Opinion – Projects, People & Princes – A dismantling of modern Project Methodology

Joel Toward, Consultant at Apira, specialising in Digital Transformation and Pathology LIMS Implementation, shares a nuanced critique of current practices and explores the key skills that define success within Project Management.

I am a Prince2 Practitioner, and I am very thankful for the lessons it has taught me, especially in the Consulting industry, and especially when working for NHS Trusts managing large scale digital change. There are valuable lessons to be learned in the world of Prince2 and similar professional accreditations; Governance is critical, tolerance bounds should be set, highlight reports, checkpoint reports, along with many other elements. All of which is important, even critical. But do reports really matter if the people within your Project aren’t inspired to work with you, or for you? What good is a process if it isn’t followed? How effective is a report or presentation when the people listening to it are too overworked or overburdened with other Projects to fully digest the content?

In challenging environments like the NHS, it doesn’t matter how many other Projects of similar calibre you’ve managed, how many abbreviations you have at the end of your signature, or if you’re a Subject Matter Expert; you need to apply a more nuanced approach to assure success, and that approach will rely a lot more on People than it does Princes. 

My first day of harmonising a Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) across 4 NHS Trusts went a bit like this. I joined a Teams meeting with the Pathology Systems Lead, an overworked Lead at that! Like many, he was juggling Business as Usual and Project work frantically and impossibly. Usually – as a consultant – you want to show an elite level of competency, using all the key words, selling yourself as a beacon of light who can single handedly take this project to success. Within 30 seconds I could tell this approach would be like throwing ice cubes at the sun, simply insufficient. The truth is, there are better professionals out there than me, there are people out there who have done this more times and have better experience clinically, technically, operationally than I have. And guess what? That sentence also applies to you. Not recognising this is overtly hubristic. So how did I approach this situation?

Spouting the corporate dictionary would have been pointless, he had worked with other Project Managers and things didn’t progress, so I started thinking less about the Prince and more about the Person. He pulled up his emails; five or six Project stakeholders chased him that morning on separate tasks, ranging from significant to mundane. I asked him about all the tasks which were outstanding, which he thought were the priorities i.e. ‘Which ones can you realistically do and can’t do? Which ones are worth your time?’ and told him I could handle the rest. We left that call in agreement, a 15-minute slot once a week where we agreed which tasks to prioritise for that week, and that if people want to chase him for a task, regardless of how Senior or scary sounding their job title, they go through me in the first instance. Now, this is a bit of an amalgamated management method, and did break the standard reporting lines which the Project was previously operating, but the results were astounding. Within a month we managed to complete the critical tasks which were causing delay to the Program, delegate the other tasks to others who were more skilled or suited to complete the tasks, and create a robust process using the Project Manager as the central anchor. We may not have followed every rule in the book, but we arrived on time and only narrowly breaking the speed limit when it was safe to do so. 

People Skills are crucial. Language is powerful, and it can have a resounding impact within your Project.

A couple of flippant statements can have a group leaving your system optimisation presentation thinking: 

‘Wow. This system has a lot of tricks and tools that once we learn can make our day jobs so much easier. I didn’t even realise! Let’s get this done, it’s worth the push.’ 

Or, probably more realistically: 

‘Wow. We really did mess up Phase 1 and now we have even MORE work to do to see any benefits whatsoever from our efforts.’ 

It is for this reason that when my younger cousin asked which course is best for young professionals to break in to the world of digital transformation and general Project Consulting, I handed him a copy of Dale Carnegie’s magnum opus ‘How to Win Friends & Influence People’, and said ‘read this before you spend any money on a course. If you can’t apply this, you can’t inspire a team to succeed’.

As a Project Manager or similar, you are only as good as the People around you. One of the guiding principles of Prince2 I wholeheartedly agree with is that once you learn the general skeleton, you can apply this to any discipline. For example, I specialise in LIMS systems, meaning I have certain experience and ability in delivering these systems safely and in challenging environments. What it does not mean is that I am an expert in the clinical disciplines of Cellular Pathology, Microbiology, Blood Science and Blood Transfusion, the areas to which a LIMS typically relates. It does not mean that I can configure a Server or lead a training session on how to work the system. When asked ‘so what is your background?’ I simply say that I specialise in assuring the success of any Project. I won’t get lost in the minutiae because I know it’s not something I can expertly contribute to. In fact, having specialist skills in specific areas within your Project can often hinder success, as focus is shifted disproportionately to areas of interest whilst others are neglected. What is more important is knowing exactly who needs to be involved in which conversations, who can tell you whether this really is a clinical risk or just an inconvenience, and the correct times to report this upwards. You need to be able to inspire a team to deliver, and this People focus will get you further than any specialist knowledge ever will. It’s ironic, even oxymoronic, that a core principle of Prince2 is that you sometimes need to abandon convention to a Project Methodology to assure success.

So where does this leave us? I think Project Managers need to be humbler and understand that adding value comes from enabling others to do their jobs. This is done by using a hybrid approach of People Skills and Project Skills, with the Prince overseeing from afar. And, dare I say it, sometimes we need to focus less on royalty and more on the regular people who need us.