Major Projects Association

In this podcast episode on the topic of change and delivery at pace, Andy Murray interviews project delivery experts from the pharmaceutical industry: Denise Moody of the Pharmaceutical Industry Project Management Group, Fraser MacFarlane from GSK, and Danie Du Plessis of Kyowa Kirin International.

During their conversation, we learn:

• the imperative and the challenge of focus and prioritization

Gareth Parkes, Head of Data and Analytics at Sir Robert MacAlpine, interviews Ed Burns, CCO at Mafic, Luis Lattuf and Yixue Shen, both researchers at WMG, to help us understand where project data analytics is going and what are the practical applications, obstacles and opportunities presented by the fast moving technology.

During their conversation, we learn about Mafic's real world application of data and what they have learned about the problem of trust, the need for both organisation and users to derive value from the tech, and how the power of positive motivation is encouraging uptake along with fundamental changes in management assumptions and style. 

We also hear the evidence of the importance of the technology enablers: ease of use and usefulness and ways of overcoming the barriers to adoption; as well as discover the difference between artificial intelligence and machine learning, and how the latter can be used to predict project performance.

Join Andy Murray, Executive Director of the Major Projects Association; Jenni MacKenzie, Commonwealth Games Senior Programme Manager; Mark Russell, Chief Executive of The Children's Society , Dr Simon Addyman, Associate Professor at UCL; and Deirdre Fox, Non-Executive Director at Advance Consultancy as they explore collaboration and leadership in major projects.

During their wide-ranging discussion, they cover:

• How the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games used collaborative leadership to deliver, despite the Covid pandemic, a curtailed schedule and the need to descope parts of the original plan

Professor David Clutterbuck recently celebrated his 75th birthday (and published his 75th book). In this wide-ranging Masterclass he shares his good humoured and razor sharp insights from nearly 50 years of coaching and mentoring.

• a range of models such as The Diversity Awareness Ladder, the five different levels of interaction we have with other people;

In the second part of our Annual Conference podcast, Andy Murray interviews Nick Smallwood, CEO of the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, on how to change the way people think about delivery to make what you do 'nothing less than world class'.

In a wide-ranging interview, they discuss topics such as benchmarking, project and programme leadership, risk versus reward, and what project organisations look like when 'curious leaders enable communities of curiosity'; facilitating new thinking and the adoption of innovative tools, processes and approaches.

Every major project encourages an unwavering focus on successful delivery. Whilst this has the advantage of generating continual forward momentum and progress, it carries with it a real risk: the creation of an echo chamber.

In an echo chamber we remain fixed in our own limited bubble, unhearing or sceptical of any voices from 'outside our group' who may be advocating a different approach, questioning elements of our model or our delivery plan and playing the critical role of Devil's Advocate.

The Major Projects Association annual conference in January 2023 explored the phenomenon of the 'echo chamber':

• defining the concept and its impact on project delivery organisations

The podcast episode, the first of two, features Andy Murray, Executive Director of the Association, interviewing Professor Harvey Maylor of Oxford Said Business School; Andrea Powell of EY; Lauralee Doughty of Sellafield; and Richard Corderoy of the Oakland Group.

In the second episode, Andy interviews our keynote speaker from the conference to pick up and explore the ideas of the echo chamber  in the context of the work of the Infrastructure and Projects Authority.

In the latest episode from our podcast series spun out of the Association events programme, Andy Murray interviews James Stewart from Agilia Infrastructure Partners, Paul Innes from Grant Thornton, and Stewart Westgate of Boston Consulting Group.

• The underlying theme of confidence and some of the things that underpin it which you can't put on a simple scorecard

In an environment in which investor confidence has taken a battering over recent years and where risk appetite is at an all-time low, finding ways to demonstrate the appeal and affordability of your project and crafting the right story to engage investors is a fundamental capability.

In the second of this Two-Part podcast, based on the Major Project Association seminar "Systems Thinking, Systems Leading", Andy Murray interviews David Parkin, Project Director of Hynet North West who gives an insight into how one enterprise has sought to manage the system complexity that comes with the challenge of decarbonisation. HyNet is not a legal entity, but rather a collaboration through which the partners are seeking to break the link between wealth generation and carbon emissions in the UK’s industrial hub of North West England.

The task faced by HyNet can be broken down into four key elements: Technical Integration, Commercial Structures, Planning and Consenting, Policy & Regulation. The programme needs to integrate two complex technical systems, one for hydrogen production, storage and distribution, the other for carbon capture and storage. Both systems involve new or rapidly evolving technology. Multiple consents also need to be secured, including several which are first Systems Thinking, Systems Leading of a kind for the UK.

Similarly, a series of commercial models need to be designed, sometimes from scratch, and their bankability established. Finally, the programme has to navigate multiple regulatory regimes not all of which currently exist. David has drawn four overarching lessons from his work to date: purpose, integration, relationships, and leadership. He touches on all of these elements in the podcast.

"As projects become more complex, their success or failure is increasingly determined by the interactions between new and pre-existing natural, built and digital systems, and the critical role of people in making these interactions work. As such, project outputs should not be viewed in isolation but as part of a system of systems". 

In the first of this Two-Part podcast, based on the Major Project Association seminar "Systems Thinking, Systems Leading", Andy Murray interviews Mark Wild, ex-CEO of Crossrail and now Chief Executive at SGN and Michele Dix, previously Head of Crossrail 2, and now a Non-Executive Director at the Association.

In a wide-ranging conversation, they discuss

• the role of the 'systems leader'; someone who needs to build a relationship with the ecosystem of major project

In the summer of 2020, the UK Government launched its Project Speed initiative, with the promise to review every part of the project lifecycle in pursuit of faster, better and greener delivery. 

In this latest podcast episode, drawing on the ideas and the panellists from the Major Projects Association's recent Pace of Pace seminar in Manchester, Andy Murray, Executive Director of the Association, interviews David Haimes, Director, Regional Investment Programme North, National Highways; Emma Willson, Director, Major Project Delivery Hub, UK National Audit Office; Rebecca Collings, Director of Collaboration and Change, The Nichols Group; and Simon Kirby, Managing Partner, The Nichols Group; to establish what's been the progress since the initiative's launch and to share examples of successful project acceleration.