People, Planet, Profits & Projects

The subject of - or rather the question regarding - "what is project success" is fundamental to the evolution of our discipline.

As leaders in the area of sustainability's intersection with PM, we're of course interested in how you - and the rest of your colleagues, as well as your stakeholders, of course, view project success.  It is not as simple as it seems.  It is NOT just about delivering your deliverable, much as you would like it to be.

One simple idea we would like to assert:

Project Success  Project Management Success.

In English: The success of your project is larger (in the largest sense of the word larger) than your success in managing the project.  That is, you could manage a project so that it is within budget, on time, and meets requirements, but also such that the project's product just doesn't cut it.   Alternatively, your project, as assessed by PMBOK(R) Guide criteria, could look like it was produced by the hands of angels, and yet the project's product could fail to deliver benefits to the customers or to the organization, or, yes, we have to add this part, to the planet.  In other words, it would look good on the Gantt chart but not on the (triple) bottom line.

You can actually read about this in the latest edition of PM Network magazine  with an excellent story called "The Value Proposition".

Yet, the many brave authors and thought leaders who have approached this question have come to some important conclusions (like the equation above), but they always seem to come up short in terms of sustainability.  They don't seem to even recognize (until we point it out to them, and then they say "Eureka!") that they are writing about sustainability.

So we thought we'd use a 'green-by-definition' project as an example.

The Tesla Model S is an electric car that has been winning accolades for performance and design.

It's a sleek, sporty, 'muscular' car that makes looking good look good.

But now the Tesla S has just blown away all of its internal-combustion colleagues not in energy efficiency, not in carbon-cutting, nor in looks or acceleration, but in safety.  Safety!  Why?  One reason (there are many): Because unlike a standard gas-fueled engine or even a hybrid, the car does not have a ready source of incendiary liquids to engulf the driver and passengers in flame.

Have a look at these fascinating stories:

Tesla S roof so strong it broke the crush test machine

Upstart Tesla wins top US safety rating

So to our point.

The success of the project "deliver Tesla S" is not limited to the handover to production.  The PROJECT SUCCESS goes on to save lives of Tesla drivers.  Notice how ths type of sustainability is not related to the environment at all.  It's the 'steady-state-ness' of it all that we are aiming at.  This is also sustainability.

Look for some new, improved, expanded, enhanced presentations and materials from EarthPM which will tackle this aspect of sustainability in project management.

An for your own projects: think about the project's deliverable(s) in the steady state.  What lessons can you learn from the Tesla S?

Note: Image above from CapeCod Times article referenced below.

On August 1, 2013, there was an auction to sell rights to 164,000 acres of federal ocean area southwest of Martha’s Vineyard (an Island off the coast of Massachusetts – see map).

The winning bid went to Rhode Island-based developer Deepwater Wind New England LLC, for a total of $3.8 million. This now gives Deepwater Wind the right to develop wind energy projects in the highlighted area.

It’s pretty big news.  From yesterday’s front page story in the Cape Cod Times, there is this quote from US Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell:   "When you think about the enormous energy potential that Atlantic wind holds, this is a major milestone for our nation".

Also from that story:

Deepwater Wind plans to build a 200-turbine wind farm on the parcels as well as a transmission system from Long Island to Southeastern New England, company CEO Jeffrey Grybowski said.

The transmission system will allow the company to sell into two regional electrical systems as well as providing those systems with greater reliability and flexibility when moving power around to meet needs, he said.

The 200 turbines the company plans to use — each 6 megawatts — would have a capacity of about 1,200 megawatts and the total cost of the project would be about $5 billion, he said.

The estimated amount of power that would be produced is significantly smaller than the federal government's estimates for the area because Deepwater Wind does not plan to locate any turbines closer than 16 miles from the nearest shoreline, limiting the number of turbines, Grybowski said.

The project could be under construction by 2016 and operational as early as 2017, he said.

We bring this to your attention for several reasons:

1. It’s an example of a “Green By Definition” project (a Program, really, because it is a collection of projects which are better managed together)

·   Our book, Green Project Management, defined projects along a spectrum, from those, like this one, which are geared specifically on renewable energy, saving species, reducing waste, and so on.  We like to illustrate that as projects at various points along the spectrum make news.

2. The project already seems to have incorporated ‘lessons learned’ from its neighboring and pioneering wind project, Cape Wind, about which we have blogged many times before.

·   Cape Wind, a 130-turbine project, has been greatly delayed for several reasons, one of which has been its closer proximity to the shore (though still in Nantucket Sound), and its conflict with a slew of stakeholders who have worked together in unexpected ways to delay the project.

3. From a very early review, and from admittedly limited information, the project team seems to have identified and analyzed stakeholders and seems to ready to deal with the risks (both threat and opportunity) that each brings to the table.

·   From the story: The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) still has concerns about offshore wind energy projects, said the tribe's historic preservation officer, Bettina Washington.  "Now this is off where we live day to day all the time," she said about the leasing area's location southwest of the Gay Head Cliffs at the heart of the tribe's lands.  In addition to concerns about the view from tribal lands, there are concerns about the impact on whales that use the area and on potential archaeological sites located on and below the sea floor, Washington said.  Deepwater Wind officials have already been in contact with the tribe about a five-turbine project the company is planning off the coast of Block Island and would work with the tribe on any concerns it continues to have, Grybowski said.  "They're a hugely important stakeholder in the process," he said.  Although the tribe would prefer the turbines be located at least 21 miles offshore, Washington said archaeological concerns are being taken more seriously following the debate over Cape Wind and the areas farther offshore are preferable to Nantucket Sound.

As you can see, Grybowski and Deepwater Wind have done at least some of their PM homework.  And that’s important.  1,000,000 homeowners may be soon counting on this program if they’re going to be able to reliably click on their TV sets to watch the Red Sox!

For a press release from Deepwater Wind, click on their logo below.

Look carefully at the shape above.

Most people see a "U".  And, indeed it looks rather U-ey, doesn't it?

But it's not symmetrical.  It goes up, sharper and further, on the right hand side.  Make a mental note of this.  Done?  OK, proceed with the post.

What you are looking at is the relationship between profit (net economic impact, on the vertical axis) as KLD score increases.  For now, think of the KLD score (the horizontal axis) as investment in sustainability, and of course, sustainable projects and project management.

If an enterprise chooses to "dabble" in sustainability, the money and resources invested are taken from their mainstream efforts, so of course, profitability suffers.  This reaches a trough at a particular point, and then starts to turn around.  But not only does it turn around and rise up, it rises up above the level at which you started.  In other words, if you go "all in" and integrate sustainability, it has not only an altruistic effect but a positive profit effect.

This is one of the reasons our blog is titled, People, Planet, Profits & Projects. 

• People need to make the decision to integrate sustainability into their enterprise.
• They do this for multiple reasons, but one would be for altruism - for a better planet.
• Doing this effects profit (as you see, not in a staight-line fashion).
• Doing this requires projects, affects projects, and is fundamentally different thinking for project managers who are focused by nature on the short term.

This sort of "baked in" sustainabiilty requires that the right flour, eggs, water, milk, and so on, are used and that the recipes, utensils, ovens, and serving platters are coordinated to the overarching goals of a sustainable enterprise.  Sound like project management could help?  You betcha!  Did we take the analogy too far?  Now you're cookin'!

You'll find a great (and concise!) article on this finding at this site on the Network for Business Sustaianbility.  In the article you will learn what KLD stands for and much jore.  The Network for Business Sustainability, by the way, is a tremendous resource for anyone interested in people, planet, profit, and/or projects, which is probably anyone who has read through this posting so far!

Chapter 4 of our book, Green Project Management, is titled, “A Rainbow of Green”.  In that chapter, we make what we think is one of the most important points of the entire ‘sustainability in PM’ thought process: all projects need to have sustainability thinking integrated.  But we acknowledge that there is a spectrum of projects, some of which don’t have an intuitive sustainability element (perhaps the project of upgrading an accounting software package) and some which have a noticeable sustainability component (perhaps the project of building a new highway segment).  Still others are “green by definition” – that is, they are projects dedicated to reducing contaminants, saving species,  creating better working conditions, or producing renewable energy.

The cover story of UMASS magazine, the magazine for alumni and friends of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, has a cover that caught our attention.  Their Summer 2013 issue features a major story on “Climate Change: Searching for Solutions, Local and Global.

If you’re interested in science, technology, engineering, and/or management, you’ll enjoy the story.  As individuals involved in all of the above – plus being on staff at the University level in teaching PM, International Business, Qualitative and Quantitative Decision Making, and of course Sustainability courses, it’s even more intensely interesting to us.

We won’t duplicate the story, but we do encourage you to read it.  What we would like to do is to underline the connection between projects and sustainability in this story, but before we do we want to warn you that this is at one end of that ‘rainbow’ we talk about in our book.  Do not – repeat – do not forget that the aspects of sustainability so obvious in these projects still deserve attention if your project does not (on face value) have any sustainability elements in it.  So we recommend you see these intersections as inspirational but NOT as an excuse that your project is exempt.

First of all, the word “project” is prolific in the article.  The simple fact that the word comes up repeatedly is a reminder of the fact that as PMs we contribute greatly in the efforts at the University level to research, discover, and act on climate problems.

To illustrate this, we zoom in on Rick Palmer,  Head of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UMass and Director of the Northeast Climate Science Center, of which UMass is a part.  We adapt this text from the article:

Since coming to UMass five years ago, the head of Civil and Environmental Engineering has gotten involved in several new projects. 

1. With the Nature Conservancy, he’s studying the effects of climate change on the Connecticut River.

2. With faculty in Environmental Conservation, he’s helping to design better fish passageways.

3. With researchers at Columbia and Drexel University, he is studying the impact of climate change on urban areas.

4.  Recently spearheaded the successful effort to have UMass lead and host the Northeast Climate Science Center (NECSC).

5. His engineering career began with a project calculating the number of drinking water reservoirs needed by Washington, DC to meet its future needs.

6. The CSRC (Climate System Research Center) faculty is working on a project to examine the impact of Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.

7. Another CSRC project is to analyze sediments on the Japanese coast to descover the record of fierce Kamikaze Winds which twice destroyed the Mongol fleet when it attempted to invade Japan 1,000 years ago.

Project, project, project, project, project, climate change, project, sustainability, climate, project, sustainability.  All are incredibly intertwined here.

 “Our primary goal is to help people come to grips with the changes from global warming, plan accordingly, and make good decisions,” Palmer says.

Think about that one powerful paragraph for a moment.  Think about the connection to our discipline no matter what type of PM you happen to be.  The elements are striking:

·         Collaboration between diverse organizations

·         Collaboration even between competitive universities

·         “Coming to grips with changes”

·         Aiding managers and policymakers in making good decisions

Sound familiar?  Isn’t this what you already do on your projects?  If not, you may be in the wrong career.

But remember – this is a spectrum, a rainbow.  As the projects move towards the ‘Green in General’ side, the effort to find the linkages, the integration, the interworking with longer-term thinking needs to increase significantly.  And we assert that it’s you – the change-agent project manager that can bring that integration, the gold at one end of the rainbow, to the other side.

Question: Did the ancient Egyptians recycle?

• Answer:  Not unless you count an entire city

Question: Did ancient Egyptians feel the effects of climate change? 

• Answer: Not unless you count a branch of the Nile silting up – which actually caused the aforementioned relocation of the city.

Of what do we speak?  We’re referring to the Pharaoh Psusennes, pictured above, as told on a recent Public Broadcasting System (PBS) show called ‘The Silver Pharaoh”.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/featured/the-silver-pharaoh-about-this-episode/669/

Here's some of the transcript of the show, adapted a bit for this posting (but not changed in fact or intent):

Among the most extraordinary findings about Psusennes was his relocation of the metropolis of Pi-Ramesse to Tanis. Pi-Ramesse was the fabled riverside capital built by Rameses II. Its location had puzzled archaeologists for years until Montet discovered its ruins in Tanis. However, archaeologists began questioning Montet’s assumption since the river Nile often changed course. Using radar scans along a previously discounted delta settlement 12 miles from Tanis, they discovered the foundation of Rameses’ lost city. Historians knew that Pi-Ramesse became unlivable when the Nile became too silted at this location and around that same time, Psusennes took the throne ordering the city be moved stone by stone to Tanis, over 100km to the northwest of Pi-Ramesses. obelisks and statues, the largest weighing over 200 tons, were transported in one piece while major buildings were dismantled into sections and reassembled at Tanis. Stone from the less important buildings was reused and recycled for the creation of new temples and buildings

Only a king with matchless power and wealth could command such a colossal task.  And only the best project managers, using Microsoft Project 0.00001 or Oracle Primavera 1900BC had a shot at overseeing the undertakings, given the dependencies and scope creep involved.  Imagine the change requests coming in from top leadership!  Talk about a Work Breakdown Structure- this was a Metropolitan Breakdown Structure – literally.

They moved the city to the new branch establishing Djanet (Tanis) on its banks, 100 km (62 mi) to the north-west of Pi-Ramesses as the new capital of Lower Egypt. The Pharaohs of the Twenty-first Dynasty transported all the old Ramesside temples, obelisks, stelae, statues and sphinxes from Pi-Ramesses to the new site.

The root cause of this recycling

It is now known that the Pelusiac branch of the Nile began silting up c. 1060 BCE, leaving the city without water when the river eventually established a new course to the west now called the Tanitic branch.  So as a result of a change in the environment, major projects were triggered.

Knowing what we know about ocean level rise, ice melt, increased extreme weather and other effects of climate change, will we be moving Washington or Tokyo or Shanghai or Prague brick-by-brick?