I went to a fascinating talk by Adam Hoyle, Managing Director, Tradax Group Ltd, on Corporate Best Practice in Public Sector Bidding. I thought there were a number of lessons that apply more generally to running all kinds of projects that would be worth sharing.

Seven best practice tips

• Don’t start projects unless they align with your overall strategy

Obvious, but I’ve often seen it ignored in the heat of the moment, too!

• Make sure you have thought through exactly what decision-making authority each person involved should have, and that this has been clearly communicated and understood

In my experience the latter are frequently neglected, even if the former is not. Too many people think governance is boring, so don’t bother. It should provide the rock that success is built on

• Give everyone involved a clear written briefing pack at the start, providing them with all the basic information about the project that they will require

Saves a lot of repetition, and makes sure everyone has a single reference point they can go back to, so things are more likely to join up later. It saves you time in the long run

• Standardise what you can – but everything that is standardised needs an owner who takes their ownership seriously

We all know how fast most of the stuff on our intranets goes out of date, but still sits there. The corollary may also be true: what you can’t find an owner for, you probably won’t be able to standardise effectively

• Think hard about what information would really make a difference to your performance if you had it, and work creatively (legally of course) to get it – for example using FoI requests

I think the key is identifying what information would lead to specific and worthwhile improvement actions if you had it. Too often, people ask for information without having thought about what they would do with it. When they get the answer, they realise it is interesting, but not actionable

• Use the information you have intelligently – there is probably much more that you can learn than is immediately obvious, if you put it all together

E.g. draw graphs of trends across projects, and work out what they are telling you. And don’t ignore what you see because you don’t like the message, as people often do!

• Transitions between teams – for example on winning a bid, or starting to operate an asset – are high-risk boundaries, which need careful planning to make sure they go smoothly

I recommend running readiness reviews for these. It is not the review that counts – by then it may be too late – but the knowledge that that discipline will happen Do go and listen to Adam talk and hear his views on best practice first-hand, if you get the chance! He’s an inspiring speaker.