Welcome to the APM podcast, brought to you by the
Association for project management, the charter body for
the project profession. In this episode.
We look back on 20/20 and reflect on some key project
management lessons from a turbulent nine months soon.
After the first UK lockdown in March, we found that this
podcast to share the stories of project professionals who are
managing adapting and pivoting their projects to meet the
demands of the covid-19 pandemic.
Because series want crisis talks in each episode was presented by
project journal editor, Emma DaVita.
I hope was that we'd end up with the valuable resource during a
time of Crisis for project professionals who are doing
their best to navigate a situation.
The almost none of us had imagined happening.
What we ended up with was a Chronicle of work and life
through the covid. Pandemic, the six people, we
interview for the podcast structures honestly and openly
about the challenges they faced and the huge lessons.
They were learning along the way.
The pandemic in Jaws, but the advice given in the crisis talks
podcast will be relevant way past 2020.
In this episode. We've picked out the best in
nuggets of wisdom. In the first series of this
podcast topics ranging from mental health, to delivering to
seemingly impossible targets. To start with.
I'm going to take you back to April, probably feels like a
lifetime ago. In episode 1 of Crisis, talks
podcast. Host Emma, interviewed, Lizzie
Meadows, a project manager at the quad room Institute for
bioscience. Her biorepository project went
live, just as coronavirus, hit the UK.
The project has since been able to provide crucial resource and
support to the covid-19. Genomics.
UK Consortium. Lizzie's project to launch an
electronic platform to manage. Human.
Tissue samples in collaboration with Norfolk and Norwich
University Hospital NHS and the University of East Anglia went
live on Monday. The 23rd of March the day, the
UK went into lockdown and everyone's World turned upside
down. She described the Monumental
effort of her team members and their dedication to getting the
project over the line when external events of an unforeseen
magnitude threatened to derail everything as a last-minute,
what we didn't envisage with it was that coronavirus would come
up and hitters so quickly, blind sizes that we actually had.
You know, I'm so glad that we had our, you know, very rigorous
approach to our raid log that we had also had a very robust, very
thorough robust approach. To contingencies and resilience
planning and that, you know, I felt that people were confidence
in in that knowledge of knowing what the Alternatives were.
What name, what the contingencies were.
So when I said jump they didn't just look at me that and say,
okay. They said how high and we got
that we got that from our you know, biorepository team.
We got up from the end and then ICT team and And also laterally
as we went live from the research nurse who know was we
would have been quite happy to work from home, but because her
swivel token wasn't working. She made her way into the Bob
Champion building. It was close, but she got
special dispensation to she came in.
And that first Monday morning, when we went live.
She was there for all the hand holding sessions.
The team demonstrated, you know, everybody was So committed to
this going live, you know, we had friends and allies in place
the shared vision and commitment success.
And boy, did that underpin everything?
Is he also spoke about her view. The project management style is
highly personalized. Each individual.
She also explained her willingness to do things
differently to meet changing circumstances.
She and her team had to think on their feet, like, never before
she admitted the getting things done required her to be a bit
unconventional. This reflects the changing
profile of the project. Professional a Core theme of the
past few months. Gone are the days where the
project manager can, simply follow process in a systematic
way. Modern project professionals are
Dynamic willing to adapt and comfortable with navigating
unexpected crises. It's taking that flexible
approach to project managing being aware that sometimes you
have to do what it takes to get the work done.
Bring an agile approach. It's being able to think.
We'll what if And again, it comes back down to fundamentals
of planning having assumptions having scenarios and just
thinking you know, what if that happens.
But a lot of it I think is you know project management can also
be a very individual approach. You can be very personal if if
that makes sense. My way of doing it might be very
different to someone else but I think it was being able to think
on our feet and that that really did come down to me thinking on
my feet and say, no, this This, we are going to do it this way
and luckily having the commitment and the support from
the team to say, yeah, and being probably don't know.
I've been unconventional. Is that the right word thinking
at 8:15 at night? How am I going to get this to go
live? I'll just email somebody who
might be able to help and then and where we are now then.
Also, beginning to think, hang on a minute.
We've got this resource. How can this add value to know
what the wider teams are trying to do?
Sonia Sharma, head of planning and corporate pmo, a broadcaster
channel for was, someone working in a completely different sector
of the economy and a highly ambitious project manager.
Prior to lock down in March Sonia, been working on building
up the Enterprise's pmo while in February channel for
kick-started a significant transformation program.
When the pandemic hit the organization experienced a
chaotic, few weeks with staff. Unsure, how to react The Wider
picture for the broadcaster. Look challenging major events,
such as the Paralympics for Spohn to leaving.
Channel for facing a revenue, hit the task of rescheduling
through the summer. After difficult few weeks, Sonia
found, that staff managed to adapt, effectively to new ways
of working. She related to the podcast, how
her team approach, the prioritization of their
portfolio shift in the pace of work, the challenges of a
virtual Workforce and more through the crisis Sonia has
kept a focus on achieving a lien State and maintaining it at the
broadcaster with senior Executives growing in their
awareness of the importance of project management.
Like many project professionals have spoken to the APM podcast.
Sonia told us that the pandemic was accelerating changes within
the organization that would help Propel project management
upwards and outwards. The first couple of weeks.
We really quite chaotic. So people weren't really sure
what to do. So there was a sort of period of
do. We keep doing what we were doing
before or you know, how do we adjust?
So I think it took about a week or so to get into some Some form
of order. And actually, what we did is use
the transformation director and her experience of working with
crisis situations and very, very quickly within a week.
Actually. We set up some covid-19
governance. So we got even running now for
work streams. People Finance procurement and
Tekken projects, and we kick them off within a week twice a
week. So eight calls in a week.
For an hour with a quite a clear agenda in terms of what we were
trying to achieve within each one and who was going to be
involved in that and then that governance started running.
And then alongside that there was some reporting to the exact
that went up to help and enable them with their decision-making.
So I think that was really key at that time a crisis.
So there was a lot of work that was being done.
Then I think the other thing we had to do was really look at
then our priorities and our portfolio and then start to
think about how do we actually To manage that Hannah Gledhill,
senior project manager, a British chocolatier Hotel
Chocolat meanwhile shared her experience of working in a
retail environment. One of the hardest-hit sectors
of UK business. The British chocolatier has a
small project team focused primarily and product
development. Just prior to lock down the
hotel. Shakalaka had begun a process of
transformation. Working closely with the Kaizen
Institute, to foster a culture of continuous Improvement and
greater efficiency that commitment to transformation is
continued throughout lockdown and Beyond despite the mounting
challenges as Hannah explained. Hotels, chocolate experience the
same initial challenges as many businesses unfamiliarity with
Virtual Technology and practices and a period of uncertainty
around which projects will be affected and how?
However, as Hannah explained the team was already geared up to go
through an element of pain in her own words, as it kick
started, the Kaizen Transformations become a Slicker
operation. They hadn't bargained on a
pandemic perhaps but the period of uncertainty has provided a
test of their new culture. We're trying out different ways
of tracking projects. If you like.
So the Kaizen principle that we agreed.
The beginning of the year was that we would have almost a
project control room, a physical space and everyone had to be
physically present. This was a place that we could
track the status of our projects, almost like a NASA
control room. So you could all you could walk
into that room. And you could know the status of
of your project just by looking at the wall.
We can't do that now. So what we've done is, we've
created a virtual project control room through Trello.
So Trello is that an online app? Essentially a place to log lists
of activities. So we log all the activities to
needed to place this week and the following week and it's
accessible by all the development team.
So we encourage individuals to go into the Trello board.
To update their actions. That's the way that we're trying
to keep control of a number of projects at the moment that
paired with with some other tools that we're developing with
guys. And I guess the challenge we're
facing at the moment is we're trying to develop tools whilst
trying to run live projects all Hilton program director
management and development company, Mott, MacDonald lives
in, Singapore and oversees the delivery of 13.
Future cities projects, across nine cities in six countries.
Over southeast Asia. The program aims to promote
inclusive, and sustainable, economic growth, full and
productive, employment, and decent work for all it.
Prioritizes the needs of girls women and the most excluded
people in these communities and is aligned to the un's 17,
sustainable development goals. Poor begun work on the program
when it kicked off in, 2019 has carried on leading it through
the covid-19 crisis. While Singapore has been locked
down and is local teams in the Philippines Myanmar, Vietnam.
Malaysia Thailand and Indonesia have been contending with the
pandemic, the 13 projects range from a smart ticketing transport
system. In Ho Chi Minh City to
earthquake and tsunami warning system in Surabaya.
Paul related, the challenges of managing the program.
As the world heads towards New Normal, how being an expat has
made him more resilient to the trials with the covid crisis,
the trick to getting the best out of people.
He said, was simply to learn to listen to them.
It's completely about people, manager is about getting the
best out of people, but equally you avoiding risks by getting
the best out of people by understanding what's going on
listening. And a lot of those skills, the
tools and the harder things program management risk, sort of
schedule management, risk management, change management.
They're all necessary to keep it all tidy in the background, but
they're not, I wouldn't say they're the the underlying good
stuff that's required to Seed really.
I think project manager. It's quite an interesting
discipline because those who are experienced often anchor back to
these skills. And those who are inexperienced
often believe that the tools will save the day and get them
through their problems. So you can quite easily reflect
on where success lies. And I think that reflecting on
it is is of is a key learning processes.
Is why a person a believer that, you know, you need to be
constantly fresh and constantly learning and refresh yourself.
I don't think leadership is a, is a Inherited property.
It's a thing that you have to work on all the time and keep
reminding yourself of and the techniques you use.
So and a lot of those techniques are about managing perhaps your
own personal mood because it is a people and sort of interaction
skills that you're off to deploying.
It's about managing how you're coming across, how your
temperaments is about what your mood inside is stuff.
Under Hickson the project manager at Baalbek a specialist
in the repair strengthening refurbishment and protection of
buildings and civil structures is an expert in both project
management and mental health. He manages the successful
delivery of infrastructure projects including at the time
of recording. Our interview Palatine Road
undertaken on behalf of Highways England.
The project involves significant temporary propping to facilitate
critical repairs to 15 peers. The carry both carriageways of
the M60. Motorway.
Across the river mersey in Greater Manchester, but Andrew
is also a key Mountaineer and founder of the black dog
Outdoors mental health charity, which promotes the benefits of
outdoor recreation and mental well-being.
In his interview with the APM podcast.
He explained why now more than ever.
It's important to spend time in nature and to allow your mind to
wander. Hopefully, this doesn't come
across as preacher because, you know, it's easy to say hard to
do sometimes, but I definitely recommend that people.
People get that like that work-life balance, right,
especially spending time at home, you know, just just half
an hour of exercise. A day can have a massive effect
on your well-being, her positively and it doesn't have
to be high in perhaps our insurance you To go out running
with, we're not all athletes, but had it out for a steady work
and you in your local area. So it's a great way to unwind
and leave your phone at home and just let your mind wander.
There's also exercises you could do, like, what, yoga, or even
coloring in her great for for just checking your mind
elsewhere. I know that a number of people
that have been contacts with, they've they're actually
exercising when ordinarily big to be in a commute to work.
So if they're at home, the distinguished.
Akin to a routine, the still getting up early.
But instead of sitting in the in the car behind the wheel, they
are going up some morning exercise, which is a great idea.
And I think, another thing that I would recommend is if you've
got children at home and again, it easier said, than done, block
out and out in the day, and spend some real quality time,
because there's the be stresses in the back of your mind that
you're not home, and your children, want your attention
and you should give it to them. Yeah, why not be strict about
it. We all need, we all need our own
time. Work work can still happen.
Would all work. More flexibly now, so just just
just find a different way of working fine to find a way of
introducing, some, some quality family time in the day.
That means that that means doing a little bit more at night when
the children are asleep. Well, try and make it happen.
Just being able to think about the needs of others and ever bit
more empathy, and allow the teacher to leave work, early to
take work home and spend some time with their families up that
I think is important in in, you're just building that trust
and getting the best out of Of them as well.
He'll keep people happy less stressed.
It's a really positive thing. So, yeah, the I'm quite quite
flexible with a sightseeing. If this is work that can do from
home. I don't need them to travel down
the motorway to sit in an office.
You know, it's a song as that in contacts and they getting on
with what they need to do is dump for more than happy for
people to work flexibly. Rounding off the crisis.
Talk series was an interview with Joanna Roland director of
hmrc's covid-19 Response Unit, which is responsible for the
Department's strategic approach to the pandemic.
Joanna, is a senior responsible officer in charge of delivering
the Chancellor's Flagship economic interventions.
The job retention and self-employment Income Support
schemes as well as the eat out to help out and job retention
bonus schemes. Joanna is also the head of the
project delivery profession for hmrc and a fellow of a p.m.
She's been at the heart of the government's response to the
pandemic and in her interview with the APM podcast, you
explain the value of controlled yet.
Adaptive governance to carry her team through the crisis phase of
the initial covid response. There were a few elements in the
early days. That was certainly crisis
management. But I think the first thing I
recognize coming into the real was actually this was going to
stay with us for quite a while and in a way.
The last thing we needed was Crisis management.
And what instead what we needed was very controlled leadership
and management of this being a project person through.
And through, I love a bit of governance.
We all do governance is your best friend.
It keeps you in control. So one of the first jobs of that
Friday, was to set up the governance structures both for
the projects, but also the wider organization to make sure Sure
that we could coordinate this in a way that was very controlled
and not reactive or crisis management.
Can sometimes mean that you know, you're all headless
chickens and and and high octane and and that generally doesn't
drive the best decision making that said, the governance was
kept light touch. So it was really important, but
neither was there time for for our meetings, so, I needed to
put in place the governance structure that was able to be
highly adaptive really, really efficient fairly light touch but
have a iron grip of control around our projects and
responses. Joanna, also shared her approach
to Bringing together a wide array of Specialists, dubbed
accountable, owners and empowering them to make
decisions for the project. One of her, long-term Ambitions
is to establish a project structure that transcends
boundaries. These and retained a razor sharp
focus on Simplicity to keep Minds focused on the core
concept. Underpinning, the project and
ambition. She was able to realize with
this project. She was Keen to to extol The
Importance of Being assertive to prevent distractions from taking
over. There were three things that
were very deliberate choices in those early days.
So the first was to set up what I call a hub-and-spoke model.
And this is where I literally grabbed from all corners of
hmrc. Just a handful.
I think no more than about 10 or 15 project people to run the
central project for seedrs. And then the equivalent for
self-employment. But then we reached out across
hmrc to get what I called accountable owners for all the
different specialisms. So you'd get somebody who
specialized in compliance. You'd someone who specialized in
operating, our contact centers. You'd get a lawyer.
You'd have obviously, they're very important and very talented
digital teams. All of those accountable owners,
were were responsible for doing their bit completely empowered.
Be trusted but they could not make decisions anywhere other
than, as part of that Central project.
If they were designing an element, they would need to come
back to the project just to make sure it matches the other
elements. So that was the first thing,
this Hub and spoke model where the people actually doing the
delivery. We're empowered, but the control
remained with the central project.
I'm a great believer that projects should transcend normal
structures and For not be pigeonholed into structures that
they should work across an organization, because that's
where you get the whole organization.
Partaking as head of project, profession for hmrc.
It's been a long-running ambition of mine to set up
projects in that way. And here was my chance.
He was my opportunity, the, the other two elements to how we
approach. This was the ruthlessly simple.
That was actually a phrase coined by RC.
EIEIO he was fantastic at keeping us, all on that
principle of ruthlessly simple. And it meant that we did not get
scope creep. What we did notice is in the
early days, when four weeks to set up a major
multibillion-pound scheme like this felt impossible, keeping.
It ruthlessly simple was actually quite easy.
People got the concept as we started to sort of, you know,
make a stand. In leaps and progress, that's
when people started to that sort of.
Can you just syndrome started to nip in Mark?
And I had to be all over that. And actually that was our third
principle. You need to bulldoze out the way
the blockers sometimes, you know, it's a ask politely
sometimes. It's actually just really quite
assertive structures in place to make sure that you are not
letting anything. It distracts you from getting
the job done. We hope you've enjoyed the
advice. We've picked out for you in this
episode. Listen to The Crisis talk series
and full simply search for the APM podcast on your platform
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Google and more will find plenty more content there to including
our second series project innovators.
When we look at how project professionals doing things
differently to meet the ever growing challenges and
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