Project management and engineering services with a deep sense of purpose

The nature of every project is to transform a situation or function to what the sponsor believes would be a better situation or function.

In light of this general definition of project, we may realise that every human being or organisation - be it a private company, a charity or government body - acts to improve their situation or the situation of the people they represent.

Values as well as goals

In the same way the Buddha explained “Happiness is not the goal, Happiness is the way”, it is fundamental that stakeholders remain mindful not only of the aim and goals of a project, but the way in which it is governed and managed. Indeed, good project management ensures that the values it promotes are developed as the project progress, not just at the end, remembering to celebrate along the way SMART goals achieved. For example, what good is a project that increases the short-term financial value of a company, but at the same time jeopardises its credibility by pressurising its employees into acting unethically to achieve unrealistic goals? We believe that the wellness of all people participating in or affected by a project are inextricably linked to its sustainable success.

The art is therefore to define the values that a project wants to promote, ensuring that these values are wholeheartedly accepted by all stakeholders and team members, so that whatever changes occur in the context of the project, everybody remains committed to them. Otherwise, the loss of purpose can quickly lead to demotivation.

 

 

This leads naturally to the importance of defining and communicating clearly and regularly the overall context and goals of a project, so that all stakeholders and actors can clearly see the road ‘from here to there’, and hence maintain a sense of purpose and motivation.

Encouraging agility

While governance can be defined a set of professional skills, knowledge, processes and tools organized together to form a body of integrated systems to harmoniously deliver projects, ultimately it is run by humans, and so empowering the intelligence of all team members should prevail. We use the term ‘intelligence’ to mean ‘the ability to respond in a creative way to a given situation’, and since any challenge or problem has not one solution but many, it is important to create the space to enable team members to come up with the smartest solutions they can find. This ‘coaching’ approach is one key skill set that any team leader or manager should really embody. In this context, whenever suitable, we believe an agile approach to project management should be adopted.

Do not let your project sink down into complacency; strive to achieve excellence. This can only be achieved by cohesive team, with members who are self-motivated and inspired by a deep sense of purpose.

In some ways the agile approach to project management is encapsulated in the following quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupery:

“If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea”.

 

How we can work with you

 

We can bring our expertise to any phase of your project, with services ranging from initial scoping reports to management of the whole project life cycle.

We use a recognized project management framework, the ‘RIBA Plan of Work 2020’, which describes clearly and in detail each stage of a project’s life, to underpin our project approach. The document can be downloaded directly from the official RIBA website here:

 

Fields of Expertise and Professional Services We Can Offer

 

Sectors we specialize in