There’s a scene I’ve watched play out umpteen times over the past three decades. The setting is the boardroom, and the starring role is played by a question that I’ve seen posed by some of the most astute non-execs I’ve had the pleasure of knowing. Usually it is directed to the member of the c-suite who is designated as the executive sponsor of the current over-running, over-spending, slippage-laden transformation programme.

Being ‘a programme geek’ at social events is rather like being a doctor. Whereas doctors get a constant unsolicited litany of guests’ medical symptoms, programme geeks instead get to hear all about ‘the programme that goes wrong’; the tale of the high-stakes, transformational initiative at work that is taking three times as long, costing three times as much, delivering only a third of what it promised, and more importantly is draining the life-force and good humour out of the organisation.

One of my (many) formative experiences in programme delivery was working with a banking client in 2018 right when TSB’s troubled data migration hit the headlines. It was variously described as a ‘meltdown’ and a ‘fiasco’ in the popular press, who carried stories on a daily basis ranging from customers being unable to pay their mortgages or access their accounts, through to one mythical account holder who had supposedly found an extra £5M in his bank account.