Halton wanted to ensure consistently high-quality project delivery and turn project excellence into a competitive advantage. To achieve this, the company introduced a unified project management model with the support of Kumura, which has since become part of IQI.
13 countries, three virtual workshops, one project model
Halton Group is a global leader in indoor air solutions for demanding environments. The company aims to create safe, comfortable and productive indoor environments that are energy-efficient and sustainable throughout their lifecycle.
In 2019, Halton worked with IQI to define a unified end-to-end process based on the ABC Project Management Model. In spring 2020, the model was rolled out across the company’s European organisation despite the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The rollout workshops were delivered online and brought together Halton employees from 13 countries.
“As a management team, we considered it important to demonstrate our own commitment to the new, shared ways of working. From an HR perspective, it was also essential to gain a clear understanding of the capabilities we would need in the future,” says Anu Saxén, Director of the Buildings Segment.
“This is why the participants represented such a broad cross-section of the company, including the project and sales organisations, HR and the management team.”
Successful implementation of a project model requires consistent ways of working and a shared project management language across the organisation. Feedback from Halton’s workshop participants showed that there was a genuine need for joint discussion and collaborative development.
Virtual collaboration succeeds with the right tools
The virtual format was extremely well received and even exceeded participants’ expectations, despite online meetings already being part of everyday work in Halton’s international organisation.
IQI’s Development Consultant combined the most effective features of Zoom and Howspace, which IQI uses as a virtual learning environment. Zoom made it easy to divide participants into pairs and smaller discussion groups, while Howspace provided a platform for capturing and sharing the outcomes of their work.
“The virtual workspace worked extremely well in an international setting. For example, creating word clouds from participants’ summaries and comments clearly illustrated which topics had generated the most discussion.”
Anu Saxén Director, Buildings Segment
The international rollout of new ways of working is one of the most critical stages of any transformation. It is essential to give people the opportunity to discuss the changes, voice their concerns and gradually recognise how the new model benefits everyone.
When the entire process is delivered remotely, the introductions, collaborative exercises and overall structure of each session must be designed differently. IQI already had extensive experience of doing this effectively.
Halton has since put the project management model into practice across its organisation.
“After the training, we began by identifying all our projects. This has now been completed across every business unit and country,” Saxén says.
“We have also started reviewing the portfolio management process and integrating it with our other operations. Overall, the implementation has got off to a very good start.”
