At PMI's recent global congress in Orlando, Florida, USA, I had the opportunity to spend some time with members of PMI's new media council. These folks are people who are active and well known in the blogosphere for their frequent contributions to the discipline we share. Our conversation focused a lot on sustainability, a topic that many of you know is close to my heart. As we all hoped, since our conversation, some of the council members have blogged about sustainability (A Girl's Guide to Project Management and Project Management 2.0) incorporating their own thoughts and the thoughts of people who have commented on the various posts, to the dialogue.
I am thrilled that we have begun to generate this level of conversation and I hope we can continue shaping our sustainable future together.
Let me recap here, in an attempt to generate further discussion around sustainability in the practice of project management.
As I said before and will say again, I believe global sustainability and organizational sustainability are merging together in the formation of new business values and strategies. However, the specifics of how this will affect PM remains to be seen and will require the input of project managers from around the world.
Some suggest that becoming a more socially responsible organization requires a significant financial investment. While I have no doubt that some organizations could undertake initiatives that result in a financial burden, organizations who are leading global citizens are actually saving money as a result of sustainable policies and practices. Frankly, if organizations don't concern themselves now with healthy and strong human capital, and with maintaining available resources in the future, the cost later on can very well be the demise of the organization. In the context of organization survival, the price seems worthy and necessary.
At PMI's congress, when we heard from Ellen Jackowski from HP, Anne Larilahti of Nokia Siemens and Sandra Taylor, a consultant formerly with Starbucks during our Sustainability and Ethical Supply Chains session, each noted that even when the economy took a downturn, their companies did not abandon their ethically responsible platforms. This is because global sustainability had become a part of the organizations' DNA or core values, and had the potential to continue to contribute positively to the bottom line.
The interesting question facing project management practitioners is: "What is your role in contributing to a more sustainable organization?" No doubt a project manager's role is not to solely focus on sustainability, but rather to incorporate it into his or her overall approach. So, in addition to focusing on scope, time and cost, a fourth consideration should be sustainability. Certainly, there are sensitivities relating to whether a project manager sits in-house or is an outsourced executor of a project. Further, project managers must weigh the risks of speaking up in an organization whose culture does not encourage new ideas, but ultimately, the goal is to bring positive business results which should not be overlooked.
Dave Garrett, one of the members of PMI's New Media Council, blogging at Project Management 2.0, describes it this way: "As an ethical Project Manager, you need to think about longer term financial and environmental results and factor the benefits of sustainability into your ROI analysis and execution plans. If you consider sustainable approaches, materials, etc. for every single project. They may only make sense SOME of the time, but with your help, they will at least be considered. In this way you can ensure that sustainable approaches that make sense are used. Making sustainability part of what you do implies you must make it your business to learn about and introduce sustainable approaches to your work. If you don't, chances are that no one else will. For this reason, Project Manager - you need to be the change."
Dave and I agree. From my perspective, project managers can either choose to lead or choose to follow - they can wait until it is a law or regulation, and then "comply" by checking items off a list, or they can help the organization integrate and develop sustainable values, processes, and practices. In an ideal world, everyone within the organization would embrace this philosophy, yet I truly believe that project managers can be the agents for positive change - after all, project managers regularly manage change within organizations.
Ultimately, the question of the project manager's role is not going to be answered today or tomorrow, but these discussions will help shape how project managers approach their work and continue to be on the forefront of organizational excellence.
I am excited about this dialog. And I am so committed to this topic that I have helped PMI establish a community of practice for our members to share experiences and ideas about integrating global sustainability thinking into all projects and about integrating project, program, and portfolio management into all global sustainability actions. Therefore, I encourage all PMI members to join the PMI Project Management Global Sustainability Community of Practice.
