For those who don’t know their Dutch, “fiets” means bicycle. But here I use it (in wordplay) to describe a feat – an accomplishment.

I was going to blog about the Blue Orchard Bee, osmia lignaria – in terms of a project in which that species of bee was going to be used to supplement pollination duties for the declining honeybee population in vast fields of almonds in California.

But that “backup bee” post will have to become a backup post.  Why?  Well, as a good PM and author, I double-checked the status of the project to make sure all was on track - and I’m glad I did this form of mitigation.  It turns out, The sponsoring “Wonderful Company” has decided to stop funding the project.  It won’t die – it will most likely be taken over by academic and government interests.

So instead of discussing flower petals, I’ll talk about bike pedals.

The most recent issue of PM Network features a story with the title “Pedal Power” and it discusses a Dutch project which is building the world’s largest bicycle parking garage.  Having lived in Holland* for two years, I know this personally.  I think you can get familiar with the context without moving there (although I recommend it) by simply stopping here and watching this 5-minute video.  Then, return to the text.

Just in case you missed the video, here’s a summary of some of the key context. The Netherlands has a growing population of 17 million people. All together the Dutch own 22.5 million bicycles. This means that on average they own 1.3 bicycles per capita, more than any other country in the world. Many people might think the Chinese cycle a lot too, but they own only 0.4 bicycles per person, just slightly more than the US with 0.3 bicycles per person. Not everybody has a bicycle though, not even in the Netherlands. The bicycles are owned by 84% of the Dutch. That means there are many people who have more than one bicycle.

So here’s a question for you: where do all these fietsen (bicycles) get parked?

If you have been to The Netherlands*, you know that parking a bike can be difficult.

The PM Network story talks about Utrecht, a city of about 350,000 people in the center of The Netherlands, and the way in which the government of the city worked with other stakeholders to build a E4 million Stationsplein bike parking garage – the largest in the world.

My favorite quote in the article comes from Rutger Siderius, a Senior Project Manager at Procap, the PM consultancy that represented the Utrecht government during the planning and design phase.  “The most important benefit is that people are using the garage”.  Uitstekend, Rutger! This goes back to my theme that the project is really a success only when the organizations and stakeholders involved are really reaping benefits. 

The article is worth reading, from a sustainability perspective and from a project management perspective – the usual project challenges are there: scope and stakeholder management, realized risks (in this case, other projects nearby that caused a crowded work area and delays due to structural design changes in the foundation, caused, in turn by other real-estate developments).

But it all came together and the garage opened in August 2017.

And here is a video that shows how this all came together!

Notice the frequent use of stakeholder engagement throughout the project.  I’d assert that this was one of the reasons for its success.

*remember, The Netherlands is the country, Holland is really only the western part of the country.  Granted, this contains a large percentage of the population and important cities like Den Haag (The Hague) and Amsterdam, however, when you say Holland, you are only covering 2 out of 12 provinces.  It would be like calling the USA “California”.  This article is about Utrecht - which is in neither of these provinces, and in fact is a province of its own!

I like the title of the latest Pulse of the Profession report by PMI.  It’s a little long and it feels like they tried to squish a lot into the title:

Success in Disruptive Times - Expanding the Value Delivery Landscape to Address the High Cost of Low Performance

See what I mean?  All in one title they are trying to cover:

• Disruption
• Value Delivery
• An expanded view of project success
• There’s a high cost to underperforming
• The issues with the current state of projects and project management

But in reality, these things are related, so I applaud the report.  In particular, I like the idea of ‘expanding the landscape’.  Why?  Landscape usually implies a horizontal view, as we know from our use of PowerPoint slides – the A4 or 8.5x11 paper is turned so that the longer dimension is horizontal.  We're going for a broader, wider, more panoramic, all-encompassing view.   And that’s how I think of a project’s schedule… think of a Gantt chart… start on the left, end on the right… in ‘landscape mode’.  But instead of stopping at the project's 'end date'... we expand our view a little... further...   out.

Here’s how this very important report opens:

“The traditional measures of scope, time, and cost are essential but no longer sufficient in today’s competitive environment. The ability of projects to deliver what they set out to do—the expected business benefits—is what organizations need. When determining project success, we analyzed levels of benefits realization maturity as well as the traditional measures.”

Translation: PMI, as we did back in 2010 with our book Green Project Management, are recognizing the idea of thinking through – thinking past – the project end date to days, months, years, even decades and centuries after the project is handed over to its customer.  They are acknowledging that bringing benefits to customers, to the organization, and the world at large, must be considered in planning a project.

This is huge!

PMI goes on to compare what they call Champions* and Underperformers** and notes what distinguishes the two.  Not surprisingly, a mature attitude towards benefits realization – which is really just another way of saying sustainability thinking – are in the former category.

* CHAMPIONS: Organizations with 80% or more of projects being completed on time, on budget, meeting business intent, and having high benefits realization maturity.

**UNDERPERFORMERS: Organizations with 60% or fewer projects being completed on time, on budget, meeting business intent, and having low benefits realization maturity.

In the body of the report, they say:

"1 in 3 organizations report high benefits realization maturity. A key challenge many companies face is managing projects based only on traditional outputs—such as time, scope, and budget—without consistently tracking whether they help the organization achieve its larger strategic goals. Benefits, tangible and intangible, should be considered in the equation."

Did you catch that?  Tangible and intangible.  They’re talking about the triple bottom line.  Benefits, of course, should include economic measurements.  Money makes the world go around.  But not all of the benefits are economic.  Some are social.  Some are ecological.  And guess what?  They all count.  Not only that, some of the intangible benefits come right back around and pay economic benefits, and not always so far out in the future.  Ask Patagonia.  Ask Interface.  Ask Southwest Airlines.  Or just read this.  And/or read this.  Both are well-researched, recent reports that demonstrate the connection between stock and economic performance based on viewing success in the longer term – i.e. sustainability or Triple Bottom Line thinking.

But let’s get back to projects and project management.  Is it actually possible that enterprises which focus on outcomes – longer-term outcomes – benefits realization – whatever you want to call this – actually have more successful projects?

Well, yes.  Yes, exclamation point.  The data says yes.  Have a look at this chart which maps resulting project performance based on what PMI calls “Value Delivery Capability Maturity” but what I’ll call ‘thinking past the end of the project’, because, well, that’s what it is.

In every case where important measures such as ‘on time, within budget, meeting goals’, the green bar – representing the organizations who think past the end of the project – outperform those who think only in terms of scope, schedule, and cost.  Notably, the number of project deemed failures is almost TWICE AS HIGH in enterprises which take the limited, ‘triple constraint’ view.

That’s food for thought – food for thinking – food for thinking past the project’s end date.  Isn't it?

Read more about this in the actual report, linked here.

The saying about March is that it “comes in like a lion and out like a lamb”  However, someone forgot to tell that to March, at least as far as the Northeast US is concerned.  This post is being written from the Boston, Massachusetts, area, which has (so far) had 3 back-to-back-to-back nor’easters - watch the video below, very well-produced and a bit scary...

...and as this is being written, a possible FOURTH nor'easter is being predicted for the 20th of March....

I realize that this is weather and not climate.  However, we should understand the dynamics behind this weather.  Some would say, ‘so much for Global Warming;, look at all of this snow.  However, what powers a Nor’easter?

From a Scientific American article called  ‘Nor’easters May Become More Intense with Climate Change’:

Nor’easters are born much like other storms. “They’re low pressure systems of the same kind that give us our precipitation in the United States throughout the year,” says Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at Weather Underground. “But they happen to form right off the Northeast coast and in winter.” The winds blowing from the northeast that give these storms their name also push them ashore.
 
The storms derive their energy from the contrast in air temperature between very cold, dense air from Canada that meets relatively warm, moist air coming off the Atlantic Ocean. “That difference in air masses can be converted to the energy of the winds and precipitation that come with the storm,” Masters says.

And adapted from an article posted on Climate Central:

The storms… exploit the contrast between the cold air over land and the warmth of the oceans, which are running more than 2°F warmer than normal along much of the coast, said Kevin Trenberth, a climatologist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. The warmer ocean waters mean more moisture in the atmosphere for the storm to suck up; the cold air over the continent ensures that moisture falls as snow.

About half of the current anomalous ocean warmth, and therefore the enhanced moisture, can be attributed to climate change.  As the oceans and atmosphere warm due to the buildup of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, that moisture source could continue to grow, to the tune of 4 percent more water vapor in the atmosphere for every 1°F rise in global temperatures. Earth’s average temperature has already risen by 1.6°F since the beginning of the 20th century, and is expected to rise another 0.5°F to 9°F by 2100, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, depending on greenhouse gas emissions.

So there is at least a likely dynamic, if not a cause-and effect relationship, between climate change and these nor’easters.

And even if there isn’t, such a link, or you don’t believe there is, feel free to debunk and diminish the above.  It doesn’t matter.  And that’s because regardless of the cause, the effect is causing projects to be initiated in reaction to the anticipated increase in intensity and frequency of storms in the Boston area.

A recent opinion piece in the Boston Globe focuses on ‘climate readiness’ and refers to the Climate Ready Boston report recently issued.  You should have a look at this executive summary, if not the full report.  It starts: “Climate Ready Boston is the City of Boston’s ongoing initiative to adapt to climate change. Working with partners at all levels of government and in the private sector, we can protect Boston as severe weather and sea level rise create more challenges. There is much more to be done. That’s why Boston is getting started now.”

The report is basically a launch of a portfolio of projects and programs. Here’s a view of these programs and progress against them.

 The point is that whatever the drivers, and whether you agree or not with the rationale, climate-readiness projects are being launched in a big way, not just in Boston, but all over the world.  So it pays to understand the science and the reaction.  As project managers, these initiatives will provide ‘sustainable’ employment – for what I would assert are worthwhile efforts for humankind, agree or disagree with climate science.

So as we slowly “roar” our way out of March, take a moment to get smart about these types of projects.  Here are some other recent examples:

• Over $80 million approved for climate initiatives in Bangladesh, Georgia and Zambia
• San Francisco’s Resilient Bay Area effort
• Green Climate Fund projects
• University of Notre Dame’s Global Adaptation Initiative
• Germany’s International Climate Initiative – a list of 46 projects worldwide