Building Skills for the Future

These are challenging times for project delivery professionals.  This session considers how a reflexive mindset, the thoughtful questioning of habitual action, can help in balancing ‘better, faster and greener’ priorities. For example, we consider how engaging with diverse and shifting perceptions of what is considered ‘better’ may improve iterative learning. For ‘faster’ and ‘greener’, we consider how to balance the constraints of urgency and speed with a learning approach that draws from the past to improve present and future decisions.  

To demonstrate these points this session draws on two recently published reports by the National Audit Office (NAO) and the Association of Project Management (APM). Emma Willson from the NAO will discuss the NAO’s recent report drawing lessons from its work across a range of government programmes delivered at speed. Academics from Sussex, Brighton and Newcastle share their findings from a suite of in-depth case-studies in a recent report published by the APM ‘Rethinking capabilities: lessons for policy, scholarship and practice’.

This session is hosted by Dr Fiona Spencer, Director of Function, Profession and Standards within the Infrastructure and Projects Authority. It is moderated by Paul Nightingale, Professor of Strategy and Associate Dean for Engagement at the University of Sussex Business School.

See additional background detail

Association for Project Management report- Rethinking capabilities: Lessons for policy, scholarship and practice

National Audit Office report- Delivering programmes at speed

Association for Project Management July 26 podcast- From the Frontline: Lessons from the pandemic for better programme management