As a reminder, the theme for this two-part blog post is symbiosis.
In the first post I illustrated symbiosis with the example of the clownfish and the sea anemone. This time: another example – the acacia tree and a species of aggressive, stinging Pseudomyrmex ferrugineusants
Once again, I don’t mean to infer that sustainability is represented by the tree and project managers are pseudomyrmex ferruginei. It’s just an an-t-alogy. Learn more about this with this academic paper from SciencDaily. Or, watch this 2 minute video from National Geographic:
The symbiosis to which I am referring is about the mutual benefit that the CSO (Chief Sustainability Officer) department of an organization can (and should!) have with the project managers.
To take this idea to another level – an important level, I decided to see what this meant in terms of careers and jobs. I entered what I thought would be a very helpful prompt into ChatGPT, and here is what came out.
My Prompt:
Acting as a talent acquisition manager, identify the connections between project management and the positions of Chief Sustainability Officer or Director of Sustainability or ESG Director.
ChatGPT’s response (highlighting is mine):
As a talent acquisition manager, it's essential to recognize the connections between project management and positions like Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO), Director of Sustainability, or ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) Director. Understanding these connections will help you identify suitable candidates with the right skills and experience for these roles. Here are the key connections:
Strategic Planning and Implementation: Both project management and sustainability roles require strategic planning and implementation skills. Project managers are adept at setting clear goals, creating action plans, and overseeing the execution of projects to achieve objectives. Similarly, sustainability professionals need to develop and implement sustainability strategies, which may involve a variety of initiatives and projects aimed at improving environmental, social, and governance performance within an organization.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Project managers often work across different departments, ensuring effective communication and collaboration among various stakeholders. Similarly, sustainability roles involve working with teams from different business units to integrate sustainability practices and initiatives throughout the organization. Both positions require the ability to collaborate and engage with diverse stakeholders to drive positive change.
Performance Measurement and Reporting: Project managers are responsible for tracking project progress, identifying key performance indicators (KPIs), and reporting on project outcomes to relevant stakeholders. Likewise, sustainability roles involve measuring and reporting on environmental, social, and governance metrics to assess the organization's sustainability performance and demonstrate the impact of sustainability initiatives.
Risk Management: Both project management and sustainability roles involve risk management. Project managers identify potential risks to project success and develop mitigation plans. Sustainability professionals must assess environmental and social risks and ensure compliance with relevant regulations and standards, addressing any potential negative impacts.
Change Management: Project managers often deal with change within an organization when implementing new projects or initiatives. Sustainability professionals also play a crucial role in driving organizational change, as they advocate for sustainable practices and help shift the company's culture towards greater environmental and social responsibility.
Long-term Vision: Project managers typically work on time-bound projects with specific objectives and deliverables. In contrast, sustainability roles require a long-term vision to develop and implement sustainable strategies that align with the organization's overall mission and values.
Stakeholder Engagement: Both roles involve working with internal and external stakeholders. Project managers communicate with project sponsors, team members, and other stakeholders. Similarly, sustainability professionals engage with investors, customers, regulatory bodies, NGOs, and other stakeholders to promote sustainability efforts and ensure transparency.
Innovation and Continuous Improvement: Project managers seek opportunities for innovation and continuous improvement within their projects. In sustainability roles, driving innovation to develop sustainable products, processes, and practices is crucial for the organization's long-term success.
When recruiting for positions like Chief Sustainability Officer, Director of Sustainability, or ESG Director, it's important to look for candidates with a strong background in project management, excellent communication and collaboration skills, and a passion for sustainability and environmental stewardship. These candidates will be well-equipped to lead sustainability initiatives, drive positive change, and align sustainability efforts with the organization's broader goals.
OK. Now that you have seen that, I know that at least my students of my Project Value Strategies class will recognize much of what is taught there. It could almost be the Syllabus of the course.
So the lesson here is that the intertwined needs and outcomes of good project leadership and sustainability professionals means that opportunities for holistic, long-term, value-based project leaders (I stay away from the word ‘managers’ here, because… well, because this is leadership) will be the ones that are in highest demand in the near future, especially with the advent of AI.
With that in mind, I asked ChatGPT what those skills would be to see if I was at all on target, or more like an ant climbing up the wrong tree.
My prompt:
Responding to a project manager concerned about losing their job to AI, what particular skills should they work on which will make them more resilient to the advent of AI in project management?
Chat GPT’s ant-ser:
To become more resilient to the advent of AI in project management, project managers should focus on developing specific skills that complement and go beyond AI capabilities. Here are some particular skills to work on:
Strategic Thinking: Enhance your ability to think strategically and see the big picture. AI can assist with data analysis and provide insights, but it often requires human intervention to formulate and implement strategic decisions.
Complex Problem-Solving: Develop expertise in handling intricate and multifaceted problems. AI might excel at solving routine issues, but complex challenges often require human creativity and judgment.
Emotional Intelligence: Strengthen your emotional intelligence, as it plays a crucial role in managing teams and stakeholders effectively. AI cannot replace the empathy and understanding needed to build strong relationships and resolve conflicts.
Communication and Negotiation: Focus on honing your communication and negotiation skills. These are essential for managing diverse teams, engaging stakeholders, and reaching mutually beneficial agreements.
Adaptability and Learning Agility: Embrace a growth mindset and be willing to learn and adapt continuously. AI technologies evolve rapidly, and being adaptable will help you stay relevant in a changing landscape.
Leadership and Team Management: Cultivate your leadership abilities to inspire and guide your team. AI may facilitate task management, but human leaders are still crucial for motivating teams and ensuring everyone is aligned with the project's goals.
Domain Expertise: Become an expert in your specific industry or domain. Understanding the intricacies of your field allows you to provide valuable insights and make informed decisions that AI might not fully grasp.
Risk Management: Specialize in risk assessment and mitigation. AI can help analyze data related to risks, but your experience and judgment are necessary to determine appropriate risk responses and contingency plans.
Innovation and Creativity: Foster a culture of innovation and creativity within your team. While AI can automate repetitive tasks, human creativity drives innovative solutions and new project opportunities.
Ethics and Responsible AI Use: Familiarize yourself with the ethical considerations of AI implementation. As a project manager, it's essential to ensure that AI is used responsibly, adheres to regulations, and addresses potential biases.
Data Literacy: Develop a good understanding of data analysis and interpretation. This skill will enable you to collaborate more effectively with AI experts, understand AI-generated insights, and make data-driven decisions.
Client and Stakeholder Management: Master the art of managing client expectations and stakeholder relationships. Human communication skills are vital for fostering trust and maintaining strong partnerships.
By concentrating on these skills, project managers can position themselves as indispensable assets in the AI-driven project management landscape. Remember that AI should be seen as a tool to augment your capabilities, not a direct threat to your expertise and contributions. Being adaptable, innovative, and focused on adding value will ensure your resilience in the face of AI advancements.
Notice the connection here? The more you focus on holistic, long-term thinking, the more secure your career, and the more you can do well by doing good.
Bottom line: when it comes to integrating sustainability thinking into your project management work, remember – that’s going to make you more resilient. Think: Project Leadership, not Project Management.
Maybe it’s because I was looking up at the sky, wondering if the Chinese satellite (Tiangong-1) would land on my house*. Maybe it’s just a lifelong fascination with space. Or maybe looking skyward is a proxy for the idea I’ve had trying to get ourselves as project managers to stop thinking “in the box” and through the end of their project, as well as around the project - to consider triple bottom line concerns. Maybe. But for whatever reason, an article in PM Journal caught my attention and I’m glad it did.
The article, Project Networks as Constellations for Value Creation by Markus Laursen (see citation below), talks about the idea of project networks – not the ones that have critical paths and float and dependencies, but the stakeholder-interaction sort of networks, the ones that we study in terms of ‘number of channels in a network of stakeholders is “N times N-1 all divided by 2”, where N is the number of stakeholders.
Laursen, with whom I chatted just today, says that he was aware that many people would think of the “Network” concept this way, so this is a learning moment – consider the communication connectivity network in your project – that’s what this article discusses. We’re talking about something that looks a little like the below:
This looks like a constellation, right? Thus the name for this sort of network drawing and the title of the article.
But alas, my focus was not on the heavens, but rather on the afterlife.
Say what?
The afterlife?
Yes, this is one of the terms Laursen uses in the article to deftly describe that portion of the project after it starts delivering value, after you as the PM have moved on to other projects. This is a main theme of this blog and one of the main things I am trying to convince project managers to do – to think of the project’s longer-term use and delivery of benefits, of value.
This is where the article really started to get my attention, because Laursen takes pains to point out that value is not only limited to immediate economic benefit. He says, “Knowing more about how value is created and how organizations act in value constellations has implications for how projects are managed,prepared, and handed over to operations.” And then, “It is especially interesting to explore non-financial effects and value, as focusing on these types of value may lead to better project performance also in terms of financial value”. He cites Martinsuo & Killen, see reference below, who have written on this very subject in detail. Their point (and you should read their article cited below) is summed up well with this extract:
We use the term strategic value as the key concept in this study, referring to ecological, social, health and safety, societal influence, learning and knowledge development, and longer term business value. Thus far, few studies have explicitly covered how strategic value should be assessed when managing a project portfolio. Some studies include synergy (Jonas et al., 2013; Teller et al., 2012; Voss & Kock, 2013), sustainability (Luchs et al., 2012), future preparedness (Meskendahl, 2010; Martinsuo & Poskela, 2011; Voss & Kock, 2013) and other related aspects as criteria for portfolio selection, balance or success; however, there is little guidance on practical project portfolio coordination and control mechanisms for promoting such values further.
The article has a great discussion, beyond the scope of this post, but worth reading, regarding the definition of value. Laursen correctly says that in PM, value is “a concept that is often understood as somewhat vague and is sometimes used interchangeably with words such as benefit, outcome, and worth. Indeed, I think I’m guilty of this in this very blog post. He uses this definition: value is the relation between benefits and costs. The key, then, is what sorts of benefits, for whom? Are the benefits only related to economics or do they consider ecological, social, and economic benefits?
Well, that’s what this blog has been asking PMs to do since 2011! It’s great to see that this is gaining ground in the technical journals. Next, in my humble opinion, we need to see this in the PMBOK® Guide itself, and also in the Program and Portfolio standards.
Projects do have an afterlife, and we can be stars as PMs if we look up and consider it in our planning. What will the project deliver? What side effects does its daily operation have? How can we provide more benefit and value for our customers and other stakeholders (like the Earth) by considering that afterlife in our planning?
Check it out. Things are looking up!
*this actually reminds me of the film “The Discovery of Heaven” in which [SPOILER ALERT!] one of the main characters, Max, an astronomer, is actually obliterated by a meteoroid because he has located Heaven and you’re just NOT SUPPOSED to do that…
An outstanding article in a recent issue of CIO magazine article, by Moira Alexander, has significant value of its own, and I suggest you follow the link earlier in this very sentence. The article also includes a couple of key quotes that triggered this blog post.
The theme (and the play-on-words title) of the post is… Value. Value that YOU bring as a project manager, that you bring to your project team, and value that you and your project brings to the business. It’s a very positive, intertwined, broadly-based web that I am suggesting you weave.
Here’s the first quote. It comes from Gerald Leonard, PMP, author of the book “Culture Is the Bass”.
“Customer value creation is key; all projects are initiated to create value. If a project is delivered on time and on budget but does not create value for the organization, does it really matter that it was delivered? Projects have to have a positive impact on an organization to create value.”
That’s absolutely striking when you think about it, almost on a philosophical level. The age-old question, “If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?” comes to mind.
We often get caught up in the art and science of PM and forget that the project is meant to bring value to the organization, the users, the community, the planet. When we do this, we think in shorter terms than we should, we don’t include all the proper stakeholders, and we may be doing something that matters for only our own purposes, for a very short time, or both.
That’s not why you took on the role of PM, is it? Remember, one of the key differentiators of project work from operations is the fact that projects are unique and are meant to change something.
That change had better be a positive change, and, as Leonard says, that change should be to create value for the organization. And, following that logic just a little further, most organizations have, at their mission and vision level, statements about corporate social responsibility, “good corporate citizenship”, or something of that nature, as core values.
Is your project connected to those values? Is your project creating value for the organization?
Does your project, in a word, matter?
To paraphrase The Who, it better, it better, you bet.
This may be important not only for this connection in and of itself, it could easily be a motivator for team members, especially those who are more aware of the ‘big picture’ or those who are more focused (as younger employees, ‘millennials’, GenX/GenY folks tend to be) on the organizations’ purpose.
The other quote from Ms. Alexander’s article is this one:
"A project manager and PMO’s value can only be recognizable if stakeholders and executives can distinguish a direct line back to strategic goals If a project manager can effectively communicate how the efforts of the team are geared toward successfully meeting (the organization’s) goals, it helps to pave the way when issues arise, and teams get sidetracked."
Again – that theme of value is coming through loud and clear. We need to ‘hitch’ our projects’ ‘wagons’ to the power, the drive, the overall value of the organization.
