Project Podcast

In this episode, Emma meets Kristina Bull, a Partner at QSA Partners, a B Corp consultancy with a mission to help organisations to implement circular economy business models. A project professional with a focus on sustainability, Kristina currently advises clothing brands and retailers and how to become more truly sustainable. She also works on the Cotton Lives On initiative, a recycling programme turning your old cottons into new products.

Listen to find out about her work on sustainability and her advice for every project professional on what more you can do.

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This episode sees Professor Adam Boddison, APM Chief Executive, in conversation with the Right Honourable Justine Greening. Justine served as an MP from 2005 to 2019. During her time in politics, she held positions including Secretary of State for Education, Minister for Women and Equalities and Secretary of State for International Development.

In this podcast, Adam and Justine discuss the definition of social mobility, the status of apprenticeships and where project management fits into the levelling up agenda.

Justine also shares her experiences as co-founder of the Social Mobility Pledge campaign, which encourages organisations to be a force for good by putting social mobility at the heart of their purpose.

Visit https://www.socialmobilitypledge.org/

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In this episode, Emma meets Sarah Coleman and Andrew Schuster to talk assurance management. Sarah is a Chartered Project Professional and Fellow of APM and PhD researcher, and Andrew is the National Director of Transformation Risk and Advisory at PwC Canada. Sarah and Andrew co-authored the recent APM Research report Value of Assurance Management Practices, which you can download here.

What distinctive practices are being used to develop and deliver an assurance management service in project-based organisations? And how do organisations determine the level and type of investment they will make in assurance management practices? Listen to find out.

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This episode sees Adam Boddison, APM chief executive, in conversation with Joanna Rowland, Director General for Transformation at HMRC. The pair discuss the evolution of the project profession within government, the skills and experience required to thrive in a project role and misconceptions surrounding the profession.

Jo also shares her career origins, including her time with the police, and her experience of working under pressure and amid intense public scrutiny during the pandemic.

If you want to learn more about HMRC’s project to deliver the furlough scheme during the pandemic, check out episode 7 of the APM Podcast, published in 2020.

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WiPM Conference 2022: As hybrid working merges our home and work lives, and project deadlines remain unrelenting, how do we improve our well-being? To find out, join us at APM's Women in Project Management Conference, taking place on Thursday 22 September at Etc. Venues, 133 Houndsditch, London.

In this episode, Andrew Saunders, business journalist and regular contributor to Project journal, sits down with Mark Wild, ex-CEO of Crossrail.

Mark took over as CEO of Crossrail in 2018 at a time of highly publicised budget and deadline overruns. Fast-forward to May this year, and Mark stepped down as CEO following the long-delayed but much-celebrated opening of the Elizabeth Line. Having successfully turned around such a complex and fraught programme, in this podcast Mark shares his insights into what went wrong in the early years of Crossrail, the changes he made upon becoming CEO and lessons for future complex programmes.

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Project journal Editor Emma De Vita meets Nico Vincent, Subsea Project Manager for the Endurance22 expedition, which on 5 March found the wreck of Endurance, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship, which sank off the coast of Antarctica 107 years ago. The wreckage was discovered at a depth of 3,008m, around four miles south of where it was reported to have been lost by Frank Worsley, Endurance’s captain, in 1915. Endurance22 set off from Cape Town a month earlier, with a team of 63 people aboard the South African ice-breaker Agulhas II. The expedition has reportedly cost around £7.6m.

Nico has spent 30 years recovering deep-sea wrecks and gives us his project management insights on what it takes to prepare for a project like this, how it feels to see such a piece of history – and the lessons he takes away from this successful project.

The new world requires a different mindset and skillset to navigate the pitfalls of change delivery. In this podcast, Jo Stanford (Health Education England) and Sarbjit Hoskinson (ThermoFisher Scientific) discuss how they have tackled the cultural and behavioural shifts needed to embed change. They explore the capabilities, team dynamics and mindset needed for project and change managers to deliver sustainable outcomes and achieve value in a complex, evolving environment.

Further reading 

In this episode Emma De Vita, editor of Project, APM’s quarterly journal speaks to to Dee Tamlin, currently head of legal project management at Pinsent Masons but who will, come mid-July be director of legal project management at White & Case, and Helga Butcher, at Head of Client Solutions within Ashurst Advance.

They delve into the world of legal project management – what it is, why it’s a hot area of growth for the profession, and how you can do it well. They also give their top tips on what it takes to work in this exciting new area for the profession.

In this episode Project journal editor Emma De Vita meets Richard Noble, the leader of some truly awe-inspiring British extreme speed projects on land, at sea and in the air. These included bringing the Land speed record back to Britain in 1983 when he drove his Thrust 2 car to 633mph, and 14 years later he led the Thrust SCC team to achieve the first supersonic record at 763 mph. He’s also the man behind the Bloodhound project with the mission to reach 1,000mph on land, and to inspire generations of new engineers and scientists through a pioneering educational programme.

He outlines what it takes to lead projects like this, why embracing risk makes for innovation, and how to motivate teams.

If you want to find out more, look out for his contribution to the forthcoming summer issue of APM’s Project journal, and get a copy of his book Take Risk!, published by EVRO.