People, Planet, Profits & Projects

The year: 413 BC.

A fleet of Athenian vessels forms a blockade at Syracuse.  It's critical that they have the light of the moon to work and patrol.  One fateful night however, there is a full lunar eclipse and half of the huge 130-ship fleet is destroyed by the Spartans.

The Greeks realized that knowing when eclipses were coming... well, that just might be important. 

Flash forward to 1901.  A sponge diver discovers a wreckage of a Roman ship which clearly was full of Greek artefacts when it sunk, at some point probably around 65 BC.  Amongst the items in the wreckage is a small, laptop-PC sized chunk of corroded bronze metal which clearly is composed of gears.  Lots of gears.  Lots of very small, intricate gears that until that time, nobody thought the Ancient Greeks were capable of making.  Some of these gears even had pin and slot and other sophisticated mechanical 'tricks' to account for the eliptical and changeable orbit of the moon.  It's really quite an amazing device.

What drove them to invent this device, called the Antrikythera Mechanism, was a need for long-term planning.  Turns out that this device was actually a sort of astronomical clock/computer which could forecast not only the timing of the eclipses (both solar and lunar) but even the colors and directions of shadow which would be seen on them.  Pretty amazing stuff.

If you are interested in this story and the Antikythera Mechanism itself we strongly encourage you to watch this video and perhaps the entire episode of NOVA which covers the story (it's called 'Ancient Computer').  You may also like this video:

Our points here are simply these:

• Necessity is the mother of invention... and disaster is the grandmother of invention
  • (In a related but little-known sub-theory from project management, scope creep is the 3rd cousin of invention, and contingency reserves are the crazy uncle of invention, but it turns out that the risk register is only a close friend)
• The need to think long-term can be driven by disaster (such as melting ice caps, increasingly intense weather patterns, and so on) but it's better if it becomes routine and integrated into planning
• Project managers - driven by the constraints of time, resources and meeting the immediate scope or their projects - are not prone to integrate long-term thinking into their projects

Taken together, the Antikythera Mechanism can serve as a symbol for you and your project.  Did you think about the kinds of things that happen when your project is in its steady state?  Have you thought at all about the product of your project while it is in operation?  And - perish the thought - have you considered what happens to the product of your project when it is disposed of? 

All of those should not be 'Greek to you'.  We assert that they should be fundamentally part of your project planning process.

So - go out there and "gear up" for long-term thinking.

 Stay tuned here and also visit EarthPM for more posts like this.

We all know that communications is the key to successful project management.  As a rule of thumb, project managers spend 90% of their time communicating.  At times it seems that we have some difficulty getting our messages out, whether the message is about customer changes, status or performance reports, just simple updates or expressing the value of our work.  Reading a recent article by Cindy Mehallow on GreenBiz.com (www.greenbiz.com) triggered some thoughts about how to communicate with management about the value of corporate socially responsibility efforts.  One of the issues we find with getting management to embrace sustainability is that there is a lack of understanding as to its value.  Perhaps that misunderstanding has a lot to do with the “message” being received.    Cindy talks about “loaded language, over-communication, misdirected messages, semantic short circuits” and “too much noise” as impediments for communications.  We think that understanding and addressing those communications issues may lead to a better acceptance of the message.

Sometimes, we, at the intersection of project management and sustainability, speak in tongues (or as we refer to in our book, the “Language of the Green Wave”), but don’t realize it.  It is clear that there is terminology that should be understood by the project manager.  But because the project manager has a grasp on the terminology doesn’t necessarily mean that the “receiver” has the same understanding (“shared experience”).   A reality check with the receiver needs to be done in order to assure a mutual understanding of expectations and results.  In addition to the understanding of the “lingo,” the effect of the words needs to be understood.  As an example, the words “global warming” can be tempered by the words “climate change” to avoid controversy about the causes of global warming that can cloud judgment. 

That leads us to another point by Cindy, and that is “noise.”  Anyone familiar with the Sender-Receiver Model, first introduced by Elwood Shannon and Warren Weaver, Bell Laboratories, (Shannon, C. E., & Weaver, W. (1949). The mathematical theory of communication. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press), and referred to above, will recognize the references.  In that model, messages are carried over a channel. As the message travels the channel and crosses the boundary between the sender and the receiver and then crosses the boundary back from the receiver to the sender during feedback (across the area know as the "shared experience", there is the potential for noise.  Noise can be anything from literally noise ("I can't hear you!"), to distraction ("Something else has caught my ear!") to competition for the channel (more than one message being transmitted at the same time).  

Reducing the distraction by using a common language, avoiding controversy when possible, making sure that the right stakeholders are engaged, checking the understanding of the message and not "fire hosing" the information to the point of having the receiver glaze over, will go a long way in reducing the noise and allowing your message of the value of sustainability to get through.

Our little company is called EarthPM.  It's named that way so that it's clear that we are about the intersection of project management and sustainability, but also with the intended double-meaning that we are here for the project managers of our rock - the third rock from the sun - Earth.

So why the heck are you looking at a Mars bar? 

Well, we wanted to familiarize you - or perhaps refamiliarize you - with the concept from our book called "A Rainbow of Green".  The idea (although you need to read the book to fully understand) is that projects which are focused directly on sustainability - that is, those whose project product is a reduced impact on the environment or an improvement in CSR metrics, for example, are on the "green by definition" end of the spectrum, and that new Release 8.3.4.3.6b of your company's accounting software would be on the other end of this spectrum.

At a meeting of our local sustainability professionals tonight, the meeting, which took place at local non-profit consulting firm FSG, was kicked off by Special Projects Coordinator Mary Light, who gave us an example of one of their projects - one which involved the Mars Company.

To quote from FSG's web page:

"70% of the world’s cocoa supply originates in West Africa with Côte d’Ivoire as the world’s largest producer. Cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire is grown by more than 700,000 small holders who farm, on average, approximately 3 hectares each. Production volumes and quality have been constantly declining over the last decades due to a multitude of economic, social, and environmental challenges. The underlying problems include: fluctuating weather patterns, low incomes, weak rural infrastructure, lack of improved planting material, aging farms, loss of biodiversity leading to exposure to pests and diseases, deforestation, and declining soil fertility. Without urgent action to address these challenges, the cocoa sector faces the risk of collapse."

That is the challenge.  To address it, the project put in place is described this way:

"The analysis revealed a high potential for shared value creation — Investing in a comprehensive sustainability program in Côte d’Ivoire will help ensure the long-term success of Mars’ chocolate business and at the same time improve economic, environmental, and social conditions in cocoa-growing communities. The goals of the “Vision for Change” program in Côte d’Ivoire thus address all three levels of sustainability including:

1. Economic: Improve Farmer Incomes. Helping farmers to make their farms more productive and to increase the quality of their crops will improve their income and allow them to better cover their family’s needs and reinvest into their farms.
2. Environmental: Improve Environmental Management. Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) will increase soil fertility, and more productive farms should reduce expansion of cocoa farming into protected forest areas.
3. Social: Invigorate Rural Communities. Empowering local communities will lead to improved living standards in cocoa-growing communities.

Mars understood early on that the challenges within the Ivorian cocoa sector are too complex to be tackled by Mars alone. The “Vision for Change” initiative for Côte d’Ivoire outlines a multi-stakeholder Collective Impact approach, combining pre-competitive public goods investments with supply-chain investments. Mars has proactively engaged with other interested stakeholders and sector investors including the Ivorian government, national institutions, the World Bank, bilateral donors, commercial suppliers, certifiers, and NGOs. FSG has facilitated a partnership between Mars and the Ivorian government, national agricultural institutions, and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). In March 2010, Mars and the government of Côte d’Ivoire signed an MOU as the basis for future collaboration.

Most recently, FSG has been assisting with the implementation planning of the “Vision for Change” program including developing action plans, orchestrating and facilitating meetings and communication among existing and potential partners, and providing continued strategic advice to Mars as the catalyst of this Collective Impact initiative."

This is about as far to the "Green By Definition" side of the spectrum as you can be, and still be on Earth.  And in fact, maybe it's not so coincidental that it's the Mars company that's doing it.  But we jest - the idea is that more and more of these proejcts need to be launched, and even better, managed by project managers with an improved sense of, and understanding of sustainability issues.

We encourage you to read more about the efforts of Mars, by following this choclatey link....

And, of course, we encourage you to read more about this in our book and by following us on Twitter and EarthPM's own blog.  Thanks!

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) “comes in many forms“and that is not just what we say in our Green Project Management.  One of the brief examples we use in defining CSR is City Year.  Timberland, one of the companies we chose to highlight in our chapter “At the Top of Their Game”, is one of the early supporters of City Year.    Our book was published in 2010, so we felt it was time to revisit City Year to see how the initiative was progressing.  We were not surprised that it is doing very well, thanks for an expansion of programs and continued support from some major corporations.

One of City Year’s programs is National In-Link Sponsorship.  Timberland continues to provide extraordinary support according to City Year’s website;  "Over the past 20 years, the relationship between City Year and Timberland has grown from official footwear provider to a partnership in helping students and schools succeed. For the past 10 years, we have seen first-hand the energy, dedication and idealism of City Year New Hampshire corps members as they shared our headquarters as home base. City Year’s red jackets have become symbols of service and a mutual commitment to our communities. As City Year begins a second decade in New Hampshire, we are thrilled to see City Year expand to have a greater impact on the schools and communities where they’re needed most. Their presence and influence in our community are deeply felt – and valued – within Timberland." - Jeff Swartz, Former President and CEO, The Timberland Company. 

City Year is now a partner in IBM’s initiative World Community Grid (WCG), a program that has “more than 600,000 volunteers, and hundreds of companies, associations, foundations, nonprofits and academic institutions.”  The program focuses IBM’s greatest resources, “technology and talent to develop initiatives that enrich the lives of communities across the globe.”  The effort uses “surplus power of more than 1.5 million personal computers to advance humanitarian research projects.”  For more information see WCG.

KPMG, the international firm that provides audit, tax and advisory services, provides City Year with audit and tax review counseling at a discounted rate.  Microsoft, another of our companies we felt were at the top of their game in 2010, continue to support City Year with software and technology.  And, WilmerHale® provides legal representation to City Year.  “The firm generously donates its time and expertise, providing critical legal services to City Year on an ongoing basis. In 2006, WilmerHale was officially named City Year's ‘National Legal Counsel’ and in 2010, WilmerHale received a ‘20th Anniversary Leadership Award’ for its extraordinary, long-standing partnership with City Year.”

In 2010 we made a choice to include City Year as an example of what companies can do to support CSR.  It is always a danger to commit to paper something that could be fleeting and just a “fad” or something just to satisfy the latest “buzz words.”  We are happy to report that City Year is not one of those “fads”, but an enduring and expanding corporate social responsibility effort that is good for the world!

...but perhaps not for long.

At least...not without the help of many water-related projects and project managers with sustainability awareness in their arsenal of talents.  Read on - you will find that as a project manager, you may be a strategic asset!

According to a U.S. State Department document released on World Water Day last year, the need for fresh water will exceed the supply by 40 percent by the year 2030.

The document contains this interesting graphic, so if you learn nothing else from this post, here is one takeway with the latest facts:

From this, we see that only 2.5% of the world's water is fresh water.  And in turn, that is used for all of the items shown on the right part of the chart - agricultural, industrial, residential.

All of this points to shortages that concern us not only from an (important) ecological and business perspective but even as a security issue for the US.

Quoting from the document:

We assess that during the next 10 years,

"Water problems will contribute to instability in states important to US national security interests. Water shortages, poor water quality, and floods by themselves are unlikely to result in state failure. However, water problems—when combined with poverty, social tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership, and weak political institutions—contribute to social disruptions that can result in state failure."

In other words, it can bring down whole governments.

Back to the U.S. State department report.  As a project manager, ever felt "strategic"?  Well, perhaps you should.  Here's a gem for you:

"we assess that states will also use their inherent ability to construct and support major water projects to obtain regional influence or preserve their water interests.". 

Where does that 'inherent ability to construct and support major water projects" come from?  Well of course, partially from the natural resouces of the state, but also, from....YOU.  You - as a PM - are part of the states' ability to support the projects.  So congratulations on your newfound strategic value!

Read more here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2013/03/22/world-water-day-a-forceful-reminder-that-the-u-s-is-running-out-of-fresh-water/