BEYOND THE JOB VERSION
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PROJECT: BEING A SCUBA-DIVING INSTRUCTOR Grant Cooke runs his own scuba-diving training
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In his day job, Grant is a senior people and science project manager at AstraZeneca
iving is the closest most of us will get to feeling like we are in the weightlessness of space, and that feeling alone is reason enough to head out on a dive. But there is also an infinite amount of underwater treasures to be seen. I have had the pleasure of diving the original HMS Invincible from the 1800s in the morning, and then diving the first-ever submarine in the afternoon. It was an incredibly surreal experience going from wooden decks with original cannons on the seabed to a small submarine that is entirely intact. I started diving in my final year of university, where after one session in the pool I fell in love with the sport. Little did I know that it would complement my career path of project management, or that my career would be so beneficial and intrinsic to how I operate in the underwater world. I became a qualified diver in 2014, then progressed to become a technical diver, where time and depth are increased. I went on to become an instructor and started a company called Cobalt Diving, teaching both recreational and technical diving disciplines. Technical diving enables you to dive deep shipwrecks, flooded abandoned mines and flooded cave systems that go on for many kilometres. Diving has many common attributes with project management. Before starting a dive, detailed preparation and training are key. Like project management, practical and theoretical training are combined with experience to give confidence and competence. Getting in the water involves having an objective, such as
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exploring a shipwreck, hoping to see certain types of marine life or just to enjoy being in the water. Once the objective has been agreed, we need to understand what tools we need, what kit to take and who we are taking. One of the best things about diving is choosing the appropriate equipment, as each option has advantages and disadvantages (such as being heavier on the surface but giving a longer time to explore underwater). Choosing equipment is fundamentally an asset management exercise, where I need to bring different assets into play for different projects. This is directly influenced by processes I have used on transformation projects, such as choosing the correct machinery on a building site to suit the reach lift parameters, or choosing the correct working methodology, like agile and engagement tools such as PESTLE analysis in an internal change programme. Most equipment will cover most of the jobs, but at the sharp end of both diving and project management, it’s about realising when you need specialist tools for specialist or more risky work.
Precious time underwater When I began my professional career, the first skills that I began to rely on and continue to develop were communication and engagement. I have spent a lot of time understanding different personality types and applying that information to communicate more effectively. When underwater, we need to be able to communicate effectively without being able to speak. Using pre-agreed plans with some standardised hand and light signals, we can accurately and quickly
