Only YOU Can Do This

 

Last summer, back in July 2019, I was attending one of the largest technology users’ conferences in sunny San Diego-California, where the last slide of the keynote opening speech caught my eye and I kept thinking about it until writing this blog.

  _{Jack Dangermond (President and Owner of Esri) Closing note, Esri User Conference plenary session, July 2019, San Diego, California, USA} 

As a professional project manager, my work is part of something much larger. It is about driving ideas successfully by turning them into reality, using people skills and capabilities in a timely fashion. This is what the new PMI’s PROJECT ECONOMY™ is all about, and this is the future of the profession.

Being part of a larger system means that I am an active stakeholder, engaged in establishing the basis of a sustainable future, with its multiple faces: sustainable development, resilience, sustainable entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility, etc.

There is no doubt that, with the multilateral processes in place, and levels of support incorporated; it is eminent to always calibrate the relationships with the environment we are living in. It is becoming more imperative to design and implement an inclusive global thriving society to ensure a better future.

Moreover, in this disruptive age, we are living in; where industries, disciplines and professions are constantly changing patterns and evolving competitively, striving to overcome the challenge of increasing the demand generation and getting ready to go to market; establishing the balance between personal life-profession-environment is not just a state of mind, but it is part of something much bigger, and getting it right matters a lot to realize a sustainable future.                                                          

_{https://pixabay.com/illustrations/questions-who-what-how-why-where-1328466/}

Saying that; and building on top of the fact that we are all already engaged to follow the trend; what could the drivers to realize a sustainable future? How to achieve this balance? What are the needed skills? What is the  required level of maturity? Is it only about adopting the latest technologies and/or embark on a digital transformation journey?  Is it enough to pursue more certifications in the field of innovation, change management, coaching, etc.?

While those are existential questions, perspectives of answers are different, and may vary from a context to another, from a culture to another, from a discipline to another, the most important common factor is the INDIVIDUALS themselves, with all what they possess in terms of own needs or goals, rights and responsibilities. 

_{https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/rag-dolls-  one-blue_948225.htm#page=1&query=individual&position=2}                                          

Back to the slide mentioned earlier at the start of this text; after reading many times the requirements of achieving a sustainable future, my attention went to “Compassion, Ethics and Hard Work”, where I found more clarity, and got the appropriate answers. These include:

• Being sensitive and fair;
• Acting with justice and interdependence;
• Dealing with others on an equal dimension basis;
• Being skilled with empathy, patience, wisdom, kindness,  perseverance, warmth and resolve;
• Inspiring trust by the way decisions are taken;
• Having energy and commitment; and the list goes on.

_{https://depositphotos.com/stock-photos/ethical.html? qview=40855487}                                                                                                       

 In my opinion, the answers above are what makes us READY for the challenges of realizing a sustainable future.

As a project manager, how do you implement this your professional environment?

How do we meet the standards that we set for ourselves?

Is there any reference, in the project management profession to benchmark the decisions we make?

^{YES, THERE ARE…. AND Only YOU Can Do This}

Please find below some useful links:

PMI’s Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct  

PMI’s Ethical Decision-Making Framework

PMI’s Ethics in Project Management Page