By & Havn

Background and need

At By & Havn, projects play a central role in realising the organisation's strategic ambitions. At the same time, there was a recognition that the way projects were led, prioritised and embedded varied across the organisation.

The ambition was therefore both to strengthen the individual project leader and, just as much, to develop a stronger and more coherent project culture. That implied a need for:

• A shared language and a shared understanding of project leadership.
• Clearer roles and responsibilities between project leaders, steering committees and leadership.
• A stronger interplay between project model, steering and the actual project practice.

At the same time there was a wish to develop a project practice where progress, learning and well-judged adjustments along the way weigh more than perfection and zero-defect thinking. The task was therefore both to lift project leaders' practice and to develop the organisational frames so they support each other to a greater degree.

Solution

We designed a single development effort with two closely connected tracks: development of project practice in the organisation, and capability development of project leaders. The decisive move was to link the two tracks tightly together, so learning from concrete projects was continuously translated into organisational development

• and vice versa.

Track 1: Organisational learning and development of project practice

The work took its starting point in 2-3 pilot projects, which functioned as a learning space for the organisation. Here project leaders and key managers were brought together in thematic workshops focused on, among other things:

• Business case and value creation.
• Progress and prioritisation.
• Governance, roles and decision-making power.
• Communication and interaction with stakeholders.

The purpose was not to 'train' the projects, but to use them as the starting point for shared reflection and learning across. That made it possible to qualify both the collaboration and the way the project model was used in practice. The project model was therefore not treated as a static steering tool, but as a living frame that was continuously adjusted and strengthened through experience from real projects.

Track 2: Capability development of project leaders

In parallel, a development programme was run for the project leaders focused on strengthening their professional and personal agency in the role. The programme was built around learning loops, where knowledge, training and practice were closely linked:

• Individual preparation through articles and short talks.
• Shared workshops focused on application rather than teaching.
• Trialling in own projects.
• Sparring in buddy pairs and shared reflection.

The content continuously took its starting point in participants' current challenges and ranged from classic project tools to implementation, motivation, leading upward and the good project start. That ensured that capability development was not an isolated activity but a direct driver in the development of the projects.

A unified approach

By integrating the two tracks, the work became a single movement where individual learning and organisational development mutually reinforced each other. Project leaders' experiences qualified the project model - and the strengthened model gave better conditions for the project leaders' work.

Results

The programme has left clear marks on By & Havn's way of working with projects - both in practice and in the underlying culture. For the organisation, a number of central effects can be seen:

• Strengthened project culture - a shared language and a more consistent approach to project leadership across the organisation.
• Clearer roles and responsibilities - the interplay between project leaders, steering committees and leadership has become clearer and more effective.
• More usable project model - the project model is used more actively and adjusted continuously to practice.
• Increased learning capacity - projects are used to a greater extent as a starting point for shared reflection and organisational learning.

At the same time, there are signs of a culture in motion. More room has been created for working openly with uncertainty, dilemmas and necessary adjustments - which strengthens both the quality and the realism of the projects.

For the project leaders, the work means:

• Greater security in the role and a better grip on both steering and leadership.
• A stronger toolbox - applied in concrete projects.
• Increased awareness of their own leadership style and impact.

All in all, By & Havn now has a stronger starting point for working with projects as an integrated part of the organisation's development. Project leadership has increasingly become a shared discipline - where progress, learning and collaboration go hand in hand, and where both practice and frames develop in the same movement.