Feature topic - Project management
Thoughts on project management
Gary Chamberlin, director at Aries Pension& Insurance Systems Ltd , makes the case for the human view and approach
I n this technocratic age, we at Aries Insight have a rather homespun approach towards project management. Or maybe l should just come clean and say we’re very happy we have not succumbed to the over-centralised, over- dictatorial methods so common in the commercial world today. Two main angles on this comprise mistakes, and the human attitude. First, mistakes; when things go wrong – as occasionally they do – we do not resort to that refuge of the corporate and political world: ‘l followed the procedures’, or in other words (that don’t usually get stated): ‘l behaved like a total robot and so l am not the one to blame’. Because – think – what does that attitude lead to? It leads, in a direct unmistakeable path to the horrors of Grenfell Tower. Lives were unnecessarily lost that night because some of the supposed rescuers had ‘followed procedures’ rather than opening their eyes to what was happening in front of them. At Aries, should a fault occur, we put our hands up. Yes, the buck stops here. It’s our responsibility to chase down the fault and remedy it as soon as possible. If we made a mistake, no cavilling, we accept it. There may be mitigating circumstances, but we don’t fall back on some anodyne, slavish form of words to excuse ourselves. Our national culture is far too wedded to the idea that no-one, ever, must make a mistake, and if they do their career is over. It’s one strike and you’re out. What an attitude! If you know anything of science,
you’ll realise that ‘mistakes’ are built in, an irremediable aspect of nature. Evolution itself works through ‘mistakes’ – random mutations of the genes of living creatures. Indeed, we should embrace mistakes for what they are: a vital reminder to ‘wake up’ while we’re on the job, and – on occasion – to show us that other possibilities may lead to an improvement in function, or even to a totally new way of doing things. Apart from the attitude to mistakes, the other big angle at Aries is people. Simply that. And here we include our customers, our employees and our advisers. We’ve always promoted a ‘club’ atmosphere at Aries. Our customers are buying our services, yes, but they are also our co-operating friends along the way. We are together faced by the ‘enemy’, the enormous wall of technical regulation by which pensions in the UK are run. It’s not just the government issuing laws and regulations by the shedload, though HM Revenue & Customs and the Department for Work and Pensions are at the apex. It’s also the great spawning net of the guangos – The Pensions Regulator, the Pension Protection Fund, the Financial Conduct Authority, and more recently: the Pensions Scam Industry Group, the Pensions Administration Standards Association and the Transfers and Industry Re-registration Industry Group. Everyone’s in on the game, producing their precious codes and their bulletins. They don’t seem to realise that anyone who tried to keep up with every requirement of every code
would not actually have any time left to do the real job for which they’re supposedly being paid. The overburden is staggering, and as time goes by even more faggots are added atop the creaking cart, ever more wordy, worthy screeds are piled on. For heaven’s sake! When will they stop? No answer to that. But why does it happen this way? There is, l believe, a clear underlying reason. We’ve stopped putting any trust in human ability, human judgement. We’d actually rather behave like computers, or perhaps like those old paper tape machines where you feed in the prepunched tape and the machine judders and chatters away producing its 100% mechanised output. George Orwell, you should be living now, to see the onset of your nightmare world in Britain itself. Didn’t quite happen by 1984. But 2024? You bet we’re well on track. So, our method at Aries for project management, and our advice for others who are not enamoured of joining the robotic parade is: loosen up, see the value in human judgement, human initiative. Admit mistakes when they occur, don’t cover up – you’ll be surprised at the positive response you get from people (well, from all but the true curmudgeons). Computers – yes, they’re wonderful machines, and they greatly enhance the ability and bandwidth for human communication. But don’t let’s think in business and affairs that we all have to mimic their automated, algorithmic manner of operation. Embrace what is different, what is special about being human, about living as men and women in our great and very extraordinary world. n
...embrace mistakes for what they are: a vital reminder to ‘wake up’...
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 61 | June 2020
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