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5 project management lessons we learned in 2022 · Project Podcast

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Hello and welcome to the APM podcast brought to you by the
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chartered body for the project profession.
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My name is Mike Hein and I'm the online editor of apm's project
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journal, and I'll be hosting today's episode.
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In 2020 to our podcast guests have shared their advice and
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experiences on everything from putting telescopes into space to
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discovering sunken ships at the bottom of the Antarctic.
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Sea, As the year, draws to a close, we thought it would be
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worthwhile taking a look back at some of the lessons we have
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learned in 2022. So in this episode will be
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collating some of our favorite highlights from episodes.
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You may have missed earlier in the year, we've got insights
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from NASA, a former cabinet minister, and a BBC television
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presenter to share with you proof, If ever it was needed
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that the reach of projects and project management grows ever
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wider. Before we kick off, we'd like to
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give a shout-out to you the listeners, thank you for your
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continued support throughout 2022, will be back in the new
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year, with much more content. So keep your eye out for future
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episodes wherever you get your podcasts.
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So, without further Ado, let's take a look back at some of the
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highlights of an action-packed 2022.
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One consistent theme within project management is change and
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how to bring people with you as a project leader.
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In June, we published a podcast about the people side of change
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management, which featured Joe Stanford head of corporate
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portfolio office at health, education.
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England. As well as discussing the
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importance of role modeling and psychological safety Joe.
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Shared her advice on how to get buy-in from stakeholders to make
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change happen and explain why it is critical to start with, why
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it really all needs to be underpinned with?
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Why are we doing it? And people will buy into a
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process, they won't buy into a, you know, a financial element or
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a particular, you know, way of doing.
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Doing something, you know, say, oh well, we need to do this
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differently. What they buy into is a sense of
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purpose, they buy into a cause, or a belief or a sense of
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belonging. And, and so, the starting point
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with yourself and with your team is, why, why are you doing this?
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What's what's the purpose of it? What's the aim of it?
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What is it that you are going to achieve?
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Because people people will rally to a Was and I say yes, that's
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something. I believe in that something, and
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it's an emotional response. It's something a personal.
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And, and when you're starting out with this, you've got to
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have a really clear sense of why.
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Why is it important? Why is it going to make a
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difference? What's the the impact?
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It's going to have both on the world on your customer base or
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what's the value to them and to you and doing it by setting the
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wire you You can bring people together to help to shape the
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how and the what and if you've got that ultimately that keeps
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you connected that, you have that ultimate cause that we're
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going to work on this. This is a really important
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thing. This is why it helps you get
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past the individual conflicts that you might have where people
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are, wedded, pursue particular ways of working or particular,
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you know, what they want to do or particular ideas because if
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Can bring people back to the thing that joined them together
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in the first place, which is the, why are we doing this?
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It helps to get beyond the individual and keep people
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focused and therefore it becomes not a personal thing.
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If your particular idea isn't followed or that particular way
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of working isn't going to be the one that we take.
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If you keep people focused on the Y and then you set your
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measures and outcomes linked to that, why?
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And how do we Ino. We've achieved that that's the
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thing for me that is really critical in terms of setting the
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team up to start with the Team Dynamics.
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But also they're going to go out with conviction and with passion
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and with purpose when they talk to stakeholders and customers
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and the ends of users and they're going to take that
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passion and and commitments and in going to infect others with
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it, they're going to infuse that and that's what gets people to
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join in. That's what gets people.
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To go on the journey is that sense of of belief and belonging
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and wanting to be a part of something.
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Many of us have just celebrated Christmas 2022.
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But last year December, the 25th is a particularly exciting day
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for scientists engineers and project professionals at Nasa,
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due to the long-awaited launch of the James Webb Space
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Telescope. The telescope gives Humanity, a
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new eye in the sky with infrared sensors, that will peer into the
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farthest reaches of the cosmos to observe.
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The universe is first galaxies reveal the birth of planets and
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stars and look for exoplanets with the potential for life.
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Back in March the podcast, spoke to Bill Oaks project manager for
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the James Webb Space Telescope who is based at NASA's Goddard
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space flight center in Maryland USA.
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As well as giving us a behind the scenes.
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Look at what it takes to lead a team at Nasa.
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Bill shared his perspective and what makes a great project
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manager and gave advice on how to handle complex projects.
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Will you talk about project management?
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Every project manager, whether you're within NASA or wherever
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you're probably working, you kind of have your own style and
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technique. And one of the things you need
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to do is to understand within that style and technique your
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strengths and weaknesses. There's none of us are perfect.
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So I cannot sit there and tell you I'm the perfect project
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manager. I got strengths across
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everything you need to need to recognize where your weaknesses
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are and then build upon it, you know?
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I was a good engineer, and notice how I said was there are
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many project managers who thinks they're still the best engineer
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out there and then that takes away from your management skills
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and your ability to be a project manager.
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So, I learned a lot about, you know, you need to be a listen to
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people. I always tell folks.
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One of the number one things I say is you need to have a
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bartender's ear. Mark, on your listens, your you
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are the chief. Chief risk mitigation person on
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the project. I mean, you may have Risk
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Managers and other Engineers but you are the one that makes those
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decisions at some point. What advice would you give to
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project? Managers of project leaders,
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around a hill, working on complex projects?
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What have been the main lessons? You've learned working on
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Project like this. Oh, we're closely with your
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team, you know, communication aspects of it.
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Listen to your team, find the folks that you really trust.
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I mean, you need to be able to trust the folks that are working
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for you. Direct that you are your direct.
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Works and you build that just by communicating with them and
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trusting this the skill set that I have, but that also comes down
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to understanding the skills that they have.
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Not everybody is perfect for every job.
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If you find that somebody has been misplaced in a position, it
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doesn't mean you have to get rid of Martha project.
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You may say, hey, there's something over here, the better
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suited for your skill set, get him involved with that, get them
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interested in that. And then you bring the another
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person into that job that may have the more The better skill
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set for that position. And that's one of the things
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I've talked about The Forecastle times.
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You start out with a project organization but as you move
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through the life, cycle of a project, you're going to need
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the tweak that organization depending upon where you are in
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that life cycle. So we're sure you have the
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right, people in the right jobs that you have the right
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organizational structure for that phase of the project.
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So that's always important from a project managed to kind of
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maybe once a year. Take a look at where you are
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with your organization and do. I need to make any changes from
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a Structure standpoint or moving some folks around to really take
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advantage of their skill sets. Moving from the world of science
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and technology to the UK public sector.
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Our next podcast highlight comes from the conversation between
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former cabinet minister. The right honourable Justine
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Greening and a p.m. chief executive Professor, Adam
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bothersome Justine shared her experience as a senior minister
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in several government departments and reflected on how
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well understood, the project profession is within the higher
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ranks of the Civil Service. Since leaving government Justine
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has continued to be a strong advocate for social mobility and
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her podcast interview explored. How the project profession fits
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into the goal of increasing social mobility in the UK.
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We highly recommend. You check out that episode in
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Full Do you think politicians and civil servants know enough
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about the project profession and evaluate can add to their
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careers? Not even remotely enough?
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No, it's crucial, because you've got to bear in mind for our
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democratic system. You know, it works by having
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people elected and they are as it were lay people, they
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probably got a special ISM in some kind of very they worked in
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before Parliament, but then they're put into running
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departments and so, you know, often the challenge.
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Has you are literally running those departments.
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And yet I was lucky in the sense that I'd worked in some bigger
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larger organizations as a finance person, I guess if
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you're in finance or project management you probably
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relatively numerator and you know what you're looking for in
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terms of how to check if things are on track and what management
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information you need. And I think there's a bit of a
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gap there. Definitely for politicians on
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the nuts and bolts of their own skill set.
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Order to be successful. And then, I guess, within the
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Civil Service, the the sort of sexy part of civil service has
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been all the policy development when actually increasingly it
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really needs to shift to be much more who's great at delivering
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projects on the ground successfully because there's no
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point having the best policy in the world.
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If you can't deliver it, then it won't come to anything.
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We've got some a p.m. members of course, who will be in some of
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those departments which are a bit behind the curve.
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Of, what advice would you give to them in terms of how they
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could help to shift the dial within their own Department?
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I think, I think it's having the consistent approach across
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departments on project development and delivery and and
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speaking with one voice. So for example, I think the
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government Finance organization across government, had
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increasingly, learn to work collectively and did work.
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Collectively on what good look like, what good process look
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like. How to develop business cases.
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And, you know, it might all sound a bit Bonkers.
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You know, of course, you'd expect government and civil
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service, departments, to develop strong business cases, but that
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isn't always the case. And as you said, Adams, some
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departments are better than others.
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I would actually say the best is best business cases I had were,
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when I was at the department for International Development,
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mainly because there was so much scrutiny on every single penny
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of spend actually that had led to The department really kicking
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the tires on absolutely everything before it was ever
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signed off. By contrast when I went into
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education, you know, much less business case development per
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se. But a real need for it.
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Because if you're going to compete, for example, with the
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department for transport on investment saying, pupil
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referral units, and you want that investment and you're
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making the case, it should go into that rather than Fixing
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more potholes, then you do need a business case approach, that's
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really bolted down and it's what I always expected to see as a
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finance person and if you don't have that business case and this
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is what we really did in differed, you haven't really
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ever got that parameter that that kind of game plan against
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which to then compare progress and you know it's absolutely
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crucial. If you're going to have strong
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project management that the project itself is obviously
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spect up. Well at the very very Very
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beginning. We are always looking to
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interview guests, who can provide a fresh perspective on
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the world of projects and project management.
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So, we were delighted this year to secure an interview with
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veteran journalist. Evan, Davis presenter of BBC
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fours, daily news program, p.m., and former main presenter of
12:59
news night and the today, programme Evan is also well
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known as the presenter of Dragons Den.
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And on radio for he hosts a weekly business discussion
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program called the bottom line in his podcast.
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Interview. Evan gave an informed outsider's
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perspective on the importance of projects to the economic
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political and cultural life of a country.
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He is talking about how major projects are perceived and the
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reputation of the profession among the general public.
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I think we should demand of the people planning projects that
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they have a high bar for public value.
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That we do not want to waste construction, scarce
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construction, resources, public money, and the design, and other
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capabilities of our country on white elephants.
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So we should be demanding and, and that means cost benefit
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analyses and all the conventional tools of, you know,
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Raisa. Love projects are absolutely
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important to society. Can't give up on those.
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And the treasury is right to say to people we're not just going
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to throw money at stuff, because it looks great.
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And they're like, we need to have some vision for the shape
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of the nation and sometimes the cost benefit analysis adding up
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the time Savings of the, the kind of the existing customers
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on a train. For example, may not capture the
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benefits of something, a hundred years hence or 50 years.
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Hence, I think you, you have to be careful about being to
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accountants. Focused on it.
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He's project managers are fully understood and fully appreciated
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in this country, or do you think they just get it in the neck?
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No I don't think project managers have a bad image.
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I don't think the public have a very clear idea project
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managers. I think what happens is the
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public gets annoyed when they see crossrail was meant to open
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in 2018 and is opening 2022. And so that's that the - but The
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truth is the public Swoon over some of the great achievements
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of the project managers and they love it when they go.
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Right. And I think what you really see
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out there is a kind of a complex amalgam of different feelings
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and Views projects, we hate it. When they're being built and
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there's disruption we love it. When we walk through the Swanky
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new Railway stapling or travel on the fancy new train.
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So I broadly speaking, I I don't think they do have a bad image
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project managers. And in, as far as it's a
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complicated Love/Hate relationship, as I think it is,
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I think probably deserved, you know, the public, the public are
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entitled to say. You said this would be delivered
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and it wasn't. And, and we were a bit fed up
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with that. One major story from this year
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with the long delayed opening of London's Elizabeth line,
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otherwise known as crossrail. As one of the largest
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Transportation programs anywhere in the world, crossrail had a
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high profile from the outset but often found itself in the
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headlines for the wrong reasons. Mark wild took over as CEO in
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2018 as a time of Highly publicized budget and deadline
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overruns but successfully steered the program to its much
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celebrated opening this year before stepping down.
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Having successfully turned around such a complex and
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fraught program. Mark was ideally placed to tell
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the APM podcast, why he thinks so many major programs are late
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and over budget. Here he is talking to project
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Journal. Contributor Andrew Saunders.
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Is it inevitable that big projects are always be late and
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over budget contemporary perspective?
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If you look at the research from Oxford, particularly you will
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find that. Yes, the vast majority of major
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programs run the world. Are they doing over budget?
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I think three big things are happening in the world now that
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are really significant in major programs.
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Firstly, the getting bigger cross real used to be the
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biggest in Europe, and the fifth biggest in the world now.
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Cross real wouldn't get in the top 10 globally and it wouldn't
17:05
get The top three in Europe, so projects, getting bigger, there
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is a massive rise of digitization massively.
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And of course, there's a huge drive to NetZero.
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Now. To me, those Dynamics on top of
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a situation that you've pointed out that they're all laid
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anywhere, really calls to change about how you manage these
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programs because I think they are so big and complex.
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Now, a new approach that the kind of the big learning, which
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we can get onto out across for others.
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Maybe he's in your approach, but to your point, yeah, every major
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A program in the world seems to have problems.
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Fundamental lesson across. Rome was setting a singular end
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date and quite a visible Public Funding envelope.
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They said December 18 and fourteen point eight billion
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years in advance and made that very very public.
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The big learning Ida crossrail is do not set singular, and
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dates and mmm love. Think about more windows of
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uncertainty. That concludes our Roundup of
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the year's highlights, but of course, there are many more
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powerful lessons for project Professionals in our back,
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catalog of podcasts. So, why not go back and have a
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listen over this festive? Period.
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We also want to hear your stories.
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What did you learn in 2022 and what goals and challenges are
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you anticipating in 2023, we're always Keen to hear your
18:35
thoughts at a p.m. podcast at think publishing .co.uk.
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If you've enjoyed the content, we put out this year, please
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leave us a review wherever you, get your podcasts.
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Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to
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bringing you more episodes in 2023.
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This podcast has been brought to you by APM the chartered body
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