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Synopsis:

• How I became a project manager
• Major milestones in formalised project management
• Opportunities and Challenges
• Operating a Centre of Excellence or PMO
• LFE and EVM
• Milestones in the Evolution of the PM Profession
• Keys to Project Success
• Was this the Golden Age of PM?
• What does the future hold for PM?

This event, Psychological Safety: Beyond the Buzzword in Project Delivery, takes a practical and honest look at what psychological safety really means in the context of delivering projects, programmes, and portfolios. It moves beyond theory to explore the real behaviours, signals, and environments that either enable or undermine open communication.

We will examine common delivery challenges such as “green” reporting masking underlying issues, the impact of fear on escalation, and the unintended consequences of traditional governance approaches. More importantly, we will focus on what can be done differently, at individual, team, and leadership levels, to create conditions where people feel able to speak up early, challenge constructively, and contribute fully.

The session will provide actionable insights and practical takeaways that can be applied immediately, helping to reduce delivery risk, improve transparency, and ultimately enhance project outcomes.

If you read the UK press, the UK has an almost exclusively poor record on defence procurement and, seemingly, the larger the programme the worse the performance.

Based on over 30 years working on major defence projects in the air and submarine sectors, Scot will unpick this premise and show that, while it’s not all good, it’s not all bad either.  Using real examples (potentially anonymised to protect individuals and security), Scot will identify areas of continued weakness and ongoing strength.  Rather than make this a one-way presentation, Scot would welcome a discussion on how we might overcome the former and build on the latter.

The four threads that Scot will pull on are:

• Entry-ism: Starting projects on the wrong footing
• Governance and decision making: both internal and external to the projects
• Lack of consistent structure and formality in the way we manage projects
• Change and change management