From Chaos to Control: Applying Agility in the Corporate World

The SWWE Regional Network were very pleased to welcome Gareth Markham, Turner and Townsend, and Alan Jennings, Director Clear Star Group on 6 October 2026 at BAWA.

Gareth and Alan discussed what really goes wrong with projects and how to turn project chaos into practical lessons and better outcomes.

The event was very interactive and members were arranged in cabaret style for the group discussions and workshop activities.

The audience was asked to think of a project that had worked on and what made it brilliantly successful or painfully unsuccessful, and to write done one factor and to share with the table. Feed back from the tables confirmed that there were no technical problems, and that the problems were all people based.

The audience were asked to stick post it notes with their thoughts on a flip chart. Gareth and Alan grouped them into success of failure themes and then the audience were asked to vote using stick on dots for the most important success factor.

Leadership was first, followed by Governance and Definition, and joint third with Clarity of Outcome and Successful Stakehokder Engagement.  All people themes.

The Standish Chaos Report, 2020, researched thousands of projects and found User involvement, executive management support, and clear statement of requirements to be the top success factors.  The participants views aligned very well with the research.   The Standish Chaos report outcomes have been very consistent over many years. People related issues are at the heart of project success.

Gareth and Alan compared two projects: A – on time, budget and met requirements, and B late, over budget and scope changes.  Project A deliverables were not being used after 6 months.  Project B deliverables were loved by users, solved problems and delivered massive savings.   Which was the successful project?

In the real world 5 conditions really help projects succeed:

• Purpose – do we really understand the problem and desired outcome?
• People – are the right people / stakeholders genuinely involved?
• Trust and Empowerment – can  the team actually make decisions?
• Feedback – how quicky can we discover when things are going wrong?
• Adaptability – can we change direction when we learning something

We need to avoid putting lipstick on a pig!  Be careful of using the wrong metrics to hide the reality of a project going wrong.

We must build value for the user, to help them do their job better, and add value for the customer.

We then had another exercise to look at what can be done to rescue a failing project. Participants were asked to consider 3 interventions to help rescue the project, and following a changing scenario, to then choose one intervention per table.  These were shared in plenary and included prioritisation of requirements and seeking quality user feedback early.

Gareth and Alan then challenged the participants to think about their own projects at work and to ask some questions and score out of 5:

• Everyone can explain the outcome we're trying to create? 
• The people affected are genuinely involved?
• The team can make meaningful decisions?
• We get useful feedback quickly?
• We can change direction when evidence tells us to?
• Then to discuss in the groups to share and learn.

In conclusion, project success can be helped by clear purpose, involving the right people, trust and empowering the team, getting user feedback and adapting to feedback and lessons.  You need to create the conditions for success to meet your particular circumstances, and look how to improve. 

It was a very enjoyable evening and participants left with a lot of good ideas to try at work the following day.

Gareth and Alan have very kindly allowed their presented material to be made available for viewing.
The slides are now available here. 

Speakers:

Gareth Markham, Agile Coach, Turner & Townsend

Gareth is an Enterprise Agile Coach with 5 years of experience in this field. Gareth spent 22 years in the Royal Marines where he went on 7 operational tour 4 to Afghanistan where agility is key to moving over the area. Leaving the military worked as a behavioural change specialist where his focus were teams and creating a positive work environment where teams feel empowered.

Gareth is passionate about fostering cultures built on trust, transparency and continuous improvement. He enjoys working closely with teams and leaders to strengthen relationships, encourage open communication and enable sustainable ways of working that empower people to do their best work.

Alan Jennings, Director, Clear star group

Alan is an Enterprise Agile Coach with over 20 years of experience. He started his career as a developer, initially working on developing biomedical and security systems. He then found his passion in creating the right work environments for teams to work and collaborate in.

Alan is passionate about getting organizations and companies to focus on people, building good relationships and collaboration, while supporting them in understanding and using agile tools and not least the power of good facilitation.

Martin Gosden
SWWE RN