The Grass is Brown Everywhere

Like every other employer we’ve seen some workforce churn this year. Our rate is about what it used to be pre-covid, but it probably feels higher because of a couple of slow lockdown years. Either way, people are seeing and taking new opportunities. Many of these are good but some are not all they seem to be. At least a couple of the Delt family have been offered silly money or silly Ts and Cs to recruit them. They have been sold a trip to the promised land but the reality is sometimes it is not what it seemed to be on the tin. The money might be good but has the flexibility you used to have gone? Does the new employer have values that match your own? Do you have any ability to influence or are you just a cog in a giant machine?

I’ve made this mistake, in my case, making a move just to chase the money. This didn’t end well for me, or the employer. Chasing money probably works just fine for a lot of people but I think it depends on why you work and do the job you choose. Yes, I work to earn money, to support my family and fuel my addition to millennia old dinosaur squeezing’s – and on that point I really need to follow Gary’s lead and go electric. However, work for me and many of the Delt team is as much about the belief in what we are doing, as it is in the paycheck. This isn’t just something we see in the higher paid either. I did an induction interview a few weeks ago where a new starter, in an entry level role, said that they had chosen to join Delt, in significant part, because of the investments we make in people, both formal and informal. How many organisations have an events team, funded by the company, specifically to get people together outside of core business hours doing things just for fun?

As well as increased churn, this year we’ve seen something else. More people coming back. A handful of people have boomeranged – gone for less than 3 months and then come straight back into their old jobs while we were still in the process of trying to recruit their replacements. They all have their own stories but broadly the message is that the grass is not always greener on the other side.

Like every employer, there are things we don’t get right but if I’ve learnt one thing from having a blissfully varied career is that despite what things look like from across the street, the grass is brown everywhere. Its what’s under the soil that matters.

Giles Letheren, Chief Executive Officer

Photo by visnu deva on Unsplash

Bringing Meaningful Authentic Connections into Work

Remote and hybrid working has become the norm, a new balance of working remotely while maintaining employee connections is the new gold standard in workplace wellbeing. You do not have to go too far into a Google search to find 100’s of articles on how to make remote working and hybrid working effective for both employees and the business.  

Not unlike many other organisations, we have created our own hybrid working practice, at Delt, to ensure our employees maintain a level of human connection and whilst we do remote working really well, we recognise that there are certain times, with certain work activities, where being face to face can make it a better experience for everyone.  

But it isn’t just about being person to person that is important; how many times have you have gone into the office, sat at your desk in an open office environment, joined a meeting or ate lunch with your colleagues but never felt properly connected? It happens more than you think!  

Let’s face it – we are living busy lives and even if we aren’t physically busy our minds are going 100 miles an hour: we are thinking about our current tasks, tomorrow’s tasks; the 100 things we need to do once we finish work; what is for dinner? where do my kids need to be?  So it isn’t surprising you could be interacting with people every day without being present – and never actually having an authentic, meaningful connection with anyone.  

No one defines authentic and meaningful connections better than Dr. Brene Brown for me:  

“I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued: when they can give and receive without judgment; when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.” – Dr Brene Brown  

The reality is, connecting with colleagues can become ‘routine’ whether you are doing it virtually or in person. We can often find ourselves running through the motions and niceties and forgetting to truly connect 

The 2021 World Happiness Report (The Power of Human Connection: 6 Ways to Achieve It (betterup.com) ) found that people who experienced an increase in connectedness with others during the pandemic had: 

1. Greater life satisfaction 
2. More resilience 
3. Better mental health 

By no means do I profess to get this right all of the time. I have found this particularly challenging since we started working virtually more.  It does not make me feel good and I am quite sure I am not adding the value I could to those interactions.  

And so, I now I make it a point to purposefully take stock before, during and after my interactions…. sounds like a lot of work but it is literally only a mind shift… 

Before I enter a meeting or start up a conversation, I take a moment to PAUSE before I engage. And when I say PAUSE, I mean stopping all the noise in my head and clearing the clutter in order to make a commitment to being with who is in front of me (virtually or in person). It literally takes 2-5 secs and makes such a difference.  

During the conversation I remember my own personal mantra ‘BE CURIOUS’ – this keeps my focus on the individuals and conversations at hand rather than any other agenda or tasks I might have floating around in my head.  

I make a point of offering the recipient genuine positivity. It is easy to get swept away with the burdens of the day or negativity that may be waying us down. But through channelling positive energy I find connection comes much more easily.  

And lastly, I believe more than anything in the power of listening. The ability not to fill the silence but hold space for the other(s) person to share and open up will, almost certainly, leave them feeling a sense of connection from our exchange.  

At the end of the day, this is about mindfulness and whilst it is simple in concept…it is a practice that needs to be honed everyday….and so my journey continues…. 

Jane White, Chief People and Culture Officer

Photo by Rémi Walle on Unsplash

Should Passwords be a thing of the past?  

How many times have you forgotten your password and had to go through the process of resetting it? The same old security questions have you digging around your memory bank for your first teacher’s name. And you can guarantee it always happens at the most inconvenient time. In my opinion forgotten passwords are one of the greatest bug bears that frustrate users of IT and as a result impacts the user experience. The pace of technology advancement and transformation has been accelerating and continues to accelerate at pace, and password resets still account for a large proportion of calls to IT Service Desks, taking up valuable time for both the user and Service Desk. So why do many organisations still live with this password problem? 

I read an article on the BioConnect website which suggested that between “20% and 50%” of all IT Help Desk calls were for password resets” and on “average it costs an [US] enterprise $70 for a single password reset”.  That’s a lot of cost and use of talent which could be used doing something more valuable to the business, also not to mention the number of productive hours lost by the user.  

Over the last few years technology has advanced and the introduction of Biometrics has improved the situation a lot, yet the problem of forgotten passwords remains a tale as old as time. 

So, with that in mind, why haven’t we eliminated passwords altogether? After all the phrase, “Prevention is better than cure” [often attributed to the Dutch philosopher Desiderius Erasmus] feels apt in this situation. The future is password-less as it must be and this will undoubtedly improve user experience, security and reduce calls to IT Service Desks. According to Gartner, “by 2025, more than 50% of the workforce and more than 20% of customer authentication transactions will be passwordless”  

Right now, IT specialists need to exploit the capabilities available to us today such as Windows Hello for Business and the further adoption of Biometrics to reduce the password burden. Alongside this, we must prepare for user hesitancy as biometrics can be controversial. Some will celebrate the removal of passwords whilst others will be late adopters of new technologies that often appear intrusive.  

I know that I will be kicking passwords out the door as soon as technologies are fully established to replace the traditional security processes. But for now, we continue to encourage strong and safe passwords for our customers. We support their tireless log in issues, and we seek to educate on password best practice.  

We won’t solve the forgotten password issue alone, but we move towards a passwordless future that will free up time and resource once again. 

Are Password Resets Costing Your Company? | BioConnect 

Take 3 Steps Toward Passwordless Authentication (gartner.com) (Gartner subscription needed) 

Paul Jones, Chief Information Officer

What do pies & HR have in common?

Today is, I am told, International HR Day.  

It’s also World Bee Day, National Endangered Species Day, National be a Millionaire Day, National Defense Transportation Day (in the US by the spelling), National Pick Strawberries Day, International Clinical Trials Day and World Meditation Day. As if that wasn’t enough, we are in National Walking month too. I was going to make a joke about the need for a National Pie Day when I discovered that there already is one (January 23rd). Ditto National Sausage Dog Day, which is on June 21st. 

Hilarity notwithstanding, this has prompted me to think about how important HR is. 

Regular readers of my ramblings will probably be aware that I love my job but have calculated that it would be at least 6 times better if I didn’t have any employees, customers or suppliers. Without them, life would truly be blissful, if rather dull. 

I should start by saying I don’t even like the term HR. Back in the old days, HR used to be called Personnel. I liked Personnel. It recognised people as being special and different and not just another ingredient you need in the recipe for running a company. Human Resources make people sound a bit like nuts and bolts or cleaning products or other SKUs you might keep lying around in case they are needed. Don’t even get me started on the idea of Human Capital Management. For the sake of a quiet life though, I will call what I still think of as Personnel, HR. It is after all, International HR Day, not International Personnel Day. 

One of the joys of being a CEO is I tend to interact with people when they are at their best. I get to hang out with those who have gone above and beyond or done something amazing. I don’t often have to deal with people at their worst. People who, because they are human, are struggling with work or family or just life. I think I probably have the empathy of a cabbage and the patience of a hippo, on his way to eat a cabbage. This makes me a very poor manager of people. Yet, at Delt we have super high staff engagement, a Best Companies Award, the Workplace Wellbeing Charter and more. This is all down to our HR team. This small group deals with the collected daily challenges of nearly 600 people. I can barely manage to deal with my own.  

Who looks after HR? 

I’m sure it should be me but as mentioned, I feel poorly equipped to do so. Which means they have to look after themselves as well as everyone else. This is a pretty thankless task. People are quick to complain if something goes wrong but slow to praise when you get paid correctly, hired fast, trained well, supported through whatever life or work challenges you have, or exited well enough that they are singing our praises long after leaving for new opportunities. 

Delt’s various support service businesses are delivered quietly behind the scenes, enabling other people to do amazing things. Delt’s HR team work behind the scenes, enabling our own people to achieve the very best they can, for themselves and our customers. Without them, our personnel cannot succeed and without that, we have no company. 

Despite my new found passion for National Pie Day, I think that I could probably live happily and (more) healthily without pies. I could not live without HR. Probably, nor could you.  

Happy International HR Day team. 

Giles Letheren, Chief Executive Officer

Photo by FitNish Media on Unsplash

Anxiety: Hindrance? Or Hero Power?

It seems in the present day that Anxiety is a negative attribute to have. As if it’s some sort of ‘disorder’. However, I’m of the opinion that, in fact, anxiety is perfectly normal and, in most cases, healthy.

Being able to second-guess, internally debate and question ourselves is a trait that we should see as a strength, yet society strongly recognises it as a weakness. The tremendous growth of diagnosed anxiety is remarkable, from teenagers to adults. 30% of the British public ‘admit’ to having experienced a high level of anxiety in their lifetime with many ‘solutions’ being delivered including, squishy toys, fidget cubes and of course, every teacher’s nightmare, the fidget spinner. Notably these solutions also supported those with ADHD alongside anxiety and in some cases I’m sure they ‘worked’ but even the inclusion of these devices, it only increased the negativity surrounding the anxiety epidemic.

With a (not-so) simple change in perception we could change anxiety into our greatest human superpower.

My name is Adam. I’m 35 and a ¾  years old and I have Anxiety.

And these are my (fantastic) four reasons why Anxiety is a superpower.

 Time

Specifically, when it comes to decision making, I take my time. Very rarely do I make an impulse buy. To be fair, this is usually split between me being anxious about buying something and trying to find it cheaper elsewhere. Items have been known to sit in my basket for days whilst I ponder paying £2.85 on a second-hand book on eBay. Underlining our anxiety is our desire to create a good impression, to be valuable. The anxiety makes us feel uncomfortable is we deviate from doing what needs to be done. Our time management skills are on point because of this.

Talking to myself

This is a big one. The number of times I probably seem crazy because I’m (internally) talking to myself but pulling faces whilst having this conversation. Though If we’re experiencing a bout anxiety our sometimes talking to ourselves and making the nerves ‘real’ helps us feel released from some of the pressure, we can better talk ourselves into the taking the next step. This is how we succeed; one-step-at-a-time.

Risk

Risk is overrated. Sure, we need some of it in our lives, but there’s no harm in taking things slow and playing it safe. That being said, the value of risk should be understated. Its power can be the leap from losing all confidence in yourself, to actually feeling what your worth. The adrenaline rush that often comes with risk can be where the lines between excitement and anxiety are often confused. We must train ourselves to embrace the unfamiliar, and what it feels like to be there. Risk, in large amounts is overrated, train yourself, take smaller, more calculated risks and slowly build your confidence. My ability to lower the risk I’ve things I partake in keeps me alive.

Pressure

Pressure is a nasty word, especially in workplace. Ever heard of the famous sentence ‘I work better under pressure’ ? I have, a thousand and four times. Being a teacher, I was always reminding students of deadlines and was told they work much better under pressure. Amazingly, it’s that generation of students who are in the midst of the anxiety epidemic…. go figure.

However, It is when we’re under high-pressured situations that we are the most alert. Our body responds automatically, putting us into the biological experience of fight-or-flight.

But instead of viewing this anxiety as negative, train yourself to see it as fuel; the energy you need to run into action. Just remember to do it at your pace.

I’ve always wanted to be a superhero, and for a while I thought that stuff just belonged in comic books or in movies. But I’ve come to realise that alongside the emergency services, teachers, forces personnel and many, many others that we can be superheroes in our own right.

It’s an upside-down way of thinking, but my kryptonite, my anxiety is the actually core of my strength and decision making.

My anxiety is my ‘Spidey-Sense’. It gives me a feeling, a strong sense of something being wrong, dangerous, or a suspicious situation.

It makes me, me.

Adam Dyer, IT Trainer

Photo by Ali Kokab on Unsplash

Ukraine Ts and Cs

I’ve managed to deliberately avoid politics for most of my career taking an uncomfortable position sat firmly on the fence. In one organisation I was a member of the Board and also the general secretary of the employee’s trade union. That was awkward. 

However, what’s been happening in Ukraine over the last 26 days (arguably the last 6+ years) is something that is well beyond politics and goes to the very soul of what is right and what is wrong. I find it rather sad that after 200,000 years of evolution we still find that the best way of solving disagreements is killing each other.  

That the vast majority of the world has recognised that this is wrong and is trying to do something about it, is certainly a positive evolutionary step, if rather too late. I have a great many conflicting thoughts and emotions at the moment. Did I feel ashamed when a politician recently suggested on Question Time that Britain was leading the world in our response? (This was at about the point that Poland had taken in around a million refugees and we had found room for about 104.) Absolutely. I find the whole ‘we are the best in the world’ narrative to be not just implausible, but dangerously Trumpian (more of my personal politics leaking out perhaps). However, I’ve spent many years working on the fringes of both the military and diplomacy and understand the need to be very sure before you act on a global scale, even when you might be pretty sure that not acting quickly will just make matters worse. I’m glad I don’t have to make these decisions. It’s hard enough trying to do the right thing for the right reasons in a £20m company of 200 people, let alone when you are carrying the weight of history on your back. 

In time, I suspect we will find that Volodymyr Zelensky is as flawed as the rest of us, but right now he has given the rest of the world a masterclass in leadership for the internet age. He’s probably ineligible to be Prime Minister of the UK, but I’d vote for him tomorrow anyway. 

How best to support Ukraine is a dilemma faced by everyone, not just company CEOs. We can donate money to one of the hundreds of charities helping the displaced; we can fly a virtual Ukrainian flag on our Teams calls; some of us are even bold enough to take up arms. Having found myself on the pointy end of a gun a couple of times, I know the latter isn’t an option that’s going to help anyone. However, I am a bit of a closet geek AND a closet lawyer and what better way to show my support than to point you to one of, what I expect to be, many new terms and conditions popping up in software code. This one is from the terraform-aws modules (a collection of open-source tools designed to make creating and managing cloud computing resources easier). 

Enjoy. 

599 ## Additional terms of use for users from Russia and Belarus 

600 

601 By using the code provided in this repository you agree with the following: 

602 Russia has illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 and brought the war in Donbas followed by full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

603  Russia has brought sorrow and devastations to millions of Ukrainians, killed hundreds of innocent people, damaged thousands of buildings, and forced several million people to flee. 

604 Putin khuylo! 

For anyone put off because this looks like code it’s just a set of licence terms, written into the code, that say if you come from Russia or Belarus you may only use the software if you agree that Putin is a (rather derogatory term you can Google for yourself). 

I’m faintly ashamed that repeating a Russian obscenity in a blog has made me smile, even while survivors are still being dug out of the theatre in Mauripol. However, for somebody who has made it a rule to never mix politics and business, it’s a small step in my own evolution. 

Giles Letheren, Chief Executive Officer

The Busy Ants

If you search on the internet for “Busy Ants” you’ll find lots of content relating to Primary School mathematics. There’s even a book called “The Busy Ants” by Karin Clafford.

Ants can be a pain, especially if, like me you’re always the one who ends up with “ants in your pants”.  I do however admire them for being busy, focusing on what’s important such as, finding food and defending their colony. I always love a quote and thought this one by Henry David Thoreau was quite relevant, “It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?”. What a great point for thought – “What are we busy about?” 

As a CIO, it’s a key part of my job to think big picture and spend time looking at what’s ahead (strategic) as well as what’s right in front of me (tactical). We’ve been busy over the last few weeks with annual budget reviews, business plan reviews and of course the other important things such as customers, the health & wellbeing of my team and family. I am not alone in finding it difficult to do everything and if I was honest with myself, I’d recognise that on some occasions I don’t get the work/life balance right. It’s natural sometimes to have too many conflicting priorities and end up feeling that you’re “too busy” to deliver everything. Long term it isn’t a healthy place to be in and can lead to burn out. There are common strategies to help, for example delegating to someone or prioritising your time on the things that are truly important.  

But surely everything is important, right? I would argue it is not. For example, is catching up on work at weekends more important than spending quality time with the family? Is checking email every 10 minutes more important than finishing off that important task at work? It’s not a test and in my opinion the answer is rarely yes, unless of course checking email every 10 minutes is a critical element of your role. 

Focusing on what’s important can have significant benefits such as improved productivity and improvements in business and personal results. I am often asked for advice on how I prioritise and always refer people to Stephen Covey’s “The 7 habits of highly effective people”. If you haven’t heard of this, then I recommend you read it. All of the habits are relevant to this blog, however Habit 3 “Put first things first” is the most relevant. Habit 3 is about focusing on the “Big Rocks”, what is most important and how to prioritise the important vs the less important. I would recommend watching his Big Rocks – YouTube, as a great way of explaining the “Big Rocks” concept. We are using the “Big Rocks” as part of the annual business planning with our Continuous Improvement team this year and it’s working well. 

Being able to manage time and prioritise is a key skill and many techniques exist around doing just this. My favourite is Stephen Covey’s time management quadrant which is something I use all the time. It helps me plan and prioritise my week to make sure I am focused on the “Big Rocks” first. Another good video on how to do this is Stephen Covey’s 4 Quadrants Time Management Strategies | Time Management Matrix | Ep 9/13 – YouTube.  

Why not set yourself and your teams a challenge and ask what are your “Big Rocks”.  

If Ant’s can get it right, surely, we can as well? 

Paul Jones, Chief Information Officer

Photo by MD_JERRY on Unsplash

The Great Resignation – Is it all bad? 

This is an interesting article by Brian Hartzer.  He raises some very valid points on the “Great Resignation” and how important it is to treat employees well. But! And there had to be a but, I don’t think culture is the only driving force at play here. I’m a glass half full kind of person, so I’m also not convinced it’s all bad for employees or Companies. 

There is no doubt that the pandemic changed us all. It gave us all a kick up the backside. Time in isolation, fearing for the safety of our friends and family and, in the worst cases, mourning the loss of them from the most horrendous circumstances. It made us realise how precious life is. It made us all question in one way or another what we are doing with our time. 

So, is it really a surprise that as we come out of the other side that peoples’ priorities have changed? We have survived! We feel strong, brave, and determined to make the best of this thing called Life. For many, making the most of it means a change to their career. Taking on a new challenge, taking a step up (or in some cases down) the ladder, leaving a job they don’t really enjoy but has felt comfortable, following their dreams to be a dog walker or an astronaut or whatever else is their passion.  

As the article makes clear we should all be looking after our people, they are after all our greatest assets, and we should be treating them accordingly. That’s not news, even the most frugal of CFOs has long since recognised that investing in the health, wellbeing and development of the workforce is money well spent. However, the harsh reality for most companies is that when we’ve nurtured, grown and developed our people we just don’t have the scale of operation, or the budget (especially in the current race to the top salaries being offered), to offer them the opportunity that they are looking for. Cue resignation… 

Anybody that has the privilege of managing people will know that sinking feeling when one of your best comes to you and says the dreaded “I’m resigning”.  Selfishly our first thoughts go to…. the timing couldn’t be worse, how will I manage? Who will fill the gap? Recruitment is a nightmare.  Good leaders, though, only need a moment or two to get a grip and turn their thoughts back to the person that they have mentored, trained, and challenged to come out of their comfort zone. The real life human that they have worked alongside through good times and bad. They have a new and exciting opportunity, isn’t that great? Isn’t that something to be happy about, maybe just a little bit proud of or even celebrate?  

From a company view, of course it’s very disappointing and there will undoubtedly be disruption in the short term but isn’t there also an opportunity?  We now have a vacancy that could give one of our other bright stars a great opportunity and prevent them from leaving. If the worst happens and external recruitment is required maybe there is opportunity within that too. Won’t that become somebody else’s reason to resign? Tempting in somebody new who’s excited and full of bright ideas provides boundless possibilities. 

“The Great Resignation” won’t last forever, in time things will settle down again.  As leaders and as organisations our employees are only ever really on loan to us. If we really want to get it right then we should treat them well, train and develop them and give them all the tools they need to succeed. Make the absolute most of them whilst we can. Then, when the time comes that they must go, we thank them for everything they have done, wish them well, be genuinely pleased for them and be proud of the part we played in their journey. 

Karen Morris, Interim Chief Financial Officer

Photo by Junseong Lee on Unsplash

A Partnership for Better Mental Health

I made a conscious choice 7 years ago to return to working directly in the public interest. That’s not to say that working for private organisations is bad, but I wanted to do more with my small contribution to humanity than simply enrich remote city shareholders. Although the work we do at Delt is not world changing, the work our customers and shareholders do is simply amazing. 

The 17th edition of the Global Risks Report from the World Economic Forum looks at what people see as the biggest risks to health, happiness and our future as well as the rate of change in some of those risk areas.  

When I was a child, well before the Good Friday agreement, the threat of terrorism was a constant, if slightly remote concern. Having lived through 9/11 in the US, being in the air at the time of the World Trade Centre attacks, terrorism and its consequences became very much front and centre. Working for the government, at the time, my car got searched for bombs every day as I went into the office. My team were responsible for opening all incoming mail in an airtight room to intercept any anthrax that had been mailed to us. Terrorism hasn’t gone away and the perception of its risk hasn’t changed all that much either. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the level of concern about terrorism has risen by 1.6%. 

Compare that to risk concern increasing around IT Infrastructure Breakdown at 2.4%, Technology Governance Failure at 4.5% or Adverse Tech Advances at 5.3% and I find surprisingly that being CEO for a Tech Company carries a greater weight of responsibility for perceived societal risks than domestic terrorism. Fortunately, any consideration of needing to change jobs is moderated by finding Mental Health Deterioration near the top of the list at a 23% increase. That’s really something to be worried about. I suspect everyone has seen evidence of this over Covid. Certainly, every employer has.  

As a company we are investing even more than before in employee wellness, in mental health first aid and providing support wherever and however we can. In collaboration with Devon MIND we are hosting a series of lunchtime talks to help broaden awareness. However, the magic in Delt lies not so much in what we do, but in what our customers do. It is for this reason that I am so inspired by the work we are doing with Devon Partnership NHS Trust who deliver services that really matter to people with mental health and learning disability needs – in Devon, the wider South West region and nationally. Their 10 year plan and our ability to materially contribute to it, gives me confidence that whilst we might be small, our goals and impact have always been rightly big.  

Giles Letheren, Chief Executive Officer

Are awards worth the effort?

In July last year I was delighted to hear that the Delt Project Management Office (PMO) had been selected as a finalist for the Association of Project Management annual awards. We had entered the category contribution to project management small to medium enterprise and were now down to the last 4. Our small PMO delivering a wide range of project work predominately for Plymouth City Council and Devon NHS Clinical Care Commissioning Group was sat alongside some heavyweight project management consultancies; it was good just to be in their company!  

The first stage of the selection process was a written one. Using no more than 3000 words we had to answer a range of demanding questions on our training and development, culture, change management, innovation, career development, project governance, performance management regime and several other important factors. Having committed a considerable amount of effort compiling our submission I was delighted to make the final 4, but was it really worth the effort? The APM is a globally recognised advocate of the project profession and to have our Delt way of working audited by them and seen in a very favourable light was a clear benefit of submitting an entry for the awards. 

The second stage was to present to an APM judging panel. The presentation should explain the context of our portfolio, its vision, timeline, deliverables and benefits. The output of this second stage of assessment will determine whether we win the crown. The written submission gets us to the starting gate, but all the finalists start from scratch on presentation day and have 20 mins to convey their message. Involvement in this stage was limited to me and my 2 Lead Project Managers, but it is a busy time in the business and prepping for this presentation isn’t our highest priority. We do OK but not our best effort. I don’t think we have learned much from the presentation stage, but it was fun to meet the judges, answer their questions and tell them about all the amazing work Delt does. 

What came next was the excitement of attending a glitzy awards ceremony in London; visions of me and my team all dressed up in black tie or evening dresses sounded like a lot of fun. Even if we didn’t win, we would have a great team building and networking opportunity. What I hadn’t expected was how much it would cost to attend the ceremony but on reflection a central London location, superb menu, unlimited bar, after party and celebrity compare don’t come cheap. The cost was restrictive and as a result this would not be an event for me and my team, perhaps 1 or 2 people could attend. Once the cost benefit analysis was complete, I chose the more sedate, but I believe sensible option. The budget we had for 1 or 2 to attend the ceremony covered the cost of our whole PMO to have a celebration dinner in one of Plymouth’s best restaurants. We watched the event via a live stream, sadly we did not get our hands on the trophy and missed a networking opportunity, but we were able to celebrate our achievement as one team. 

The complete process has left me conflicted. I found the glitzy awards ceremony an unnecessary extravagance but the self-critical examination of my PMO that was required to write the submission and deliver the presentation was thought provoking and extremely beneficial. Afterwards some particularly useful feedback was received, and this will help us develop, deliver change, and get better at what we already do well. 

Was it worth the effort? If you want some of the country’s top project professionals to pass judgement on your project management capability and give some advice that will help you get better, then yes. Would I do it again? Maybe but not for a while, I need time to save some money for the awards ceremony! 

Gary Pettitt, Chief Projects Officer

Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash