Thinking on your feet

Momentum has to be balanced with flexibility, and none of the projects in this chapter were designed to a pre-determined formula. Clearly, there are always constraints, but the ability to accommodate change at short notice was a theme emerging from all the entries for the HR award. As one client put it: ‘The need for increased flexibility to manage projects of this size and scale was fundamental to success.' Indeed, it is harder to think of a process more grounded in rules and regulations than that of transferring a group of people from one organization to another. Yet Apache sought to cut through potential bureaucracy by ensuring that its staff were briefed. It also used a dedicated Internet site to keep people fully informed and to give them the information to make decisions for themselves as much as possible.