How to recover and thrive when projects ‘fail’
Corecom Consulting’s UK Contract Team Manager, Jack Watson was delighted to host the latest Corecom PMBoss event in Leeds earlier this month. The theme was ‘When Projects Fail’ and we were thoroughly entertained and educated by our speaker Andrew Pitkeathly, Head of Public Sector and Utilities at Tech Consultancy Nimble Approach.
Andrew walked the audience of Project and Programme Managers through two of his most challenging and high-profile projects, both of which presented him with enormous hurdles to overcome in the face of public and professional scrutiny. The UK launch of the iPhone in 2007 was the subject of in the first topic (some of us may be ‘mature’ enough to remember the press coverage of this event!), and a major dispute with a high-street bank around serious defects in a business-critical product launch was the second topic of the night.
The challenges had real impact on both businesses and sales, with an evitable ripple effect on suppliers and partners. The stories were a lesson in resilience and perseverance for Programme Managers and there were plenty of murmurs of recognition from the audience as the stories unfolded. Ultimately in these projects there were contracts lost and disappointments navigated, but Andrew gave advice on how to build motivation in a battle-weary team and how to maintain focus and delivery amidst an atmosphere of dispute.
The group later split into smaller discussion groups to explore the pain points of ‘when projects fail’ and add their recommendations for recovery and results under challenging circumstances. It was an upbeat and enjoyable evening and the Corecom team were pleased to welcome Project and Programme Managers from a multitude of sectors including Finance, Retail, IT and Healthcare.
If you are interested in speaking at a Corecom ‘Boss’ event, send us a message below.
To speak to Jack or a colleague about contract or permanent recruitment within IT and Tech, send us a message here.
Our next ‘Boss’ event is DevBoss on Thursday 20th April in central Leeds.
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My hope for the future is to experience women in technology as the norm. The early stages of my career in tech were shaped by women and I feel very privileged to count some of the best women in technology in my network of close contacts and friends. However, I know this isn’t the case for many women in the sector, who find themselves outnumbered by the opposite sex. Anything I can do to challenge the current norm and break the stigma for Women in Technology, I will do.
