Project Management for Future Leaders

The Best Code of Ethics From a Masterpiece of Italian Literature

By Walter Ginevri, PMI Fellow

Over a period of almost 20 years, thanks to PMI and PMIEF, I have had the opportunity to live an exciting and unique experiential journey. And the most surprising thing is that this enthusiasm grows more and more each day.

Why? In my opinion, for one simple reason: Every day our professional community makes it possible to transfer our enthusiasm to other people and, in some cases, to change their professional life and even beyond.

What follows is a short story I am sharing with you as a project manager, seasoned volunteer, and passionate lover of the literature of my country, Italy. I am not speaking on behalf of the PMIEF Board, of which I am a member.

Having said that, my only objective is to increase your enthusiasm and your will to share this story with your friends and colleagues. Basically, in response to a worrying phenomenon that Pope Francis has named “the globalization of indifference”, I am inviting you to “globalize enthusiasm”.

A few months ago, while I was holding a project management workshop, a young participant asked me to suggest a good book about the project management profession and its main duties. I provided a twofold response.

First, I suggested that she read the PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.

Second, assuming that she would contact me again after reading that document, I promised I would suggest a second text that I consider my first source of inspiration about ethical aspects related to my profession.

After few weeks, I was contacted by that young project manager again and was pleasantly surprised to discover that her reading hadn’t been superficial. In fact, when I asked her to point out the most convincing section or statement, she mentioned the section dedicated to responsibility in which it’s specified that “responsibility is our duty to take ownership, not only for the decisions we make, but also for the decisions we fail to make”.

Thanks to her answer, it was really easy to keep my promise and suggest that she read and reflect upon some verses of the greatest masterpiece of Italian literature: The Divine Comedy written by Dante Alighieri more than seven centuries ago.

Would you like to know why I consider this poem a peerless source of inspiration about ethics?

Because, in my opinion, it’s the best way for integrating the four core values of the PMI Code of Ethics: responsibility, respect, fairness and honesty. 

As far as responsibility is concerned, we can refer to Dante’s opinion concerning slothful people, the persons who avoid taking any responsibility and prefer to follow the ideas of someone else. In fact, it’s interesting to know that Dante places these damned people in the so-called “anti-Inferno”, the area outside the famous door of the Inferno.

Why? Because, in the opinion of Dante, they are so miserable, they don’t deserve even the damnation of the real Inferno, where there are people who at least took responsibility of shameful acts. In fact, when Dante meets these people, his companion Virgilio expresses his disgust with the following sentence.

It’s a sentence full of disdain, but it underlines the concept of responsibility expressed in the PMI Code of Ethics and appreciated by the young project manager. In fact, I’m convinced that the most frequent violations of the principle of responsibility are related to the decisions we fail to make because of guilty silence.

Let’s go now to another inspiring example of fairness and honesty.

You should know that the criteria for putting damned people in the Dante’s Inferno is very simple: the more serious the sin or guilt, the deeper the position and the lower the distance from Satan, the Devil. In fact, below the seventh circle, reserved for violent people such as murderers or suicide victims, we reach the eighth circle that is reserved for fraudulent and dishonest people, such as hypocrites or flatterers.

Now, the question is: why does Dante consider hypocrites worse than murderers? The answer, again, is very simple: because hypocrites killed the truth and without any doubt, Dante thought that more serious than murder.

As was the case for responsibility, the truth cannot be measured in percentages. There’s no difference between lying and telling a partial truth, as rightly specified in the PMI Code of Ethics.

With regard to the remaining core value (respect), I very much like the point where the PMI Code of Ethics stresses the importance of creating “an environment where diverse perspectives and views are encouraged and valued”. In my opinion, this is one the distinctive skills of a knowledge leader, a person who is able to lead people with generosity and selflessness.

Now, do you know where to find the best definition of a knowledge leader?

Of course, in the Divine Comedy! If you doubt me, look at the following verses.

Last but not least, I have another beautiful story to share with you.

In 2012, during the PMI NA Congress in Vancouver, I had the opportunity to have dinner with Jim Snyder, one of the five PMI founders.

It was a great feeling when I discovered not only that Jim knew the Divine Comedy very well, but that he was also fully aware of its value as an inspiring code of ethics.

After that lucky dinner, I have had many opportunities to meet Jim, to be inspired by his servant leadership, and to appoint him as my first mentor within the PMI’s community. As ambassador of the PMIEF mission, he also provided the foreword of the book I recently wrote with Bernie Trilling (https://pmief.org/library/project-management-for-education).

Again, do you know where I have found the best words to express my gratitude to Jim, my beloved mentor?

At this point, I’m sure you know the answer and so I’m happy to close my post with the following verses.