Unprecedented projects for unprecedented times

Who would have thought at the start of 2020 that Christian Dior would be pumping out hand sanitiser and Chanel medical masks and gowns? That the Royal Mint would be making medical visors or that car manufacturers would be making ventilators? The skill and speed with which organisations and their project managers have adapted and pivoted under extreme pressure has been impressive, from government departments like HMRC and NHSX, with its work on a contact tracing app, to online retailers such as Ocado.

Nothing has been more physically symbolic of the coronavirus crisis than the temporary hospitals that were built within weeks across the UK to help the NHS cope with COVID-19 cases – and that have thankfully been underused. NHS Louisa Jordan opened in April in Scotland’s largest exhibition centre, Glasgow’s SEC, at a cost of £43m. Graeme Watson, infrastructure firm AECOM’s director on the project, tells Project it was “the hardest three weeks of my life”. And this is coming from a former British Army platoon commander.

“This stretched me in many different ways, including implementing an extreme level of prioritisation to set up processes which were streamlined and fit for purpose, and maximised compliance and patient safety, and building relationships and trust very quickly with new team members and companies.

“The most impressive element of the project was the way everyone collaborated to such a degree. Yes, of course there were tensions and we had to hold people to account, but the can-do attitude that everyone brought was amazing. We had to create the conditions where any member of the team could feel confident proposing ideas.”

The unsung heroes of the project profession

“Perhaps when this whole dreadful pandemic is concluded, one of the key chapters of the story will be on the often unsung contribution of project professionals, using adaptive and change management skills to deliver a bewildering array of logistical and adaptive emergency projects and activities,” wrote Sue Kershaw, president of APM and managing director of transportation at Costain, in a blog for APM’s website. “The successes and failures will show a clear route map back to those organisations that were well organised and had the vision, skills and capacity to adapt at speed against immense pressure and deadlines to deliver. That is to say great project management was at the heart of this success.”

And yet the UK will need a similarly imaginative collective effort to rebuild its economy and social and mental fabric, Kershaw argued: “Project management must be at the heart of this effort.”

Implications for the future of project management

“It was interesting to see the findings of a recent survey by APM reveal that, even after the introduction of the lockdown in March, there were more project professionals who reported projects being brought forward than cancelled as a direct result of coronavirus,” wrote Debbie Dore, chief executive of APM, in a blog. “While this didn’t overshadow the high percentage that are experiencing budget cuts or changes to scope and timelines, it did highlight the fact that – first and foremost – our profession has the flexibility and resilience to handle change and can rise to the challenge.”

Meanwhile, Tim Banfield, chair of APM’s Projecting the Future Group and director at the Nicholls Group, tells Project: “COVID-19 has drawn into sharp focus the importance of the project profession in dealing with dynamic change. It has given us the chance to demonstrate to the world that we are more than technical experts and that we provide expertise and leadership at times of momentous change.

“As project professionals, COVID-19 is providing a real-world test bed to showcase the way we routinely use emergent and novel practices in our work and adapt and learn as we go. What I’m seeing is that our confidence and ambition in delivering the diverse change required swiftly and effectively in the face of massive uncertainty are rising. That is about more than applying traditional agile practices. What it shows is that adaptability – in techniques, attitudes and behaviours – is king. It is now an essential part of the project practitioner’s strategic toolkit.

“The things my fellow project professionals are achieving while often working in incredibly difficult conditions are absolutely inspirational. They are real concrete examples that everything we do changes the world a little bit for the better.”

Banfield believes that the conversation APM and its members have been having around Projecting the Future over the past year will give the profession a head-start to build on the momentum the crisis is generating.

“When we look back, my aspiration is that the COVID-19 crisis will be seen as the moment when the project profession really came of age and our value was truly recognised. But more than that, it will be when we positioned ourselves in the minds of senior business and public-sector leaders as being at the heart of future change.

“What strikes me is that having a common goal, breaking down silos, relaxing the shackles of bureaucracy and being forced to work differently are giving us years of learning in months – it is an evolutionary leap for us as individuals and for the project profession.”

Brilliance at a cost

But it isn’t easy, Banfield admits. Not just in his own work environment, but in lots of conversations with colleagues, it is clear that different working patterns, tensions and pressures combined with understandable fears about the virus and the future are stressing individuals and teams in multiple ways – and the challenges are changing the longer the crisis runs. “We are achieving brilliant things, but at what cost? What worries me are the implications on the mental and physical wellbeing of colleagues and my teams – not to mention my family and friends.”

Check out episode two of The APM Podcast (apmpodcast.podbean.com), in which Sue Kershaw and Debbie Dore discuss the project profession’s future opportunities in light of change brought about by the COVID-19 crisis