Speaking in Hobart this week at the annual Australian Institute of Project Management conference, keynote speakers from public and private organisations acknowledged the increasingly important role of project management throughout society, but urged project managers to develop more ‘soft skills’ through managing relationships and providing true leadership.

According to Peter Watson, CEO and Managing Director of Transfield Services, it didn’t matter what great technical skills a project manager had, if he or she didn’t possess relationship building skills they wouldn’t succeed as project leaders. Watson also suggested that getting the right team of people who took a systematic approach would ensure a project was delivered successfully. “You need the right people and the right chemistry to achieve the desired outcomes of a project,” he said.

Australia’s Auditor-General, Ian McPhee said that in addition, recruiting the “right people” was a business’ most valuable asset.“In today’s world, it is important to place an emphasis on the managerial aspects of project management,” he said.

Rear Admiral Matt Tripovich, Chief of Defence Capability Group in the Australian Defence Headquarters, suggested project managers could lead reform and embrace change.He pointed to the Defence Materiel Organisation as being a good example of where project management delivered government capability to service outcomes.

He said that if projects were delivered efficiently, the savings made could be used to fund other parts of a business or government initiative.

Rear Admiral Simon Henley, of the Royal Navy in the UK, said the industry needed to get project managers into the boardroom. “To be a really effective, project managers need to be good leaders,” he said.

“As more projects feature higher levels of complexity, we need larger numbers of project managers of a younger age who are capable of operating in this space. We need to find a way of putting old heads on much younger project managers.”

AIPM CEO, Peter Shears, said there was an opportunity for the project management profession to close the gap between project practitioners and influential leaders such as board members and CEOs.There was a need to “step up to the plate”.

The newly-elected National President of the AIPM, Dr Bill Young, said Australia needed top-rate project managers, as did the rest of the world, but there wasn’t “enough competent people to fill the roles”.

“Australian project managers have a great opportunity in front of them. While our Australian manufacturing and other sectors maybe shrinking, our capability to manage projects globally is expanding. I want to see Australian project managers recognised globally as leaders and experts in the area of project management’.

The key issues for project management included improved accountability and delivery underpinned by exemplary planning, the flexibility to change when required and a deeper understanding of the role
of risk.

“The impact of delivering successful projects is enormous,” said Dr Young, “whether it be in mining, medical science or an aid project”.However, one of the keys to getting this right was working out how to link project governance with corporate governance.

Peter Shears said that the fundamentals of project management had reached maturity. The challenge now was to address how to turn project managers into high level leaders.

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Jody HammondCorrina Frankham

Email: jody@writeaway.com.auEmail: corrina@writeaway.com.au

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