People, Planet, Profits & Projects

We were listening to one of our favorite podcasts the other day - Wayne Turmel's Cranky Middle Manager.  In this particular episode, Wayne was - in his usual witty and outstanding fashion - was interviewing Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, co-authors of The Orange Revolution.

The more we listened to this podcast and the more we heard these authors speak, the more we thought that the Orange* Revolution and Green Project Management had something in common other than an association with a crayon color.  Much more.

In our book, Green Project Management, we assert that the project manager, as a change agent, can be a source of change for their organization.  For example if they are to seek a connection to their organization's Environmental Management Plan (EMP) - and find tha their organization has no EMP, that you - the project manager could be the one to prompt the organization to create one.

And in The Orange Revolution, the authors study hundreds of thousands of people (350,000, to be exact) in a wide variety of organizations, and share their findings about how great teams were formed - teams with "breakthrough" capacity.  In many cases these were operational teams - groups of nurses, for example.  However the principles they expound certainly fit with project managers, and definitely can be adopted by green project managers.

For example, the authors found four essential qualities amongst these breakthrough teams:

• A noble cause
• Simple Rules  (simple, boiled down to 3: [Wowing customers, no surprises due to great communication, and mutual team support].
• Drive engagement
• Have team loyalty, sometimes at the expense of enterprise loyalty - not always popular with CEOs, but it works

In the book they go on to define 6 traits of breakthrough teams:

• Big dreams and ambitious goals
• Belief in in each other
• Belief in what the team can accomplish together;
• Take calculated risks while closely measuring results;
• Perseverence despite problems or conflicts that arise; and
• They have a "charming habit of Telling Stories" exemplifying what they are trying to achieve.

The big dreams and ambitious goals could be the dreems of making an organization as a whole more sustainable (economically, socially, and ecologically), couldn't it.  And that's one of many touch points we found.

Some others, very quickly -

Perserverence despite problems - well we know that getting people to think sustainability takes (ironically) sustained perserverence.  Telling stories - that's what we've been doing at EarthPM and it's working.  By telling stories and giving webinars on the topic of sustainability in project management we have found that our followership (heading towards 1,000 twitter followers, and an exponentially growing LinkedIn Group for example) is growing by leaps and bounds.

Bottom line: we recommend that you start with listening to Wayne Turmel's podcast regularly, but in particular the interview with Gostick and Elton.  Then, or in parallel, pick up their book, the Orange Revolution, perhaps buying it in tandem with Green Project Management.  After all - as the post heading says, they go together.

*why Orange? We knew you'd be curious...it's a nod to the authors' first book, the Carrot Principle.

We want to challenge you with the definition of what seems to be a mundane but pleasant word.

That word: success.

To do that, we're going to use an example provided from a very thoughtful post at an outstanding blog we suggest you visit, called SUKAD. 

So here is the scenario:

You are charged with building a gymnasium at a warehouse facility for an industrial company which has a large number of employees in the region.

And here is the first challenge question:

What is the project?

Many will say that it is the successful construction of the gymnasium.

Don't answer too fast! 

Now we quote directly from SUKAD:

Is the company in the business of building gymnasiums?

No!

OK, then what is the project?

Maybe we should ask the question differently, what is the business objective for the project, the business driver; business case?

Uh!

We understand. In this case we can say “improve employee health.”

To repeat and rephrase: the project is to build a gymnasium to improve employee health.

Great – now we know the project.

SUKAD goes on to discuss their four elements of project success.  And by now you know that although of course the completion of the gym (on time, meeting requirements, and within budget) is an important element of success, it's not an "end-all" measurement of success.

Here are the four measurements of success:

1. Product Success: did we deliver the gymnasium in accordance with the project detailed plan (PDP) and specifications? If yes; good, first success measure is achieved.
2. Project Management Success: did we deliver the gymnasium in accordance with the project management plan (PMP); i.e. within the established time, cost, and other metrics?  If yes; excellent, second success measure is also achieved.
3. Project Success: did we deliver the gymnasium in according to the project authorization (PAD)? Another way we can consider this is: did we deliver an acceptable and good standard gymnasium that the employees would consider using? If yes; wonderful, the third success measure is achieved. It is worth nothing here that since this can be measured shortly after completing the gymnasium, in most situations we consider the project a success and project is closed. However, we do not agree hence the need for the fourth measure.
4. Business Objective Success: We could have delivered an outstanding gymnasium and closed the project. However, the most important question is: did the project deliver the expected benefits that we anticipated when we considered the project and authorized it? Did we realize the benefits? The benefit expected is to improve employee health. It is unlikely that we will be able to give an answer at project close. We can measure the success a year or two after completion, long after the team demobilized.

As you can imagine, this last measure, business objective success, is related, at least in our minds, to the broad sense of project sustainability.  Notice that it doesn't have a thing to do with the environment, and yet it is still a sustainability issue.  We extend the view of the project beyond the deliverable and think in term of the steady-state.

Some project managers will find this objectionable.  "Out of scope!", they will say.  "Not our job!", they will declare.

We would like to agree quite strongly with SUKAD.  Whether or not they realized they had a posting on sustainability thinking, they absolutely did.

We also would like to know what you think.  Is there an advantage to you as a project manager and will you tend to do a better job as a PM if you consider these four measures?

Tell us!  We won't know until you do... and the posting will only be a success if it generates some good discussion....

Oh yeah...one of our deliverables was a link to the full SUKAD posting on this subject.

http://sukadipms.wordpress.com/2011/09/03/four-dimensions-of-success-example/

Freshly returned from the keynote address at the PMSA (Project Management South Africa) conference, "The Good in Green", we found that South Africa's project managers have a mature and considered view of project management.

One example is this article, from the PMSA magazine "The Project Manager", which questions the very definition of project success. Does it have to do only with scope, schedule, and budget?  Or - as we have been saying - should success include the success of the steady-state, ongoing use of the product of the project?

Although not strictly about sustainability, the article does correctly point out that a project is part of an endeavor of an organization, and success should be viewed in this larger context.

So- consider a highway project which goes over budget because it chose to use a paving material which (although more expensive) provides drivers with a 15% increase in gas mileage.  Is this project a failure? 

We think not. 

Have a look at the article and think about it.  We think you'll agree that it's at least worth considering this longer-term view.

Here's the full link to the article.

http://www.theprojectmanager.co.za/index.php/Other/the-elusive-concept-of-project-success.html

We're interested in your views on project success.  How much should project managers consider long-term operations as they seek to deliver the product on-time, under budget, and within scope?

But don't answer until you've read Terry Deacon's article.

No sweat.  More inspiration. That's what you'll find here at P, P, P, & P.

We'd like to draw your attention to an editorial in the 13-Aug-11 Cape Cod Times.

In the opinion piece, entitled "Looking To The Skies", the editors discuss the Dennis Union Church - a 173-year-old building on Cape Cod, and its congregation's effort to get air conditioning into their building.

From the editorial:

"Earlier this year, the church was one of four religious groups in New England to receive an Energy Star label, recognizing the congregation's "environmental stewardship." In the case of Dennis Union, that stewardship includes photovoltaic panels, lights that shut themselves off automatically, and double-pane glass."

The congregation wanted to install solar panels so as to power the air conditioning.  However, "the congregation discovered it could use solar panels to not only offset the energy to run air conditioning, but to turn a profit as well in the form of electricity sold back into the grid. And, as one congregant pointed out, although not everyone agrees about climate change, everyone likes to save money."

But the Editorial really got us thinking about project managers.  As usual.  Why?

What could a church tell us about project management and sustainabililty?

Well, first of all, this is a good example of a "Green By Definition" project.  (See our book for the 4 distinct categories of projects).  But more importantly, it shows how a group of stakeholders, in this case, a congregation and its leadership, decided to think long-term.  Sustainably.

Perhaps the best line in the editorial is here:

"Perhaps religious organizations that look at history in terms of centuries, rather than days or months, are better suited to understand the concept of a big picture than individuals on their own."

We're not saying that project managers have to run out and join a religious organization and become regular church, mosque, or synagogue goers, but we are saying that the type of thinking exemplified here by Dennis Union Church is more appropriate than you might imagine for a project manager.

Think sustainably, act projectly.

For those of you more interesetd in the actual project, the architecture, and history of the church, see this case study.

Ray Anderson died yesterday (see press release here). 

Words fail when it comes to discussing Ray Anderson and his importance to sustainabililty and business.  He speaks for himself, and for those who (justifiably) count on results to prove something to be correct, Ray Anderson's company, InterfaceFLOR's results also speak for themselves.

Watch this video to see what this amazing man had to say.

So - nothing to add except we're here to honor his memory and hope that some of you will take some inspiration from this man.