How the Met Office delivers extraordinary impact and benefit through beautiful implementation - a transformation story webinar

This SWWE webinar was hosted by Martin Gosden, who introduced Elizabeth Harris, Met Office Programmes Director, and Sarah Mitchell, Head of Project Delivery Capability to talk about the transformation of the Met Office Project delivery capability. This webinar was held on 24 November 2022.

Elizabeth discussed the Met Office strategy, and how two years ago the new CEO recognised the need for a more professional approach to project delivery, and set up a Programmes Directorate, headed by Elizabeth to achieve this aim.

The Programme Directorate was stood up in January 2021 as the single home for approx. 120 project professionals and applied scientists across the Met Office. The aim was to restructure the organisation for project delivery, with career paths for great people, championing the profession, introducing a consistent approach, replacing contract staff with permanent staff and with a voice on the Board. Multidisciplinary teams were introduced for the first time.

The Met Office deliver a very broad range of products and projects. Customers include weather services for land, sea, space, defence and airlines. Strategic projects include replacing the super computers the Met Office depend upon. Underpinning projects cover internal capabilities and infrastructure around the world. High potential research projects investigate ideas, and research, such as autonomous vehicles.

In setting up the Programmes Directorate, Elizabeth had the luxury of almost starting from scratch, to recruit a new team, many from outside with diverse experience.

Sarah talked about the approach they adopted for project delivery. She described it as to beautifully implement and embed the project delivery capability throughout the Met Office. Beautifully means to implement in the right way for ourselves and our customers. To have brilliant delivery via consistency and a collaborative approach. The right thing, at the right time and right quality. To have integrity, honesty and to do the right thing. To seek continuous improvement. To be empowered and empower others.

Of course, none of this is easy, and the journey continues.

The have aligned with the Government’s PDCF, (Project Delivery Capability Framework), as the Met Office is an arm’s length body of the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, (BEIS). This is helping staff to understand their strengths and development needs. Projects and programmes are assessed by their complexity, and staff appointed by their expertise. The demand pipeline of projects is being actively managed to prioritise more effectively. The first project management apprenticeship scheme started last year with conditional offers being made to all of the 5 apprentices. The apprentices are helping shape the next intake in 2023. There is a new head of profession, and a PMO is being stood up to provide a centre of excellence. To keep building the capability the next focus is to ensure that business change is embedded throughout the delivery lifecycle.

To conclude, Elizabeth provided some interesting facts about the Met Office: Weather forecasts for Lake Victoria have saved many lives, locust predictions enable crops to be harvested before damage, lobster populations are used to monitor climate change, and there is a phone number for personal weather forecasts which the public can use.

The event concluded with a lively Q&A session with some really honest responses from our speakers.

Martin Gosden     SWWE Events Co-ordinator

The speakers have very kindly allowed their presented material to be made available for viewing. The slides on Slideshare and the webinar recording on YouTube is now available in our APM resources area and also embedded below for reference.

Speakers:

Elizabeth Harris
Elizabeth is the first Programmes Director, joining the Met Office in November 2020. She began her career as an electronic engineering apprentice and completed her degree by day release with her employer. She is now a Chartered Project Professional, with decades of experience leading the delivery of cutting-edge research within government.

As the Programmes Director, Elizabeth has accountability for programme delivery within the Met Office.

Elizabeth is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Sarah Mitchell
Sarah joined the Met Office in August 2021, as the Head of the Project Delivery Capability within the Programmes Directorate. She began her career in the Utility Industry where she spent 16+ years.

Her current role is leading and directing a significant team of P3M professionals with a clear focus on building the delivery capability. This covers all elements of delivery and leadership through collaboration and teamwork within the Programmes Directorate.

This webinar is suitable for professionals with an intermediate level of experience.

Previous webinars can be viewed on the APM Slideshare and YouTube channels. 

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