The Psychology of Major Programmes With Dr. Diana Nada | S1 EP 14

11/06/23 • 43 min

“Projects get delivered by people and how we do things in our day to day life and how we make big decisions around our day to day life, whether it’s small or big, are actually very relatable on how we make decisions in the business world when funding, approving and delivering projects.”– Dr. Diana Nada

Dr. Diana brings over 20 years of experience advising public and private sector clients on strategies and toolkits for best practices in improved capital project delivery and informed decision making. She is a regular industry contributor, a published scholar educator with over 25 speaking engagements. She is the current AAC Canada Region One director, and is a member of the ULI Public Development and Infrastructure Council and the UK APM Project Assurance SIG. Diana is one of the contributing authors to the 2023 first edition for A Guide to Auditing Programmes and Projects, published by APM. She was shortlisted as one of the 2020 A Woman Infrastructure Network, emerging leaders in Canada.

Key Takeaways:

The importance of qualitative research in major projects, where social sciences intersect with major programmes
Basing major project success on a rocky foundation, the deflation of estimates and unrealistic expectations
How PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) and PMP (Project Management Professional) certification can evolve to encompass broader strategic considerations and better prepare major programme implementers
Collaborative contracting and identifying collaboration (regardless of delivery method) as a key component for success in major programmes
Performance measurement and how not aligning incentives can influences decision-making and team relationships

Links Mentioned:

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox.

The conversation doesn’t stop here—connect and converse with our community via LinkedIn:

Navigating Major Programmes on LinkedIn
Follow Riccardo Cosentino on LinkedIn
Follow Dr. Diana Nada, PhD on LinkedIn

Transcript:

Riccardo Cosentino 00:05

You're listening to navigate major problems, the podcast that aims to elevate the conversations happening in the infrastructure industry and inspire you to have a more efficient approach within it. I'm your host, Riccardo Cosentino brings over 20 years of major product management experience. Most recently, I graduated from Oxford University's day business school, which shook my belief when it comes to navigating major problems. Now it's time to shake yours. Join me in each episode, as I pressed the industry experts about the complexity of major program management, emerging digital trends and the critical leadership required to approach these multibillion dollar projects. Let's see where the conversation takes us. Dr. Diana nada is a project management expert and advisory mega capital projects, a civil engineer by background with a PhD in project management from the University of Calgary. She brings over 20 years of experience advising public and private sector clients on strategies and toolkits for best practices in improved capital project delivery and informed decision making. She is a regular industry contributor, a published scholar educator with over 25 speaking engagement. She is the current AAC Canada region one director, and is a member of the ULI public development and infrastructure Council and the UK APM project assurance SIG. Diana is one of the contributing over to the 2023 first edition for a guide to auditing problems and project published by APM. She will show listed as one of the 2020 A woman infrastructure network, ...

Key Takeaways:

The importance of qualitative research in major projects, where social sciences intersect with major programmes
Basing major project success on a rocky foundation, the deflation of estimates and unrealistic expectations
How PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) and PMP (Project Management Professional) certification can evolve to encompass broader strategic considerations and better prepare major programme implementers
Collaborative contracting and identifying collaboration (regardless of delivery method) as a key component for success in major programmes
Performance measurement and how not aligning incentives can influences decision-making and team relationships

Links Mentioned:

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox.

The conversation doesn’t stop here—connect and converse with our community via LinkedIn:

Navigating Major Programmes on LinkedIn
Follow Riccardo Cosentino on LinkedIn
Follow Dr. Diana Nada, PhD on LinkedIn

Transcript:

Riccardo Cosentino 00:05

Previous Episode

Adapting As Fast As We Can with Digital Twin Fan Club | S1 EP 13

In this episode, Riccardo sits down with two of the voices behind the Digital Twin Fun Club podcast, Henry Fenby-Taylor and Neil Thompson. The trio speaks accuracy versus bias and how technology (digital twins specifically) can help mitigate risk within the complex world of infrastructure.

“I think people generally have the wrong expectation of technology. They think ‘Oh, we’re going to be able to predict the future.’ Actually the value of these things isn’t about being able to predict the future, it’s about being able to adapt as quickly as possible to changing circumstances.” –Neil Thompson

Key Takeaways:

Defining a digital twin, the difference between a BIM and digital twin
The true value of technology (spoiler alert: it is not about predicting the future)
The transition from sourcing the “cheapest” to “best” solution
Major programmes as a symphony, an analogy of perspective
Collaboration through technology for parallel problem solving approach

Links Mentioned:

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox.

The conversation doesn’t stop here—connect and converse with our community:

Follow Henry Fenby-Taylor on LinkedIn
Follow Neil Thompson on LinkedIn
Follow Digital Twin Fun Club Podcast on LinkedIn
Follow Riccardo Cosentino on LinkedIn
Navigating Major Programmes on LinkedIn

Transcript:

Riccardo Cosentino 00:00

If you're listening to navigate the major programs, the podcast that aims to elevate the conversations happening in the infrastructure industry and inspire you to have a more efficient approach within it. I'm your host Riccardo Cosentino I bring over 20 years of major product management experience. Most recently, I graduated from Moxa universities they business group, which shook my belief when it comes to navigating major problems. Now it's time to shake yours. Join me in each episode as a press the industry experts about the complexity of major problem management, emerging digital trends and the critical leadership required to approach these multibillion dollar projects. Let's see where the conversation takes us. Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of navigating major programs. Today I'm joined by two guests from the digital twin fun club. Gonna let them introduce themselves.

Henry Fenby-Taylor 01:04

Hi, I'm Henry Fenby Taylor, host of the digital twin fan club, podcast and editor and coordinator and I also run my own digital transformation and communications consultancy. Hi,

Neil Thompson01:18

Hi everyone. I'm Neil Thompson. I'm a digital fanclub cleaner owner and co founder, I guess, their day job I work at AtkinsRéalis, and I do things around digital transformation. I also have some other hats around the industry, my chair, the built environment for the Institute of Engineering Technology, also lucky enough to have gained an Honorary Associate Professor of the Bartlett School of sustainable construction, all things. Construction economics related. So I'm really interested to have this conversation because I've, I've been listening to some episodes and really fascinated in this sort of world between digital tools and how we incentivize people to do things is fascinating. So I'm looking forward to the conversation.

Riccardo Cosentino 02:08

Yeah, me too. Definitely. I'd well if we're comparing hats. I'm also on the construction industry councils. Net Zero climate change panel, and then CIC 2050, board member of a core member of zero construct as well. So I have a very strong interest in net zero in this space as well. Which is a key economic question, isn't it? Really? Yes. Especially today with the especially in the UK, es...

Next Episode

Integrated Project Delivery: Strengths and Challenges With Rachael Patel | S1 EP 15

In this episode, Riccardo Cosentino sits down with fellow Oxford alumni, Rachael Patel, to discuss integrated project delivery (IPD). With a background as a registered nurse, Rachael brings her unique expertise to her current role in the health sector specializing in strategic planning and execution of health services, research and infrastructure projects in North America. The pair discuss the impediments and challenges of adoption of the IPD model, specifically how it relates to private and public healthcare major infrastructure projects and the procurement process.

“You add an integrated project delivery, where the idea is risk sharing and then you use that same methodology to calculate value for money, IPD will never win because IPDs base core base is sharing risk. It’s two issues in our procurement, it’s the idea of what value for money is and how we calculate money.”– Rachael Patel

Key Takeaways:

The origin of IPD and how its optimizing project design and construction
Why value for money is problematic for IPD
Finding a better way to allocate risk, relational over transactional
The policy associated in procurement and how it is hindering the marketplace shift to alternative models

Links Mentioned:

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox.

The conversation doesn’t stop here—connect and converse with our LinkedIn community:

Transcript:

Riccardo Cosentino 00:00

If you're listening to Navigating Major Programmes, the podcast that aims to elevate the conversations happening in the infrastructure industry and inspire you to have a more efficient approach within it. I'm your host Riccardo Cosentino. I bring over 20 years of major programme management experience. Most recently, I graduated from Oxford Universities they business group, which shook my belief when it comes to navigating major problems. Now it's time to shake yours. Join me in each episode as a press the industry experts about the complexity of major program management, emerging digital trends and the critical leadership required to approach these multibillion dollar projects. Let's see where the conversation takes us. Racheal Patel is an Associate Vice President and senior project manager at a global architecture and engineering firm. She's a registered nurse, and also the Master of Science in major program management from the University of Oxford, and a Master of nursing from the University of Toronto. Racheal is a skilled leader in the health sector specializing in strategic planning and execution of health services, research and infrastructure projects in Canada and the United States. Her expertise includes guiding organization for the initial strategic planning phase, through detailed planning and design to the implementation of transformative and innovative capital projects. Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of navigating major programs. I'm here today with Richard Patel. I met Racheal at Oxford University when we were completing together our mastering major program management. And I asked Racheal today to join us on the podcast to discuss her dissertation, which is quite interesting and very relevant to the topics that we've been discussing on navigating major programs. How're you doing, Racheal?

Racheal Patel 02:00

I'm good Ricardo. And thanks for having me here. I'm excited to have a platform to talk about my dissertation and you providing that platform to talk about major programs. So thank you very much for having me.

Riccardo Cosentino 02:14

It's my pleasure. So maybe since I've tucked up your dissertation a little bit, well, what was the topic of your dissertation? Yeah, so my topic was actually looking at the c...