This article was co-written by Nick Saunders, a Project Officer, Natalie Preston, a Project Manager, and Yvonne Rinkart, Project Officer, all in the Organisation Business Transformation Team. Yvonne is also a Convenor of Southwark Council’s Project Management Network. It was edited by Nyemeh Badjan, a CFM Project Manager.

Public servants’ ability to keep going in the face of uncertainty is a superpower, and we knew that even before Covid-19. Another key trait is grit, a combination of perseverance and passion. As public servants face the 21st century, we’ve identified resilience as another essential characteristic.

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In responding to the Covid-19 pandemic, public servants across the globe learned to operate with more uncertainty than ever before. Now is a good time to take stock of what we’ve learned. So, what does resilience look like for project managers in the public sector? And how can we continue to deliver projects for the public in uncertain times?

Knowing the limits of your knowledge can help you respond and adapt

Projects face different types of uncertainty. Some of these can be described as known unknowns (the things we know we don’t know). Others may be unknown unknowns (the things we don’t know we don’t know). If a project is to be resilient, it will need to successfully respond and adapt to both of these.

You can usually deal with the known unknowns- more easily. Through risk management, you can anticipate the possible challenges that the project may face. Even if you do not understand everything about them, you can develop a plan to deal with these challenges should they arise.

For example, you may know some stakeholders will oppose an aspect of a project, but the extent of their opposition may be unknown. Risk management would allow you to be resilient to this challenge — after becoming aware of the challenge, you can draft different responses to the stakeholders and deploy the most appropriate of these when the extent of their opposition becomes clear. A stakeholder analysis and management plan would also be useful here and we will return to this later.

The unknown unknowns are much more challenging. It’s not possible to plan for these; however, an iterative approach can be helpful to give your project resilience to these issues. Unlike linear approaches to managing projects, iteration allows stages of the project to be repeated. Therefore, as unknown unknowns arise during the project, you have the chance to respond and adapt to them.

For example, after the first deployment of a new technology, an unknown unknown could arise. Under an iterative approach, you would have the chance to deploy the technology again; as a result of this, you could respond and adapt to the challenges you face.

Actively build resilience in yourself and in your team

The good news is that you can actively build resilience in yourself and your team to help you manage iterative projects with many unknown unknowns. For example, find opportunities to practice gratitude, celebrate the present and connect with others. Social connections are a key component of resilience.

To build resilience in your team, make sure that you know how your colleagues are feeling. Their professional confidence, established working routines and social networks all help to build and maintain resilience. Seek out ways to help build these resilience factors in your team, and foster conversations about them.

Start conversations to help your team come to terms with uncertainty, and help them reframe challenges as learning opportunities. For example, think about how remote working has affected your team. There will no doubt have been a whole list of challenges. But there will have been important opportunities for your colleagues to grow: they may have improved their occupational flexibility, or developed greater digital literacy.

Above all, help your team understand that the lack of uncertainty is not something that you have caused. Instead, make it clear that it’s your role to steer the project and the team through it, and this can only be achieved through building those social connections and ultimately their trust.

Reassure your stakeholders

Another cornerstone of delivering projects in uncertain environments is engaging with your stakeholders. There are the people that will be affected by your project and those who can affect your project in return. Understanding your stakeholders is not something you do once, at the start of your project. Especially in uncertain environments, due to the changing landscape, you should analyse your stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle.

As project management professionals, we often become comfortable with change — to scope, to budget, and to the levels of risk surrounding your project. However, it’s important to remember that your stakeholders are also operating in a world of constant change. The public, in particular, have experienced significant upheaval recently during the coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, dynamic stakeholder engagement is essential, to build resilience of your project.

Here are some tips for engaging successfully with project stakeholders, no matter what the environment and context.

  • Investing in your relationships with stakeholders will help the smooth delivery of your project and minimise uncertainty. Building relationships, and trust, is key. You’ll learn more in week 4 of this boot camp about how emotional intelligence is an important part of this, no matter what the project and environment.
  • Two-way communication is essential. This is especially true in agile projects and when operating in uncertain environments. Involve stakeholders at the earliest sensible opportunity, and invite them to key meetings. Get their feedback when changes are introduced, and projects are reviewed: this will help increase trust, even amongst your most challenging stakeholders. Doing this will build resilience into your project when it needs it the most.
  • It’s important to manage expectations with honesty, clarity about timescales and regular communication. Pick times for communicating to suit the project environment. Bear in mind that in an uncertain context you’ll need a different approach to and frequency of communication with your stakeholders compared to ordinary circumstances.

Why project managers should invest in resilience

Resilient teams have a shared understanding of teamwork. They can improvise when circumstances change and believe in their collective ability to complete tasks effectively. People who are part of resilient teams can trust their teammates and they feel safe working in their team — and this makes it easier for them to cope with uncertainty. Having read this article, you have all the tools to help your team deliver projects in uncertainty. — Nick Saunders, Natalie Preston, and Yvonne Rinkart

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