Ethics Bistro

Julio and Martin were best friends in graduate school. Since then, their careers had taken them to many cities around the world. They now worked in the same city and shared the same profession, project management.

The duo would often meet for lunch every few weeks at their favorite Italian bistro. Over these lunches, they readily shared their personal and work experiences.

This week, Julio sensed that something was bothering Martin. Even over the phone in the past weeks, Martin had not been his cheerful self.

Julio asked, “What’s up buddy? You’ve seemed out of sorts for some time now.”

Martin was indeed troubled and badly wanted to talk. Julio was the one person he could really trust. He said, “You’re right. I’m having a tough time. My customer doesn’t trust me. Even worse, my team members seem to hate me. I’m under attack on several fronts!”

In an empathetic tone, Julio said: “That’s tough. Tell me more.”

“In my latest customer status report, I didn’t disclose a delay with a critical work package. A key AutoCAD expert suddenly fell sick. I didn’t want to panic my customer since I was sure we could catch up before the next report. The status column had a green icon when it should’ve been yellow. The AutoCAD guy didn’t recover in time. The work got further delayed. Someone from my team told the client that I was misrepresenting progress. My customer now questions every minor detail in my reports!”

Martin paused to sip his drink and continued: “I’m terribly understaffed and behind schedule. There’s no option but to drive my team very hard. I’m often rude, sometimes even mean. On Wednesday last week, I overheard two team members say that I was the worst boss they ever had. My woes seem endless!”

Julio realized that the situation was worse than what he had originally assumed. He reassuringly said, “I’d feel the same way if I was in your place. I’m very sure we can work this out.

“You know me. I don’t sermonize, but it’s obvious that you have a serious trust issue with your client. I too have made the same mistakes of reporting inaccurate progress. While each seemed like a small untruth, they soon cascaded and resulted in broken trust.

“I quickly realized that it's better to be completely honest with stakeholders. But don’t just go to them with issues. Explain your plan to get back on track. Believe me: They start to trust and respect you.”

Julio recalled a leadership workshop where the trainer had spoken about the importance of project managers being completely transparent and respectful to all stakeholders. He had referred to PMI’s Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct¹ which stressed four important values: responsibility, respect, fairness, and honesty.

“Pushing your team members overly hard plus being rude and mean to them may fetch short-term results. In the long run, many team members may push back or quit. You will lose valuable time in finding and training new personnel.

“Take responsibility for your behavior. Don’t blame the schedule. Invest time in team building. Explain the challenges of your tight schedule and request their help. You’ll get their buy-in and better results!”

Martin thanked Julio for his practical advice.

Now that he had a way out of his troubles, his favorite lasagna seemed to taste so much better!

¹ https://www.pmi.org/about/ethics/code

A.I. and I (semi-serious thoughts on artificial intelligence, project management and ethics)

by Giusi Meloni, PMP, CSM, past EMAG Chair

My new microwave has arrived. It asks me whether I would like to cook or defrost and what type of food I’m preparing. It offers me an option to set time and temperature but it also comfortingly suggests that, should I provide more information, it can plan the meal to be ready when and how I want it, don’t you worry.

It happily chirps when it is half done and celebrates with a festive jingle to inform me that the food is ready. Furthermore, it takes a little time to cool off before it starts a new meal… or should I write project?

The analogy with project management, and good project management, is quite strong, I do think. Planning, monitoring, controlling, even lessons learned at the end. And communications throughout.

In a recent interview Jack Ma, founder and president of Alibaba, said that when it comes to tasks like calculation, machines will always "do better”. Coming from a strong humanities background, I certainly agree and appreciate the opportunity to delegate calculations to more proficient humans or machines. While I fluctuate from mildly curious to fascinated on “how” it is done, I recently focused my attention on “what” is being processed, namely the data we humans willingly feed to the machines. 

I will not enter here the discussion on our unwilling and/or unaware contribution to big data and concentrate instead on the project environment. 

Let’s go back to my new microwave: its “planning” functions are based on the assumptions that we humans know what we want, that we give the necessary answers and the answers we give are correct. My microwave “assumes” my competence and honesty. 

Can you assume the same of your project stakeholders? 

If not, even the most sophisticated and “intelligent” tool for data gathering and analysis might not be enough. My microwave and its gently probing questions is an ordinary example of how A.I. might exploit some of the most common project management tools to acquire and manage project information. Knowledge management models also offer various techniques to elicit knowledge and share it, which might be enhanced by A.I.  Tools, however, are only tools: the magic ingredient, the “difference that makes the difference” is how they are used. 

Arthur C. Clarke, the science fiction author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, wrote: “Whether we are based on carbon or on silicon makes no fundamental difference; we should each be treated with appropriate respect.” 

Respect is one of the four tenets of the PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct and it is defined as “our duty to show a high regard for ourselves, others, and the resources entrusted to us. Resources entrusted to us may include people, money, reputation, the safety of others, and natural or environmental resources.”

The Code continues specifying “An environment of respect engenders trust, confidence, and performance excellence by fostering mutual cooperation - an environment where diverse perspectives and views are encouraged and valued.”

It is our behaviour, the example we set as project managers that will make the greatest difference in a project, not only the tool we choose but the choices we make in our daily activities.

We always have a choice between nurturing respect… or not: to ask - or not - the extra question that might clarify the stakeholders' expectation; to stop – or not – a rumour; to make - or not -  a nasty remark during a meeting; to listen - or not - to different points of view. 

We also have a choice on how we want to relate to A.I. In 1997 World chess champion Garry Kasparov lost a game against Deep Blue, an IBM supercomputer. In an interesting Ted Talk, he reflects on A.I. and concludes: “We should not worry about what our machines can do today. Instead, we should worry about what they still cannot do today, because we will need the help of the new, intelligent machines to turn our grandest dreams into reality (…) Our humanity is not defined by any skill, like swinging a hammer or even playing chess. there's one thing only a human can do. That's dream. So let us dream big.”

The Project Managers who wrote the PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct expressed the vision that “this Code will ultimately be used to build upon and evolve our profession”. 

Let us act to make this vision true.

How much cheating can be allowed to win? Is it important to cheat to win or is it ok to lose but not to cheat?

Some of us face some of these questions when either we as leaders take any decision or we follow leader who says winning come before the virtue and values.

During the recent ball tampering episode happened in South Africa followed by serious admissions and long term bans, one of the questions come up very strongly is that how come no one from the 11 people of the team said ‘No’ to cheat when it was tabled.  

Are we becoming so blind followers to our leaders that we don’t apply our own values, learnings to say that – Hey, this looks wrong, something doesn’t seem right here and we should stop, I think we are making the error of judgement. How many times we have found ourselves in the situations where our senior leaders, Famous personalities are asking us to do something and we doubt it?

Of course it is easier to say that it’s all part of the culture where winning comes before values and virtues. So what if it’s only a game but a loss if not tolerated and ‘winning is everything’ rather than ‘winning honorably’. The cricket team in question here of course resorted to many other ways in past like sledging, over the top celebration, aggressive send-off in the past which were considered acceptable in the light of law and hence ball tampering seems to be a little further extension in order to win.

This is the problem with small cheating and it is often found that people tend to forget the line very easily when small becomes large and so large that it completely destroyed their career and image which they have earned hard ways.        

Making the right choice and understanding that what we are planning to do is not right becomes very complicated, especially when everything is a matter of just few degrees.

This was a the true test of leadership where as a leader, you have to show trust on to your team, find ways to success by inspiring the team in the event of loss and improve so that team can return to the winning ways. The true leader knows the line and always plays by the rules even if it means loss.

What Australian captain did was certainly not traits of the true leader. True leaders don’t ask their team members to cheat and they don’t succumb to the pressure of losing so much so that cheating looks last resort. He was thinking that whatever he will do is the acceptable actions and they are the ones who decide the line. Unfortunately it wasn’t so.   

Good leaders don’t cheat and they don’t lose faith in their team and never ceases to try to find ways to succeed. They inspire the team to come out of negativity, they support, help their team to be more positive and productive rather than slumping down to cheat or cut corners.

Needless to say that having ethics is vital because not only it’s based on truth, virtue and righteousness, but true leader also show light to others, guide the team the right way to behave and act.

To conclude, cheating small or big is absolute no-no and focus should be on winning righteously and honorably rather than just winning at any cost.

For more ethical resources please visit: https://www.pmi.org/about/ethics

As Project, Program and Portfolio Managers we are looking for ways to increase and validate our personal value to the organizations and clients we serve. One way to achieve this is by acquiring additional professional certifications or credentials that match the milestones in our career with the experience gained, competencies acquired and accomplishments achieved.   

Earning professional designations  not only strengthens the profession, it demonstrates initiative,  is leading by example to others  such as our stakeholders, team members and colleagues the importance of professional development for our professional credibility.    

This makes the stakes high for the hard work, demonstrated competencies and commitment to achieve these credentials.  Obviously, not all of the institutions regulating and offering these professional designations adhere to the same standards. 

The requirements,  credibility and proven  reputation of the varying organizations who award these impact the value of the credential,  The awarding organization and the practitioner  both bear the responsibility for its value  In this article, I will address the ethical role of the organizations that grant professional certificates, the role of the applicants for such certificate, and what is expected from them before and after obtaining it, ethically.

 First, let's start by the role of the organizations that grant the certificates and among these organizations, there are some that have global acceptance and a reputation gained only by following a professional code of conduct and  technical rules and also because of the mutual trust between them and the professional community. We find that successful organizations are mainly based on the four ethical values we have in the PMI's Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, which are honesty, responsibility, respect and fairness.

These organizations have entrusted themselves with the responsibility of graduating graduates of high efficiency through the issuance of valuable knowledge guides in which a great number of volunteers have participate , working through a specific methodology so that they would be able to issue a certificate of great value in the labor market. These organizations have extended their full respect for the community with honesty, responsibility and fairness. They also have required their members and those who wish to obtain such professional certificates to agree to and adhere to these values of a Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.  .

Therefore, and generally, they have gained the acceptance of the profession, they are serving. At the same time, there were other organizations that did not adhere nor obligated their members to follow such ethical values, which led to the collapse of these professional societies and therefore did not become credible even if their scientific content was good or acceptable.

Second, as for the applicants to obtain such professional certificates, their lack of commitment to honesty in providing their papers and experience for the certificate is a violation. There are several applicants who may have provided false information to obtain the approval of such organizations to enter the test. if they succeeded in deceiving these organizations for some time, they will be in the eyes of their colleagues, with no credibility because their colleagues know how they were able to deceive these organizations to get access to the test. However, It is difficult to pass the tests if they do not already have the experience required for such field. So, there will be another station to evaluate their ability to pass the test. Therefore, the applicant must choose the certificate which truly commensurate with his experience and abilities.

Thirdly, we may find the holders of the professional certificate, although they have obtained the certificate and have totally agreed to follow such ethical values associated with it. While we find that the clear majority apply these rules, but there are some who may not follow these rules and mislead the community by conducting such immoral acts. We conclude that the social culture may affect the certificate holders to make decisions that may conflict with the ethical values that they already have agreed to, and this leads to the loss of the profession  which they work in. and then it raises some questions to the professional organization that gave them this certificate.

Therefore, we conclude that adherence to rules and ethical values in the field of professional certificates is the main basis that leads to the success of organizations and the individual and society in general.  

Ethics and project managers in an era of digitalization

Digitalization of organizations in private and public sector is perceived as a natural move that organically was created by the technological advancement of the last 10-20 years. This shift at strategic and operational level bring changes to the organization and their people, from the work environment, and work style, to culture, technological adaptation, tools, communication, learning, with direct impact on the current employee, and their leaders.

As leaders, project managers and their teams are engaged in this wave of changes, and transformations that impact them.

With access to technology, with projects co-located, with virtual work environment becoming a norm, practically project managers and their project team manipulate and use information using in-house systems, communication platforms, and very often social media.

In this blog, I encourage you to join me in a generic case, hypothetical, that describes a social media situation, and does not refer to an instance.

As project managers, we comply and obey the PMI Code of Ethics, the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct  , the code of the organization that employs us, and sometimes the code for

our profession.

Emily is a senior project manager at a federal government department and currently manages a large team engaged in the delivery of an IT project. Emily is very proud of her team and very keen to usually complete timely and successfully the projects she manages. Emily is a top-notch specialist, well respected in her field, with PMI certifications, well known for her ethical values and her ability to “speak truth to power”.             

Most recently Emily worked on a status report of the project she currently manages; here, she explicitly demonstrated the difficulties and challenges of the project, that is over the budget, behind schedule, has unexpected changes in the business requirements; Emily also detailed the authority challenges she is faced with, as a project manager, in dealing with the executive group of decision-makers.

Emily is very involved in social media, and she is present on almost all the current platforms.  She is engaged in numerous professional networks, where she actively interacts, on a weekly and sometimes daily basis with peers and her network, work colleagues, and the professional community.

In a recent blog, Emily wrote about the challenges project managers in federal government face on each project they manage.  Emily described very vividly in her blog the challenges she and her team are facing and presented a real picture of the recent difficulties she and her team is dealing with.    Emily expressed her personal beliefs on the work environment, the organization and the success of projects, and complained about the short-sighted decision of senior management. Emily asked her network to comment and as days went by Emily saw an increased volume of responses from users of various social media platforms who started to comment, critique, offered ideas and views and making direct and indirect connections with Emily’s current job and project. Emily found herself in an overwhelming situation!

Do you think that Emily’s’ recent blog, her social media interest and her active presence on social media have something to do with ethics and the values of respect, responsibility, fairness, and honesty?

How should project managers behave on social media and what responsibility do they have to their team, and their employers?

What do we want project managers to know about the Code of Ethics and use of social media?

Is Emily in breach of the Values and Ethics Code?

As project managers, we have a conduit aligned to the PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct (https://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/ethics/pmi-code-of-ethics.pdf),

“As practitioners of project management, we are committed to doing what is right and honorable. We set high standards for ourselves and we aspire to meet these standards in all aspects of our lives—at work, at home, and in service to our profession.”.

For more ethical resources please visit: https://www.pmi.org/about/ethics.

Lily Murariu M. Eng. DBA in Project Management(c) 

Canada