Association for Project Management

John volunteers with the Association for Project Management (APM), sits on their Midlands Branch committee, and currently chairs their Midlands Corporate Advisory Group (MCAG).

The MCAG provides heads of PM function from APM corporate members with a unique opportunity to network with, and join, peers from different organisations and industries to explore a specific topic related to projects, programmes and portfolios. There is usually an expert on the topic on hand to explain best practice before attendees share and discuss their experiences in a round table format.

MCAG 1: PMO Set-up hosted at RLB in Birmingham on 15th June, 2016. After an engaging presentation by Eileen Roden from the APM PMO SIG, John facilitated a member experience sharing session.

MCAG 2: Change Projects hosted by Rolls Royce in Solihull on 2nd November, 2016. After a fascinating presentation by Stuart Baker of Rolls Royce, John facilitated a member experience sharing session.

MCAG 3: Behavioural Expectations for Project Leaders hosted at Gleeds in Birmingham on 23rd February 2017. After an enlightening presentation by Laurence Davidson of CTS, John facilitated a member experience sharing session.

MCAG 4: Stakeholder Management hosted by HS2 in Birmingham, on 20th July, 2017. John chaired a thought provoking session which included presentations by Ian Cribbes of the APM People SIG as well as by Colin Jackson and Laura Doughty of HS2 Ltd.

MCAG 5: Risk Management hosted by University of Warwick in Warwick on 13th December, 2017. John chaired an interesting session with presentations from Kenneth Evans of Stansted Airport and Robert Webb of Bechtel.

On 29th November, 2017 John hosted the APM Midlands Young Project Professional Awards Night at IET Austin Court in Birmingham. The Keynote presentation was on the subject of The Future of Project Management by Rob Leslie-Carter of Arup. After presentations on their projects by 7 worthy finalists, Sam Higgins from Rolls Royce was presented with the winners award.

MCAG 6: Developing Soft Skills in Your PM Community hosted by RLB in Birmingham on 19th March, 2018. John chaired a stimulating session with a presentation by James Whitaker of BT.

MCAG 7: Developing Talent in your PM Community hosted by WSP in Birmingham on 13th June, 2018. John chaired an interesting session which included a presentation by Vince Hines of Wellingtone.

MCAG 8: Scope Creep hosted by XPO Logistics in Derby on 14th November, 2018. John chaired an engaging session which included presentations by Sarah Booth and Marie Chambers of XPO Logistics.

MCAG 9: How APM Can Help Develop your PM Community Competence hosted by HS2 in Birmingham on 6th March 2019. John chaired an interactive session which included an informative presentation by Rebecca Fox of APM, and an enlightening demonstration by Suresh Sadanandan of HS2.

MCAG 10: Portfolio Management hosted by WSP in Birmingham on 19th July, 2019. John chaired an interesting session including an engaging presentation by Stephen Leary of APMs Portfolio Management SIG.

MCAG 11: Projecting The Future hosted by RLB in Birmingham on 26th November, 2019. After an interesting introduction to the papers by Stephen Rooney of APM John facilitated a group discussion around the 6 key themes: 4th Industrial Revolution: Robotics, Data and AI; Climate Change, Clean Growth & Sustainability; Future Workplace, Future Skills; Demographics and Ageing: the 100-Year Life; The Future of Mobility & Transport; Urbanisation, Connectivity & Building Smart Cities.

On 22nd January, 2020 John hosted the APM Midlands Conference at IET Austin Court in Birmingham. Supporting the Big Conversation on Projecting the Future, John introduced the speakers and facilitated Q&A for each session. David Thomson APM Head of External Affairs gave an overview of the Projecting the Future papers. David Atkinson and David Humber of QinetiQ gave a case study on the 4th Industrial Revolution. Tiago Dias and Karen Davis of HS2 gave a case study on Future Workplace and Dr. Andrew Clifton of Rolls Royce have a case study on Sustainability. John then then introduced Debbie Dore, APM CEO, who closed the conference.

MCAG 12: Bouncing Back was hosted by online by APM on 28th May, 2020. John chaired this session where Richard Fallon of Technology Supply Chain looked at Funded Innovation Support for Midlands companies, and Russell Muir of Rolls Royce John shared how they were adapting to the step changes in the Aerospace Industry under a global pandemic.

MCAG 13: The Golden Thread hosted online by APM on 3rd November, 2020. In this session, Daniel Nicholls, APM Research Manager introduced the 3 Golden Thread research papers, before we focused in on the Midlands Engine. Dr. Pam Waddell OBE from Innovation Alliance West Midlands shared how her organisation is supporting growth through innovation, highlighting the importance of collaboration. Emma Carroll-Walsh from the Manufacturing Technology Centre then shared how they are enabling manufacture resilience and discussed some of the skills needed for project management moving forward.

After an engaging panel discussion chaired by John, we shifted our attention to SMEs. John introduced some of his thinking around the specific challenges facing project managers in SMEs, how they are the biggest population of PMs in the UK and yet disadvantaged when compared to PMs in bigger organisations. This lead to an interesting round table discussion on what we could and should be doing as a profession to better support SME project managers.

DigiRail

John has also presented on Product and Project Management at DigiRail Stay Connected meetings for the Rail Alliance and BCRRE:

23rd July 2020

Product Management

John introduced the audience to the product development lifecycle, roles in the lifecycle, the importance of stage gates, methods for product development including agile and more traditional, unique challenges in the rail environment, the importance of project management in product development and how project management is the key to collaboration and innovation.

22nd October, 2020

Project Management Part 1

Building on an explanation from Martin Little from Rail Alliance (link) on the Network Rail GRIP model, John introduced projects and project management, and the different types of project. He explained:

• why project management matters to SMEs in the rail industry,

• why most projects fail, and

• what high performing organisations do differently.

5th November, 2020

Project Management Part 2

Following on from the session in October, John looked at three components for high performing project management capabilities:

• success relying not just on techniques but also attitudes and behaviours

• the components of a simple, scalable project management playbook, and

• human factors on project success.