People, Planet, Profits & Projects

No, that's not a typo, I was acually referring to IKEA, the big box seller of RIKTIG ÖGLA  and FLÄRDFULL.

We want to send you off to a great new TED talk.  It's by Steve Howard, a sustainability professional who now holds the position of Chief Sustainability Officer at IKEA.

This will be a short post.  Why?  Because Steve says what he says so well.  We do, however, want to make one very subtle, quiet point, delicately, and carefully...

YOUR BUSINESS LEADERS ARE 'GETTING' SUSTAINABILITY!  NOW IT'S OUR TURN AS PORTFOLIO, PROGRAM, AND PROJECT MANAGERS TO GET IT, TOO! 

Now, enjoy the show.

In the US, it's almost Thanksgiving, a major family holiday.  Mom, Dad, family, and friends - kids of all ages -  gather to give thanks for all that they have and to celebrate this 'harvest' time of year. 

And so we choose this timeframe to talk about the important role that Mom and Dad play as project managers - and/or leaders in general - when it comes to integrating sustainability thinking into the mindsets of their families.

We'd like to draw your attention to Project Sunlight.  This is a project created by Unilever targeting parents as the key influencers for their families, and thus communities.  They invite, and we also invite you to first  watch a film online which aims to both inspire and motivate parents to then act by doing a number of small things which, added together, will contribute to a better society and environment. Unilever, the parent company of well-known brands like Ragu, Hellmans, Lipton, Popsicle, and Ben & Jerry's, is trying to get the public to join a movement and become part of a growing community of sustainability-minded people and organizations.

We know how hard it is to start grass-roots, ad-hoc movements.  As a company of two people, EarthPM is finally seeing some success in this area but only after years, hundreds of blog posts, and scores of presentations at PMI Global Congresses, PMI Chapter Meetings, and PMO Symposia as well as in local sustainability organizations, constantly pushing the message that there IS an intersection of Sustaianbility and Project Management and how we as project managers can contribute to lasting success - triple bottom line success - of our projects' products.  But this is Unilever, a large multinational corporation.  They can make a quicker, deeper, broader difference.  We urge you to help them.  At least watch the video, and as you do so, consider the Project Management role that Mom and Dad have in influencing the world around them.  Most likely, you - as a project manager who is the child of Mom and Dad and a Mom or Dad yourself, are at least at that intersection: the intersection of parent and project manager.  Now, just extrapolate that to the intersection of project management and sustainability.  Of course, if you're having trouble extrapolating or just find this idea intriguing we invite you to read our book, Green Project Management, which covers the topic well, so we're told.

Unilever's Project Sunlight lets you take action locally as a Mom, as a Dad, as a child, as a Project Manager.  And by definition, if you take on one of these challenges, you are a Project Manager!  Check out what you can do in the USA on this Facebook link.

Happy Thanksgiving to our USA-based readers.  We're thankful to have this opportunity on Projects@Work to share our thoughts and hope you have a terrific holiday week and weekend!

We've just returned from the West Coast (sometimes called the 'left coast") of the USA, after a great week at the PMO Symposium in San Diego, California.  Our presentation, "Should Your PMO Serve as a Chief Project Sustainability Office" was well received, and although the visit was good, it was short, and it was time to fly back over our magnificent continent and return to the East (right) Coast.

And just around the time of our visit, the Pacific Coast states of California, Oregon, and Washington, along with the province of British Colombia, did something that the corresponding national governments have failed to do. 

They agreed on something.

But hey, what's the big deal?  How big are these few states and a province?  Well, combined, they would be the world's 5th largest economy.  That's why it's a big deal.

And what does this pact mean?  Further, since you're probably a project manager, what does it mean to you?  To us?  To your PMO?

Actually, you can easily find out yourself.  The document is surprisingly succinct, given that it comes from 4 governments and 2 countries.  Have a look at it here.

In this two-page document, the word, 'program' appears explicitly four times, the word 'project' appears explicitly four times and both are implicitly woven through almost each and every paragraph in the document.  Here are a couple of paragraphs to illustrate our point:

Project managers may have a “rough ride” when it comes to sustainability.  As a naturalist, Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt certainly had a clear vision about sustainability with his “conservation movement”, a social, political, and environmental (sound familiar) movement whose mission is to protect natural resources.  The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP), an organization founded on Roosevelt’s principles, is an alliance formed in 2000 with Trout Unlimited until 2002 when TRCP applied for their own tax exempt status.  TRCP’s primary mission is to protect quality open spaces for hunting and fishing. 

We’ve written and spoken to many attendees of webinars, key notes, workshops and conferences about the Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill.  In this month’s issue of Fly Fishing in Salt Water (Nov/Dec 2013, Vol. 20 No. 6, pg. 62), there is a brief note titled TRCP Partnership.  “The Theodore Roosevelt Partnership (TRCP) and other sport fishing interests have stressed the need for stakeholder input in charting a project-based approach for recovering fisheries and economics affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Recreational anglers as well as the Gulf Coast Ecosystems Restoration Council welcomed a vote to adopt a plan outlining recovery efforts both ecological and financial for the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of the oil spill.  Projects will help repair habitat degradation that occurred from the spill and address issues affecting the region that date from decades before.” [Emphasis is mine.]

A couple of things stood out in above brief note.  The statement includes or infers all of the aspects of the triple-bottom line, financial (or economic), social, and environmental.  “The need for stakeholder input” is a very telling phrase for us project managers.  The Project Management Institute in its Fifth Edition of the PMBOK® thought that stakeholders were so important that it added Stakeholder Management as the 10^th knowledge area.  It is rare that PMI® makes additions of this magnitude, so we pay attention.  Stakeholders needs have always been important to project success, but those needs are also being driven back into the decision making process for choice of projects.  Stakeholders are also becoming more and more concerned with environmental issues which will help to drive more sustainable projects.  One of our tips to project managers is to become aware of those issues and take advantage of that awareness to avail themselves of opportunities in this emerging project area.

 “A project-based approach for recovering fisheries and economies” is a reality.  Wouldn’t we want to both be aware of the issues and be able to speak the language of sustainability in project management (SiPM™)?  Again, forewarned is forearmed!  As project managers, the more information we can accumulate on a particular area of interest, the more we can differentiate ourselves to take advantage of new opportunities.  One of the key phrases in the note is “…address issues affecting the region that date from decades before.”  Not only is the relatively recent oil spill creating projects, but the potential of decades of damage will also drive projects.  If all of these projects are to be successful, it is my assertion that we will need knowledgeable project managers, to smooth out their sustainability ride.

PMBOK® and PMI® are registered trademarks of the Project Management Institute

SiPM™ is a trademark of EarthPM @2013

In the latest edition of PM Network there is an article entitled “Weather Alert: Flooding Ahead.”  The subtitle is “It’s high time to plan for high tides with global projects” and it is by Mark Guarino.  The article points out a striking example of how future projects will be driven by issues of sustainability; by the triple-bottom line, people, planet, profits. 

Rich and I are facilitating a ‘sustainability in project management’ course for the Sustainability Learning Centre and we use two examples of how high tides are affecting the environment.  An island that was being contended by India and Pakistan, South Moore Island, AKA Talpatti, is no longer a problem.  It is now under water due to rising ocean levels.  The people of Talpatti needed to relocate themselves and their personal property (a project).  The other example we used was from an article in The Boston Globe, August 4, 2012, Rising Tide of Concern.”  That article pointed out the developers and building owners in Boston are considering locating their electrical facilities on upper floors, building new buildings with floodwalls, higher first floors, landscaping buffers, etc., to prevent the problems caused in New York by Hurricane Sandy. 

We’ve always believed that project managers should avail themselves of the opportunity to lead sustainability efforts.  Whether it is an obviously sustainable project like managing the installation of a wind farm, to managing the planning organization and implementation of a new software release, project managers should be involved.  One of the ways to avail yourself of those opportunities is to understand that there is a 'rainbow of green ; from projects that are green by definition, projects that are green by project impact, projects that are green by product impact, and projects that are green in general.  The specifics are detailed in our book and we’ve talked about it quite a bit in this blog as well as on our website. 

That’s not what I want to talk about here.  What I want to talk about here is that it is just as important to the project manager to be aware of the terminology and the fundamentals about sustainability in project management.  Yes, you can get a good basic understanding from our book.  In addition, Greg Balestrero (he gets it!),  former President and CEO of Project Management Institute (PMI®) is now working with  the International Institute of Learning (IIL) and will be speaking during International Project Day (Thursday, November 7^th, 2013) on the subject of Organizational Survival: Profitable Strategies for a Sustainable Future.  For more information go to IIL’s website.   It’s free and you can get some PDU’s and it will be available on demand for those who cannot participate during the live presentations.  Greg and Nathalie Udo also co-authored a book by the same name as the presentation.  That book is now available.

Another way is to become more educated is to take a course or two in sustainability and sustainability in project management.  The Sustainability Learning Centre has some great offerings in this area. 

Forewarned is forearmed.  Arming yourself with sustainability and sustainability in project management information is another way to make you, a project manager, more marketable as well as ready to take advantage of any and all opportunities.