People, Planet, Profits & Projects

As we consider how to integrate long-term thinking into project management, one thing we really need to remember is the project manager as an individual.  Lately our focus has shifted to the program and portfolio manager, because that level is closer to the corporate mission and vision statements. 

That's still valid, and we think it's an important shift.

But it made us stop and think: are we doing this because of the positions of Program and Portfolio Management only, or is it because of the people who are at these levels?  Or is it a little of both?

WIth that in mind, we'd like to open a discussion about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and how it relates to project management, and of course how it relates to long-term, big-picture thinking in project management.

This cannot be a thorough treatment of the subject - for that you'll have to wait for our upcoming book and assessment tool (The Sustainability Wheel).  But we want to get our readers and blog followers used to this topic because it's important to us (and we think, to you, too).

Read through the following, adapted from public sources, inlcudig Wikipedia.  Do a little thinking - about yourself, your favorite project managers, your most - and least - successful peers, and how these four sets of Myers-Briggs "temperaments" relate to those projects.

• Artisans (ST) are concrete and adaptable. Seeking stimulation and virtuosity, they are concerned with making an impact. Their greatest strength is tactics. They excel at troubleshooting, agility, and the manipulation of tools, instruments, and equipment.^[3] The two roles are as follows:

·         Operators are the directive (proactive) Artisans. Their most developed intelligence operation is expediting. The attentive Crafters and the expressive Promoters are the two role variants.

·         Entertainers are the informative (reactive) Artisans. Their most developed intelligence operation is improvising. The attentive Composers and the expressive Performers are the two role variants.

• Guardians (SJ) are concrete and organized. Seeking security and belonging, they are concerned with responsibility and duty. Their greatest strength is logistics. They excel at organizing, facilitating, checking, and supporting. The two roles are as follows:

·         Administrators are the directive (proactive) Guardians. Their most developed intelligence operation is regulating. The attentive Inspectors and the expressive Supervisors are the two role variants.

·         Conservators are the informative (reactive) Guardians. Their most developed intelligence operation is supporting. The attentive Protectors and the expressive Providers are the two role variants.

• Idealists (NF) are abstract and compassionate. Seeking meaning and significance, they are concerned with personal growth and finding their own unique identity. Their greatest strength is diplomacy. They excel at clarifying, individualizing, unifying, and inspiring. The two roles are as follows:

·         Mentors are the directive (proactive) Idealists. Their most developed intelligence operation is developing. The attentive Counselors and the expressive Teachers are the two role variants.

·         Advocates are the informative (reactive) Idealists. Their most developed intelligence operation is mediating. The attentive Healers and the expressive Champions are the two role variants.

• Rationals (NT) are abstract and objective. Seeking mastery and self-control, they are concerned with their own knowledge and competence. Their greatest strength is strategy. They excel in any kind of logical investigation such as engineering, conceptualizing, theorizing, and coordinating. The two roles are as follows:

·         Coordinators are the directive (proactive) Rationals. Their most developed intelligence operation is arranging. The attentive Masterminds and the expressive Fieldmarshals are the two role variants.

·         Engineers are the informative (reactive) Rationals. Their most developed intelligence operation is constructing. The attentive Architects and the expressive Inventors are the two role variants.

So here's our take on this:

Although the MBTI is not a definitive science, nor is it a way to definitively decide who can do what jobs, and although it indicates tendencies and not permanent behaviors, it's fairly common experience that certain types (for example, ESTJ specifically, and Artisans in general) do better, naturally, as project managers. 

But these types (and we're in that category ourselves) are NOT great at the long-term, big-picture thinking needed if sustainability is to be integrated in the project.  It's the Rationals that we need on our teams to point us to this holistic, sustainable view. 

We're doers.  We're focused (as we NEED to be) on getting the project objectives done.  But it's in our own best interest (to say little of the organization, the community, and the planet) to have Artisans around to remind us of 'benefits realization' and the steady-state of the product of our project.

We'll be blogging about this and including this topic in our new book.  But for now, we urge you to share your opinions about this.  Who knows, you may end up being quoted in the book!

Further reading:

Good general info on Myers-Briggs:

http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/

Nice paper which shows a chart illustrating the "best" PM MBTI types.

http://www.surrex-ps.com/whitepapers/The%20New%20Paradigm.pdf

Nice paper at the intersection of MBTI Typing and Project Management by Susanne Madsen (all of her stuff is good!)

http://www.susannemadsen.co.uk/uploads/6/3/2/3/6323088/pm_recruitement.pdf

Paper from PM Journal, June 2013:

MBTI Personality Types of Project Managers and Their Success: A Field Survey (available on PMI.org) site

I am going to purposely stay away from the polarity of the global climate change debate between the advocates and the deniers.  It doesn’t do much good to politicize the debate.  Individuals need to make up their own minds as to what they believe and what they don’t believe.  The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) out this week certain has caused some polar opposition, excuse the pun.

Should I be asking, as Dirty Harry (Clint Eastwood pictured above) did, “Do you feel lucky?”  Are the weather anomalies you witnessed over the past year or so, just that, anomalies?  Or, are they the result of a cycle the Earth is going through right now, just as the Earth has gone through in the distant past?  If they are part of the life cycle of the Earth, is there nothing that can be done?  How about another (compound) question, have we contributed enough greenhouse gases to either; (1) accelerate the cyclical nature of our weather patterns, or (2) are we the direct cause of the global climate change?  And another, if you can do something about what is happening to the climate, would you?

When you think about it, those are some pretty “heavy” questions.  Let’s look at it from this perspective, one which business and we as consumers understand.  That perspective is saving energy, saves money, and, by the way, helps protect the valuable resources of the Earth, like fossil fuels.

How about a win-win for project managers and it keeps us out of the political debate?    I don’t want to sound anti-environment, because I am not.  I am quite the opposite.  What I do want to convey, however, and we’ve conveyed it before, whether you are a skeptic or not, the anomalies seem more to continue, making them the “new norm.”  At least that’s been my observations of the last few years.  According to the entry page http://www.un.org/climatechange/blog/2014/03/31/ipcc-report-severe-and-pervasive-impacts-of-climate-change-will-be-felt-everywhere/ “Observed impacts of climate change have already affected agriculture, human health, ecosystems on land and in the oceans, water supplies, and some people’s livelihoods. The striking feature of observed impacts is that they are occurring from the tropics to the poles, from small islands to large continents, and from the wealthiest countries to the poorest.” 

Think about it, how was your winter, normal?  Mine, in the northeastern United States, sure wasn’t.  Although I have been through worse, winter 1970/1971, it has been over 40 years.  Maybe it is a once in every 40 years.  I don’t think so, and the reason the other observations like, continuing severe drought in areas that produce a lot of our food, “most components of the cryosphere (glaciers, ice sheets and floating ice shelves, sea, lake and river ice, permafrost and snow) have undergone significant changes during recent decades,” and so on. There is too much going on just to ignore it.  The report goes into great detail on the observations made. 

About that win-win.  There will be projects all along the spectrum of green we talk about in our book, from green by intent, those projects like alternative energy resource construction, to green in general, like a software release.  These projects need to be managed, so that both the product of the project and the process of managing the project can utilize the scarce resources (and perhaps begin to mitigate some of the effects of climate change) available to the best of our abilities.  The only thing we need is to be aware of is how we can manage those projects in a responsible way.  I’m not saying that we aren’t managing in a responsible way now; I’m just saying that we need to consider the greenality* of the projects.  It is a continual learning process for all of us.  It takes an understanding of what we can and cannot do to manage with more greenality.  It is an education, but I believe in our 5 assertions on which we based EarthPM.  Two of those are; “A project run with green intent is the right thing to do, but it will also help the project team to do things right” and “An environmental (sustainable) strategy for a project provides added opportunity for success of both the project and the product of the project.”  We can and should make a difference.

*For those of you who may not be familiar with the word greenality, we define it as “the degree to which an organization has considered environmental (sustainability) factors that affect its projects during the entire project life cycle and beyond.”  

One of our reoccurring themes is that we assert projects must be connected to the enterprise’s sustainability or corporate social responsibility mission/vision. Automobile manufacturing projects should be no different.  Most are getting the message, and that is that the mission/vision is connected to the market place, i.e. what the stakeholders are asking for, and that whatever enterprise projects are undertake are connected to that mission/vision.

Take Subaru for example.  "Subaru of America is commited to being a leader in environmental intiatives while continuing to reduce our own footprint.  Being green isn't a trend.  It's who we are and what we stand for." Customer (stakeholder) feedback is driving their sustainability efforts.  It is because the Subaru claims to be “Earth-friendly” and highly community involved.  Those are expectations set for the customer, therefore, the customer expects those, and the feedback will reflect those expectations.  Subaru also claims that it is part of their “DNA"and a Subaru “drives green.”  They set high goals in terms of reuse and recycling at their manufacturing facilities as another example of what they call (and by the way we call when it comes to projects in an enterprise) “where the rubber meets the road.”  Subaru produces, what they call, “eco-performers, offering finely tuned versatile, efficient, and long lasting products without compromising their collective conscience.”  Collective meaning supply chain to customer and beyond (ultimate disposal- an example of life cycle thinking).

Some of the information contained in their latest owner’s magazine (drive Spring 2014) includes:

• Discontinued use of lead in some parts, replaced by recyclable resin
• Reduced CO₂ emissions (down 26% since 1991)
• Reduced VOC (volatile organic compounds) in the painting and coating (down 48%)
• Reduce water usage (down 50%)
• Reduced power consumption (by 61.9%) in parts distribution centers by use of LED lighting
• Almost 34,000 used (damaged or end-of-life) bumpers reused in manufacturing
• More than 14 million tons of end-of-life steel recycled every year

The list goes on.  These are pretty impressive numbers, but to complete the projects and the connection to the mission/vision, we also look to some of the organizations that Subaru partners with.  Subaru partners with United by Blue, a sustainable clothing manufacturer committed to removing 1 lb. of trash from our oceans or waterways for every product sold.   They also partner with Leave No Trace, a center for “outdoor ethics” that strives to “teach people how to enjoy the outdoors responsibly,” using local community involvement, youth education, and multicultural outreach as tools to accomplish their goals.  Subaru also works with Greensgrow Farms, “a nationally recognized leader in urban farming.”  Some of Greensgrow projects include , among other things, “Green roofs on composting toilets, washing machines stripped down to spin-dry lettuce, honey bees perched on top of a biodiesel shed, a neighborhood lawn replaced with an heirloom tomato garden, plants grown to measure lead uptake .”

There are lots of cars and trucks on the road, and a large number of companies supplying those needs.  With more stakeholders (car buyers, company employees, general population) becoming increasingly concerned about sustainability, it only makes sense (cents) that the companies that supply the needs are getting on board.  The hope, and our assertion is that while these companies may be “onboard” with sustainability, all of their projects, not matter the size, need to be connected to that mission/vision by their actions.  If there isn’t a project connection, then not only is the company missing the potential market advantage sustainability will afford, but also the people, planet and profit aspects that being more efficient and responsible would bring.  (Source: drive Magazine, Spring 2014, Subaru: Driving Green by Design.  Through manufacturing.  In Enjoyment – Kristin Terpeza. )

Photo from http://design-milk.com

You may have missed this story, but here in the US, Democrats 'took to the Senate floor Monday night to talk about global warming and planned not to let up until morning. By midnight, lawmakers had been talking for nearly six hours'.  We suggest that you read one of the stories about this talk-a-thon here.  (This story was published on March 11 by NPR).

We're not political.  We're project managers.  We're focused on sustainability - but that doesn't put us anywhere in particular on the political spectrum.  We are advocates for learning and action in this area, and we believe that project managers are change agents, and some of the people in the world with the most power to DO something about making their projects, their programs, and their portfolios more sustainable.  And yes, that does involve the earth, but as our blog title says (look up there right now, folks, look at what it says!) we are looking at and acting on sustaining the social aspects of projects (People issues), ecological connections to projects (Planet issues), and financial longevity of organizations (Profit issues).

Still, it's frustrating to see an important body like the US Senate spend so much time talking and failing to act.  To quote the referenced article, "Democratic leaders have no plans to bring a climate bill to the Senate floor this year, so the speeches were about little more than theatrics. House Democrats pushed through a bill to limit greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming in 2009, then lost their majority the following election. A climate bill led by then-Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry collapsed in 2010 without a vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

So the Democrats have failed to act.  And many of the Republicans have failed to understand.  From the article:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the talkathon amounted to "30 hours of excuses" from senators who think it's OK that "families are losing work because of government attacks on the coal industry."

"Well it's not OK, it's cruel," McConnell said, speaking on the Senate floor before the talkathon began. "It's cruel to tell struggling coal families that they can't have a job because some billionaire from San Francisco disagrees with their line of work."

And so it goes.

But here's the secret, and the good news.  Although we recognize that it would make sense to have some sweeping changes in laws, there are things we can do as project managers to integrate sustaianbiltiy thinking in our projects.  One of the biggest is simply to make the connection from the mission/vision/value statements of your organization to your project's charters.  In an informal poll of 50 project managers in our classes, we found that only 5-8 of them even knew what the mission/vision statements were, and only 2 had seen the commitments made by their leaders to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) objectives.  We project managers - who are so focused on action, milestones, and deliverables - we are not prone to staying in a chamber and talking (while doing nothing) or boycotting that session altogether because we don't even have the sense to recognize the problem (that's our view of Democrats and Republicans, respectively, right now).

So - take some action RIGHT NOW.  Go to your company/organization's home page.  Click on the "About Us" section (or whatever it is called) and look for your leadership's statements on CSR.  You may be very surprised.  And you may be very empowered.  But either way, you will be able to take action which is tied to your leaders' ideas.

And that's more than the US Senate can say.  Or rather, it's more meaningful than anything they can say.

 Less of this.                  

                                More of this!

E-waste disposal is an increasingly challenging project.  In a recent article in Green I.T, “Dell Computer leaders have joined members of the E-Waste Solutions Alliance for Africa in Nairobi to mark the opening of East Africa Compliant Recycling - the region's first large-scale e-waste recycling facility - and the creation of a new e-waste business to be supported by a regulatory model, tailored for developing countries.”  Dell has taken this on because the company is establishing itself as a global leader for the collecting and disposing of e-waste.  Also, it doesn’t hurt that consumers (stakeholders) are becoming more aware of sustainability issues and will lean towards companies with more social responsibility.

Kenya in particular was chosen for this project for several reasons.  One of them was regulatory.  In an effort to curb the irresponsible disposal of e-waste, the Kenyan government is developing new regulations requiring electronics manufacturers to meet certain thresholds for e-waste collection and disposal.  Kenyon officials, representatives for non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the IT industry, and e-waste recyclers have developed a model to show that e-waste has a monetary value, especially when recycled in a responsible way.  Without showing the economic value of e-waste, because of the new regulations, the burden of cost could have been shifted to the consumer.  If that occurs, it could put the cost of computers and electronics out of reach for most Kenyon and, taking it one step further, other African nations. 

The new “hub” structure of the recycling efforts will also provide good jobs in areas that are depressed and could greatly benefit from a “shot in the arm.”  The hub structure model will have shipping container collection points.  Beginning with four collection points, two sponsored directly by Dell, the plan is to grow to at least forty.  “Once a shipping container is filled to capacity, its contents are resold to the main hub where the e-waste will be sustainably processed into material fractions and sold back to the technology industry. Each stage of the model is designed to be profitable for participants, from individual collector to collection point to hub.”

“In addition to protecting the environment, the model is aimed at creating thousands of green jobs at the facility and across supporting logistics and collection networks, in part by converting existing informal-sector e-waste 'pickers' into trained and legitimately compensated e-waste collectors. Dell and others have invested in training programmes to educate workers on the safe collection and recycling of e-waste.”

In our book, we define this type of project as “green by definition” projects that have far reaching benefits; profits, to people and jobs, to protecting the environment.  Green by definition projects clearly have all the elements of sustainability; People, Planet, Profits & Projects!