Sustainability: Now Trending in PM
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by Richard Maltzman,
Dave Shirley
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Date
Here at People, Planet, Profits, and Projects, we have been promoting the importance of integrating long-term thinking, sustainability, “green”, and strategy – into your projects for at least seven years. Two books (Green Project Management, and Driving Project, Program, and Portfolio Success) and all these years later, it’s very reassuring to see these aspects of PM on the “hot list”. This article from CIO magazine by Moira Alexander, PMP, features the “5 Trends That Will Transform Project Management”, and these aspects explicitly come out in not one, but two of the trends. Let’s have a look.
In Trend 1, “The laser focus on strategy over progress”, we see the elevation of strategy and cross-project, long-term thinking as being key. This is in line with the idea of benefits realization versus simple project metrics, and as you’ll see below, is also very connected to Trend 3 – in which companies (and therefore projects!) had better align themselves with social responsibility and environmental accountability. Here’s an extract of Trend 1:
"Trend 1: The laser-focus on strategy over projects
Competition, limited resources, internal and external environmental factors, time and budgetary constraints, are increasingly impacting businesses. Leaders will need to transform their PMOs or project management teams to focus all efforts around reaching business goals.
…
It may also serve the business better if individuals are selected for goal-centric projects based on their high-value core strengths in relation to business requirements, instead of selecting project team members in the traditional style of departmental representation. Taking this laser focus approach to strategy over projects can optimize resource, time and budgetary use."
In summary, it’s important that project managers are not sub-optimizing their projects to accomplish goals that are perhaps aligned with a smaller business unit’s goals but are not connected to the corporate strategy. And because organizations are increasingly including the social and environmental elements in their annual report and strategy (see below), projects need to increasingly check their goals to look for that “golden thread”.
Here’s an extract of Trend 3:
Trend 3: The increased need for accountability and social responsibility
With the whole world watching, businesses can no longer conduct themselves in anonymity, while
People and businesses want to do business with companies that provide transparency, offer visibility and conduct themselves in ways that are ethical, socially responsible and accountable. Projects are no exception.
Safeguards should be identified and implemented to ensure accountability is at the forefront to protect stakeholders, clients and the general public as it applies to the project activities and outcomes. Ultimately these factors do have the power to directly or indirectly influence the bottom line. giving no thought to social or environmental factors.
Note the important reference here to the word “outcome”. More than ever, we assert (and the trend says!) project managers should be “thinking through” the long-term application/use of the product of the project and not just the handover and pizza party. Success should be thought of not only as accomplishing scope, time, and budgetary goals, but (and yes, this does take time and patience) whether or not the project outcome yields the expected benefit it was meant to provide. That benefit should also be thought of in terms of economic, social, and environmental outcomes. So, and we know you don’t like to hear this, but if a project is done on time, within budget, and meets all requirements, it’s still not really a success if, for example, one of the side effects of the factory expansion project is that the system is leaking poisons into local streams.- or if the coffeemaker’s steady-state use generates millions (or billions!) of non-recyclable plastic cups. On the plus side, there are examples of projects in which the outcome reduces energy use or waste, or provides an improvement in the quality of life for the local population. These minuses and pluses should not be parenthetical discoveries but rather part of the planning of the project, combining 2 of these 5 transformational trends.
Imagine, just by doing this you are grabbing yourself 40% of the trendiest and important project management trends for 2016! What a great New Year’s Resolution!
Posted
by
Richard Maltzman
on: January 10, 2016 05:15 PM |
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 | Anonymous |
Great to see more coverage on 'sustainability' in project management and to hear it is 'trending'.
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