APM Project Autumn 2021

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ISSUE 308 AUTUMN 2021 £14.50

PROJECT

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TH E VO I C E O F TH E PROJ EC T M A N AG E M E NT CO M M U N IT Y

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The voice of the project management community

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MOONSHOT PROJECTS

HOW TO MAKE THE IMPOSSIBLE HAPPEN

PORTFOLIOS HOW YOU CAN MANAGE THEM THE RIGHT WAY THE BIG INTERVIEW MEET APM’S NEW CHIEF EXECUTIVE ADAM BODDISON

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FROM THE EDITOR

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Big, hairy, audacious goals

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It was leadership thinker Jim Collins who coined BHAG (big, hairy, audacious goals) in his bestseller Built to Last. Used to stimulate progress, it describes bold and compelling missions that unify and engage teams to achieve the seemingly impossible. NASA’s moon missions of the 1960s were the archetypal BHAG projects.

I can’t help thinking that the post-COVID world of business and government (and everything in between) might come to be defined by BHAGs. In this issue, we look at moonshot projects (certainly all BHAGs) like the Mars Perseverance mission, the ITER nuclear fusion project and Formula E. We go behind the scenes to find out from the project teams what it takes to deliver visionary projects like these. It’s inspirational stuff for us lesser mortals.

In our cover feature, we delve into the Herculean task of delivering the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Excepting the two world wars, never has an Olympics faced such volatile times as Tokyo has this year.

What legacy will it leave behind for future Olympics? And what have been the project management lessons of previous Games (including London 2012)? We decided to investigate legacy lessons and present our considered findings. And did you see our cover star Momiji Nishiya, the 13-year-old Japanese skateboarder who took gold?

Visionary projects take a punt on the future, and by their nature are high-risk.

Excepting the two world wars, never has an Olympics faced such volatile times as Tokyo has this year

Courageous decision-making to back the right horse can only be done alongside strong risk management, so we thought it only right to give some advice on making sense of it all – see our Peer to Peer feature on it.

Trying to predict the future is a precarious endeavour, but moonshot projects of whatever size will have the advantage of benefiting from the science (not art) of data analytics. While we’ve been enticed (and frightened) by the possibilities of AI, this issue includes two features on the practicalities of using project data right now to improve the delivery of projects. Get the basics in place now and you’ll be able to capitalise in the future.

Finally, September sees a firm focus on diversity at APM with the annual Think Differently conference. If you’re struggling to translate laudable goals into real results, please don’t miss our feature on how project management frameworks and processes can be intertwined with corporate strategy to make a real difference.

Emma De Vita is editor of Project

Editor Emma De Vita emma.devita @thinkpublishing.co.uk Managing editor Mike Hine Group art director Jes Stanfield Senior sales executive Samantha Tkaczyk 020 3771 7198 samantha.tkaczyk @thinkpublishing.co.uk Client engagement director Kieran Paul

The views expressed in Project are not necessarily those of APM, the publisher or its agents, and they do not accept responsibility for any solicited material, or for the views of contributors, or for actions arising from any claims made in any advertisements or inserts appearing in this journal.

This publication (or any part thereof) may not be reproduced in any form without express and written permission from the editor. © APM 2021 APM, Ibis House, Regent Park, Summerleys Road, Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire HP27 9LE, United Kingdom apm.org.uk Tel (UK): 0845 458 1944 Tel (Int): +44 1844 271 640 Cover price: £14.50 Annual subscription fee: £58 (UK); £68.20 (Europe); £79 (international) PROJECT (ISSN 0957-7033) is published by the Association for Project Management in association with Think Media Group, 20 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JW Tel: 020 3771 7200 thinkpublishing.co.uk

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CONTENTS

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FROM RAIDERS TO ROVERS, THIS ISSUE OF PROJECT AT A GLANCE NEWS ANALYSIS ■■■

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6 Totally awesome

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Big picture: Team GB’s Charlotte Worthington bags gold in women’s freestyle BMX at the Tokyo Olympics

Discrimination Why inaction on discrimination against women must not be tolerated

The country’s first grid‑scale battery storage system comes online in Oxford

Revolution in the workplace Is the pandemic a blessing in disguise for leadership and management?

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Apprenticeships A partnership helping professionalise project management within the media

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Will Amlot; Alamy; Getty

PERSPECTIVES

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Decision‑making Why you need to embrace counterfactual thinking, cognitive foraging and diversity

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Andrew Baldwin APM’s new head of public affairs on the importance of thinking differently

Major projects Findings from the latest Infrastructure and Projects Authority Annual Report APM Awards Find out who made the prestigious final awards shortlist for 2021

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FEATURES ■■■■■■■

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Olympic legacy In the wake of Toyko, we reflect on the Games’ legacy for all host nations

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Moonshot projects What it takes to deliver audacious, inspiring and transformative projects

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Big interview APM’s new chief executive Adam Boddison explains his ambitions for the project profession

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Fashion industry The creative world of fashion is waking up to the importance of project management

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Data analytics Research from Warwick University has revealed barriers to harnessing the potential of project data analytics

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Reference class forecasting Breaking the Iron Law of Projects with this accurate forecasting method

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Eddie Obeng How to counter the destructive societal forces that could harm your projects

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Portfolio management A new and better framework for prioritising projects within a portfolio

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Diversity Using a project management framework to instil ED&I in your organisation

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Risk management Practical tips from the authors of Making Sense of Challenging Projects

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Susanne Madsen Q&A: how to get better at handling conflict constructively on projects

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Chartered The latest additions to the Register of Chartered Project Professionals

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Rising star How a relentless quest for self‑improvement drives James Pearce

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Beyond the job Project managing a cycling tour running the length of Great Britain

“Project management is the beating heart of contemporary professional life, but I think we don’t really know it yet.

There’s a tipping point coming”

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OFFLINE ■■■

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PM meets pop culture Forty years on, what can we learn from the first instalment in the Indiana Jones series?

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Latest books and podcasts Unwind this autumn with some insightful reading and listening

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Team GB BMXer Charlotte Worthington pulls off a 360‑degree backflip in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics – a trick that helped her win gold for Britain in the women’s BMX freestyle event. Worthington’s medal was one of 22 golds for Team GB, alongside 21 silver and 22 bronze medals, leaving Great Britain fourth in the rankings. Team GB’s chef de mission Mark England told The Guardian: “The team has made history on the back of the most complex, challenging and most difficult environments that we will ever face, certainly in my lifetime.”

It’s a sentiment project manager Peter Ambrose no doubt shares. As head of games services at Team GB, Ambrose had logistical responsibility for Team GB’s participation in the Games. That meant flights, accommodation, accreditation, transport, kit and freight for a delegation of over 1,000 people across multiple sites, including pre‑Games training camps in Yokohama and Kawasaki, the Olympic Village and at the in‑Games performance centre.

The pandemic made what was already a complex operation an even bigger jigsaw puzzle, he told APM shortly before the Games started in July. “The role of myself and my team is to absorb all of the challenges and create an environment for our athletes to produce world‑class performances… We’ve had to be patient, adaptable and philosophical for the last 15 months to refine our plans, and in a few instances, we’ve had to go back to the drawing board to reflect the situation we are working in.” But the headaches were worth it. “The Olympic Games is the greatest sporting event in the world, and the opportunity to play just a very small role in supporting Team GB’s best athletes to fulfil their Olympic dreams is what makes everything worthwhile,” he said.

Alamy

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Green projects scale up

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The UK had a positive charge of green economy news this summer, when the country’s first grid‑scale battery storage system came online in Oxford

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he 50MW lithium‑ion battery energy storage project, led by Pivot Power (part of EDF Renewables), is the first in the UK to plug directly into the National Grid. As such, it marks a crucial early step in the transition to a new era of renewable electricity.

The battery is one facet of Energy Superhub Oxford, a four‑year, £41m demonstrator project to explore potential innovation in grid stability, electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure and ground source heat pumps. It aims to save 10,000 tonnes of CO2 every year once opened, increasing to 25,000 tonnes by 2032.

A second battery is set to come online later this year, with a cable network installed to connect the system with new EV charging ‘superhubs’ across Oxford. Pivot Power is planning up to 40 of these ‘smart local energy systems’ across the country, totalling up to 2GW of battery storage. The company says this will meet almost 10 per cent of the UK’s energy need by 2050.

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Net zero goes local

True to many green economy projects, Energy Superhub hinges on collaboration. Pivot Power’s diverse partners include battery specialist Invinity, energy trading experts Habitat, the University of Oxford and Oxford City Council. “The net zero challenge may be global, but you can’t solve it without being local, incredibly local in some cases,” says Tim Rose, programme manager at Energy Superhub Oxford.

“From a project perspective, it’s been really critical to have a council on board

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who are ambitious, bought‑in and focused. But none of it would work without the optimisation and trading engine that Habitat Energy is Tim Rose delivering. This software uses machine learning to see where energy is being generated around the grid and can predict the price of energy at any given time. It uses that information to control the activity of the battery and the EV chargers so that they automatically use cheaper, cleaner electricity when available.”

Other battery projects are making headlines, too. Zenobe recently secured funding from Santander to help deliver a 100MW/107MWh battery project in Capenhurst, near Chester. National Grid will use the battery to help stabilise the network in the Mersey area, and Zenobe claims it will be able to supply enough electricity for more than 100,000 homes for an hour at peak times. Meanwhile, Nissan has unveiled plans to build a £2bn electric car battery gigafactory in Sunderland, boosting production of batteries for EVs and creating up to 2,000 new jobs.

Flagship green projects

These flagship projects neatly encapsulate the dynamic nature of the green economy: a showcase of R&D and innovation, they’re designed to address the ecological crisis and enable the quality of life we’re used to, seizing a rare opportunity to reimagine our

approach to everything from local job creation to tackling fuel poverty.

These days, this is no niche enterprise. New research by analyst kMatrix Data Services found that the country’s low‑carbon economy, at £205.7bn, is now four times larger than its manufacturing sector. It employs more than 1.2 million people in more than 75,000 businesses.

The stakes certainly couldn’t be higher. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a report in August stressing that climate change is widespread and intensifying; that global warming is advancing faster than feared; and that humanity is “unequivocally” to blame.

This news landed as violent wildfires were already spreading across south‑ east Europe. The IPCC report stated that stabilising the climate will require “strong, rapid and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and reaching net zero CO2 emissions”.

The opportunity for project professionals When APM surveyed project professionals for its report Future Trends: Facing the Climate Challenge, 55 per cent of respondents said that their organisation now has a strategy for reaching net zero. Yet, as project

Research by analyst kMatrix Data Services found that the country’s low‑carbon economy, at £205.7bn, is now four times larger than its manufacturing sector

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“Ofgem was proposing a new set of charging structures for how assets connect into the National Grid at the transmission level: the same flat fee of £700,000” Left: The Oxford battery system is part of Pivot Power’s plans to deploy up to 40 similar sites in the UK. Below: Oxford’s EV Superhub.

THE GREEN ECONOMY IN NUMBERS

£205.7bn The value of the UK green economy

7.4%

Growth of the low‑carbon sector, 2019 to 2020

75,700+

Businesses in the UK green/low‑carbon economy

1.2m+

People employed in the UK green economy

16.16GW

Total UK battery storage capacity operational, under construction or in planning

2MW

Total capacity of UK battery storage applications, 2012

professionals clearly have a key role to play in the drive to deliver this change effectively, the smart money is on that figure increasing.

“It’s difficult to envisage any future (or current) project of scale that will not need to have net zero embedded from the start,” said David Thomson, former head of external affairs at APM. “Surface transport; aviation and shipping; industry; buildings; power; agriculture and land use; waste management; and how we remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere are all part of the puzzle.”

The green economy may have a razor‑sharp goal, but achieving it won’t be straightforward. The projects required are multifaceted, involving stakeholders across the private and public sectors, with complex communication and governance demands.

In some cases, green economy projects may even require project professionals to rethink the nature of their role. “Project managers need to think of themselves as people who do more than just cope with

the post‑sanctioned stages of a project,” Rob Leslie‑Carter, director at Arup, said. “We should be acting as advisers to clients at a strategic level, influencing the purpose of the project and the deliverables – all with an eye to sustainability.”

A strategy that needs details

Yet even the most well‑adapted will get lost on the road to net zero without a clear map. In late 2020, the UK government released its 10‑point strategy for a green industrial revolution. Yet its approach to critical elements like subsidies has been inconsistent, and in July its own climate advisers criticised the lack of policy detail. Chris Stark, chief executive of the Climate Change Committee, described progress in the field as “illusory”.

“The achievement of net zero requires a plan at a level of detail way greater than we have at the moment,” says Rose. “We know we have this overall legal objective, but when you start breaking it down into its integrated elements in classic project management style, you see the structures just aren’t in place to support it.

“The regulatory side has been a big challenge for us. For example, Ofgem was proposing a new set of charging structures for how assets connect into the National Grid at the transmission level: the same flat fee of £700,000, whether you’re a steel works or an EV offtaker drawing a mere 1MW. We managed to influence this decision in a positive way, but that would have killed this innovation, and it shows the regulatory approach is not yet geared up to work at the pace we need to deliver these integrated systems.”

In November, the world’s leaders will be gathering in Glasgow for COP26, the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference. It was at COP21, in 2015, that the world’s governments signed the landmark Paris Agreement, setting out a huge cooperative statement of intent and practical steps towards limiting the rise in global temperature. COP26 may prove to be another critical milestone in what is fast becoming the biggest, most important project of all.

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Apprenticeships: making waves

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Global media agency Wavemaker’s partnership with education tech start‑up Multiverse to launch an apprenticeship scheme signals the expanding reach of the project profession

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new partnership between Wavemaker UK and Multiverse will professionalise the project management skills base within the media agency. Multiverse, the start‑up co‑founded by Euan Blair (son of former prime minister Tony Blair), will deliver virtual classroom training and one‑to‑one coaching for Wavemaker, whose investment in its fast‑growing in‑house project management academy comes through the Apprenticeship Levy, a UK tax on employers that can be used to fund apprenticeship training.

The 18‑month programme will teach essential project management skills such as navigating complex organisational challenges and developing efficient ways of working.

Dan Jennings, head of Wavemaker’s nascent project management office (PMO), told Project the apprenticeship programme had been designed to include APM accreditation – a first for a media agency – in addition to project management learning across the whole of Wavemaker UK.

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Professionalising skills

“My ambition is to have 60 Wavemakers fully trained and accredited by the end of 2022 through our apprenticeship programme, with the skill set embedded across our client teams,” Jennings said. “Our first cohort is about to graduate, and it has been incredible seeing people from all levels of our business stepping up to the challenge of the associate level 4 apprenticeship and [APM Project Management Qualification (PMQ)].” These project

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managers will play a key role in helping define and plan the agency’s first ever PMO. “With digital projects becoming more complex, Dan Jennings media budgets changing and expectations growing, the project management academy will equip the Wavemaker team with those all‑important skills,” explained Jeremy Duggan, president at Multiverse.

“Professional apprenticeships offer a unique and exciting way for great companies to invest in their staff and develop leaders of the future.

Unlike traditional corporate training, apprenticeship skills are taught, tested and learnt through immediate application in the workplace.”

Wavemaker’s academy was born out of Jennings’ role at Wavemaker Content, which he joined in 2019, helping to create internal project management training for a 50‑strong team.

A critical function

“Project management is crucial to our business going forward, and this comes from the very top of our organisation here in the UK and worldwide,” said Jennings. “Many of our clients now have PMOs in place or have learning and development programmes around project management, and it’s increasingly becoming part of our day‑to‑day conversations.”

George Mann, senior account executive at Multiverse, said: “Wavemaker is getting ahead of the trend we are seeing more and more at media agencies in the UK and US: an increased focus on maintaining a highly specialised team. Whether it’s project management or data analytics, media agencies like Wavemaker are increasingly focused on developing these vital skills through apprenticeships and training.”

Growth inevitable

Jennings believes that project management is set to make further in‑roads into non‑traditional sectors.

“You only need to see the change enforced on so many businesses over the past 18 months with the pandemic to know that the skills required for successful project delivery are only going to become more important, whether that is through the delivery of projects that create products, reacting to challenges in sustainability or changes needed in organisational structures and ways of working.

“The art of great project management together with the mix of leadership, culture and continual

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“Many of the non‑traditional sectors have often seen [project management] as diary management or a role to simply chase people to complete tasks”

improvement is a powerful combination for any organisation. I can see that the language around project management is changing too in businesses that haven’t previously focused on it. In my experience, many of the non‑traditional sectors have often seen it as diary management or a role to simply chase people to complete tasks or to create a pretty Gantt chart – whereas now there is a realisation that it’s so much more than that.”

Importance of apprenticeships

Jennings said that apprenticeships were “hugely important” for Wavemaker, which runs its own scheme, called The Splash. “[It’s] designed to encourage greater diversity in entry‑level recruitment at Wavemaker, where we create a number of full‑time apprentices across marketing, data and technology,” Jennings explained. “Our 2021 Splash intake will see our first full‑time project management apprentices joining Wavemaker.”

Jennings said his ambition when he joined the agency was to make Wavemaker the first media agency with

APM‑accredited project managers, and the partnership with Multiverse enabled the business to tap into the government levy for funding. The partnership also ensures that the agency didn’t just work towards a certificate, but that the knowledge was applied to its work during and beyond the programme, thereby driving results at every stage.

“We have the goal of 60 Wavemakers graduating from the programme by the end of 2022 (a mix of entry level via The Splash and current staffers) and we are on track with that.

We are also working with Multiverse to define and plan our PMO model,” he said.

According to Caspar Bartington, head of volunteer and education engagement at APM, since the current level 4 associate project manager apprenticeship launched in 2016 with APM’s PMQ embedded in it, there have been more than 10,000 ‘starts’ across a huge range of sectors, from infrastructure to retail, financial services and charities. The level 6 project manager degree apprenticeship launched in 2018 and there have already Caspar Bartington been more than 600 starts – much smaller than for the level 4, but this standard includes a BSc in project management and the PMQ.

A high‑value addition

“Apprenticeships are high‑value for the simple reason that they are workplace‑based learning programmes.

There’s no better way to build and evidence knowledge and skills; the fact that they are supported by training providers over many months, or years in the case of the degree apprenticeship, gives confidence to both

the organisation and the apprentice,” Bartington told Project.

On the Wavemaker and Multiverse partnership, he said that: “Clients are usually not in the traditional sectors of construction and engineering and so help to promote the relevance and value of project management and project‑based working to a wider audience.” He believes the partnership is indicative of the profession making in‑roads into more sectors, but that “there is more to do. Luckily we can draw on advocates from these sectors to encourage peers to do the same – it’s symptomatic of the growth of project‑based working. Apprenticeships are an excellent toe in the water or stepping stone, given the support that training providers give to companies with apprentices.

“Projects and project‑based working are here to stay. It will be interesting to see how many people work in a project‑based way but don’t give themselves a project‑based title. The growth in the number of Chartered Project Professionals suggests that people see this as a profession in its own right,” he added.

“We know that the growth of project‑based working will mean that more project professionals will be needed. Apprenticeships are an excellent way to help plug the gap since they blend a professional qualification that establishes credibility with supported learning and development while in a full‑time role. This support also means that those who change careers are able to do so in a more structured, supported way.”

A report from the Project Management Institute stated that, by 2027, global employers will need 87.7 million individuals working in project management‑oriented roles. The report also found that 39 per cent of businesses were concerned about having access to enough people with the right project management skills.

For more information on apprenticeships, see apm.org. uk/qualifications‑and‑training/ apprenticeships

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The Infrastructure and Projects Authority’s Annual Report on Major Projects 2020‑21 gave seven out of 184 government major projects a red rating – down from 11 last year

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he Infrastructure and Projects Authority’s (IPA’s) Annual Report on Major Projects 2020‑21 gave seven out of 184 major UK government projects a red rating in its traffic light system (its Delivery Confidence Assessment or DCA), down from 11 last year. In its annual assessment, the IPA evaluates the likelihood of the most complex and high‑risk government projects achieving their aims and objectives on time and on budget.

The group of major projects analysed in the report comprised 66 in infrastructure and construction, 62 in government transformation and service delivery, 31 in military capability, and 25 in information and communications technology (ICT).

Red, amber, green

Ratings are categorised into five groups, spanning red to green, with each providing an indication of the likelihood of successful delivery and level of associated risks. This year,

241 projects were rated green or amber/green (22 per cent), 51 red or amber/red (28 per cent) and 84 amber (46 per cent).

A red rating means that the successful delivery of the project appears to be unachievable, with major issues in project definition, schedule, budget, quality and/or benefits delivery, which at the current stage do not appear to be manageable or resolvable.

If this is the case, the IPA stipulates that the project “may need re‑scoping and/or its overall viability [may need to be] reassessed”.

Seven projects were rated red, but three of these had joined the Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP) this year. The most prominent project to be given a red rating is HS2 Phase 2b, which is at a much earlier stage of development than Phases 1 and 2a, which received an amber/red and amber rating, respectively.

Of the amber/red projects, 66 per cent were either in

GOOD NEWS! GREEN‑RATED MAJOR PROJECTS l Geological Disposal Facility

Programme l Transforming Government Security l 700 MHz Clearance Programme l Apprenticeships Reform Programme l A66 l Great Western Route Modernisation l South West Route Capacity

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l National Proton Beam

Therapy Service Development Programme l Fraud, Error and Debt Programme l CHIEF Customs Handling of Import Export Freight Transition Programme l Independent Monitoring Authority l Print Reprocurement

transformation and service delivery or infrastructure and construction. Projects in all categories, except for military capability, receive, in proportion, similar DCA ratings. On average, 70 per cent of infrastructure and construction, transformation and service delivery and ICT projects were rated amber or better. For military capability, this percentage was 55 per cent. Projects in ICT have improved most; this year, 32 per cent were rated amber/green or better, compared to only seven per cent last year.

A big increase in projects

There was a big rise in projects joining the GMPP (95 in total), while 36 left.

The report suggests that the increase in amber and amber/red projects could be a consequence of this sudden increase.

To help cope with this influx, the report outlines plans for major expansion in three areas. The first is the IPA‑led recruitment of a pool of expert major project leaders, deployed directly into departments, to boost leadership capacity and capability and fill critical gaps in professional delivery roles.

The second is to create a better deal for major project senior responsible owners (SROs) by taking forward work to improve selection, remuneration arrangements, grade structures and support. The third is to increase SRO time commitment for the biggest and most challenging project roles, and requiring projects to demonstrate SRO capability and capacity through approvals gates, to ensure projects are resourced with leaders who have the right level of experience and time to focus on effective delivery.

In his foreword to the report, IPA chief executive Nick Smallwood wrote: “The past year has seen extraordinary efforts by project professionals across government, both to deliver new projects at pace in response to the pandemic, and to sustain momentum … We have more to do to attain our ambition for nothing less than world class delivery; but the opportunity is there.” l The IPA’s annual report can be downloaded at bit.ly/3yahhuE

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APM shortlists award finalists

The winners of the APM Project Management Awards 2021 will be announced on 15 November

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ongratulations to those who have made it onto the prestigious final awards shortlist. APM will be announcing the winners at its awards ceremony at Old Billingsgate, London, on 15 November. Sponsored by RPC UK, the APM Project Management Awards celebrate excellence and share innovation.

Shell HSSE Award Sponsored by Shell ■ Safety Task Force, Network Rail ■ Response to the COVID‑19 pandemic, Sellafield Ltd ■ The National Road Traffic Census of Great Britain, WSP Contribution to Project Management: Not‑for‑profit ■ Essex County Council ■ NHS (Project Futures programme) Contribution to Project Management: Small to Medium Enterprise Sponsored by Defence Equipment & Support ■ 3PM ■ Delt Shared Services Ltd ■ i3Works Ltd ■ P2 Consulting Contribution to Project Management: Company or Consultancy ■ Balfour Beatty ■ PA Consulting ■ Turner & Townsend

Technology Project of the Year ■ 5G Mobile Private Network, Centrica Storage Limited ■ Project Green, Deloitte ■ Introducing AI into the Teleradiology Workflow, Medica Reporting Ltd ■ Establishing New Data‑Driven Situational Awareness Capability for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, PA Consulting ■ Sur‑i: the Surrey Schools Admissions Digital Assistant, Surrey County Council ■ Leakage Convergence, Yorkshire Water

Transformation Project of the Year Sponsored by QinetiQ ■ Return Our Business to Scale, BAE Systems ■ Economic Development of Bro Tathan, Burroughs ■ London City Digital Tower, NATS ■ Defence Infrastructure Organisation, Managing Programmes & Projects – Function Transformation and Enduring Evolution, PA Consulting Engineering, Construction and Infrastructure Project of the Year ■ Hythe Ranges Sea Defences, Environment Agency ■ Boston Barrier Project – Tidal Barrier, Environment Agency and Turner & Townsend ■ Fukushima Reactor Investigation Project, MIGSO | PCUBED ■ New National Maritime Systems Centre at QinetiQ, Portsdown Technology Park, QinetiQ Social Project of the Year Sponsored by CITI ■ Belfast Leisure Transformation Programme, AECOM ■ Managed Quarantine Service, Department of Health and Social Care ■ The Dragon’s Heart Hospital, Mott MacDonald ■ Adoption Support Fund, Mott MacDonald ■ Surrey’s Family Help Hub, Surrey County Council ■ CAMPUS Shield, University of Liverpool

Project Professional of the Year ■ Jacob Bould, Rolls‑Royce ■ Diane Young, Turner & Townsend Young Project Professional of the Year Sponsored by QA ■ Aanchal Chaturvedi, Turner & Townsend ■ Alice Burke, The Manufacturing Technology Centre ■ Clara Lenzi, HS2 Ltd ■ Jess Tray, Gate One ■ Josh Wilkinson, WSP ■ Hannah Latham, NFU Mutual Programme of the Year ■ Hy4Heat, Arup ■ Towns Fund Delivery Partner, Arup ■ BBC Cymru Wales Central Square Programme, BBC ■ Border Force EU Exit, Border Force PMO of the Year ■ Peru Reconstruction with Changes PMO, Autoridad para la Reconstrucción con Cambios ■ Client Services PMO, BT ■ P2/Selfridges PMO, P2 Consulting ■ Scottish Water PMO, Scottish Water ■ Virgin Atlantic PMO, Virgin Atlantic Innovation in Project Management Sponsored by Provek ■ Aanchal Chaturvedi, Werrington Grade Separation, Turner & Townsend ■ Fukushima Reactor Investigation Project, MIGSO | PCUBED ■ Accelerating Innovation in the Rail Industry, PA Consulting and Network Rail ■ P2/Selfridges PMO, P2 Consulting ■ Towns Fund Delivery Partner, Arup

l Info: apm.org.uk/apm-awards

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Inaction on discrimination against women must not be tolerated, says Anita Phagura. Stop trying to fix women and instead change the status quo

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Anita Phagura is a coach who enables her project management clients to step up as diverse leaders www.fierceprojectmanagement.com

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If you’re a woman working in projects, then most likely you’ve faced prejudices, biases or discrimination related to your identity. In 2019, I surveyed 100 women in projects, who nearly all said that they had experienced this due to their gender, sexuality, age, race, disability or another aspect – or often a combination. They most often felt like they weren’t being heard or taken seriously and that they didn’t have fair access to opportunities.

We’ve also seen the outcomes of the pandemic response disproportionately adversely impact on women, especially disabled women, mothers, single mothers, pregnant women, young women, Black women, Asian women and women from minority ethnic backgrounds (see the Fawcett Society’s #MakeWomenVisible). While many companies have made pledges on gender and race inequalities, the inaction is no longer palatable for many. The issues are out in the open and many more people are not willing to continue to accept the status quo.

It is abundantly clear that there are systemic and cultural issues within our project environments that need to be addressed to allow women and those who feel ‘different’ or are under‑represented to flourish. This is an important issue, and the focus shouldn’t be on ‘fixing’ women or making misfits ‘fit’ – which, dangerously, is where the narrative can often fall.

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As Maya Angelou said: “Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women”

However, we also can’t wait for that to happen to flourish and succeed within these spaces; knowing that our journey is harder means we can be more proactive in taking control of our career and recognising the skills beyond doing a good job.

The Fierce Project Management Model was developed in direct response to giving women in projects an alternative way of approaching their careers, against the backdrop of cultures that do not always work for us. Although it was developed with women in mind, actually it works for anyone who has felt different because of their identity and/or because of their leadership style.

The Fierce Project Management Model helps project leaders to create career success on their own terms,

including supporting them to navigate external barriers, as well as overcome any self‑made obstacles (unsurprisingly, we internalise those external barriers).

The Fierce Project Management Model is built on four cornerstone skills:

Amplify your message: 1your being heard demonstrates expertise and

your interests.

Ally‑building: building your network of support and influence.

Assertive and compassionate boundaries: establishing clear boundaries for wellbeing.

Authentic leadership: leading in line with your values.

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If you find yourself in an environment that is toxic, remember that you have choices, even if they aren’t immediately obvious. Often these cultures can invalidate our sense of self‑worth, contributing to mental health challenges, stress and burnout, and the rise of feeling like an ‘imposter’, which can then hold us back from fulfilling our potential even after we’ve left. Often the virtue of resilience is touted as the antidote, again putting the impetus of change on the women in the environment rather than on meaningful culture change.

While you are in these environments, it is even more important for your wellbeing to practise the cornerstones above – find your allies to support you (as well as to explore alternative opportunities), amplify your message with their support to be heard, assert your boundaries to protect your own energies and work/life balance,

If you witness behaviours that diminish someone, then do your best to stand with them and let them know they are not alone, as well as calling out the inappropriate behaviour and continue to live and lead with your values.

We all have a role to play for culture change (but it doesn’t need to be solely our responsibility either) – we know it is most effective top‑down, when we have leadership who genuinely believe in and role model the change required.

But it is also possible to create change bottom‑up through our own actions and role modelling of inclusive leadership.

For instance, if you witness behaviours that diminish someone, then do your best to stand with them and let them know they are not alone, as well as calling out the inappropriate behaviour.

You can go further by challenging the systems and advocating for and creating change that removes barriers and obstacles that make some people’s journey harder than others.

THE SMART WORK REVOLUTION The pandemic shows how fast the workplace can change, writes Jo Owen. Now we must determine other radical changes to accelerate

COVID‑19 has caused huge hardship, but it may be the best thing to have happened to leadership and management for 200 years. The pandemic revealed three pieces of good news about leadership and management. First, people and organisations can change faster than we ever thought possible. Second, managing smart and hybrid teams is far harder than managing a team in the office. And third, the end of command and control is, finally, coming closer In the first 20 years of the century, we fooled ourselves into thinking we were changing faster than ever as a result of the digital revolution. Then the pandemic struck. Suddenly, the last 20 years looked like a walk in the park compared to the pace of change teams achieved as they switched to remote working overnight. In a crisis, we discovered just how fast we can move. Now the challenge for managers is to identify other assumptions that hold us back.

Managing smart and hybrid teams is far harder than managing a team in the office. It raises the bar for managers. You have to be far more purposeful and deliberate in all that you do. You have to communicate better, which often starts with listening better; you have to be clearer about setting goals and building buy‑in; you have to work out how to motivate your team even when you cannot see them. If you can manage a remote team, you can manage any team. Use this chance to build your skills and become an even better manager.

The end of command and control is getting nearer. The office is a mini‑paradise for control freak managers: they can see what everyone is doing, all the time. It is much harder to micromanage people you cannot see. On a remote team, you have to trust colleagues to do the right thing even when you cannot see them.

In the past, managers made things happen In the first 20 through people they controlled. Now you have to years of the make things happen through people you do not century, we control, or who do not want to be controlled. You fooled ourselves have to make things happen through people in into thinking we other departments and firms. And if you manage were changing professionals, you manage people who do not faster than ever want to be controlled: they probably think they can as a result of the do it better than you can. digital revolution In the middle of the crisis, all the discussion is about how to make remote working work, how to redesign offices and how people will split their time between work and home. These are all important. But behind the noise of these debates, there is a deeper revolution stirring. Smart working forces all managers to raise their game. Those who rise to the challenge will succeed. This is your moment to shine.

Jo Owen’s new book, Smart Work: The Ultimate Handbook for Remote and Hybrid Teams, is published by Bloomsbury (£14.99)

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HOW FRAMES HELP US MAKE BETTER DECISIONS

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Kenneth Cukier is a senior editor at The Economist. He is co‑author with Francis de Véricourt and Viktor Mayer‑Schönberger of Framers: Human Advantage in an Age of Technology and Turmoil (WH Allen)

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We make decisions every day, but we’re often told we’re not very good at it. Psychologists have documented countless ways that people fail to decide well, including confirmation bias, loss aversion and so on. Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman warns of the wild variation in our decisions, or ‘noise’, that undermines our judgements. So troubling is this, that many people want to delegate decision‑making to algorithms and AI. However, both AI proponents and behavioural economists are victims of their own narrow view of the situation.

By focusing on flaws in the act of deciding, they lose sight of humans’ amazing cognitive abilities in how we size up the decisions in the first place.

A special human ability takes place before the actual choice: our strengths of coming up with alternative options.

Instead of focusing on where people get it wrong, we should celebrate, and improve, where we get it right.

Humans are framers: our minds work with mental models, or representations of reality, that we can manipulate. Framing is something we do all the time, though we’re rarely conscious of it. However, we can turn this basic feature of cognition into a powerful tool to elicit better options than

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the obvious, conventional ones. These mental models let us envision things for which only scarce data exist or that are simply impossible to observe. They help us fill in the blanks and extrapolate beyond the situation we are in. It empowers us to greatly improve our menu of options.

Machines can’t do that.

Hence, the ability of people to create better outcomes for themselves is not focused where it should be. Instead of worrying about doing a better job at making the final decision, we need to improve how we broaden the range of options from which to choose. It is something we can practise and get better at. Framing is a cognitive muscle we all possess. If humanity is to tackle its toughest societal challenges, we need to frame issues well or reframe them all

Data is retrospective; imagination is prospective.

Counterfactual thinking is a precursor for action, a vital part of our preparation to make decisions together, eliciting the best new choices, not just reducing the bias and noise around the narrow decisions before us.

So how can we tap the power of framing? Three strategies stand out: counterfactual thinking, cognitive foraging and embracing diversity.

Counterfactual thinking is considering the world as it could be, not as it is. It’s asking ‘what if’ questions, not willy‑nilly but in a thoughtfully structured way. Mental models let us imagine alternatives in a way AI and algorithms cannot. We train our ability when we read novels, become absorbed in a movie and move through a video game. It is a cognitive superpower.

Data is always retrospective; imagination is prospective. Counterfactual thinking is

a precursor for action, a vital part of our preparation to make decisions.

Cognitive foraging is the act of deliberately and actively seeking out different sorts of information from far outside our normal fare, simply because knowing something about the topic is enriching. Doing this exposes us to a wide variety of frames and experiences that we might someday find useful when we want to adapt a frame to given circumstances or embrace a new frame. The benefits are not just for information breadth, but social variety too. Research shows that executives with ties from outside their normal circle enjoy more seniority, faster promotions, higher salaries, heftier raises and the like.

Embracing diversity is not about virtue signalling – it’s about hard‑nosed pragmatism. Groups and organisations that invite variation and difference into their activities perform better than those that don’t. It’s like a roulette wheel – you have a better chance to win by spreading your bets – or like capitalism, where the natural experiment of many ideas can find optimal solutions. Exploring numerous ideas for what may work is better than relying on just one or two strategies. It doesn’t happen by itself and it’s not easy: diversity causes friction. But it can be channelled in a healthy way.

There is an imperative to become better framers. The world suffers from a narrowing of ideas in the public sphere, while creative friction, pluralism and the freedom to frame are ebbing. This puts the onus on leaders to create an environment where people feel able to frame the world as their mind’s eye sees it. Good framing leads to more options, better decisions and winning outcomes. It is the way we innovate and addresses our most pressing challenges – if we are bold enough to take them on as framers.

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GET RECOGNISED FOR MAKING A REAL DIFFERENCE

Andrew Baldwin is head of public affairs at APM

The theme of this issue of Project is new ideas and concepts, which dovetails neatly with APM’s Think Differently – a week‑long event that brings fresh perspectives to topics like mental health and wellbeing, and how greater diversity can enrich and benefit project teams.

APM has always been a broad church, appealing to project professionals from different backgrounds, sectors and communities. Former chief executive Debbie Dore put inclusivity and opening up professional project management, including chartered, at the heart of her leadership message, and with the appointment of new chief executive Adam Boddison, our aim is to continue with that good work.

New chief executive

Adam arrives from the National Association for Special Educational Needs (Nasen), which supports and champions those with all manner of needs, including behavioural, emotional and social difficulties, speech, language and communication, hearing impairment, visual impairment, multi‑sensory impairment, physical disability and neurodiverse conditions. He is no stranger to finding the best in people.

(You can read more about Adam’s story on page 30.)

There are parallels with my own background, too. I joined APM from

the professional body for psychology, where there was a strong focus on neurodiversity in the workplace.

Knowing and building on people’s differing needs is a vital component of any job, particularly that of a project professional.

Taking a different approach

A 2017 report by the British Psychological Society highlighted that although workers with ADHD may have difficulty with time management, they are also far more likely to excel in terms of creativity. Similarly, those with autism may perform less well with social interaction and communication, but will perform better at innovative thinking and detail observation.

In her recent blog, ‘Neurodiversity in project management’, Jenny McLaughlin shows just why these different approaches can be so valuable in projects. Jenny, a diversity lead at Heathrow, is helping to foster a culture of openness that recognises the “awesomeness of having a wide range of neurodiverse project managers” and the benefits of approaching projects through different lenses, such as challenging assumptions and avoiding groupthink.

This is just one example of where APM and its members can help to make a real difference and ultimately create the right environment for projects to succeed. When we get it right, we see remarkable results.

Everything has a PM angle

Our role is to champion the best that project management has to offer. I firmly believe that everything has a project management angle.

APM’s brilliant communications team

continue to highlight examples of the benefits of projects to the economy, the environment and society at large.

It really is a part of everyone’s daily lives, I’m just not sure the public realise it yet.

That was a problem I faced at the chartered body for psychologists.

Issues around leadership, workplace behaviours and reactions, the so‑called human factors, seeped into so many news stories. And they are so important in successful project delivery as well.

Similarly, having worked for the chartered body for health and safety professionals, I see parallels in peoples’ reactions to projects that went wrong. In health and safety, the public only seemed to notice our work if something went catastrophically wrong. And on projects, too, the risk is to dwell only on the negatives, so let’s

Member‑informed policy is a central component of a healthy public affairs function and will help us focus in on the issues we need to address champion those projects that go well and learn from those that don’t.

I want to hear from members about the brilliant work you do and how we can raise awareness.

Member‑informed policy is a central component of a healthy public affairs function and will help us focus in on the issues we need to address.

This is an exciting time. New ways of thinking are becoming mainstream and norms are being challenged. To quote Jenny McLaughlin, we should take this opportunity to embrace “the beauty of thinking differently and its gift to project management”.

Share your views: andrew.baldwin@apm.org.uk. Read Jenny’s blog at bit.ly/3yhdifu

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The 2020 Games faced unprecedented challenges.

Andrew Saunders considers the aftermath for any host nation once the Olympic Flame moves on

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ven in the best of times, hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games is right up there on the list of global megaprojects. Putting on arguably the world’s greatest sporting spectacle – in the glare of the international media spotlight and with an immovable deadline – certainly withstands comparison with infrastructure programmes such as high‑speed rail lines, bridges and motorways in terms of scale, complexity, public attention and expense.

But the past year has been far from the best of times, and on top of all the inherent challenges, this summer’s ‘pandemic games’ in Tokyo was beset by more and greater troubles than any Games in the modern era. Never before has a peacetime Olympics been postponed by a year, taken place under a state of public‑health emergency or required the world’s top athletes to perform at their inspired best in stadiums devoid of any spectators to cheer them on. Concerns over public support for the Games in Japan even led top sponsor Toyota to pull its Olympics‑related advertising in Japan.

It’s enough to make even the most hardened programme manager quail.

No wonder International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach admitted to having a few sleepless nights in the year up to the eventual lighting of the flame in the Olympic stadium on 23 July.

One eye on legacy?

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Thirteen‑year‑old Sky Brown of Team GB performs a handplant at Ariake skateboard park

But does the inevitable short‑term focus on delivering the event – making sure that venues are ready, athletes are housed, the media circus is well provided for and everyone can get where they need to when they need to – obscure the longer‑term but perhaps even more important question of legacy? When the medals have been handed out, the flame extinguished and the metaphorical curtain falls, what is left behind in terms of benefits for the host nation is perhaps the most enduring measure of Olympic success for any Games.

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“The Olympics is a truly inspiring event that can act as a tremendous catalyst. There is a real opportunity for megaprojects like this to play a pivotal role in long‑term development,” says Bill Morris, adviser to the IOC on the Tokyo Olympics and former director of culture, ceremonies, education and live sites for London 2012.

Unfortunately, the track record of the Games on legacy matters is patchy to say the least. From the dilapidated and under‑used venues in Athens and Rio – hosts of the 2004 and 2016 Games, respectively – to questions over exactly why the Sochi winter Games in 2014 were quite so eye‑wateringly expensive (the most costly to date at over $20bn), evidence of failed Olympic legacies is not hard to find (see box, page 22).

The struggle to deliver an effective legacy is at least partly a structural problem based on the Games’ fixed eight‑year cycle from bid to delivery, says Alexander Budzier, fellow in management practice at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School and co‑author of the 2020 report Regression to the Tail – Why the Olympics Blow Up. “The Olympics is quite a short‑term thing – eight years from bid to delivery, and quite often nothing much happens for the first three years. Then everything is focused on delivering the opening ceremony; nobody thinks much about legacy.”

But effecting lasting change, especially in ‘soft’ public behaviours around greater participation in sport and healthier lifestyles, calls for a more consistent effort. “When it comes to delivering lasting pubic benefits, what is needed is a 20‑year horizon – 10 years before the Games and 10 years after,” says Budzier. It also calls for more assiduous follow‑up and better data capture on how well legacy aims have been achieved. “While you have a project, you have a team, a PMO and governance structures. But when it ends and the team and the governance are dismantled, who is left to collect the data?”

How to avoid a flop

By no means is every Games’ legacy a flop, however. Experience suggests that

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lasting positive effects are much more likely to be achieved if there is a clear vision and intent for what it should be, right from the start, says Julie Nerney, transformation director of Nuclear Transport Solutions and formerly a senior leader in the transport team for London 2012. “If you look at the Games that have had more successful legacies and those where it hasn’t been so good, I think it starts with intent. In London, there were two big pillars of intent. One was about trying to get the public more active and more committed to sport.

Seb [Lord] Coe was passionate about that and really inspired all of us. The other was about regeneration. I lived in Whitechapel before the Olympic Park was built; [the site] was contaminated wasteland. Now we have all these amazing facilities, and many thousands of jobs have been created.”

The same applies to other successful legacy efforts, she adds. The intent can be different for each host, but it has to be there from the start. So Beijing 2008 was a showcase for a newly confident China to take its place front and centre on the world stage, part of a soft power strategy that is growing to this day. In Sydney in 2000, the focus was on providing the ultimate sporting excitement, centred on a super‑fast swimming pool and local hero Ian ‘Thorpedo’ Thorpe. The 1984

“Those Olympics where you see all the white elephant venues, they are the ones that haven’t thought through what they actually want their legacy to be” Los Angeles Games set out to beat the ‘Olympics curse’ of overspend and made a $250m profit – the last time a surplus was recorded – securing the city’s reputation as the commercially savvy de facto capital of the most entrepreneurial state in the US. Hosting the Olympics is not only expensive (the average cost between 2007 and 2016 was $12bn), but almost always subject to budget overspend, leading to mounting concerns that, for host cities, the costs simply outweigh the benefits. The meter for Tokyo’s

delayed event currently stands at $15.7bn – over twice the initial $7.5bn estimate and 22 per cent more than last year’s $12.6bn amended sum. And empty stadiums have an associated impact on ticket sales and tourism revenues.

But for all its travails, Tokyo actually has a pretty solid background when it comes to delivering a lasting legacy.

The first Games to be held there in 1964 involved building 100km of roads and a brand‑new sewage system. It was a showcase for Japanese technology, from computerised timing to the famous bullet trains. The event is widely acknowledged to have kick‑started the transformation of an ancient and overcrowded city into the modern global capital that it is today.

“Those Olympics where you see all the white elephant venues, they are the ones that haven’t thought through what they actually want their legacy to be,” says Nerney. With so much money and national prestige at stake, the onus is on the bid team to build legacy in at the ground level, rather than bolting it on as an afterthought. “I inherited a very smart bid at London 2012,” says IOC adviser Morris, “because what [then London mayor] Ken Livingstone and all the bid team did was to position how the Games could help the redevelopment of that part of the city.

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Clockwise from left: Japan’s Rui Machida in the women’s basketball final; fireworks during the closing ceremony; a construction site at Odaiba waterfront, April 2021; Turkey’s Ersu Şaşma pole vaults against the backdrop of an empty arena

“When it comes to delivering lasting pubic benefits, what is needed is a 20‑year horizon – 10 years before the Games and 10 years after” It was a way of achieving the level of investment required to do in 10 years what would otherwise have taken 40 or 50.”

So 560 acres of contaminated industrial wasteland has been transformed into a brand‑new urban district, home to Premier League football club West Ham United and the London Aquatic Centre, with thousands of new homes emerging from what was the Olympic village. The BBC, UCL and the V&A are all building new offices on the former Olympic site and, by 2025, it is predicted 40,000 jobs will have been created in and around the area. The Greater London Authority claims that some £6.5bn was invested in improving transport links in the city for London 2012, including on the DLR, the tube and the London Overground network.

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Passing lessons on

Legacy is not only about buildings and infrastructure, however. There is

also the question of legacy in terms of learning – how effectively is the experience gained from one Games transferred to the next, so that best practice can be baked in and past mistakes avoided? Because just like top athletes, even the most competent delivery and project management teams can benefit from some expert coaching from those who have done it before.

“We focus on the people who are on the ground delivering the Games, because most of them will not do an Olympics twice in their lifetimes,” says Chris Payne, associate director of Information Knowledge and Games Learning, the department of the IOC responsible for helping organisers to build on the lessons of their predecessors. “There are three main stages in terms of learning.

The first is about volumetrics – everything to do with the huge size and scale of the Games. The second is

organisational design – how do they need to set themselves up for success as a multi‑event delivery company?

And as they get closer to the Games themselves, the third is about process.

What are the key processes, policies and procedures required to deliver the Games at a venue level?’

The IOC has been formally involved in knowledge transfer since the Sydney Olympics in 2000, and although every city and every Games is different, one consistent theme is avoiding the temptation to dive straight in and start ticking off milestones on the project chart. “These are very competent organisations, but if they take time to do a bit of learning in the early days, then the quality of milestone delivery will be more effective. We want them to focus on desired outcomes initially, not on specific inputs.”

The official learning process has been refined and improved in the two decades since and now uses a combination of technology‑based initiatives around data capture and sharing with human‑based activities including workshops, observational learning and leadership development.

It culminates in a major debriefing session at the close of every Games, which both parties are obliged to take part in. “The current organisers have a duty to contribute back so that knowledge is transferred to the organisers of the next Games. There are transfer experts from Tokyo doing workshops with transfer experts from Paris. [The debriefing] is an important part of the process and most of it takes place under Chatham House rules.

Open questions are encouraged.”

Learning legacy for UK plc

But the lessons and experience accrued by each Olympic organising team also have value beyond the Games themselves. The success of London 2012 resulted in widespread interest from the major projects community, says Karen Elson, learning legacy adviser to both the UK’s flagship HS2

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programme and the renovation of the Houses of Parliament, and another alumnus of the London Games. “What we had in London 2012 was a major project that was succeeding against a history of project failure in the UK. So we were getting a lot of requests from academics and industry for good practice and research. I was asked to look at setting up a framework to capture and coordinate it.”

And although the framework she devised was taken up by the IOC as part of its knowledge sharing programme, the primary focus of Elson and her team was industry.

“The government was also using it to promote the ability of UK plc. It wasn’t about sharing with other Olympics, it was about sharing learning with other major projects.”

The principles of learning legacy that emerged have subsequently been

“What we had in London 2012 was a major project that was succeeding against a history of project failure in the UK”

we’re in a position where the supply chain is actually contributing most of the content,” Elson says.

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applied to several other programmes, including Crossrail, the redevelopment of London Bridge station and now HS2 and the Houses of Parliament. Major focus areas include digital engineering, design and technical excellence, and health, safety and wellbeing – and there is growing demand around environment, sustainability and climate change.

“The learning legacy has become an industry standard and really changed the culture of knowledge sharing. At the start, there were still concerns in the supply chain about making intellectual property public, but now

So while the international spotlight remains firmly on the Games themselves – after Tokyo comes Paris in summer 2024 and Beijing in winter 2026 – a hidden Olympic legacy is already hard at work helping to deliver better outcomes across major projects worth many tens of billions of pounds.

These are projects that, just like the Games, face the same fundamental challenges over knowledge transfer when expert teams disperse when the job is over. “They say you should never start from a blank sheet of paper, but projects often do. Innovation is lost when a project closes – a learning legacy is a way to ensure that it is not,” concludes Elson.

OLYMPIC LEGACY WINNERS AND LOSERS THE GOOD…

…AND THE NOT SO GOOD

BARCELONA SUMMER GAMES 1992 COST: $9.7BN OVERSPEND: 266% LEGACY: Redevelopment of the city’s historic waterfront, including the creation of two miles of sandy beaches. Lined with bars and restaurants, these have become a major tourist attraction and contributed to a six‑fold growth in visitor numbers to the city by 2014.

But the city struggled to pay its $1.1bn share of the debt incurred, doing nothing to help ease the relationship between the Catalan capital and the national government.

RIO DE JANEIRO SUMMER GAMES 2016 COST: $13.7BN OVERSPEND: 352% LEGACY: Many empty or underused venues due to a lack of ongoing demand.

Allegations of corruption, including by a former state governor, one of several officials accused of pocketing bribes on public works associated with the Games. A new transport hub connected the affluent suburb of Barra to the centre, but was of little benefit to residents of the city’s poorest districts, the favelas.

SOCHI WINTER GAMES 2014 COST: $21.9BN OVERSPEND: 289% LEGACY: The most expensive Games of all time, and the first winter Olympics where all the venues were built from scratch. Promoted

by President Putin as the catalyst for a new sustainable ski resort, the Games actually involved the rezoning of a national park so it could become a huge construction site. Investigations by Russian opposition political groups revealed evidence of corruption and embezzlement on a grand scale.

Source: Regression to the Tail, Why the Olympics Blow Up, by Flyvbjerg, Budzier and Lunn

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LONDON SUMMER GAMES 2012 COST: $15BN OVERSPEND: 76% LEGACY: Regeneration of 560 acres of contaminated industrial land in East London, new home venues for West Ham United and the UK National Athletics Competition Centre. Creation of 40,000 jobs by 2035 and 33,000 new homes by 2036.

But participation in sports dropped by 0.4 per cent following the Games, despite a legacy pledge to increase it. The fall was largest among low‑income groups and in deprived areas.

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MOONSHOT PROJECTS: DELIVERING THE IMPOSSIBLE

Finding a vaccine for COVID‑19 was one. Alexander Garrett uncovers what it takes to deliver other audacious projects that have the capability to inspire and transform

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ON 25 MAY 1961 President

John F Kennedy told the US Congress: “I believe that this nation should commit to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” It was the birth of the

original moonshot project, famously delivered in July 1969, and has since become a beacon and shorthand for all those wanting to achieve audacious goals with a far‑reaching impact.

Fast‑forward to September 2020 and Boris Johnson was talking up

Operation Moonshot, a plan to carry out 10 million COVID tests in the UK each day at a cost estimated to be as much as £100bn, later quietly dropped. Fascination with moonshots nevertheless reaches far and wide. X, a research and development company

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Projects at the secretive Google X formed by Google parent Alphabet in research lab include balloons designed 2015, describes itself as a “moonshot to create an aerial wireless network factory”, with projects ranging from everyday robots to an underwater camera network. Japan has its own government‑sponsored Moonshot R&D programme with a ¥100bn budget; the US’s National Cancer Institute has a Cancer Moonshot; the African Union and the World Bank have teamed up to launch the All Africa Digital Economy Moonshot.

These are typically vast projects, with enormous complexity, multiple partners in public and private sectors, and budgets and timescales to match.

But what does it take to manage moonshot projects successfully, and what are the challenges they present?

Andrew Davies, professor of innovation management at happened with the space and University of Sussex Business ballistic missile programmes School, says moonshots are a in the 1950s – and you will powerful metaphor, albeit one need deep contingency funds that struggles to be effective in Andrew Davies to deal with the unexpected. the face of many of the world’s biggest Being prepared for failure is another challenges today, especially so‑called important aspect. “Too often, project ‘wicked’ problems that are more diffuse or programme managers are risk and complicated – climate change averse because they’re trying to control being a prime example. “There is no costs and schedule. But people like single Manhattan Project that can solve Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, when they that. It’s going to take multiple diffuse were trying to introduce radically projects solving problems in areas like new products, always had a kind of carbon capture or renewables to make skunkworks operation; they created a difference.” a separation from existing ways of Where the problem is more doing things so that they had the room singular and susceptible to a moonshot for experimentation.” approach, says Davies, the solution And the style of working needed is likely to involve a complex system. to tackle moonshot projects is almost “So you need an ability to understand certainly collaborative, open and what the system is that you’re peer‑to‑peer, simply because of the designing, and be able to procure and large number of stakeholders who are get the subsystems and components likely to be involved. The pandemic delivered so that they can be may have inspired many to think big integrated effectively.”

– to believe that giant problems need Typically, you will need a delivery ambitious and imaginative attempts model that’s adaptive and flexible, to solve them. What’s clear is that, says Davies, “because the duration of while such projects can generate great these things and the outcome are so excitement, managing them is an uncertain that you need to be able to extraordinary feat in itself. absorb and change to deal with things that you can’t predict. So you need the “Too often, project or ability to learn as you’re going, bringing programme managers new ideas and technologies.” are risk averse because You may need to work on rival they’re trying to control technologies concurrently – as costs and schedule”

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IS THERE LIFE ON MARS?

NASA’s Perseverance rover mission has placed the fifth in a series of robotic vehicles on the Red Planet, with the ultimate objective of seeking signs of ancient life and collecting samples of rock and soil to bring back to Earth. Perseverance touched down on 18 February, together with the mini‑helicopter Ingenuity, which has since carried out the first powered flights on another planet.

Jennifer Trosper, who joined NASA in the 1990s, has worked on Perseverance since 2015 and is now a project manager based at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Each rover has a limited life expectancy, and it’s vital to extract maximum value from the multibillion‑dollar investments, so each day they must draw on the latest data to submit the following day’s instructions. The overall schedule is governed by planetary alignment. “If we miss a key schedule milestone, like launch, we’re 26 months slipped,” says Trosper. “That’s a lot of money, and a lot of problems.”

Sheer complexity is another characteristic. “We have many sub‑assemblies, assemblies, subsystems, systems all put together and then working with this layer of software.” Figuring out how to move forward in the face of this complexity is

Moonshot, 2

In August, the Perseverance rover began collecting samples of Martian rock, to be returned to Earth for analysis

one of the biggest challenges. “And so, a lot of what I do as a project manager is help people prioritise, decide what’s important, what’s not important, what we do today versus what we do tomorrow.”

The stakes are high. “The technical pressure of having multibillion‑dollar national assets on the surface of Mars means that you need to make sure that every one of the thousands of commands you give to it on a daily basis is good and will not harm the rover.

That pressure to make it work, but also to not screw up, is very big.”

From a technical point of view, although previous rover missions provide a starting point for Jennifer Trosper design, the quest

“If you keep things moving forward, and solve the problems that keep you moving forward, then anything is possible” for performance improvement means that much has to be designed from scratch. The adaptive caching assembly deployed on Perseverance required a new robotic arm to be developed involving higher‑level flight software, force sensors and autonomous operation. “In order to even design something like that, we don’t get a chance to iterate five or 10 times,” says Trosper. “If we’re lucky, we’ll get a prototype and engineering model, and then two flight units. So we have to be very agile.”

Problem‑solving, meanwhile, is absolutely central to overcoming the challenges that arise and moving closer

towards the project’s goals. “My role as a leader is to make sure first of all that we have even understood the problem correctly; sometimes it’s hard with these complex systems to even articulate the problem well enough to solve it. And on Earth, there’s a much larger space within which we can solve problems; we can actually swap out hardware. But when we’re on Mars, the solution space is much different.”

That means hiring people who love problem‑solving, and also listening to everyone’s perspective, because people can see it in different ways. The other quality that is invaluable on a project that requires years of preparation, and where many doubt the outcome at various times, is – like the rover itself – perseverance. “My advice is: if you keep things moving forward, and solve the problems that keep you moving forward, then anything is possible.”

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‘THE SUN IN A BOX’: NUCLEAR FUSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

The ITER project aims to demonstrate the viability of nuclear fusion as a source of electricity generation by producing net energy – more output than is input – for the first time. It is a colossal project, with 35 countries participating, a timescale that stretches from 2006 to 2035, and a total cost that has been unofficially estimated at more than €50bn. Construction of its reactor at Cadarache in France started in 2013 and is 80 per cent complete, with the assembly of the tokamak electromagnetic field starting last year, and the first attempt to create plasma due in 2026.

Tom Eastup, who spent a year working as a project manager at ITER, says that the overriding characteristic of the project is complexity.

“The engineering complexity culturally (accommodating is staggering, and the science different ways of working). that goes with it. You’ve got Michel Claessens Michel Claessens, former ground‑breaking physics, communications chief at ITER, says: materials science and lots of other “I would say the real innovation of this disciplines. Then, at the same time, the project is managing the 35 countries project has required collaboration from involved. More than 100 tokamaks so many organisations, both public and have already been built in the world, private sector, from lots of different but having these 35 countries working countries, each coming with different together is the biggest challenge.” languages, cultures, capabilities and Until 2015, says Claessens, the political biases.” management of the project was not In engineering terms, a systems up to the task, explained in part by the approach has been taken to break down immaturity of the organisation and the the project into more manageable fact that it was led by scientists, rather components, such as the auxiliary than those with the initial construction buildings, the tokamak (reactor), expertise required. One response was nuclear lifting systems and electrical to step up communication, which power elements. To manage this, the had previously taken place largely project has used a dedicated integration through email and phone, by convening team to make sure everything fits a meeting in Cadarache at least together. “They were running a 3D once a month of the key individuals model so that each time anyone coordinating the production and designed a system, the integration team management of components. would be responsible for checking that The extreme longevity of the project it will fit in,” says Eastup. “Because means that it has had to ride national once you’ve poured concrete or political cycles and huge external events installed equipment, it’s very difficult (and expensive) to undo and redo it if you need to change something.” An “You need to encourage the equally intensive parallel effort has participants to transcend been required, he says, to integrate the their differences and rally many stakeholders, both commercially around a purpose that is (across contractual boundaries) and greater than themselves”

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ranging from the financial crisis to Brexit and the pandemic. And because so many governments are involved there is close scrutiny of budgets and the schedule, with politicians often unwilling to acknowledge the realities of carrying out pioneering science. That has meant having to educate politicians, says Claessens.

It has also meant having to manage perceptions about how the project is progressing, says Eastup. “Moonshot projects are very difficult to forecast with a high degree of accuracy or certainty. But even though it’s difficult, it doesn’t mean that proactively controlling cost is any less important; these projects have a responsibility to their investors and supporters to do so.

“But what is really different about these projects is that, due to the technical complexities, the different organisations involved and the long‑term nature, you have to build the energy and inspiration around the project to maintain stakeholder support and momentum. You need to encourage all of the different participants to transcend their differences and rally around a purpose that is greater than themselves. In essence, you need to create and share a vision of how the project is going to change the world.”

Tom Eastup on-site at ITER, which is aiming to harness the potential of fusion, the nuclear reaction that powers the sun and the stars, as a potential source of safe, non-carbon emitting and virtually limitless energy

WORLD‑CLASS MOTOR RACING IN ELECTRIC CARS

Famously conceived at a restaurant in Paris in 2011, 10 years later Formula E became the first electric single‑seater racing series to be given world championship status. The original idea was simple: a motorsports event staged in some of the world’s leading cities in which combustion engines were replaced with electric motors.

“Nobody believed that we could deliver the first event,” says Gemma Roura Serra, Formula E’s strategic planning director. “So when we did, they said we would not survive the first year.” That first race was in Beijing in September 2014. This season, Formula E will be staging races in cities including Monaco, Rome, London, New York and Berlin. The cars in the first season were a single design, provided by Formula E itself; among the teams competing this year are Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes and Porsche.

The Formula E project set out with a clear and audacious vision: “To accelerate sustainable human progress through the power of electric racing.”

But to do that involved much more than creating an event; a significant change in perception had to be achieved. “People had the idea that electric cars were slow and old‑fashioned,” says Roura Serra.

“What we’ve been able to show is that they can be fast, they can be sexy.”

The pioneering use of electric cars nevertheless meant there were some serious unknowns, such as the safety issues posed by having large electrical charges present. “Normally in motor racing, if the car stops or has an accident, the marshals go to it. But if the car is an electric car? You need to develop a specific training to know that if the car has a green light you can touch it, but if it’s a red light you can’t.”

After launching in 2014 in Beijing, Formula E has expanded, with series seven taking place across eight cities globally

“People had the idea that electric cars were slow and old‑fashioned. What we’ve been able to show is that they can be fast, they can be sexy” Before any racing could take place, the cars had to be thoroughly tested, and key documents such as event specifications and operational plans created from scratch. The budget was an unknown factor at the outset, says Roura Serra. “If you go to a permanent circuit, all of the important infrastructures are there. You don’t need to worry about the civil works, the track, the fences, the medical centre, the race centre, the hospitality areas or the fan zone. We had to build all those things. Now we know, more or less, how much everything costs because we have more experience and data.”

Selling the concept to host cities was one of the biggest hurdles to be overcome. “When you go to a place like New York, you are coming from Europe with a project they don’t know called Formula E, and they don’t know you either. So you’re in a meeting with the city officials and all the local authorities like the police and the fire departments, and what they need is for you to build trust with them. You need absolutely to show them that you know what you are doing because an event like this has never happened before in the streets of New York – and it’s the same whether it’s Hong Kong, Paris or London.”

Getting cities on board, she says, has involved inspiring them with the vision of sustainable mobility, but at the same time demonstrating a relentless attention to detail. It was also recognised that it is important to reach out to the local communities where the races would take place and to give something back to them.

Developing professional standards and consistency in delivery have played a part in getting Formula E to where it is today, says Roura Serra, but equally important have been flexibility and the ability to listen to people. “You may have a process, but you cannot just come and impose that process. You need to bring people with you.”

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THE BIG INTERVIEW

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ADAM BODDISON

Emma De Vita finds APM’s new chief executive raring to go, with

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the energy and ambition to take the profession to the very top

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e speak the morning after you know what. Yesterday, England’s football team was beaten by Italy on penalties during the Euro 2020 final. “My wife’s Italian, so it was an interesting experience in our house,” says 39‑year old Adam Boddison, APM’s new chief executive, who lives in Coventry with his family of three young children. His eldest, 12‑year‑old Antonio is a “massive Harry Kane fan”, but Boddison warned him that “you need to get used to this if you’re going to support England”. It’s good to be realistic about these things.

While the headlines lambasted the cruelty of penalty shoot‑outs in deciding the tournament’s winner, Boddison is all too aware of the unfair vagaries of the life chances meted out to us. It comes from being raised in a household filled with foster children, the victims of unhappy circumstances whom his parents cared for. Growing up alongside children who’d been let down by society has left an indelible mark on Boddison, who saw the same things happen to child after child: “When there

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are so many children that need to be fostered, that’s not an issue about them as individuals, that’s a system issue.

“I tend not to be judgemental about people because they are often the way they are because of the system – and that could be society, their family or job or whatever it is that they’ve grown up in,” he says. It’s left him with a desire to make a genuine difference, to fix things and to be ambitious about making positive change. Above all, it seems, he wants to realise potential.

“Underpinning all of that is this philosophy that, for me, anybody from any background can achieve and do really well in life with the right support and the right development,” he explains.

Our conversation turns to the leadership attributes of England manager Gareth Southgate. “He has been both praised and criticised for the kind of belief he’s had in the people he’s got, and he’s taken the view that

actually he has invested in them, and he’s going to make sure that he believes in them right away,” he says. “I tend to do that – that’s my kind of default position – but I’m probably not as good as Gareth at that, so…” he tails off, laughing.

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oddison’s level of energy is infectious. You tend to sit up straighter, become a bit more enthusiastic, when you listen to him.

He admits he’s terrible at switching off from work (and can’t imagine sitting around watching boxsets at the weekend), mainly because work for him is as far from a 9‑to‑5 slog as you can imagine. His life’s work is to make society better. It’s what motivates him and keeps him driving forward.

“My wife says to me, ‘Sometimes Adam, you don’t really have a job, you have a kind of way of life’,” he says, agreeing with her that, “I have to live

“For me, anybody from any background can achieve and do really well in life with the right support and the right development”

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and breathe a job… I need to work for an organisation where I get up in the morning and think I really want to get in, because every minute I spend is going to make a difference,” he explains.

His career cuts across many worlds, from teaching and academia to the third sector, but the golden thread that runs through it all, he explains, is his love of developing people: “I’m drawn to roles where I can actually make the world a better place through the development of people.” Project professionals, he says, have a big influence across the organisations they work for, and being able to use that impact for the greater good is part of the reason he wanted APM’s top job.

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e speak before Boddison is officially at his desk at APM’s Princes Risborough HQ. I’m curious to find out, as an outsider, what his take on the project profession might be?

“Project management is the beating heart of contemporary professional life, but I think we don’t really know it yet,” he says. “There’s a tipping point coming.” He draws an analogy with marketing, where over the past 20 years, marketers have gone from the junior backroom bods in an organisation to having a C‑suite role.

In a post‑pandemic world, Boddison believes, project management can help organisations maximise return on investments and deal with budget squeezes. “This past year‑and‑a‑half is going to accelerate what was already coming, which is the renaissance of project management… My sense is that project management doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. Within the sector, people know about it and they care about it, but outside the sector it’s not known widely enough exactly what this group of people do and the value they add. We need to improve that…

It needs recognition all the time, even when it’s going well,” he says.

CV: Adam Boddison 2021 chief executive, APM; chair of the corporation, Coventry College; trustee, Academies Enterprise Trust; visiting professor, University of Wolverhampton 2015–2021 chief executive, National Association of Special Educational Needs; chair, Whole School SEND Consortium 2013–2015 founding director, Centre for Professional Education, University of Warwick 2012–2015 academic principal, IGGY, University of Warwick 2010–2012 academic director, Warwick in Africa, University of Warwick; assistant headteacher, Royal Society of Arts 2018–2010 area coordinator, Further Maths Support Programme 2001–2011 tutor/warden, University of Warwick 2005–2007 lead practitioner, Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, London 2004–2008 maths teacher, Finham Park School and Finham Primary School, Coventry

Education

2019–2021 MBA, University of Leicester (in progress) 2020 PRINCE2 Certificate in Project Management, Axelos 2005–2008 PhD, mathematics education, University of Warwick 2007–2008 DCH, clinical hypnotherapy, Institute of Clinical Hypnosis 2004–2005 MA, educational research methods, University of Warwick 2003–2004 PGCE, secondary mathematics, University of Warwick 2000–2003 BSc, mathematics, University of Warwick

To join APM, Boddison is moving from his chief executive role at the National Association for Special Educational Needs (Nasen), a membership organisation for teachers in the field. His six years there has brought about some impressive achievements, including growing membership tenfold from a base of 3,000, diversifying revenue streams and introducing an international strategy. “I was appointed on a ticket of turnaround and growth,” and he has succeeded.

In contrast, APM, he says, is obviously in “a very good space”, particularly with its chartered status.

He sees the main opportunity for APM as growth in membership. “There is a profile challenge for us as an organisation and that’s the kind of thing

“Project management is the beating heart of contemporary professional life, but I think we don’t really know it yet. There’s a tipping point coming”

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that drives me. What motivates me a lot is identifying the real barriers stopping an organisation from accelerating to achieve its true potential. I like to remove those barriers and supercharge an alternative, which is to take it forward at high speed and where it can really make a difference.”

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aving not even left his Nasen post, it doesn’t seem fair to pin him down on how he intends to achieve this (and he kindly bats aside my attempts at doing so). What’s clear is his emphasis on using culture and values, with an emphasis on people development, as a way to achieve change (he rails against the obsession with strategy that organisations have had, often to the detriment of bringing people along together under a common banner to achieve success).

Boddison grew up in the Wirral.

His mum ran a playgroup, his dad was

Big interview, 2

side of things and they work very closely with the civil service”. Hence his move to Nasen, and his interest in APM, with its strong links to government and the civil service. “We’ve got to get the organisation to a point where it can maximise its impact,” he reiterates.

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“I realised that politicians have accountability, but it’s actually quite hard for them to make change happen because they only have this five‑year window” a gardener, and he was the first to go to university (Warwick), where he studied maths. While running a summer camp on campus, he was approached by someone running the teacher training course that happened to be next door, and was persuaded to join. That’s how Boddison’s career as a maths teacher began, but it wasn’t long before he became involved with the university’s work with special and gifted children and the work of the specialist schools and academies trust movement. It was his growing experience of primary, secondary and tertiary education that led him to conclude that education was “in a mess” – and his ambitious early career plan was born. “I decided that I should become secretary of state for education, because then I could fix it,” he says.

Boddison found himself working more closely with government and with politicians. “And that’s where it all went wrong,” he says unexpectedly. “I realised that politicians have accountability, but it’s actually quite hard for them to make change happen because they only have this five‑year window… It’s hard to get things through unless there’s some kind of magic set of coincidences.” Did this big disillusionment shatter his career dreams? “No, not really. I saw it as an opportunity to change direction.”

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e quickly realised that the best place to make a difference in society was in the third sector, “because I thought charities stand up for what they believe in and they actually have an ability to influence both the politics

oddison says he enjoys bringing people together, relationship building and joining the dots. He also enjoys going the extra mile just to see if he can help someone achieve what they are capable of. When asked about his qualification in clinical hypnotherapy, he explains that while working as a maths teacher, he saw how some children were being held back by attitudes that had been imposed on them by parents who thought there was nothing wrong in saying maths was a struggle in a way that they would never talk about reading.

Boddison tried bringing Derren Brown‑style magic into the classroom, but while that engaged many children, there were still some left with mental blocks, so he turned to neuro‑linguistic programming and then hypnotherapy.

Eventually he opened a Saturday practice, where he specialised in working with children who wanted to achieve but were holding themselves back, be it a musician unable to perform or a runner scared of racing. He was successful but doesn’t have the time to practise any more (as an aside, he says there was a time he had to remove his qualification from his CV as people were scared to look him in the eyes).

Beyond the work he loves doing, and spending time with his family, Boddison doesn’t have much time off. He likes to play the piano and is in the local amateur squash league, and also has a love of musical theatre (his favourites are Phantom of the Opera and Wicked).

Speaking six weeks before he takes the APM hotseat, Boddison says he’s very much looking forward to starting, keen to supercharge the profession right to the top. And unlike the England football team, he won’t be leaving anything to chance.

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G N I D I R ST INTO N O I H S FA

dustry in n io h s fa e h t h ride for g u o r a n e vel of e le b h It’s ig h a h it w ndemic, ates a ig p t s e e h v t in h g a u it o V r th Emma De . e g n a h c d n ement g a n a m t disruption a c je o r ripe for p is r to c e s e h t how

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eptember is a big month for fashion, with London, Milan, Paris and New York fashion weeks all happening. This year, London Fashion Week (LFW) will be a hybrid event, with a combination of “physical and digital activations”.

The LFW digital platform launched in June 2020 and is updated year‑round, allowing retailers, media and consumers to view and buy collections. Its creation is symbolic of the tumultuous 18 months fashion

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and retail have experienced. Fashion businesses, from luxury design houses and high‑street stalwarts to small, designer‑led firms, are contending with a huge amount of disruptive change: COVID‑19, digitisation, Brexit and sustainability concerns.

Project managers are change masters, and this, combined with the project‑based nature of fashion, means the industry, like many other creative industries, is starting to recognise the benefits that project managers can bring.

From the top

Kim Winser is the CEO of fashion brand Winser London and the former CEO of Aquascutum.

“Substantial change brings challenges and opportunities, and we have experienced plenty with the pandemic, Brexit, the rapid move to new routes to market – particularly online trading and new ways of communicating and engaging with customers with the progression of social media, digital marketing and content opportunities – plus the pace

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FASHION

Kaia Gerber walks the runway at Paris Fashion Week 2020. Left: A memorial to victims of the Rana Plaza garment factory collapse, Bangladesh.

Above: The sustainable evolution of fashion was a core theme at Milan Men’s Fashion Week 2021.

but historically project management has not been formally recognised on the creative side of things. What does Winser think the project profession can do to attain greater recognition within the fashion industry? “I think more coverage of what project managers can bring, the richness of their contribution and how they can work alongside existing teams would be beneficial.

There can be the view that only the employed team understands the brand or business well enough, so some good examples would help. As with most things, more discussion, illustration and exposure.”

Getty; Alamy

Golden opportunity

of change brought on by the world demanding a more sustainable style of operating,” she explains.

“So, there are plenty of opportunities for strong project managers to work with brands and businesses to develop more appropriate business models for the future.” Project management is underused by many fashion businesses, but with so much change, there is a real and tangible opportunity for it to make serious inroads. “In periods of substantial change, project managers

can bring terrific experience, talent and objective thought, but as we know, ownership from the top down will help this be more constructive,” Winser says.

In large fashion businesses, project managers are a critical part of support functions like IT or capital projects,

Madeleine Marcella‑Hood is a lecturer in the school of creative and cultural business at Robert Gordon University (RGU), and was co‑author of a 2015 APM research paper entitled An Exploration of the Extent to which Project Management Can Be Applied across Creative Industries. The researchers found that most of the fashion managers they interviewed were unaware of formal project management tools and techniques, but recognised the value that these might bring. Project management

“In periods of substantial change, project managers can bring terrific experience, talent and objective thought, but as we know, ownership from the top down will help this be more constructive”

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in turn should adapt to the needs of the industry by understanding the fashion life cycle and the role of agile project management.

Marcella‑Hood explains that the pandemic has led to some negative impacts that may have been inevitable, like shop closures, with companies forced to react quickly to rethink designs and redistribute stock. Fashion events moved online or were scaled down. The pandemic has also raised awareness of key issues that have been coming to the fore over the past few years surrounding issues of ethics and sustainability in the sector, such as the environmental impact of the overproduction of clothing, the complex international supply chain – most evident in fast fashion – and factory working conditions.

“One of the terms I encounter a lot that I feel is perhaps most strongly linked to project management is the fashion life cycle. This has accelerated massively over the past couple of decades and this has meant that the industry has perhaps had greater control over influencing trends.

However, what the pandemic has shown us is that external forces are strong and have the power to completely disrupt everything we think we know about a market – this is perhaps particularly the case with fashion, which could be regarded as a luxury rather than a necessity.”

Change makers

“These issues will require critical changes, particularly within larger organisations, and project management is an important way in which fashion organisations can plan and implement those changes. I’ve no doubt that is exactly what they are doing, even if they aren’t actually calling it that,” Marcella‑Hood says. “Project management is playing an increasingly critical role in the fashion industry, although it still isn’t a term that is used

as broadly as within other industries, like construction and engineering.”

What’s more common, she explains, is the use of the word ‘project’.

“Projects are a vital part of the fashion industry,” she says, explaining that because of the temporary nature of trends, project management lends itself well to the fashion industry, which relies on change. A project‑based organisational structure is common in fashion SMEs, and while larger companies are structured in a more conventional and functional manner, there are still projects that require teams to come together outside of business as usual, such as fashion weeks, campaigns, collaborations and the launch of new collections.

“Accidental project managers have been a more common feature of fashion, probably because fashion businesses are often SMEs, where a founder has become a project manager

“Accidental project managers have been a more common feature of fashion, probably because fashion businesses are often SMEs, where a founder has become a project manager”

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when launching and managing new designs and processes, marketing their products/garments and selling them,” says Marcella‑Hood. But, since the APM research was published in 2015, she finds there has been an increasing recognition of project management as a function within the fashion industry as part of a broader recognition of the business and management side of things.

An increase in appetite

Marcella‑Hood explains that: “Since we published our paper, we have seen an increase in fashion management and business courses being delivered at universities across the UK. ‘Projects’ in the fashion industry have become more visible and they are labelled as such. Fashion projects form a core part of our curriculum on the fashion management courses at RGU, where client‑led projects, research projects and sustainability projects are just some of the modules we offer that contain a project element.” She teaches her students about project management as part of a module on managing in the creative industries.

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“You can be good at project management because you’re creative, because you have to be agile and you have to be open to opportunities that might happen”

planning, funding applications, creating partnerships with people and organisations working in fashion in Scotland, creating marketing materials, overseeing a small team of volunteers, and running biweekly meetings with its steering group/board.

A lot of moving parts

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Main: Model Khadim Sock during the Stella McCartney Ready to Wear show, Paris Fashion Week 2019. Inset: Modelling at the Sustainable Style show in Florence, 2021.

However, despite the growing appetite for project management techniques and tools, many of the challenges in implementing project management remain. “Fashion has creativity at its core, it is increasingly recognised as an art form and relies on creative individuals to design and bring designs to life through compelling marketing campaigns. The industry needs workers who can challenge convention and innovate to keep fashion alive. This is where the tension between left‑ and right‑brain thinking comes in,” Marcella‑Hood explains.

“Sheonagh [Rowley, co‑author of the 2015 paper] and I argue that a combination of the two mindsets is desirable for successful project management within fashion. This balance is perhaps easier to obtain in larger organisations that can afford to employ a diverse team of individuals who possess these skills. It is perhaps more difficult in smaller organisations to achieve the balance between the creative and the analytical aspects.”

If project management is to succeed in making further inroads into the business of fashion, then flexible

approaches must be championed.

“Some of the tools and processes we would typically associate with project management are more applicable than others and therefore are more likely to be adopted within the industry. For example, it would be unrealistic to expect that a fashion business would conform to the more rigid long‑term planning and scheduling processes that might work for other sectors like construction. Planning is still needed and is incredibly important, but the process of doing so needs to be more flexible and open to change,” Marcella‑Hood advises.

Making fashion work better

Mairi Lowe is a content marketer and systems practitioner for Sustainable Fashion Scotland (SFS), which she helped found in 2020. SFS is a community‑led social venture that helps communities collaborate and contribute towards collective sustainability action. Edinburgh‑based Lowe oversees the project management of SFS, as well as working across online event organisation and facilitation, research and development

Lowe works closely with fashion SMEs in Scotland. “Fashion is so uncertain and it’s so complex,” she explains. “You are working with so many stakeholders across the supply chain. If you’re a brand creating products, you’re talking to suppliers and manufacturers. If you’re working with just one manufacturer, you might have five different people working on one garment. For creating the yarn, you might be talking to farmers if you’re a small business that wants to work local.

That’s just the production side, and then you have all the marketing and the actual retail as well. And some of those people are international. There are a lot of different moving parts, so it’s hard to plan.”

The sector is ripe for project management, she thinks. “Small business owners are very overwhelmed and very stressed. There are things they have to leave to the side that they don’t have time for. “If you had the skills to oversee everything and know what’s going on, things wouldn’t fall through the gaps as much and you would feel calmer as well, and more capable of handling it all.”

Most people who work in fashion are creative, and it’s their main skill, but Lowe doesn’t think this mindset precludes project management capabilities. “You can be good at project management because you’re creative, because you have to be agile and you have to be open to opportunities that might happen. I think a lot of [people in fashion] are very capable but wouldn’t specifically say they were a project manager.”

Surely it’s time for the profession to put its best (designer‑clad) foot forward to strengthen the ranks of accidental project managers in fashion and give the creative industries the greater professionalisation they need.

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How should we best adopt project data analytics?

It could revolutionise the delivery of projects, but a new study by the University of Warwick identifies the barriers that prevent organisations reaping the potential rewards. Professor Naomi Brookes and researchers Luis Lattuf Flores and Elaine Falconer explain…

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It is ironic that, despite having more data than ever before on our projects and a plethora of digital tools to hand, there is little evidence to suggest any marked improvement to decision‑making. Initial studies have demonstrated that while project dashboards are widely used, they have not yielded the improvements in decision‑making that would be expected. A key challenge is that dashboards generally rely on past performance. But, as anyone who has dabbled in the financial investments market can attest, past performance is no guarantee of future results. Data is also greatly simplified, reducing the complex interdependencies into a set of colourful charts.

But things are about to change.

We are on the cusp of a project data revolution where every morsel of project data produced will be fed into the decision‑making process through the establishment of project data analytics (PDA). Given the huge potential for PDA to improve project delivery and its failure so far to live up to its promise, there is a pressing need to understand

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the factors that are impeding the adoption and the enablers that will help us to overcome these barriers.

The Project Praxis research group, based at the University of Warwick, has been working with a number of major infrastructure delivery organisations to understand these barriers to identify practical ways to overcome them. Its most recent study, sponsored by the Oakland Group, engaged with senior business managers to understand their experiences with data analytics and capture their views on what they felt were the barriers and enablers to widespread PDA application. This provided a unique insight into the minds of the key decision‑makers and the opportunity to understand which direction we need to move in to harness the transcendent decision‑making

We are on the cusp of a revolution where every morsel of project data will be fed into the decision‑making process through the establishment of project data analytics

power that comes from analysing all our project data at the same time.

Take action now to ensure good data quality

The first theme identified by the participants related to the challenges associated with a lack of consistency across organisational units because of the historical evolution of management systems. It was found that projects often encountered difficulties as a result of basic failures to use common definitions throughout their organisations for items as fundamental as project identifiers.

The solution to these challenges was clear. There is a pressing need to bring about the standardisation of data management systems and processes so that consistency in data collection and management is achieved across all operating units and projects.

It was also clear that action can and should be taken now, as good‑quality data is a fundamental prerequisite to any future analytical endeavours. As we were told by one senior project controls executive: “The underlying issue… isn’t that there are many systems, it is

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that they all may be coded differently.”

A senior project management office executive in transport infrastructure explained that: “The problem we have is that data formats are not compatible a lot of the time; it would really be a step forward just agreeing what data format we will all use; for example, coming up with a standardised data format or data manual.”

Cut through the jargon

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Participants were very clear that they did not feel the need to have cohorts of data analysts joining the ranks of project practitioners. What they required instead was to develop a ‘data literacy’ across all members of the organisation related to what data is and how it can be used. A key enabler was found to be cutting through the jargon around topics like PDA to give people a basic understanding of what PDA can deliver and how it might contribute to decision‑making.

One senior project controls executive told us that: “There are a lot of a variable skills across our organisations in analysis, understanding, interpreting of information and displaying of information, and that’s even before we get into really complicated statistical analysis. Therefore, we have some real basics that are missing, so it is worth discussing and understanding the value of establishing centralised methods of control of data versus widespread organisational competence and understanding of these principles.”

Another senior data and analytics executive explained that: “There are so many buzzwords out there. I have a lot of customers that will talk about wanting to do machine learning… but when you start to drill into it, you realise that they just picked up the buzzwords without actually understanding what they mean.”

Stop trying to eat an elephant

One of the major barriers in terms of implementing PDA was found to be the sheer magnitude of the implementation task, requiring the simultaneous consideration of the organisational culture, current data management processes and skills gaps that will

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WHAT IS PREDICTIVE DATA ANALYTICS? Adopting PDA successfully goes way beyond the simple acquisition of a new piece of analytics software or a new dashboard. At its simplest, it is the use of past and current project data to enable effective decisions on project delivery. This includes descriptive analytics, which presents data in the most effective format, such as in a dashboard, and predictive analytics, which applies machine learning to a multitude of data sources to predict future performance.

Machine learning involves computer programs that spot patterns between characteristics of projects or programmes and performance. This process gets more accurate the more it is used.

need to be closed to enable successful implementation. It is unsurprising that participants identified consultants as a potential enabler for the smoother introduction of data analytics. However, participants also identified that the use of outside organisations could be a barrier to developing and embedding the much‑needed in‑house ‘data literacy’.

“It’s a long journey isn’t it?

How do you get going on it? You are competing against other transformation initiatives. Trying to eat the elephant all at once is too hard, too big and too culturally challenging to make a shift,” one commercial director at a data consultancy told us. A senior project controls executive also shared that: “If we continue to rely only on external organisations, we continue to sort of rob our own internal organisations of the chance of potentially developing some of those skill sets. So, it’s really worth trying to balance that and really build some internal competence and data literacy.”

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Seeing is believing

Participants from project service organisations identified that client organisations were unwilling to fund untested, intangible data analytics activities, while client organisations identified that executive decision‑makers are often more prepared to trust their instincts than rely on what is perceived as subjective data analysis. However, it was widely agreed that providing clear evidence of successful PDA applications is fundamental to securing investment in the technology and wider acceptance from senior budget holders.

Professional organisations, such as APM, were seen as key enablers in uncovering and showcasing the pockets of current examples of PDA and celebrating successful applications in this area. “Seeing is believing, and by doing those little pockets of PDA projects within a company, it starts opening up those opportunities,” explained a senior data and analytics executive.

The truth will set you free

It is ironic that a profession dedicated to implementing change is seemingly averse to change. However, fear of the unknown was identified as a major obstruction to PDA implementation.

This fear was found to be manifested in the perception that PDA could potentially take the control of disseminating performance data out of the hands of project deliverers, thereby removing the ability to manipulate project data to ‘soften the blow’ of bad news related to poor project performance.

It was also acknowledged that fear needs to be addressed around the idea that artificial intelligence, and by association PDA, will result in an elimination of certain roles in project delivery and substantively change the remaining roles. One of the crucial ways to overcome this aspect of fear is to increase project professionals’ data literacy and to take learning from other industries that have successfully implemented and benefited from data analytics. After all, data analytics is not new and, in reality, project management

is a late adopter of the technology, so there is a huge amount of learning and experience that can be taken from other industries.

“People see things emerging and ask, ‘What does it mean for me?’ There is a general reluctance to adopt predictive analytics only because it is out of their comfort zone,” one senior assurance executive told us. Isn’t it time to take that courageous first step?

The authors would like to acknowledge the invaluable support of the Oakland Group in undertaking this research.

The Oakland Group is a world-leading data consultancy operating at the intersection of process, analytics and governance: www.theoaklandgroup.com To download the research, visit www.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/wmg/ research/transformation/project_praxis

THE TOP FIVE ACTIONS TO BREAK DOWN THE BARRIERS TO SUCCESSFUL PDA IMPLEMENTATION

1

Improve data quality The prerequisite for successful PDA is good‑quality data, and this is dependent on how mature the organisation is in terms of data management. Organisations need to first understand how they currently collect and manage data by assessing the protocols and tools that are used, the skills of individuals across the organisation and the motivation and culture within the organisation to adopt PDA.

2

Create awareness not analysts The management of data needs to be the responsibility of everyone and not seen as a specialist role. Organisations need to identify how they can develop their ‘data literacy’ whereby all members of the organisation have an understanding of the role of data and how it might contribute to decision‑making.

3

Manage the size of the change task Organisations adopting PDA need to realise that there is no silver bullet for implementation. Embedding PDA will require prolonged commitment and needs to be adequately funded and resourced.

Outsourcing tasks and engaging with specialist consultants may overcome current skills gaps in this area. However, to truly embed PDA into the organisation, investment into developing in‑house capability is required.

4

Share examples of PDA on live projects There is a pressing need for organisations to showcase examples of PDA being successfully applied on live projects to develop a greater awareness and appreciation of how PDA can be applied to projects and demonstrate that there are tangible benefits to the approach.

5

Eliminate fear from project delivery Fearing the loss of control in how data is shared and interpreted was identified as a major barrier to implementing PDA. However, taking learning from other industries that have successfully used the technology will help overcome this fear.

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BREAKING THE IRON LAW OF PROJECTS

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Karlene Agard explains how reference class forecasting

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can be a valuable and accurate forecasting method that draws on actual outcomes to help you deliver your project to budget, on time and with the promised benefits. What’s not to like?

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roject management has accomplished many fantastic feats of ingenuity, but it is not known for its ability to deliver as planned. Less than half of all projects are on budget, only eight per cent are on budget and on time, and a mere 0.5 per cent are on budget, on time and deliver the planned benefits. That’s the ‘Iron Law of Projects’: over budget, over time, under benefits, over and over again. This term was coined by Professor Bent Flyvbjerg, the first BT professor and inaugural chair of major programme management at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and the chair of Oxford Global Projects (OGP), based on analysis of over 10,000 projects.

Across the public, private and third sectors alike, the Iron Law results in wasted money, inefficient delivery and time pressure. While the private sector

Technical error is not a satisfactory explanation, because it would lead to underruns occurring roughly as frequently as overruns

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loses out on profit, the third sector is less able to help its beneficiaries.

Alexander Budzier, fellow at Saïd Business School and CEO of OGP, notes that “project management has stagnated for too long. We have to get better at forecasting and that necessitates learning from the past performance of projects: not just through anecdotes and experience, but using quantifiable, objective data.”

Some believe that projects are underestimated because of technical errors. For instance, when constructing a tunnel, the ground conditions are unknown and may be worse than accounted for in the plan. Those who believe technical error is the cause of forecasting inaccuracy would argue that it could be combatted through additional data or modelling. However, technical error is not a satisfactory explanation, because it would lead to underruns occurring roughly as frequently and with similar impacts as overruns. This is clearly not borne out by the data, as fat tails (extremely large values) abound.

Biases account for the project distributions that we see. Project

PROJECT RISK MAP Sources: Ansar et al (2014) Budzier & Flyvbjerg (2013) Flyvbjerg (2015) Flyvbjerg et al (2016) Pohler (2013)

ROADS COST OVERRUN

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BENEFITS OVERRUN

20%

90%

38%

10%

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5%

5.5

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been recommended by the American Planning Association, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Major Projects Association. It will also feature in APM’s upcoming Project Risk Analysis and Management Guide refresh.

resources are regularly underestimated due to optimism bias (the tendency to have a rosy perspective of the future) as well as other psychological biases, and strategic misrepresentation or political bias – the use of forecasts that are known to be flawed due to political pressure (which can be internal or external).

Reference class forecasting (RCF) bypasses the biases shared by experts and non‑experts alike. It is the most accurate forecasting method because it draws on actual outcomes and not just flawed estimates. Consequently, we are seeing a continual increase in the recognition of RCF as a crucial methodology for forecasting. RCF is now required for large rail and road projects in the UK and Denmark.

Other governments have also used RCF, including those of Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, the Netherlands, South Africa and Australia. RCF has

Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman praises RCF in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow as “the single most important piece of advice regarding how to increase accuracy in forecasting”.

Having a more accurate forecast makes managing resources across programmes and portfolios far more effective and would reduce the likelihood and impact of having to pay a premium for delivering later than expected.

For instance, avoiding direct costs for contracting penalties, higher overtime rates and unnecessary logistics, as well as the indirect impacts of stress and

BRIDGES/TUNNELS

RAIL

COST OVERRUN

FREQUENCY OF COST OVERRUN

SCHEDULE OVERRUN

34%

The benefits of RCF

opportunity costs. There is also the added reputational benefit of being able to deliver as planned, rather than adhering to the Iron Law. Flyvbjerg notes that, “RCF is extremely versatile and it’s the most accurate forecasting method that exists.

It can be used on any quantifiable prediction problem, as long as you can get the data. You can use it to forecast tunnelling speed for track boring machines in England, solar farm energy output in Ghana or sales for a tailor in China. If you can get data, you can use RCF to create the most accurate forecast that exists, no matter what you’re forecasting.”

“If you can get data, you can use reference class forecasting to create the most accurate forecast that exists, no matter what you’re forecasting”

IT‑LED CHANGE

90%

COST OVERRUN

45%

FREQUENCY OF COST OVERRUN

90%

COST OVERRUN

107%

FREQUENCY OF COST OVERRUN

BENEFITS OVERRUN

SCHEDULE OVERRUN

BENEFITS OVERRUN

SCHEDULE OVERRUN

BENEFITS OVERRUN

50%

23%

n/a

45%

‑51%

37%

‑29%

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DURATION (YEARS)

COST BLACK SWANS

DURATION (YEARS)

COST BLACK SWANS

DURATION (YEARS)

9%

8

6%

ENERGY

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COST OVERRUN

FREQUENCY OF COST OVERRUN

SCHEDULE OVERRUN

36%

7.8

60%

COST OVERRUN

90%

FREQUENCY OF COST OVERRUN

BENEFITS OVERRUN

SCHEDULE OVERRUN

COST OVERRUN

FREQUENCY OF COST OVERRUN

BENEFITS OVERRUN

SCHEDULE OVERRUN

0%

BENEFITS OVERRUN

n/a

COST BLACK SWANS

DURATION (YEARS)

70%

n/a

44%

‑11%

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DURATION (YEARS)

COST BLACK SWANS

DURATION (YEARS)

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10%

3.3

OLYMPICS

38% 7%

18%

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156% 100% 5%

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The three steps of RCF

Another benefit of RCF is that it is relatively simple; you can complete a forecast using the internet and a spreadsheet with three straightforward steps:

1

Identify a relevant reference class of completed projects

Find at least 15 similar projects. The more projects you can find, the better.

Make sure that you get quality data from a credible source.

2

Establish a probability distribution for the reference class

If you were looking at cost overruns, you would line up the overruns from smallest (which could be negative, ie an underrun) to largest. To create a cumulative probability distribution function, you would correlate each overrun with a probability. The smallest overrun would be 0 per cent and the largest would be 100 per cent.

Intermediate overruns are assigned a

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probability at equal intervals (eg if 20 projects are in a reference class, each project has a five per cent share).

3

Position your project on the probability distribution to make your forecast

It is generally safest to assume that you will perform in a similar manner to projects in the reference class, rather than that you will be better. Uplift your project estimate in line with the performance of the reference class and your risk appetite. If you are happy to have an 80 per cent likelihood of your project falling within the budget and accept a 20 per cent likelihood of going over budget, you would set the budget at P80. In the example above, that would correspond to a 55 per cent uplift.

While RCF doesn’t require coding, machine learning or an advanced degree in artificial intelligence (AI), these more complex methods can also be used to improve your project forecasts.

An early warning system in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is a rarity because its projects often come in under budget.

Construction projects typically cost 15 per cent less than forecasted.

Although Hong Kong outperforms most jurisdictions in cost management, the Hong Kong Development Bureau was keen to further enhance cost management by providing early warnings to assist projects in getting back on the right track.

OGP and Octant AI were brought in to address the challenge of the early detection of projects that are starting to go awry. It’s helpful to know which projects are spending more quickly than

Whatever your project organisation’s technical maturity, you can use data to improve your project forecasts, make better use of your resources and break the Iron Law

Ref Class Forecasting, 2

expected (which can indicate that a project’s progress is fast or it’s heading towards a cost overrun) or more slowly, so they can proactively take steps to improve it earlier on.

OGP partnered with Octant AI to implement a tool that could do just that. The early warning system analysed the projected cashflow and compared it with the emerging actual spend. The tool flagged projects that were deviating from planned performance and highlighted the extent of the deviance using a red, amber or green (RAG) rating. Amber or red ratings were given when the cashflow was off‑piste and would trigger senior managerial intervention to get the project on track.

After a year, it became clear that the monitoring system could be used for benchmarking targets. A total of 849 completed projects were analysed in depth by an unsupervised learning algorithm, which found that three factors affected performance in a statistically significant manner.

These were:

1 2 3

Category: building/ non‑building Forecast cost for buildings: less than HKD150m or higher Duration of non‑building projects: shorter than six years or longer

The AI produced typical cashflow s‑curves for the four project types.

These s‑curves were then RAG rated.

The AI assigned flags based on cost and schedule performance. It compared their performance to the original plan, as well as a percentage of the ultimate performance for that project.

Seventy per cent of the Bureau’s project data was used in developing the AI and its performance was tested on the remaining 30 per cent of projects. The AI was far more accurate at correctly flagging projects. Up to 69 per cent of the flags were correct and the red flag assignments were 20 times more accurate than a random allocation.

The next phase was forecasting outturn project costs. This was done

SIX TIPS FOR RCF

1

Uniqueness bias is a trap to be avoided. The DNA of your project may be different from others, but it shares the same basic building blocks with many projects.

You need a robust and objective reason to assume your performance will differ substantially from the reference class. ‘We’re a great team’ is not sufficient, but ‘this is the 15th time we’ve done this type of project and our performance is better according to tests for statistical significance’ is.

If in doubt, draw on a wider reference class, rather than a more specific one.

Give careful consideration to the quality of the sources used. Data from academic journals

2

3 4

is high calibre because of the independent peer review process.

Don’t go to the effort of creating an RCF and then leave it to metaphorically gather dust in your digital archives. As time progresses and additional relevant projects are completed, continue to update your RCF when you get access to credible data.

If you’re in a large organisation with a history of project delivery, it is likely that you can get access to a treasure trove of data. Set yourself the challenge to build a robust dataset of external projects and compare the performance. Transform the data into information that helps you break the Iron Law over and over again.

5

6

with a more advanced AI, a deep artificial neural network. It predicted the final outturn cost with an average error of only ±8 per cent. The Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering suggests that international best‑in‑class cost estimates have an error between ±3 per cent and ±15 per cent. It would expect that a design needs to be completed with detailed unit cost and prices to achieve this level of accuracy. The permanent secretary for development (works) of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region “welcomes the adoption of AI to help all major project leaders across different sectors take Hong Kong’s construction industry to new heights”.

Cuong Quang, the general manager of innovation and technology at Octant AI, said “we are excited at the potential of improving forecasting generally, and RCF in particular, using AI. Our work and research shows that historical data and machine learning can be used to extend the forecasting benefits of ‘outside view’ methods like RCF into the emergent complexities of project delivery. The excellent work done by OGP, whom we were delighted to be a partner with, for Hong Kong Development Bureau shows how a hybrid approach can improve dynamic final cost and time forecasting.”

Get started!

Whatever your project organisation’s technical maturity, you can use data to improve your project forecasts, make better use of your resources and break the Iron Law. If you would like to learn more about RCF from the global leaders, Flyvbjerg and Budzier, you can access hours of free resources at bit.ly/ OGPAcademyArchive or join a course at bit.ly/RCFcourse. For implementation support, contact me or Octant AI on LinkedIn. Karlene Agard is a senior consultant at Oxford Global Projects. To listen to APM’s podcast with Professor Flyvbjerg, part of the ‘Project Innovators’ series, visit apm.org.uk/ resources/the-apm-podcast

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Drawing on his new book, the Harvard Business Review Project Management Handbook, Antonio Nieto‑Rodriguez shares a new framework for prioritising projects

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he emergence of projects as the economic engine of our times has been quiet but is incredibly disruptive and powerful. Back in 2017, I coined this phenomenon the ‘project economy’, to highlight the unprecedented transformation with profound organisational and cultural consequences. According to recent research, the value of project‑oriented economic activity worldwide will grow from $12 trillion (in 2013) to $20 trillion (in 2027). Add to this the trillions spent on COVID‑19 pandemic recovery projects.

Yet our methods were designed for a world in which projects were a small fraction of an organisation’s activities, while most of the resources were dedicated to operations. In the project economy, project‑based work becomes the main unit of work; and operations need less and less resource to be carried out. Basically, all the current project, programme and portfolio management methods, tools and techniques are ‘old’ and need to be adjusted.

Portfolio management techniques, such as the prioritisation of individual projects based on business cases, strategic goals, intangibles, weights, etc, could work when an organisation had a few tens of projects, but today, organisations have hundreds or even thousands of projects. Applying those old methods leads to a huge amount of bureaucracy, wasted time and management scepticism about our added value.

To succeed in the project economy, we need to reinvent project management, and one way is by reinventing the prioritisation of projects in our portfolios.

understood and often neglected. Capacity and gut feeling, rather than strategy and facts, often determine how we prioritise projects. Prioritisation sets the agenda in terms of what really matters and, consequently, how resources are allocated. In my experience, a primary reason why many organisations fail is their lack of a clear sense of what is urgent or simply their selection of the wrong priorities. Get your priorities wrong and the effects can be calamitous.

If the executive team doesn’t prioritise, middle management and employees will do so on their own.

At first, this shouldering of responsibility by the lower ranks may sound like good practice, but without a prioritised set of strategic objectives, the consequences of the selected projects are often disastrous.

In a vacuum, employees will base their priorities on what they think is best for the organisation – or perhaps what is best for their business unit, department, team or just themselves.

A better way to prioritise

Prioritisation is vital to individual and organisational success, yet the method of prioritising is little

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A popular misconception is that all of an organisation’s projects should be aligned to one or more of its strategic objectives, but because most organisations are multidimensional, it is impossible to match all projects to strategic objectives. For example, continuous process improvement, outsourcing and regulatory projects keep the organisation running efficiently, but they are seldom related to strategic objectives. I recommend that at least the most important projects and programmes – let’s say the top 20 projects – be fully aligned with strategic objectives.

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2 PRIORITIES

1theyPURPOSE Vision and mission have been popular concepts, yet tend to be made up of fancy words often developed

by consultants. The two terms are often confused, their differences not well understood. Use the word purpose instead. State the purpose of your organisation and the strategic vision supporting this purpose. The purpose has to be sharp and clearly understood by everyone. Amazon’s purpose, “to be earth’s most customer‑centric company”, is compelling enough to avoid any ambiguity. Ryanair is very clear about its purpose: “to offer the lowest fares possible and reduce flight delays”. Interestingly, the airline puts efficiency and performance – two important objectives that many leaders struggle to prioritise – before customer service.

The number of priorities an organisation declares is revealing. If the risk appetite of the executive team is low, the executives will tend to name many priorities; they don’t want to risk not having the latest technology or missing a market opportunity. On the other hand, if the executives are risk takers, they tend to have a laser‑like focus on just a few priorities. They know what matters today and tomorrow. As a project leader, you should define what matters most to your organisation now and in the future. As the previous example of Amazon showed, its purpose clearly puts the customer in the centre. Everyone working at Amazon will know that when they have to make decisions, the ones related to customers will always come first. Or as Emma Walmsley, CEO of pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline, clearly stated in its 2012 annual report: “Everyone at GSK is focused on three priorities: innovation, performance and trust.”

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To prioritise projects effectively, leaders have to recognise and articulate what really matters most. To address the prioritisation challenges I have faced over my career, I developed a simple framework called the hierarchy of purpose. Boards of directors, executive teams and even individuals can use the tool to rank priorities and select their most important projects. The hierarchy of purpose is based on five aspects: purpose, priorities, projects, people and performance. Only when an aspect has been pinned down and fully understood should the organisation move on to the next.

3 PROJECTS

Strategic initiatives and projects, when successfully executed, bring the organisation closer to its purpose and strategic vision.

Nowadays, companies run many projects in parallel, mostly because it is easier to start projects than to finish them. Capacity rather than strategy often determines the launch of projects. If people are available, the project is launched, but which projects should organisations really invest in? And who wants to risk missing a big opportunity?

By uncovering the organisation’s purpose and priorities, senior executives can identify the best strategic initiatives and projects to invest in. They can also take these steps to identify projects that should be stopped or scrapped. Although theorists suggest developing formulas that automate the process of prioritising and selecting ideas, my recommendation is not to use such a systematic approach. The exercise is mainly to provide management with different orientations and viewpoints, and ultimately the decision has to be made by management based on human intelligence.

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PEER TO PEER

PEOPLE 4 Prioritising at an organisational level is incredibly

difficult. Large organisations are made up of individuals with their own strong sense of what matters. Every individual in an organisation has a unique list of priorities. These are by their nature self‑serving, informed as much by personal ambition and aspiration as by any sense of alignment with the organisation’s strategy. Employees are those who implement the company’s strategies. They perform the routine business activities and deliver the projects. They also have to make many minor decisions and trade‑offs every day. Creating clarity around the priorities and the strategic projects of the organisation will ensure that every employee pulls in the same direction.

Leaders need to allocate the best resources to the most strategic projects and liberate them from daily operational tasks.

5 PERFORMANCE

This article is adapted from the Harvard Business Review Project Management Handbook: How to launch, lead and sponsor successful projects,

by Antonio Nieto‑Rodriguez (Harvard Business Review Press, October 2021)

Traditionally performance indicators don’t measure priorities and seldom indicate the progress made toward fulfilling a company’s strategy. Project metrics tend to be lagging indicators and measure inputs (scope, cost and time) instead of outputs.

Inputs are much easier to track than outputs (such as benefits, impact, sustainability and goals). As you work through the hierarchy of purpose, identify indicators linked to the organisation’s priorities and to the outcomes expected from the strategic projects. Less is more in this case, so one or two for each area will do the job. When Satya Nadella took the role of CEO of Microsoft in 2015, he announced a new corporate mission: to push productivity, everywhere, across all platforms and devices. Pursuing that mission meant changing the way the company measured success. In an interview with The Verge, he explained: “We no longer talk about the lagging indicators of success, right, which is revenue, profit. What are the leading indicators of success? Customer love.”

THE BENEFITS OF THE HIERARCHY OF PURPOSE Organisations that have a highly developed sense of priorities are in a powerful situation and benefit from a significant competitive advantage. By applying the hierarchy of purpose, an organisation can significantly reduce its costs because it can stop any low‑priority activities that fail to deliver against clearly articulated measures. Through these approaches, organisations can also reduce duplication, consolidate activities and decrease budget overruns. Overall, prioritising increases the success rates of the most strategic projects, increases the alignment and focus of senior management teams around strategic priorities and, most importantly, leads to an execution mindset and culture.

A major hidden benefit I have seen every time I have used the hierarchy of purpose for the first time with top management is that the discussion turns into an interesting strategic dialogue. For example, the CEO might ask the director of sales, “How are we going to meet that international growth target if currently we only invest in existing markets or if compliance takes up to 60 per cent of our project capacity?

Is this sustainable in the long term?

What would be the consequences of balancing our portfolio and investing more in growth and cost optimisation, and less in compliance?” Think of your organisation’s purpose and priorities. Are all your employees working according to those priorities?

Are the activities prioritised in the best interests of the organisation as a whole? How would your priorities change if there were a sudden economic downturn?

We need to move past traditional project scopes and goals; the projects of the future will seek to make a better world through broader and more ambitious impacts in areas such as sustainability and diversity.

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Amit Popat and Jaspal Kaur‑Griffin reveal how using a

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project management framework can instil equality, diversity and inclusion in your organisation

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nless you are a specialist in equality, diversity and inclusion (ED&I), the subject can seem confusing. The common message we hear among peers is that project management and ED&I do not tend to be the best bedfellows in an organisation – project management is often used as a tool for core strategic programmes, whereas the ED&I agenda can often get tagged on like a poor cousin.

Our experience has shown that this is wrong. Project management can be very effective not just in helping clear the mist that sometimes surrounds ED&I, but also in helping embed ED&I best practice within an organisation. What’s more, ED&I can also improve organisational effectiveness if it is embedded in all stages of the project management cycle – yes, they are symbiotic (even a love affair waiting to happen!).

ED&I must be managed. This means having a clear idea of what the organisation wants to achieve in terms of outputs, impacts and culture change. This must involve leaders and employees in the organisation coming together to do the hard thinking

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ED&I promotes fairness and inclusion for staff

The CIPD defines a psychological contract as “the perceptions of the two parties, employee and employer, on what their mutual obligations are towards each other”.

Organisations with a positive psychological contract with their staff are rewarded with high levels of commitment. This normally translates into better performance, and less sickness and staff turnover. Where this isn’t the case, employees may become disillusioned, resulting in lower performance, commitment, engagement and, ultimately, exit.

Embedding ED&I is easier said than done. It can’t be done by just having a policy or working group, or employing an ED&I specialist. Don’t get us wrong, these are key ingredients, but often organisations over‑rely on them and hope that ED&I best practice will simply emerge from these investments.

The truth is that ED&I must be managed.

This means having a clear idea of what the organisation wants to achieve in terms of outputs, impacts and culture change. This must involve leaders and employees in the organisation coming together to do the hard thinking. Here is where project management is key: it includes a framework for engaging stakeholders, reaching goals and assessing whether targets are met.

Adopting project management frameworks for ED&I sets a tone to staff that this issue is being taken seriously. For late adopters, it sends a clear message that ED&I is becoming a core part of the organisation and, at some stage, they will be expected to align. As project management sets clear measures of accountability, this increases engagement with the agenda and makes clear where there have been successes or failures. Applying project

management principles and frameworks for ED&I can be an organisation’s saving grace.

Reputational, performance and financial enhancement

In an era of choice, customers vote with their feet if they feel an organisation’s ED&I reputation is superficial or is compromised – they may choose to boycott the company and seek alternative options. This can apply to employees too. Stakeholders, including regulators, increasingly expect companies to embed and evidence ED&I best practice as part of their collaborative approaches. If you can present a well‑thought‑through ED&I project plan to showcase the investment and seriousness of your organisation’s commitment, your reputation, profit and trust could all rise. Research from both McKinsey

Applying project management principles and frameworks for ED&I can be an organisation’s saving grace and Deloitte suggests that companies with more inclusive cultures are twice as likely to meet financial targets, three times more likely to be high performing, six times more likely to be innovative and eight times more likely to have better business outcomes. ED&I pays in every sense of the word.

At the heart of the ED&I agenda lies anti‑discrimination legislation prohibiting unlawful discrimination (for example, in the UK we have the Equality Act). There have been many cases where companies have breached equality laws and paid hefty fines for poor practice. Project managed ED&I would enable

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well‑meaning policies to come to life, and aligning ED&I project objectives with ED&I policies will evidence that an organisation is not only complying with the law but embracing its spirit – and it is this spirit that engages both hearts and minds and will drive positive change.

Best practice means going beyond compliance, preventing ED&I from being just a tickbox exercise, and instead one where policies are implemented and benefits evidenced. Good project management can provide this evidence.

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Why using a project management framework actually works

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Project management can be a very useful vehicle for stand‑alone diversity initiatives as well as more strategic endeavours. The structure project management can give well‑meaning ED&I programmes provides a foundation to properly assess the problem, engage and secure the buy‑in of stakeholders, address any risks, ensure there are clear goals and, most importantly, provide key points at which to measure impact and learn lessons.

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TOP TIPS TO MAKE CHANGE HAPPEN

1

Create a safe space for colleagues to discuss issues related to ED&I in an organisation. This helps ensure that everyone can share their fears and concerns about discussing these matters in a way that is safe and non‑judgemental.

2

Have the equality and diversity message championed at all levels of the organisation, from the programme sponsor to ED&I champions.

3

A project management framework that encompasses ED&I considerations at all stages of the project life cycle will ensure that these are not just a mere afterthought.

4

Embedding ED&I considerations into organisational work practices and policies enhances the psychological contract with staff, which could lead to financial, reputational, performance and wellbeing benefits.

5

Having regular activities, from knowledge‑sharing sessions to workshops and seminars, to increase ED&I organisational knowledge on an ongoing basis will maintain programme momentum and enthusiasm.

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It can also contribute to mainstreaming and embedding of ED&I within an organisation. If ED&I is given the same project management emphasis as wider strategic programmes, then the assumption is that it is as much a core part of the business.

Consequently, staff will give it the same level of interest and attention.

Having the programme sponsor work with an ED&I professional from the outset is imperative to help ensure that the programme initiation document (PgID) sets out the vision and change that needs to be delivered through individual projects, and that the programme of work defines the outcomes and outputs that will allow for the change to happen. Individual projects now will have a remit that they need to deliver, and this makes sure that change is being delivered in bite‑sized projects that are manageable.

The PgID will be a good way to start thinking about what the project intends to achieve, what expertise is needed, and how much time and budget will be needed to deliver it. Having the vision for the programme championed by a programme sponsor and strongly endorsed by the senior management team will be a good way for stakeholders to understand the benefits that will be gained from embarking on this programme of work. Project team members could also be trained to become ED&I champions within the organisation, helping to ensure that the message is not only being received top‑down from the programme sponsor, but also being delivered through concrete tangibles that individuals at all levels in the organisation are working together to deliver.

Running a cross‑departmental programme of work also allows for colleagues from different departments to work together outside the usual remit of their day jobs.

This fosters a shared culture of development and accountability and could help maintain enthusiasm for the proposed changes and benefits it will bring.

How to use change models to help overcome resistance

Embedding an ED&I agenda is similar to project work in that you embark on a journey where change needs to happen (sometimes on a large scale) and where the outcomes may not be crystal clear at the very beginning. Having a good understanding of how knowledge is disseminated within your organisation is imperative, as it will help

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Having organisation‑wide knowledge‑sharing sessions where staff can listen to what benefits the programme will bring, and what will be involved in making the transition for them at a practical level, will get them thinking overcome resistance to change and help embed new practices and processes.

Change models can be extremely helpful in how best to get change accepted into an organisation, and Kotter’s eight‑stage approach to strategic change works well in large, structured organisations. As it suggests: 1 2 3 4 5

Establish a sense of urgency.

Create the guiding coalition.

Develop the change vision.

Communicate the change vision.

Empower employees to deliver those changes.

6 Generate short‑term wins.

7 Consolidate gains to produce more change.

8 Ensure that those changes and the benefits get anchored in the new approaches to culture in the organisation.

This is not a change that will happen overnight, but having a developed programme plan that maps out what is to be achieved in each of the tranches ensures that this becomes a programme of work that can be sustainably delivered over time.

It is also important that a variety of ways of disseminating the key ED&I messages within the organisation are used that take into account the different learning styles that people have (as championed by Honey and Mumford). Having organisation‑wide knowledge‑sharing sessions where staff can listen to what benefits the programme will bring, and what will be involved in making the transition for them at a practical level, will get them thinking and conversations flowing.

Seminars and workshops where role playing could be initiated (for example: you are a disabled mother coming back from maternity leave – what concerns could you have as you prepare to return to work?) could make participants confront a reality that may not be their own. This could decrease ‘othering’ and increase awareness and empathy for their colleagues, thereby making for a more inclusive work environment. ED&I champions can then further embed the key messages

discussed at the various workshops and learning sessions from the ground up.

Like many change programmes, well‑delivered ED&I practice works outside the comfort zone. ED&I is about organisational change, and project management can provide a sense of security in knowing that the change is not just going in its own direction, but is held within a trusted framework.

How project management can contribute to embedding ED&I best practice

Project management can contribute to embedding ED&I best practice by ensuring that ED&I considerations are undertaken at all key stages of the project life cycle. The embedding of Equality Impact Assessment forms (EIAs) as part of a PgID, for example, will help ensure that any negative impacts from embarking on the proposed project can be discussed and mitigated.

Project managers who are core to motivating and driving project teams could be trained to be ED&I champions and to spot when project deliverables could have adverse ED&I implications. The relationship is symbiotic – project management could itself be more inclusive by making the language of project management more accessible and easier to understand by all in the organisation, and could result in the demystifying of both project management and ED&I processes. Ultimately, both project and ED&I professionals want the same thing, which is making processes work better so people are treated in the best possible way to achieve the best possible outcomes. In our minds, a happier marriage than that cannot be envisioned.

The views in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect those of their employers Amit Popat is senior principal for diversity and inclusion at Korn Ferry, and Jaspal Kaur‑Griffin is head of programmes at the Bar Standards Board

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of Challe e s n rt way e a S m g s in e k h a t k M is r aging advice on man

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nderperforming projects are not a modern phenomenon. Past assessments of a wide variety of poorly performing projects have reached markedly similar conclusions, and in doing so have highlighted ineffective communications, weak management, inadequate planning, poorly defined roles and responsibilities, absence of adequate risk assessments, uncertain or contested objectives, ineffective control systems and lack of common purpose.

Securing successful project outcomes

As each assessment is published, calls are heard for even tighter controls to be imposed by management teams and for better performance all round. Yet, despite this evidence, and even after the called‑for improvements have been introduced, too many projects fail to deliver what is expected of them. If we know why major projects can fail, why is it that we let it happen time and time again?

Fortunately, there is evidence that better project outcomes are more likely when:

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■ management structures, policies and processes

combine to encourage imaginative management, good team working, shared decision‑making and the active participation of all those with a primary stake in the project; ■ a responsive management team processes information from many sources, including a wide stakeholder base, to achieve good situational awareness and to be continually alive to the possibility of a range of potential problems and ways of solving them; ■ effective communication channels are established from the very start, so that information flows easily and quickly to and from management at all levels and throughout the project; ■ management openly encourages questioning and constructive challenges to its plans and decisions; ■ project strategies recognise the benefits of dividing the project into phases so that it can be taken forward incrementally and be easily adapted or modified to

Risk, 1

suit changing circumstances and/or the experience gained from earlier phases; ■ a risk management culture is built on mindfulness, ie an approach to handling risk that avoids ‘tunnel vision’ and which, when unexpected problems appear, encourages action by assuming the worst until it’s proved otherwise; and ■ a strategic oversight of the project and its current situation in the wider world is constantly maintained by the sponsor so that comparisons can be regularly made with the assumptions and data that underpin the project’s business case.

What destabilises a project?

There is also evidence that the critical factors contributing to the destabilisation of a project are likely to include one or more of the following: ■ failure to set clear priorities; ■ failure to properly communicate intent and plans; ■ failure to recognise the importance to management

Organisations responsible for failing projects usually vow to learn lessons from their past efforts, but this can be a lengthy process with no certainty of success of the vested interests, perceptions and views of the project’s primary stakeholders; ■ excessively centralised decision‑making; ■ failure to delegate and devolve management responsibilities; ■ failure to consult and deal constructively with dissenting views; ■ failures of foresight and underestimating the significance of unexpected events; ■ inadequate monitoring of project performance and failure to take into account the project’s evolving situation in the wider world; ■ preoccupation with minor problems; ■ failure to fully understand the concept of risk; and ■ poor leadership.

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Barriers to learning lessons

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Organisations responsible for failing projects usually vow to learn lessons from their past efforts, but this can be a lengthy process with no certainty of success, not least because legal and other restrictions on the exchange of information can prevent the sharing of knowledge and sensitive information. Reporting can be biased and feedback ambiguous, thereby generating conflicting interpretations of the facts. Those involved might also unwittingly reconstruct history in the course of ‘telling it like it was’.

There is also a concern that analysis could take place in a politicised environment in which attempts to allocate blame and claim credit become more important than understanding what happened; and that ultimately, the underlying causes of failure and success may be impossible for anyone to determine with certainty.

What matters most when making a project into a highly reliable organisation is for both its sponsor and the project’s management to commit to the avoidance of complacency and the encouragement of higher standards of performance. This is more likely to be achieved through devolved decision‑making, empowerment and the creation of an organisational culture that supports no‑fault reporting and open speaking, especially about serious difficulties.

Projects should be set up and managed in ways that create highly reliable organisations where performance is guaranteed, safety is paramount and organisational learning is continually used to create and sustain a competent and reliable organisation.

Making decisions about risk

The management of risk is central to the way a project is steered through to its conclusion. Decisions about the way risks are to be assessed and managed throughout the entire project, and possibly beyond, must therefore involve the project sponsor as the primary risk taker.

Risk can be viewed as uncertainty that matters at the time when a decision is taken or a plan is constructed.

Project risk is not simply the sum of items in a risk register, it can just as easily arise from poorly functioning teams, corporate decision‑making beyond the reach of the project or lack of preparedness for the unexpected.

Some believe the task of identifying organisational frailty and the risk it poses is an impossible one – the Achilles heel of risk assessment. Others maintain that what is not easily recognisable as a specific risk cannot be managed.

Project risk is not simply the sum of items in a risk register, it can just as easily arise from poorly functioning teams, corporate decision‑making… or lack of preparedness for the unexpected

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FIVE QUESTIONS TO ASK ON PROJECT RISK MANAGEMENT

1

Is the project sponsor’s corporate culture seen by the project’s management to be supportive of risk management being central to the management of the project? If not, what effect could that have on the project team’s attitude to risk and how might the project be affected?

How formalised will the risk management process be? Will it amount to no more than unstructured guessing? Will the process, formal or otherwise, be intended to have a material effect on the desired outcome of the project? If not, why not?

What resources will be devoted to risk management?

How will the principal assumptions on which the business case and plans for the project are based be kept under review?

What options for handling risk are available, eg mitigating actions by the project team to directly ‘control’ selected risks, or transferring of risk through contractual arrangements to other parties reported as better able to handle them, or complete avoidance through adjustments to the project’s scope and objectives?

What means will be used to characterise the risks – ie to determine the nature of the risk (a risk to what) and to whom the risk matters – and then, where necessary, to quantify them and assess the probability of their occurrence, and to identify the root causes?

2 3 4 5

Unfortunately, these beliefs can give rise to endless technical and numerical risk assessments, diverting attention from the need to uncover those primary organisational weaknesses and other underlying fault lines that are more likely to present the highest risk to any project.

Deep‑seated causes of risk

Risk assessments are only aids to decision‑making and planning and are not themselves decision‑making processes. Many deep‑seated causes of risk to projects and systems in general can be linked to human and organisational factors. The quality of a project risk assessment therefore depends largely on the ease with which it is possible to determine how people and organisations shape and interact with the project and the impact they may have on it. Risk assessment processes can only be truly effective if they take into account these influences and the significant impact they can have on risk profiles.

Risk, 2

ASSIGNING BLAME Sponsors, planners and other decision‑makers should recognise that risk assessments inevitably contain assumptions that should be checked, uncertainties that must be accepted and limitations that cannot be ignored.

Over‑reliance on quantitative risk assessment (QRA) is a particularly risky strategy. Questions, such as those below, should be asked about any QRA intended to support plans and decisions on which much is to depend: ■ Are the assumptions used fully explained, used consistently and tested for reasonableness?

■ Is the analysis supporting the assessment checked for its accuracy, eg of the calculations used?

■ Is the model used for calculation well defined, and has it been validated by testing against experimental results and observational data?

■ Are uncertainties clearly indicated, including those in the data, models and calculations?

■ Are the results explained and discussed so that they clearly indicate what conclusions they can and cannot support?

“Large organisations influence their employees’ views and actions. How then should blame be assigned when things go dramatically wrong?

How much responsibility should be apportioned to those who manage an organization and how much to those who carry out its productive tasks? How should blame be apportioned when technical errors are a byproduct of prior organisational choices?”

Eda Kranakis, Fixing the Blame: Organizational culture and the Quebec Bridge collapse, Technology and Culture 45 (2004): 487–518 This article is an edited extract from Making Sense of Challenging Projects: Things to know, questions to ask

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“I have tended to see conflict on my project as a bad thing that needs to be avoided. How can I get better at handling conflict constructively?”

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to get your needs met. The more cooperative you are, the more you will prioritise other people’s interest over your own needs. Based on these two dimensions, they devised five different conflict styles:

PRODUCTION

Susanne Madsen is an internationally recognised project leadership coach, trainer and consultant. She is the author of The Project Management Coaching Workbook and The Power of Project Leadership (second edition now available). For more information, visit www.susannemadsen.com

CLIENT

Thank you for your honesty about your tendency to avoid conflict.

You’re not alone. Many people dislike conflict because they worry it will have a negative impact on personal relationships and that they will end up falling out with colleagues. The truth is that conflict is an inherent part of running projects and it can generate surprisingly positive outcomes when tackled correctly.

When conflict is approached with an open and constructive mind, different points of views can be expressed and team members can learn from each other and come to a mutual agreement. It’s far more problematic when a disagreement is dismissed and pushed under the carpet. Then it will mushroom below the surface and become destructive.

The five styles of conflict

Back in the 1970s, Kenneth Thomas and Ralph Kilmann developed a simple model describing the extent to which we are assertive and cooperative during a conflict. The more assertive you are, the more you will assert your own will over others

1. Collaborating: Highly assertive and highly cooperative. You seek a win‑win situation.

2. Compromising: Moderately assertive and moderately cooperative. You seek a middle ground.

3. Competing: Highly assertive but not cooperative. You want to win.

4. Accommodating: Not assertive but highly cooperative. You give in.

5. Avoiding: Not assertive and not cooperative. You want to delay.

Avoiding avoidance

When you use the avoiding style, you neither pursue your own concerns nor those of the other person. Instead you push the issue aside and play down its importance. You may do so because you feel you don’t have all the details at hand to have a meaningful discussion or because you are fearful in some other way.

Kicking the can down the road may feel good in the short term, but in your heart you know that the issue hasn’t been resolved.

To begin approaching conflict in a more open way, first become aware of the situations and conversations you tend to avoid. Notice how you feel and where in your body you sense tension.

Also notice if your breathing pattern changes. If you hold your breath or breathe rapidly from your chest when conflict approaches, deliberately slow down and deepen your breath.

Your physiology and psychology are closely linked. By breathing slowly

and deliberately you’re signalling to yourself that you’re safe and that there’s nothing to be afraid of.

Question and listen

With your physiology in check, begin to explore the challenging situation by asking open questions of the other person. The best open questions begin with ‘what’ and ‘how’. What are they looking to achieve? What makes this topic so important to them? What do they worry about? How do they propose the issue is resolved? Which risks do they foresee? What would they do if they were in your shoes?

And so on.

Deeply listen to their answers and see if you can identify the underlying needs and wants of the other people involved. When you’re able to suspend your own agenda for a moment and overcome your instinct to avoid conflict, you open yourself up to a deeper exploration of the issue. I’m not saying that it’s easy, but it’s a skill that can be practised and that can make all the difference to the success or failure of your project.

Going for a win‑win may not always be possible but it’s good to aim for. It’s when you collaborate that you’re able to come up with creative solutions and turn conflict into something positive.

Do you have a question for Susanne?

Email mail@susannemadsen.com

READER OFFER Enjoy a 25 per cent discount on The Power of Project Leadership, second edition, when you order the book from Kogan Page at www.koganpage.com Quote code: PROJ25

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The following individuals make up the latest cohort to achieve Chartered Project Professional status with APM. Congratulations to you all, from those based in the UK and Europe to those in the US and Australia. Full details of the criteria for achieving chartered status and the routes to get there can be found at apm.org.uk/chartered-standard, where you can also view the full Register of Chartered Project Professionals.

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First name

Surname

Country

Jordan

Carty

UK

Nick

Gaughran

UK

Olufemi

Abifarin

UK

Edward

Cavanagh

UK

Melissa

Giles

UK

Jonathan

Ager

UK

Madeleine

Chamberlain

UK

Andrew

Harman

UK

Sophy

Aldridge-Neil

UK

James

Chesters

UK

Nicola

Harrison

UK

Mariam

Ali

UK

Ian

Colley

UK

Sharon

Harrison

UK

Derek

Allan

UK

Shirley

Conway

UK

Micha

Hartenhof

NLD

Christopher

Arner

UK

Jason

Curtis

UK

Susan

Heap

UK

Daniel

Ashcroft

UK

Neil

Curtis

UK

Jack

Hewitt

UK

Tabatha

Bailey

UK

Keasia

Daniels

US

Jacob

Hill

UK

Rikki

Barnes

UK

Mark

Dearden

UK

Krystle

Hodgson

UK

Mark

Barron

UK

Catherine

Dickie

UK

Thomas

Holloway

UK

Russell

Bayley

UK

Mark

Draper

UK

Lee

Hope

UK

Gary

Beacham

UK

Yvonne

Driessens

AUS

Gareth

Hoy

UK

Alex

Bennett

UK

Alan

Drummond

UK

Andy

Hughes

UK

Janine

Bennett

UK

Chris

Drysdale

UK

Daniel

Hurst

UK

Christopher

Bertram

UK

Sarah-Louise

Earl

UK

Stephanie

Illingworth

UK

Ian

Bleasdale

UK

Richard

Edlington

UK

Luke

Ingham

UK

Alexander

Boatfield

UK

John

Ellams

UK

Saad

Janjua

UK

Christine

Bradley

UK

Daryl

Elliott

UK

Elizabeth

Jarman

UK

Scott

Brandt

US

Robin

Ellis

UK

Danni

Jones

AUS

Sharon

Brannan

UK

Sarah

Ellis

UK

Kathryn

Jones

UK

Charlotte

Brewster

UK

Peter

Elver

UK

Simon

Jones

UK

Michael

Brinkley

UK

Sam

Evans

UK

Stephen

Jones

UK

Mark

Brown

UK

Tracey

Eyre

UK

Els

Jooris

NLD

Dennis

Bruetsch

US

Vicki

Findlater

UK

Innes

Jordan

UK

Lee

Budenis

UK

Eloise

Frank

UK

Karen

Jordan

UK

Adrian

Burling

AUS

Sarah

Fraser

UK

Sam

Jordan

UK

Bart

Caines

UK

Mario

Garces

US

Andy

Kihm

US

Jonathan

Calvert

UK

Jodie

Garnett

UK

Laura

Kingswell

UK

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ChPP, 1 Paul

Kirkup

UK

Francisca

Ogundele

FRA

James

Stevenson

UK

Tim

Knight

UK

Afolabi

Oladipo

NGA

James

Stevenson

UK

Esther

Lagden

UK

Saheed

Oloso

NGA

Cheryl

Strachan

UK

Gavin

Langley

UK

Teresa

O’Neill

UK

Alan

Stringer

UK

Jamie

Larter

UK

Angelos

Panos

UK

Christopher

Strumidlo

UK

John

Lee

UK

Andy

Parker

UK

Sarah

Sutherland

UK

Ruth

Leuillette

UK

Matthew

Parkes

UK

Joshua

Sylvester

TTO

Pamela

Lewis

UK

Marina

Pattinson

UK

Daniel

Taylor

UK

Phil

Limmer

UK

Thomas

Perrott

UK

Kathryn

Taylor

UK

Alan

Lofts

UK

Greg

Philp

UK

Samuel

Taylor

UK

Glen

Lomax

UK

Simon

Plotkin

UK

Nathaniel

Thomas

UK

Steve

Lyttle

UK

Amit

Poharkar

KAZ

Craig

Thompson

UK

Kenneth

Macdonald

UK

Daniel

Quintero

AUS

Andrew

Thorn

UK

Phillip

Mallalue

UK

Lee

Rickard

UK

Craig

Twist

UK

Dan

Marks

UK

Nick

Rickard

UK

Paul

van Weert

NLD

Harriet

Massie-Taylor

UK

Suzanne

Rivers

UK

Michael

Waite

UK

Daniel

Mathias

CAN

Laurence

Robins

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Roper

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Benjamin

Warner

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Malcolm

McGowan

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Paul

Ruff

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George

West

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McKenzie

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Iain

Whiteley

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Richard

Melia

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Hamida

Miah

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Behnam

Sarani

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Louise

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Philip

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Abdelelah

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Gagandeep

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Olugbenga

Odusami

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David

Stephenson

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HOW TO

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PROJECT MANAGE YOUR CAREER (BY BEING BRAVE AND REACHING OUT)

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James Pearce, APM’s Apprentice of the Year, tells Charles Orton‑Jones all about his self‑improvement mission

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“K

now thyself” is an ancient bit of wisdom, supposedly etched on the temple of the Oracle of Delphi, fortune teller to the Greeks. Less clear is how one does that in a professional way. Mentors? Career advice? Therapy? James Pearce, portfolio analyst in group IT at Rolls‑Royce reveals his own take on this – his own homebrew method. “It’s a PowerPoint presentation” he says. “I thought about the key project management competencies, and where I’m at. This is the result.” The item in question is a 19‑page presentation by Pearce, about himself, to himself.

The first slide is a radial chart offering an overview of his readiness across 12 categories, such as cost management, contracts and procurement, and communications. At a glance, he can see how prepared he is for the range of demands a project manager faces. The slides are varied. There are mind maps for his career development. Ladder charts. Feedback from his company CEO Warren East and others. And detailed statements of his future path. Pearce is literally project managing himself.

Brutal self‑scrutiny

“I drew it up to ask, where am I at the moment?

Where am I well developed, and where do I need to focus? The chart says I’m a three out of five in cost management. After my current

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role I’ll be a four or five out of five.” For the contracts and procurement category, he scores one out of five. This is a brutally honest bit of self‑scrutiny.

Still only 23, Pearce began his research a few years earlier when he scoped out the ideal path to the top. “I went to speak to different leaders at Rolls‑Royce to ask them about their key experiences, key roles, advice, motivations and insights. I learned that it’s good to spend 18 months in a role, which is long enough to learn about the area, but not too long to get comfortable. These are things I’ve tried to base my career on.”

He’s since turned career progression into a science. It’s easy to see why this genial chap won APM Apprentice of the Year 2020. Not to mention the RateMyApprenticeship National Apprentice of the Year in 2018. The result of this analysis, combined with a strong work ethic, is a stellar career. And Pearce is a role model for others, too. He got started with an apprenticeship and has made it his mission to champion them to the new generation of project managers.

“You are expected to apply to university.

I decided it wasn’t for me, as I prefer learning on the job rather than just theory. But if you said you wanted an apprenticeship, the school didn’t know where to start”

Rising star, 1

James Pearce Qualifications ● L4 NVQ Diploma ● APM PMQ ● FdSc, project management ● BSc, project management Awards ● APM Apprentice of the Year 2020 ● RateMyApprenticeship National Apprentice of the Year (L4/5) 2018 Interests ● School governor ● Horse racing: “I have shares in a few racehorses, including one that I named and that won at Royal Ascot last year!

She’s called Dandalla.” ● Walking, exploring new views, routes and places, especially in the Peak District

Never too young to mentor

“My old school sixth form has reached out multiple times for me to go back and give careers talks,” he explains, adding his next session is just a few days away. “I talk about apprenticeships, and my successes, if you can call them that. I’ve done it for the past three years.” He also mentors new arrivals at Rolls‑Royce. So far, three apprentices have benefited from his guidance, which includes nitty‑gritty skills like application writing and interview techniques.

His perspective is particularly sharp as he experienced first‑hand the lack of guidance apprentices experience: “You are expected to apply to university. I decided it wasn’t for me, as I prefer learning on the job rather than just theory.

But if you said you wanted an apprenticeship, the school didn’t know where to start.” As a Derby lad he was naturally drawn to engineering – both Rolls‑Royce and Bombardier are based there. “The Rolls‑Royce apprenticeship scheme is highly competitive, so I was delighted to be selected,” he recalls. He’s honest about the

upsides and downsides of apprenticeships.

“I won’t say they are better or worse than a degree. I think it depends on what is best for each person.” The pay at Rolls‑Royce is currently £12,600 for a four‑year post‑GCSE role, or £13,860 for a two‑to‑four year higher and degree apprenticeship.

Another reason Pearce is such a strong exemplar is his commitment to supplementary qualifications. He’s obsessive about self‑improvement and enrolled on multiple courses to broaden his expertise. Overall, he’s got an FdSc in project management, a level 4 NVQ Diploma, APM PMQ and has just completed his BSc in project management.

“The next step is APM chartership. I’m already helping people with 20 years more experience than me to write their chartership applications. I help them to understand what they’ve achieved.” He is so committed to education, he’s become a school governor – not an entirely normal thing for someone so young, and without children, but he sees it as a civic duty.

James is putting his project management experience into practice in all aspects of his life

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JAMES’S TOP TIPS

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James received the RateMyApprenticeship National Apprentice of the Year award in 2018

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“The next step is APM chartership.

I’m already helping people with 20 years more experience than me to write their chartership applications”

Skills for life

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Added to this, Pearce uses project management skills in his everyday life.

He led a team of apprentices through a community‑outreach project to raise money for the Prince’s Trust. This included a gala dinner.

“It really reinforced why you need to use your project management skills, and the impact they can have. Early on, I drew up a stakeholder map, project manager style. Most people would ask, why would you need to do that?

Cost management too. We raised over £17,000 for the Prince’s Trust and were shortlisted for recognition.”

So, what’s Pearce’s next mission? In fact, he’s pretty content in his current role as a project analyst for Rolls‑Royce; the role means he sifts through hundreds of projects to find cost over‑runs, failures and other items in need of further investigation. It’s an ideal place to understand the full gamut of projects run by the aircraft engine maker – and a potential springboard for his next career leap.

Overall, Pearce prefers to think of his career as the accumulation of expertise, rather than a ladder to the top. “I’ve got a lot of roles right now, like school governor and ambassador of APM,” he says. “For me, it’s about making a difference. That’s why I get those roles, so I can have an impact.”

Eat the frog If you’ve got one horrible thing to do in a day, then do it straight away. That’s called ‘eating the frog’, and it’s a great idea. I try to set three to five targets to hit in any day, and if I achieve all these, I’ve been successful. It doesn’t always happen but as you tick the first thing off your list, you move on to the next thing, and pretty soon things are buzzing. If you don’t take this approach, there’s a danger you’ll get to 5pm, the day is done, and you haven’t achieved anything.

Ask people you respect I’ve benefited by talking to directors, including Rolls‑Royce’s CEO Warren East. There are two things that make these conversations work. The first is to have the confidence to ask for a chat. It’s not easy, but if I didn’t have the confidence then I wouldn’t have got to have the talks in the first place. The second is to go with a purpose. What do you want to know? A directed approach is better than just going into a meeting and asking vague questions, such as ‘What’s your job like?’

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Understand first, then improve There’s a tendency when people move into a new job to want to make an impact, and to set about improving things.

That can unsettle people and doesn’t help to build relationships. My advice is to take time to understand why things are the way they are.

Then when you really understand the situation, only then can you start the work of improving. The other side to this is to believe that you, personally, can make a difference. Don’t leave it to someone else.

Use APM APM has been so good for my career. To get the most out of it, make sure you are engaging. No one from APM is going to sit by your desk and tell you how to work or what articles to read.

Your mindset needs to be one that engages with your professional body. I’ve made contact with other project managers at companies like British Airways and Severn Trent by engaging with APM. So don’t just interact with APM but look at the wider community that it facilitates.

See the impact you have At Rolls‑Royce we are doing more than just creating a single component to fit in an engine. We are part of something bigger. We have committed to ensuring our new products will be compatible with net zero by 2030, and all products will be compatible with net zero by 2050. I also noticed during the pandemic that Rolls‑Royce took part in the Ventilator Challenge, to supply the NHS. We had 300 staff working on ventilators.

It reminded me that project management can have a huge impact on the world around us, and it’s worth remembering that.

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PROJECT: TO CYCLE THE LENGTH OF BRITAIN

Paul Evans decided to take on the challenge of

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travelling from John O’Groats to Land’s End on two wheels. Here’s how he project managed it

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suggested routes and ones to avoid, as well as kit lists, advice on nutrition, training and how to get to the start/back from the finish.

We also popped into our local bike shop to discuss it with them and get some advice.

ycling the length of the country is regarded as one of the UK’s top cycling challenges and something that has been an ambition of mine for several years, but one I’ve never had the time to train for. With the country in lockdown and foreign holidays still looking risky at the start of 2021, now seemed a good time to tackle this challenge. However, it’s more than a case of just hopping on a bike and pedalling, and the more I looked into it, the more complex it got – just like a typical project!

The project life ‘cycle’

The vision

Any successful project needs a clear vision.

My wife and I would be cycling this together and decided to use this as our summer holiday, visiting friends and family along the way and raising money for charity. We’d keep our daily mileage reasonable and visit places of interest along the way. We’d also stay in B&Bs so we wouldn’t have to carry camping gear and could get a hot shower every day.

With our vision set we could then be agile in how we approached planning the trip.

As we were going to be self-supported, we needed to plan not just the route but the training, equipment, nutrition and accommodation. Like many projects, we were doing this for the first time so we looked to others for lessons learned and advice and guidance. The internet helped provide

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Taking an agile approach I revisited our options and opted to hire a car one way from Inverness to Wick

Our research had shown us there were a lot of options to cover, so we’d need to reduce these before deciding our final route. The first option to assess was travel to and from the start, which would also dictate whether we went south to north or vice versa. Key considerations were the time taken to travel, comfort of the travel (how tired would it leave us before we had to start?) and the ability to transport the bikes. Of the options of car, train and plane, we opted to fly to Inverness and take the train from there, as otherwise a pure train or car journey would be too long and tiring.

Although this meant we had to pack up the bikes for air travel, we could discard the cardboard boxes (kindly provided for free by our local bike shop) in Inverness, and we’d also be able to spend an extra day after the finish on the beach in Cornwall.

We plotted the route, booked the accommodation and flight, but had to wait until the train tickets became available, which we thought was a small risk mitigated by making sure I got up early and booked them as soon

BtJ, 1

bike shops at key towns along the route.

We also opted to fit new tubeless tyres to reduce the risk and impact of any punctures. A blowout during one of our rides forced us into thinking about how we would deal with this if it happens in the middle of nowhere.

One risk we didn’t anticipate was deer.

Several times during our training we were nearly taken out by suicidal deer crossing the road. We did anticipate the risk of impatient drivers but could only mitigate that partially through choosing quieter roads.

Like most projects, things haven’t always gone to plan and we hope to have mitigated the risks still remaining – but we just have to cross our fingers for good weather.

Day one: setting off from John O’Groats

Project launch

as the ticket office opened. Our first problem!

Apparently you could book tickets earlier through customer services so all bike spaces on our planned trains were gone. Taking an agile approach I revisited our options and opted instead to hire a car one way from Inverness to Wick.

As with all projects, things go wrong throughout that you have to adapt to and overcome. The heavy rains of April and May made us feel that we were taking a waterfall approach to our training. We learned from and adapted to our experience, replacing kit that didn’t quite work, learning how best to refuel throughout the ride and checking ahead of time to see if there’s a café in which to take a break – the extra 10 miles to find an open café can take a very long time.

Managing the risks

One of the early risks we faced was whether we would be permitted to travel at all or whether there would be another lockdown.

We decided to proceed on the basis that the lockdown restrictions would be lifted and push the start date into August. We also ensured we selected accommodation that was fully refundable, even if this cost us a bit more – the cost of mitigation!

We also mitigated the technical risks of the bikes needing repairs by getting them serviced just before we went and identifying

The heavy rains of April and May made us feel that we were taking a waterfall approach to our training

Like many projects, things started great. We got ourselves and our bikes to the start line without problems and the project team were in high spirits as we hit the official start in John O’Groats (actually 20 miles in).

We’re also having to deal with the risks as they rise. It’s one thing to think you’ve successfully mitigated them, until they occur.

For us, this was the glorious August weather of strong winds and torrential rain leading to delays and questioning the project vision. With the ongoing rain, it’s proving harder to dry out our kit overnight too.

One unexpected issue is that the hotels start breakfast too late for us, but we’ve quickly adapted to that and resolved that issue.

Now it’s a matter on focusing on each day and not looking too far ahead, which can be daunting and discouraging. We’ve got to keep on motivating each other and we’ll get there, thinking about the benefits we’re accruing along the way and not just the miles covered or metres climbed.

Project sponsor

Every project needs a good sponsor, and you can be ours. We’re raising money for the Disability Sports Coach charity, which provides opportunities for disabled people to participate in sports and live healthier, happier lives. During lockdown, it provided home sports kits to hundreds of people who were isolating. You can find out more about DSC at www.disabilitysportscoach.co.uk n To help raise money for this very worthwhile cause, please donate via uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Team/Jogle20212

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Where project management meets popular culture

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A reckless egomaniac with no professional standards really shouldn’t be leading a potentially world‑saving project, writes Richard Young, but here we are…

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aiders of the Lost Ark, celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2021, pits a swashbuckling adventurer (Harrison Ford) against a sinister cabal of Nazis.

The film is a textbook case of how not to run a project – and who not to manage it.

Project management is the careful planning of time, resources and skills in a logical sequence towards a clear objective. Indy’s journey to win control of the Ark of the Covenant is a reckless and haphazard cascade of blunders that endangers his team and fails to achieve any of the deliverables outlined in his project scope.

Bringing his hard‑drinking ex on board is just one of Indy’s questionable project decisions

Indiana Jones: total loser

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Indy himself is a terrible person.

We meet him trekking the Peruvian rainforest to an abandoned temple. Any half‑decent academic archaeologist would be circumspect about finding a site of historic and cultural significance.

After all, this is the holy site of a highly developed lost civilisation.

But Indy’s not so much project managing this exploration as project mangling it, setting off mechanical and even optical traps that display the builders’ fantastically advanced technology and workmanship. How are their mechanisms still working?

How did they manufacture them?

What created the impetus for such innovation? Such questions don’t interest Indy. All he cares about is stealing a golden idol.

One narrow escape later and he’s fallen into the clutches of rival snarky‑ologist René Belloq (Paul Freeman), who sends some understandably annoyed indigenous people to kill him. He makes it to his plane and flies back to his university job in the US. Project outcome: FAIL.

Lessons unlearnt

Indy’s boss Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) fits the role of

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A project lead can have lousy management skills and lack attention to detail – so long as they’re lucky. And Indy really isn’t. If anything, he’s a Jonah. programme director. He explains that agents have come to talk about a new project for him to sink his teeth into.

But before we get to that main plot of the film, let’s review Indy’s project management failures so far: 1. Poor team selection and safeguarding. One guide runs away, the other tries to kill him; both of them end up dead. Indy’s managed to pick a pilot whose pet is a creature that he has a pathological fear of. How did that get past HR? 2. Breaches of professional ethics.

As outlined, he’s essentially a looter. Put another way, even in the 1930s, the Chartered Institute of Archaeologists might have blanched at his attitude to preserving antiquities.

3. Terrible project planning. Any project manager knows that the best way to avoid disasters is to pre‑mortem potential pitfalls. In Indy’s case, they’re also literal pitfalls. What did he think was going to happen when he broke into a temple full of booby traps?

Undeterred by this failed project – and with no attempt to examine any lessons learned – the agents ask Indy to investigate a Nazi dig in Egypt.

They’re looking for the Ark, apparently

a weapon of tremendous power. So the agents – Indy’s new sponsors – hire him to beat the Nazis to it. How nice of them to overlook his track record of losing out to Belloq…

Diversity and inclusion

The first task on the Gantt chart?

Locate the all‑important headpiece of the Staff of Ra, used to pinpoint the Ark’s secret location on a giant scale model of the lost city of Tanis.

The headpiece belongs to Indy’s old flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), now a hard‑drinking bar owner in Nepal. After proving how quickly a person can sober up, she negotiates her way onto his project team – she is terrible at ‘lessons learned’, too. The reunion is interrupted by Nazis who succeed in burning down her bar – and scorching one side of the headpiece into the palm of a Gestapo officer (Ronald Lacey). But Indy and Marion escape; back at the university, the diversity and inclusion officer is breathing a sigh of relief that such a high‑profile project now has an even gender split.

The project hots up

The one project management skill Indy does seem to exhibit is strong relationship‑building. In Egypt, they team up with old buddy Sallah el‑Kahir

(John Rhys‑Davies – better known as Gimli the dwarf from The Lord of the Rings). And it’s here we find the real project management hero of the movie (see box). With him on the case, the project really progresses.

Indy’s contribution at this stage, by contrast, is to run around Cairo shooting swordsmen, then cause a truck explosion that results in Marion’s apparent death.

We all know the next few scenes.

Marion’s really alive. Indy still hates snakes. They find the Ark and are lifting it out of place when… oops. Despite knowing the project has a massive obstacle – a bunch of Nazis and Belloq calling the shots on the site – Indy fails to prepare any kind of lookout and all Sallah’s hard work is undone.

External dependencies anyone? Thanks to his failure to sweat the details or do a risk analysis, the bad guys have the Ark and Marion is stuck down in the snake‑infested mausoleum with her lousy ex.

After an improbable escape – the buried temple happens to have an exterior wall right next to the airfield where the Nazis take the Ark – Indy engages in an admittedly agile pivot. He and Marion don’t exactly break out the Post‑Its for a scrum, but he takes the initiative and after killing a truck driver and a couple of other Nazi no‑marks, the project is back on track.

But the steamer they put the Ark on is hijacked by a U‑boat. This is the final nail for Indy as project manager. A project lead can have lousy management skills and lack attention to detail – so long as they’re lucky.

And Indy really isn’t. If anything, he’s a Jonah.

Alamy

Gott mit uns?

Belloq takes the Ark to a nice Aegean island. Indy sneaks ashore and has a chance to fire a bazooka to prevent the Nazis using it – but chickens out. So: defiling temples for a golden payday is fine; but blowing up a relic to stop the literal Nazis accessing a weapon that might make their armies invincible? Nah, just can’t do it, sorry.

Projects thrive on consistency of decision‑making and clear progress

towards objectives, but this guy is all over the place.

Another project #FAIL. He and Marion are tied up. The Nazis open the box and… It turns out God’s not a fan of Nazis. Or maybe not a fan of opening the Ark. Even the project’s culmination is another failure for Indy – the Ark is hidden away in a giant secret warehouse so even the archaeological sciences won’t benefit.

Might as well have blown it up, eh Indy?

Projects need to be properly scoped and well informed. Project managers need discipline, drive and attention to detail. They need reliable, well‑managed teams. Raiders of the Lost Ark features none of those things, Sallah aside.

Indiana Jones himself has some redeeming features. It’s true that a winning smile, a degree of charm and a dose of fearlessness can be very effective tools for the project manager.

Indy learns to manage his fear of snakes; and he’s smart enough to know not to look upon the spirits unleashed from the Ark. That combination of charisma and common sense can be valuable for any project leader. But overall, the project to deny the Nazis access to a super‑weapon is incredibly poorly run and fails. The fact that it ends face‑meltingly badly for the bad guys in the end suggests something we’ve secretly suspected all along: God is a great project manager.

SALLAH: PROJECT LINCHPIN Sallah el‑Kahir is the real deal in project management terms and the linchpin of Indy’s project team. He knows his own terrain well – great project managers thrive on good connections across their organisation and industry – and works through objectives like a machine: l Helps decode the headpiece. l Sorts out accommodation. l Lays on disguises. l Works out how to infiltrate the map room. l Hires diggers at the correct site of the Ark. l Handles logistics for its removal from its resting place. l Arranges transportation to the US. He’s jovial, adding hugely to project morale. And every project needs someone with the soft eyes and attention to detail that Sallah brings. He notices a pet monkey has died and prevents Indy from eating one of the same poison dates, for example. We all know a Sallah. Not a project lead, nowhere near board level – but the kind of person who actually gets things done. The fact that he’s prepared to work with disaster‑magnet Indiana Jones just goes to prove how important charisma is for a project leader.

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New books, recommended favourites and podcasts to keep you entertained

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Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg has smashed the authority gap and wants to help more women do the same

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Don’t get mad, get even, says HMRC’s Joanna Rowland of The Authority Gap – and get some valuable practical tips from Penny Pullan on running great workshops The Authority Gap

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Mary Ann Sieghart (Doubleday)

There are times when you read something which makes you angry.

Then there are times when you read something which makes you really angry. The Authority Gap by Mary Ann Sieghart had that effect on me, not because it let me down, but because it lays bare the way society has historically let women down. Even the way women let women down.

My whole career has been in the public sector, delivering projects both in the police and central government.

I am now a senior leader at HMRC, a department which takes equality of all kinds seriously, with respect for all as a central objective. I have experienced sexism throughout my career, egregiously when I was younger and junior, and more subtly as I have risen in rank.

While I no longer need to face down the crude harassment I was subjected to, I am still aware that my

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credibility as a delivery expert can be reduced compared to my male peers (the ‘authority gap’ of the title in action) and I compensate for it every day. My feelings on sexism were highly personal, and while I knew all women faced these challenges to some extent, exposure of the systemic scale of the problem in The Authority Gap made me see red.

The books depicts how and why women aren’t respected or valued as highly as men in the professional world.

Sieghart interviews some of the most prominent women globally, and they recount their experiences of battling for equitable credibility with remarkable candour. This presents a bleak picture, but as I got further into the book, I moved from anger to reflectiveness.

The author clearly recognises the state of the problem, but suggests some steps we can all take to reduce the authority gap in the final chapter.

I am proud to be a member of the project delivery profession, which has allowed my career to flourish. This book has brought home, however, that there are still changes which need to be made across society, including

our profession, to ensure men and women are put on an even footing.

I am redoubling my commitment to driving this agenda forward, so that, in a generation’s time, the problems I and all women who read this book face are lessened. Don’t get mad, get even.

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Review by Joanna Rowland, director general, transformation group, HMRC

Making Workshops Work

Penny Pullan (Practical Inspiration Publishing)

Who doesn’t love a good workshop? The coming together of minds, constructive conflict, challenging preconceptions and teasing clarity and cohesion out of chaos and confusion. With emphasis, of course, on the word ‘good’. Many a project has experienced its pivotal eureka moment thanks to a timely, well-oiled workshop, and yet so often the converse is true:

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meandering gatherings lacking focus and direction, only serving to frustrate and delay. Penny Pullan seeks to address this, shining a spotlight on the art of facilitation.

She starts by exploring the value of workshops and what ‘great’ looks like, taking us on a journey of effective leadership and facilitation, and examining the behavioural aspects of workshops: group dynamics, conflict, visual thinking, ways of learning and the underlying neuroscience behind it.

We are guided through the fundamental elements for successful workshops – a clearly defined purpose, a focus on solutions, proven analysis and problem-solving techniques, reaching consensus and gaining commitment and follow-up to actions.

While theory is not neglected, the emphasis is on the practical and Pullan shares her own favourite activities for use in workshops, ranging from ‘getting started’ to generate focus and energy right through to her own template for capturing actions.

This is a light-hearted read, with Pullan sharing horror stories while addressing the common challenges faced in workshops. Designed very much for readers to dip in and out of, there is a ‘fast answers to urgent questions’ section and each chapter ends with ‘questions for reflection’.

I turned to this book with the future of hybrid workshops in mind and approached it looking for a specific section dedicated solely to this topic.

Instead, the book takes you through the journey of workshop preparation, execution and follow-up, and examines specific considerations and approaches for face-to face, remote and hybrid workshops at each stage.

It’s a good reminder that, whatever the environment and style of workshop, the key to success will always lie in thorough preparation, understanding the group dynamics and the adaptability to choose tools and techniques appropriate to each unique situation.

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Review by Susan Ferry, project management practice, Allianz Insurance

My Bedside Books

Emma Willson, major projects delivery hub, National Audit Office THE PROJECT MANAGER: MASTERING THE ART OF DELIVERY Richard Newton

Programme management books can be quite dry, prescribing formal methodologies and techniques, but here we see that successful programmes require more than that. As the book describes, they are ultimately about effective communication, and this ‘human’ focus sets the book apart. It talks beyond the normal tools around interpersonal skills, attitudes and approaches while providing some experience‑based lessons on how to handle people and put theory into practice.

MEASURE WHAT MATTERS John Doerr

This book highlights a critical aspect of programme management – clarity on what you want to achieve and monitoring this.

Although the examples and narrative focus on start‑ups, the

common‑sense and practical tips seem equally valuable to programmes and it is refreshing to learn from ‘outside’. It shares first‑hand experiences and a clear, measurable approach (termed objectives and key results) to align goals with the vision and implementation.

WILD SWANS Jung Chang

This book is captivating and fascinating, but often depressing (in a somewhat positive way).

It takes a few chapters, but the depth of story and characters quickly encapsulates you. Set in 20th‑century China, the author presents her family story across three generations, encompassing China’s amazing social, political and economic changes. The book provides a valuable history lesson and makes you appreciate (and despair at) humanity and the value of courage and resilience.

We’re all ears – podcasts to listen to

Send your own recommendations to emma.devita@thinkpublishing.co.uk FROM THE FRONTLINE APM Podcast APM’s series, hosted by Project editor Emma De Vita, provides an up‑close and personal account by professionals working on projects at the forefront of thinking and action, whether it’s helping in the fight against COVID‑19 or pushing technology to its limits, like NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover project.

Catch NASA project manager Jennifer Trosper’s behind‑the‑scenes account of running the project in lockdown from her laundry room while operating on Mars time.

CONNECTING CONSTRUCTION Trimble Hosted by Evan Hill and Matte Sprague of e‑Builder, each episode

in this podcast stars contractors, analysts and programme managers who give practical insights in a series of fireside chats. A good place to start is a discussion around technological innovation within construction in episode five.

LIVE MORE, FEEL BETTER Rangan Chatterjee Dr Rangan Chatterjee is one of the most influential GPs in the UK and has message of simplifying your health and wellbeing that has won him a big audience. His podcasts are really chats with health experts for advice and explanations that will keep us feeling energetic and well.

Episode 145 tackles how to build good habits and break bad ones.

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FIVE SPELLS TO USE AGAINST THE DARK ARTS Eddie Obeng advises how to counter the destructive societal forces that could harm your projects

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So, there’s a tension you can’t quite put your finger on… The team laughter feels less intense and you know that’s not because you are virtual – you’ve been virtual for 18 months. There is a dull underlying sullenness. You know that with a project of this scale and duration, you can’t always be everywhere, so you rely on the team to challenge and support each other towards excellence.

Team culture is crucial to success.

It sets how we work together so the best things get done even though no orders are given. Openness means fixing issues early. Mutual respect means you can collide ideas to produce robust solutions.

Yesterday, my friend of 30 years, Bill, thanked me for being a true friend.

I was taken aback. Playing tennis, he’d managed to tear his bicep. His doctor suggested he do nothing but I’d written him a stern email berating him and suggesting specialists. He’s 70 and may soon need a cane to walk.

For that you need strong biceps. His doctor and friends were concerned but scared to offend him; they said nothing.

Influenced by the current social climate, they’d been persuaded it was right not to challenge.

The dark arts at work in society

Recently, three powerful dark arts that began outside your project will by now be seeping into it. We humans are susceptible to delusions, and the dark arts prey on this human flaw. In the same way vaxxers and anti‑vaxxers are unable to have a constructive conversation (because conversation needs rationality linked to reality), increasingly you will have found your team not able to be open to understand issues, let alone solve them together.

The first of the three dark arts is the science of persuasion and influence – now boosted by AI and neuroscience – which shows that if you frame the situation first and bypass the logic circuits with emotional bias, people act without knowing why. Second, behavioural economics, which uses the set‑up of the system to control your choices and behaviours. And the third is intolerant minority politics. In the same way as one person with a nut allergy means no one on the entire plane can eat nuts, intransigent minorities always end up dominating everyone else.

Lessons in defence

The ‘Defence Against the Dark Arts’ class teaches young wizards how to prevent being subsumed by dark forces and losing personal will and positive leadership. Here are my five spells that ward off uninvited influences: l Look out for framing, and reframe. Once a topic is framed, your confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance will keep you stuck down a deep well of delusion, unable to perceive reality. Steve Jobs used 19 words to fix Antennagate: “We’re not perfect. Phones aren’t perfect. We all know that. But we just want to make our users happy.” Find an alternative way to reframe so people say, “I hadn’t thought of it that way.” l Go down the well and push them out. Listen, empathise and start from where they are; establish you are both on the same side before showing leadership.

Once a topic is framed, your confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance will keep you stuck down a deep well of delusion, unable to perceive reality

Professor Eddie Obeng is an educator, TED speaker and the author of Perfect Projects and All Change! The Project Leader’s Secret Handbook. You can join his masterclasses, courses and workshops on the QUBE #SuperReal campus: https://QUBE.cc.

Tweet him @EddieObeng or read his blogs on LinkedIn or at www.imagineafish.com

l Disconfirm. Early in my Perfect

Projects course, we run a project simulation. In an hour, participants make three months of tough decisions. The first review is brutal. They’re reluctant to acknowledge they did terribly. They blame everything, everyone. Then they sleep on it. By the second review, they now know ‘they don’t know’. We’ve disconfirmed their delusions and they become eager to learn. Find ways to let cold reality shine in. l Trumpet your project culture over and above the infiltrating noise.

Once you have shared ground rules, repeat them over and over. Point out reinforcing examples. Never punish good behaviour and never reward detractors. l Be your own spirit guide. Don’t get a delusion cast on you: discard every remarkable story you’re dying to repeat.

Ignore catchy slogans. When asked, never ‘imagine’. Flee your current delusions: be scientific. Compare with a control group. Extrapolate from your opinion to predict what should happen next – when it doesn’t, discard that delusion.

Now, regardless of the narratives and norms of the outside world, your project team can be cohesive, open, supportive and challenging. Visit www.eddieobeng. com/defenceagainstthedarkarts-spells to learn some spells of your own.

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