Project management: turning engineers into team players

Delivering outcomes in today's business world is increasingly achieved through undertaking a collection of projects, which frequently involve teamwork with multiple experts and organisations. But not all civil engineers are naturally comfortable working in this way. For some of us it involves a potentially cataclysmic shift towards ‘softer’ sciences, increasing our behavioural skills and getting things achieved through people. This paper examines the skill range needed to be an effective project manager and reports on an on-the-job training programme that was run successfully for four years in Sweden and Ireland.