10 Ways To Improve Your Project Execution

By Gareth Davies, Chief Operation Officer - EMEA and Sandra Francesca Bones, CPSM, Marketing Manager, Associate, IPS-ntegrated Project Services, LLC

Imagine this… you are in a kick-off meeting with your project owner, partners, and subcontractors. A vision of project outcomes has been shared and agreed upon. However, there is a lack of alignment on actually how to achieve these process, design, and execution outcomes. With cost, schedule, cultural and technical differences looming over the team, like the sword of Damocles, how can you work together to overcome your differences and create an execution plan everyone can align on and aspire to?

Disagreements about design elements, execution, risk-management solutions, and safety standards are inevitable when multiple teams work together, and this can be amplified when working with teams in countries with different cultures. How do we create a culture of empowerment, collaboration, and respect to find a middle ground and work out our differences with compromise? The answer is to lead with your heart and by example; use a carrot instead of a stick, embrace an UBUNTU approach.

There are certain principles that need to be nurtured in successful project executions. At IPS, we believe that projects require a strong and innovative environment where everyone feels empowered to work collaboratively to capitalise on individual and organisational strengths. Management should lead by example to not just overcome challenges but also to embrace cultural and technical differences. Morale is fundamental to health and safety; just as there is a plan to keep everyone safe on the site, a plan needs to be in place to keep project teams feeling appreciated and motivated.

To demonstrate how to effectively overcome execution challenges in a real-world project scenario, here are ten examples from our recently completed Bavarian Nordic Fill and Finish Facility for Live Viral Vaccines in Kvistgård, Demark.