was on the Crossrail Innovation Programme (Innovate18), the first innovation programme to be set up on a multi-billion-pound major programme that will pay back itself. Being part of the Innovate18 team as well as working with brilliant minds at Crossrail, taught me that even the most ambitious idea can lead to improvements in important areas. These can include safety, efficiency, sustainability, and people’s welfare and wellbeing.

So, what have I learnt on Crossrail that enabled me to transition to working on other major programmes and share lessons?

• Definition of success • Diversity of thought • Strategic thinking and action • Stepping back to be an enabler • Outcome focus and soft power • Sharing and legacy • Engagement and momentum • Fun and passion • Value of celebration

prioritised the funding and trialling of new ideas. I learnt the importance of setting the appropriate metrics connected to the trial goal and our strategic outcomes. We accepted that failure is possible and learnt to see it as a positive.

The focus was to implement objective trials that would contribute to the collective knowledge of Crossrail and the industry. As such, we published some ideas that were tested and perhaps didn’t work as well. This sharing of knowledge allows someone else later to be able to build on it.

Diversity of thought – Working with a team of people with diverse backgrounds and experience is extremely powerful for innovation. The Innovate18 team was made up of individuals from different industries, backgrounds and with vastly different personalities, approaches and outlook to life. One thing we had in common was our desire to have our imaginations stretched. Taking this learning and experience into other major programmes set up my open approach to working with groups of individuals from many diverse backgrounds.

Strategic thinking and action – I developed a better understanding and gained practical experience of implementing strategic thinking. This may mean planting seeds to encourage ideas to develop. Not just reaping low hanging fruits but investing time on ‘slow-burn’ ideas that lead to bigger impacts. At times, it may involve taking calculated risks.

Stepping back to be an enabler – At Innovate18, I was often up close and personal to some of the most impressive latest technology. As a person with a strong technical background, I have to admit for most of the time I had to keep my geeky techie side in check and refrain from getting myself too involved. Instead of taking over, I learnt to take a step back and instead be an enabler that empowers individuals turning their ideas into innovations. This broadened my capacity to enable more innovation initiatives to take flight.

Outcome focus and soft power – Innovate18 was a catalyst programme across Crossrail to encourage its workforce to innovate. This meant that whilst I was the project manager to all of my innovation initiatives, I was not a line manger to any of my innovation champions. Every one of my innovation initiatives involved different stakeholders and faced different challenges in terms of business process, governance or people relations. I learnt to work across organisation and team boundaries, with everyone, to build consensus, and find common ground to progress the innovation initiatives.

Sharing and legacy – At Innovate18 we shared all the innovations gathered openly to all people working on Crossrail and actively encouraged people to engage with the innovation programme. We transitioned Innovate18 and its success to the Infrastructure Industry Innovation Platform i3P, now the focus for innovation activity across the infrastructure industry.

Engagement and momentum – working on Crossrail I was exposed to ways of engaging across a major programme and building momentum for individuals to engage with Innovate18. We reviewed various communications routes to tailor effective media for teams working at different levels and locations. There was perhaps a sweet balance to ensure our engagement maintained momentum and wasn’t overpowering.

Fun and passion – Fun not in terms of playing games but the passion individuals have when working on initiatives that turn their ideas into innovation. I saw and shared our innovation champions’ passion. At times during innovation workshops, it was through play that we unlocked creativity. We encouraged teams to implement innovation trials and submitted to Innovate18 through what we called “pinched with pride”. This led to ideas snowballing through various innovations in its implementation. We ran league tables across site locations as friendly competition on a number of ideas submitted, ideas pinched, and innovations implemented.

Value of celebration – within the team we regularly took time to celebrate our achievements. We extended this to our innovation champions (>1,000 individuals) across Crossrail. We worked with the Crossrail’s monthly awards team to reward innovation champions. We also hosted a programme wide innovation party that celebrated our innovations which was well attended by our innovation champions across the wide geography of Crossrail from the client side, consultants and contractors. It was memorable to see innovation champions from across all the sites who had been developing innovative ideas meet each other in person and celebrate how far we had come in overcoming hurdles.

Looking back

reach, physical size of works at each location, number of people and machines involved was unmatched to what I had worked on before. I joined Crossrail when the workforce was at its peak and tunnelling works were ongoing. I was intimidated by the size of the programme in my first month. However, the experience of Crossrail’s scale meant I am no longer easily fazed by a major programme environment. I am able to quickly read into and orientate myself within the context and setting of a new major programme. The size of Crossrail has also become a reference point when I work on the development phase of a major programme, recognising its potential scale when in delivery phase.

Ultimately, it’s all about the people. The importance of human dynamics and healthy relationships are an important factor on major programmes, and in my personal career journey. Success of a multi-billionpound major programme is delivered by people who want to make it work. For me, my journey wouldn’t have been possible without the people around me who made it happen. Directors who were looking for character and ability beyond the usual conventions and gave me an opportunity and managers who were willing to give me a bit more time when I was finding my feet in the new world. Responding to major programme complexities is driven by people, it is therefore vital to discover commonality on which we build understanding and develop solutions. Only we, the people, can solve the biggest project challenges, together.

Dr Syinyi Phoon

is is Strategic Programme Manager at Jacobs.