People, Planet, Profits & Projects

I’d like to use this blog post to encourage you – as a project manager – to watch the documentary “Before the Flood”, which you can find on the National Geographic channels. 

Here’s a description of the show, which features Leonardo DiCaprio, not in an acting role, per se, but rather as an ‘explorer’ of the issue of climate change and its solutions.

Before the Flood presents a riveting account of the dramatic changes now occurring around the world due to climate change, as well as the actions we as individuals and as a society can take to prevent the disruption of life on our planet. Beyond the steps we can take as individuals, the film urges viewers to push their elected officials in supporting the use of alternative energy sources such as solar and wind power. “We need everyone to demand bold action from their political leaders and to elect representatives who have their best interests at heart, not the interests of corporations to perpetuate a cycle of greed and destruction,” says DiCaprio. “This documentary shows how interconnected the fate of all humanity is — but also the power we all possess as individuals to build a better future for our planet.”

The film is directed by Fisher Stevens and produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, Fisher Stevens, Jennifer Davisson and Trevor Davidoski with Brett Ratner and James Packer of RatPac Entertainment. It was written by Mark Monroe and Executive Produced by Martin Scorsese, Adam Bardach, Mark Monroe, and Zara Duffy.

Why should a project manager care about this (aside from the ‘planetary citizen’ aspect)?

There are many significant opportunities for projects, large and small, in the area of mitigation of climate change.  We’d like to draw your attention to the Solutions portion of the Before the Flood website.

On it, they say: “The good news is that climate change can be solved today with readily available technologies and sustainability measures. It will take significant investments on the part of governments and businesses, but that investment will be a small fraction of the price we would have to pay for increasing natural disasters and other climate impacts. New research has shown that using currently available technologies, we can meet all of our energy needs for heating, electricity, and transportation through 100% clean renewable sources by mid-century. We can get on track by 2020, when the Paris Agreements enters into force by reducing pollution through a price on carbon and protecting our forest and ocean ecosystems. Learn more about the array of solutions to solve climate change.”

Think about it. The solutions are all about projects, or in many cases, program and portfolio level management.  On the site you will find examples of these in major categories like these:

• Renewable Energy
• Governmental Oversight
• Reforestation
• Climate Adaptation
• Business Leadership and Innovation
• Climate Education
• Energy Efficiency
• Green Cities
• Ocean Conservation
• Carbon Capure

My eyes were drawn to the Business Leadership and Innovation topic.  In this area, we know that it will involve us as project managers, recalling that projects – by definition – are unique endeavors, like these.

In this section of the website, there is this important write up:

“The most exciting changes happening within companies are driven by raw innovation: the development of new products, services and business models that are beginning to outstrip the competition and cutting carbon emissions at the same time. A growing army of entrepreneurs around the world are leading start-ups that are making plastics from waste landfill gas, growing furniture from mushrooms, re-inventing energy markets, and redesigning windows to generate their own power. Nike is harnessing new footwear design and dyeing processes to radically reduce waste and water use whilst improving performance. Spurred on by the rise of Tesla’s electric cars, auto manufacturers like BMW and GM are developing radically different vehicles and business units. Some lesser-known industrial companies like Royal DSM and Umicore have completely shifted their core businesses away from mining to areas like nutrition and recycling. We will only see much more of this radical change in the next few years - watch this space.”

It's going to take project managers like you, me, and our colleagues, to accomplish objectives like these.  Again, I urge you to see the film first, then explore this site for the kinds of projects that you may end up working on – either accidentally, or because you think that this is particularly important work.

In this special post, we interview Moira Alexander, PMP, author of a brand-new book. Moira is the founder and president of Lead-Her-Ship Group.  She has more than 20 years of experience in business, IT and project management for small to large businesses in the U.S. and Canada.  She writes for TechRepublic and CIO Magazine.

I was drawn to the book because of the main theme: the idea of strategic project management - and how important I consider project management the single connection point between organizations' missions, their strategies, right on through to steady-state operation.

So here's are interview with Moira.

Moira, you’ve just written a new book called “Lead or Lag: Linking Strategic Project Management & Thought Leadership”.  It makes the connection between short and long-term business strategy with project management thought leadership.  What was the trigger for writing a book at this particular intersection?

Throughout my 20+ years of working on projects within small and large organizations I realized some business cultures recognized and embraced the link between business strategy and PM thought leadership while others that hadn’t connected the dots suffered direct or indirect losses, and missed company-wide objectives.  It became clear that without strategic goals as the driver, all project, programme and portfolio initiatives simply lost true relevance and  project leaders  lost their ability to be fully effective. An enormous number of projects are still initiated annually with staggeringly high failure rates. This drives home the need to fortify the strategy and PM thought leadership link, as well as other interrelated factors. While this book covers various topics including strategy, thought leadership, project leadership, HR, methodologies, tools and KPIs, the key overlay throughout is thought leadership and strategy.

You identify long-term strategy in particular.  As you know, PMI recently released a Pulse of the Profession report on this topic.  So it’s in play at the moment.  Yet, many, many project managers I’ve talked with think that benefits realization is actually an example of “role inflation” for project managers, that we should really look at our projects as endeavors with a start and a finish and a budget and scope and schedule, manage the treats to project objectives, and get our work done – and anything beyond that is ‘fluff’.  What do you say to them?

The true value of project managers is not in the mechanics of their role, but rather in the high-level knowledge and abilities as strategic thought leaders. Implementing strategic leadership shouldn’t be considered “role inflation”, project leaders are and will continually be tasked with executing projects that offer relevance to future value.  Due to increasing pressure on project leaders to show evidence of initiatives on business objectives, EPMOs are being created with a primary goal of aligning project undertakings with company-wide objectives, and as such all activities should ensure project success is not just possible but likely. To do this a PM has to do so much more than “manage”, we need to “lead” in every aspect of the role. Project, portfolio and programme managers should continually work with leadership teams as a partner in success to achieve overall strategic goals and vision. To do anything else means a project leader’s efforts as well as company efforts, resources and opportunities are squandered. 

Do you cover any aspects of sustainability, in particular – or it least sustainability-oriented thinking in your book?  Does it talk about the elements of the triple bottom line (economic, ecological, and social outcomes)?

In my book I cover future PM trends and the increasing global visibility that’s forging the need for improved transparency, accountability, and social responsibility. The pressure on project professionals to demonstrate how their efforts address these rising concerns will continue to be a significant factor in measuring project, portfolio, and programme success.

That's excellent, Moira, and very insightful.  Thanks.

The days of meeting just project specific goals without sufficient regard for economic, ecological or social impact is gone. Much more is at stake than ever before in terms of business, profit and project impact on people and the planet. The bar has been raised on company, executive and project leadership performance, accountability, transparency and social responsibility, with no signs of letting up.

That's very reassuring to hear.  Here's a related question: 

How do you react to this statement: “Project Managers – by definition – are change agents; therefore they can – and should - be the leader that makes a strong connection between organizational mission, vision, and values to their projects’ objectives” ?

I agree fully with this statement. As mentioned, project manager is a misleading term to some extent as it creates the impression that simply managing project mechanics is all that’s required for success to become inevitable. A PM must be a change agent if they’re to deliver the desired value organizations expect in order to realize full benefits potential. Absent alignment with organizational mission, vision and overall objectives, a project leader simply can’t be agents of change nor effective as project partners.

 What other coaching do you have for an audience of project managers who, by virtue of their reading this particular blog, do (at least potentially)  believe in a PM taking on a larger, triple-bottom-line focus in leading their projects?

In my book I discuss why many C-Suites may no longer be focusing solely on the bottom-line, and instead choosing to also recognize the intangible and tangible benefits of factoring in the triple-bottom-line in their decisions and actions. I’ve included insights from other experts who say leaders should be open to incorporating other factors into their business practices if they aim to competitive and even possibly viable. The triple-bottom-line is no longer an optional factor; it now has the power to significantly impact the bottom line at some stage in an organization’s growth, whether easily recognizable or not.

At the end of the day the PM profession is here to stay, but each project leader at some point will need to decide if they are willing to elevate their role and responsibilities in this high profile profession and truly “lead” or simply “manage” projects, and by default lag.

Thanks, Moira - excellent points and we heartily recommend your book.  Good luck, and thanks again for being on People, Planet, Profits & Projects.

Here's a link to the book - check it out!

LEAD or LAG: Linking Strategic Project Management & Thought Leadership

Moira Alexander, PMP, I.S.P., ITCP/IP3P

My last post was called "Swing and a Miss", and it was critical of the most recent PMI Pulse of the Profession report, "Sustain Benefits to Optimize Business Value".  In that post, I promised to provide the positive aspects in the next post.  So here it is.  In keeping with the baseball analogy, instead of "Swing and a Miss", this one is titled, "Runner on First Base", because although it's not good when the batter has a strike (or two), they are still up at bat, and they still can produce.

And that's what happened here.

PMI missed the point entirely on two parts of the Triple Bottom Line (economic, ecological and social), focusing solely on the economic aspects, but they did importantly convey the idea to project managers that they should envision success differently.  That is, they should look past the project's end date and to that time - after you as the PM have left and your project team is long disassembled - when the project's product is in play.

I'm a big believer in vocabulary being important.  That's why I provided the definition of the Triple Bottom Line up above, rather than just using the term.

So let's be crystal clear on the definitions of th terms used in the report:

OBJECTIVES:

Project objectives are the results to be achieved after a project concludes, such as a successful IT conversion, development of a new product or manufacturing process, or construction and staffing of a new facility.

BENEFITS:

Project benefits are the value that is created for the project sponsor or beneficiary as a result of the successful completion of a project.

BENEFITS REALIZATION:

Benefits realization is the means to ensure that benefits are derived from outputs.

BENEFITS REALIZATION MANAGEMENT (BRM):

Benefits realization management incorporates the activities of managing benefits throughout the life of the project: Identify, Execute, and Sustain.

Now that we know the terms, let's discuss some of the findings, and you'll see why I think PMI has put a Runner on First Base.

Is BRM worthwhile?  Well, we'll let these findings from the study tell you (this is adapted from the Pulse report):

Organizations with high BRM maturity invest in the discipline and establish its value organization-wide. They build a strong foundation of tools, resources, and cross-functional teaming to achieve and sustain benefits. They also target benefits that align with strategic goals and monitor and measure progress against the benefits during project execution and beyond. As a result, these organizations:

• Waste significantly less money due to poor performance; specifically, US$112 million less for every US$1 billion invested in projects and programs

• Achieve better project performance and realize the expected benefits at higher rates; on average 50% more of their projects meet original goals and business intent
• Experience 69% more projects that meet or exceed forecasted ROI. While that return reflects monetary investments, it is bolstered by numerous intangibles in efficiency and effectiveness, especially customer satisfaction.

• Make project teams aware of the success or failure of benefits after the project ends and outputs and outcomes are delivered to the business (to the tune of 92%)

•  Make their project teams aware of unanticipated benefits (to the tune of 77%)

This focus on the past-the-end-of-the-project-and-the-handover-is-only-part-of-why-we-are-doing-this-project-in-the-first-place yields benefits that come back to the project team.  As a PM, wouldn't you be able to influence potential contributors more effectively if you you could more powerfully state what the project means to the organization?  This is a source of power and authority for you.  Use it! 

As the report says, foster a 'benefits-driven culture' in your project teams.  We would just add that the consideration of benefits mustn't stop at the dollar sign.  The benefits of the projects (often very much aligned with corporate/organizational vision/mission statements) also include social and ecological.  Use them, as well.  If you do so, you won't only have a runner on first.

You'll have loaded the bases.

PMI produces excellent research reports called Pulse of the Profession.  The most recent one is called “Beyond the Project – Sustain Benefits to Optimize Business Value”.  This one – from my perspective – has a split personality.  It is very, very good, and falls very, very short.

Let me explain.

The good:

You really should read through this report because it is 100% on target regarding a view of project management that “thinks through the end” to the steady-state project outcome.  It’s got great examples and is loaded with data about the rationale for including these considerations in project planning.  In fact, it’s so good, it will be covered in an upcoming blog post.  There’s too much good stuff to cover here.

The bad:

Since we’re in the middle of baseball’s World Series, I will use a baseball analogy.  The document is a total swing-and-a-miss when it comes to the triple (get it?) bottom line.  It’s as if they left all the runners on base. In every inning.  Of the last game of the World Series.  Why do I say this?  This was an absolute golden opportunity to talk about all three elements of the triple bottom line (which is made up of economic, social, and ecological benefits).  But search through this document, and although you’ll find many instances of the word “sustain” and variants like sustainability and sustainable, you will find no mention of social or ecological sustainability (Corporate Social Responsibility – CSR).  There is nothing wrong with sustaining economic value.  There is everything right with it.  But when a document like this promotes the strong message of sustainability, why not feature - or at least call into play - the other two elements?  It’s hard to believe that the 1100+ project managers interviewed on the topic of benefits sustainability had nothing to say about project outcomes that relate to planetary or social benefit (which, by the way, come back to benefit the organization economically  -see my post about the payoff of investing in CSR.

And it started out so promisingly.  Here is a quote from the opening article:

“Long-term benefits for all should trump the competitive individual or organization. Better accountability models need to speak to the networks of the new normal, not prop up old, crumbling hierarchies—bastions of command and control. This is as applicable to a single organization as it is to a nation–state.”.

And there’s this:

“Even though benefits are realized on the business/operations side of the organization, benefits sustainment is a shared responsibility that should include the project team.”

So close – accountability… trumping individuals and organizations… the exact traits of CSR.  But it’s not taken any further.  I’m hoping that PMI will consider the reports from MIT/Sloan that we’ve published in creating its next Pulse report. 

In my next post, I will shift to a discussion about the outstanding research and reporting in this document which we can apply to CSR; although they failed to make it into this Pulse report, the report still has significant meaningfulness to those of us who think that project managers can – to keep my baseball metaphor going – hit a triple, not only a single.

Shall we start a Wrigley Field or Fenway Park-like chant?

Let's go PMI, let's go!

In the prior blog post, I asserted the need for project managers to at least consider the part of their project that continues after the toasts.  I used an image of the officials from Flint celebrating their cut-over to the Flint River from the Detroit River as an example of a handover from the PM to “operations”. 

I think that story has some lessons for project managers.  Although the steady-state operation of the Flint water system was out of scope, the project’s interim deliverables should have included the necessary actions (in the first few pages of the standard EPA handbooks and memos on the topic) required when a water source is switched and the water chemistry is different. https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-11/documents/occt_req_memo_signed_pg_2015-11-03-155158_508.pdf

There were procedures that could have been put in place - established by the project - that would have made the operation successful.

That is part of project planning. Part of Risk Identification.  So although the EFFECT isn’t noted until people start drinking the water and getting sick, the CAUSE is inside the project and inside the project’s plan.

The article discusses the particular skills (hard and soft) that enable a project manager to focus on project success (as opposed to only project management success) and I found this part interesting as well.

The referenced article (see Part 1) has an excellent table which shows the pieces of competency which, if present, are factors which enhance the element of project success and could help prevent the mindset which allows a project manager to limit their thinking to the ‘present’ the ‘local’ and the ‘small’, which is what I assert is what happens when they think about project management success and not project success – which is ‘global’, ‘long-term’, and ‘large scale’.

Some highlights of these factors of competency:

• problem-solving
• ownership
• thinking from ideation to retirement of the project’s product
• extended time frame
• future-based metrics
• inclusion of a diverse set of stakeholders

These sound easy to achieve, but remember, we are dealing with a project – a time-limited endeavor with a definitive beginning and end, and using limited resources.  Because of this, the article says, we have to deal with challenges such as:

1. Some of the factors that contribute to project success are realized during the project itself, when the project is necessarily infatuated with meeting budget and schedule, as well as scope objectives.Note: one only has to watch the first 20 minutes of the new film Deepwater Horizon to see how this caused project decisions to be made without thinking of the outcome in the steady state.
2. Project success factors (customer satisfaction, commercial success, or in the case of Flint, safety of the water) often occur well after the project ‘completion’, when the project manager is not in control, and this can cause a lack of concern or focus.
3. The factors influencing project success measurements and perceptions can be in opposition to each other – for example, anyone who has written a book or created artwork knows that if you want the piece to be perfect, it will take forever, and will never be published or sold; so at some point, you just need to declare it DONE.

The article goes on to (properly, in my opinion) discuss ways to increase the awareness of project success for project managers, including investigation of changes even to the curricula of project management as taught at the University level.  For that, I would refer you to the article.

The overall takeaway for you?

First of all, consider that difference between project success and project management success.  If you ‘get’ that distinction, that’s at least half the battle.  Next, use examples (I gave you four in Part 1 of this post) to illustrate the difference.  At the moment, you can accomplish this simply by going to watch the film “Deepwater Horizon” in which the project team has made all sorts of decisions to focus on project management success (cost and schedule) in exchange for safety.

Next – you can assess your own organization’s maturity in this area with the instrument called “The Sustainability Wheel” in our book, or investigate the literature on sustainability in PM – it’s a growing field, supported by continued research like the referenced article.