Tips on working to an unmissable deadline

The Royal Ballet & Opera (RBO) is one of the jewels in the UK’s cultural crown, and it takes a lot of project management to keep the institution sparkling. It’s currently working through a five-year, £40m stage-renewal programme, which covers everything from lighting and machinery to the comms system that keeps everyone and everything where it should be.

Perhaps the biggest constraint the project management teams face is clear access to the stage and the area around it as the RBO rotates around its gruelling performance programme, comprising 30 ballets and operas a year, which must never be delayed or cancelled (singers and dancers are booked five years ahead of time). There are only three weeks over the summer when they can work on stage, which is when the venue is closed to performers, otherwise project work has to happen overnight.

Largely due to complete in 2027, the stage renewals programme will showcase not only what directors, choreographers, ballet dancers and opera singers can really achieve on stage if they have the right tools, but how professional project management is integral to helping them reach those heady heights while keeping the show on the road.

The Programme Lead is Musa Halimeh, who explains how they manage successful project delivery to unbudgeable deadlines:

1. Accept there is zero room for manoeuvre

What matters more than anything is business continuity, which means respecting the priorities of the people who will be impacted by the project, and understanding why they can’t be interrupted. This requires open and collaborative communication from the project manager with everyone involved, and establishing clarity on every aspect of a programme.

2. Front-load your project

In other words, it’s about derisking your project. The earlier you get rid of the risk, the better. It means investing time in the project upfront, and being brave enough to call something off if it isn’t right, or if it jeopardises the show going on. Create a strong risk register, and ask end users to get involved in risk mitigation.

“It’s really helpful because it calms them down,” says Halimeh.

3. Clear communication is critical

It isn’t just stakeholders who need clear and regular communication, but also the project team itself. Weekly catch-up meetings can be a useful collaboration opportunity. A culture of psychological safety goes without saying.

4. Appreciate that change can be hard for people

“If you’ve got someone who’s been working in the organisation for 20 years and they know how something works, and you say, ‘I’m going to bring in a new thing,’ some people can be a bit fearful of that,” adds George Townsend, one of the programme’s project managers. The answer is to run lots of explanatory sessions explaining what you’ll be doing and why and also providing training on the new systems before they are commissioned, so people feel ready and any teething problems have been worked through.

5. Get familiar with the lingo and culture

“Unless you can speak the same language as the people you are delivering projects to, they don’t necessarily see the benefits of it,” says Adam Lindsay, another RBO renewals project manager. “Telling people what’s going on in their own language is critical. If I’d gone into meetings and started talking about dependencies, value analysis and project mandates, I would have very quickly found people glazing over.”

Try to deliver things in a way that people will understand. It means taking time out to understand other people’s roles and the sector you work in.

6. Remind yourself what the end goal is

The programme team at RBO get a kick from knowing that they play an important part in the staging of the performances. Halimeh reads the daily show reports religiously.

“It’s really important to know that anything we’ve upgraded is working and there haven’t been any problems, and that it’s given the audience what they’ve come to see. That’s your motivation when you are doing the late nights, trying to get everything up and running. If the stage elevators don’t work, there’s no show. If the comms go down, there’s no show. They’re all showstoppers.”

7. Be proud of your successes

Halimeh is proud that the project management methodology they’ve used has been successful in delivering projects without interruption.

Want more? The APM Podcast has published two episodes with the Royal Ballet & Opera, including a behind-the-scenes visit to the venue and an interview with Chief Operating Officer, Heather Walker. Read Project journal’s spring 2026 issue for a full-length feature on the Royal Ballet & Opera.