The 200th PM Podcast features video interviews with 20 PM Thought Leaders

And we’re one of them.

Have a look at the press release below, and visit the segment in which we’re interviewed here.

Cornelius Fichtner, principal of the hugely successful podcast, asked us to contribute by answering his question: “What’s the single biggest challenge to Project Management today“?

He features responses from people like:

• Mark Langley, CEO of PMI
• Peter Taylor, author of The Lazy Project Manager
• Wayne Turmel, “the Cranky Middle Manager” podcast creator and host
• Elizabeth Harrin, author and creator of “PM4Girls”
• Stacy Goff from the American Society for the Advancement of PM (ASAPM)
• Max Wideman, PM expert
• and other top PM community members

Have a look!

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We’re honored to be in that company!

SILVERADO, CA, November 29, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ — The 200th episode of The Project Management Podcast is released today, celebrating 6 years of bringing project management topics to beginners and experts.

The four-part episode includes interviews with twenty project management experts who all provide their unique opinions about the number-one challenge that project management is facing today.

“Our ‘bicentennial’ podcast both looks back at how far project management has come and reflects on the future,” says Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, President, OSP International LLC and host of The Project Management Podcast. “We are used to working with project management experts on the show, but this is our biggest interview podcast ever. I’m really pleased we have so many great contributions from industry leaders.”

The project management superstars sharing their expertise with listeners include Mark Perry, Peter Taylor, Margaret Meloni, Andy Kaufman, Elizabeth Harrin as well as the presidents of the three leading project management associations: Mark Langley (PMI), Roberto Mori (IPMA) and Stacy Goff (ASAPM). Serial author Max Wideman is also contributing. “Project management as a discipline is interesting because it consists of a number of integrated functional areas,” Wideman says in his podcast segment. “Some of these functions are comparatively well established, whereas other areas are but young neophytes and are not so responsive to the same approach. Project management may be about ‘getting things done’, but it is also about the process or manner of getting things done.”

The show has received nearly 6 million downloads and is available for free through iTunes or The Project Management Podcast website. “Podcasts are convenient, practical and a great way for people to learn new things,” Fichtner says. “Listeners tell me that they get a lot of benefit from the opportunity to hear different, and sometimes challenging, opinions. Even the experts we’ve interviewed for this episode are continually learning.”

OSP International LLC is a project management training company headquartered in Silverado, California, specializing in exceptional products to help candidates prepare for and maintain their PMP credential. OSP International LLC has been reviewed and approved as a provider of project management training by the Project Management Institute (PMI). As a PMI Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.), the company has agreed to abide by PMI established quality assurance criteria.

Today, 28-November, is the kickoff of the Durban (South Africa) UN Climate Change Conference  – COP17.

Does COP17 matter?  Is it relevant?

Not one, but two EarthPM connections to this conference made us curious.

First, we were lucky enough to be the keynote speaker at PMSA’s Good in Green conference there back in late Septenber.  Second, the GreenBiz author of a recent post, Heather King, sat down with us last summer to discuss all sorts of green business issues as they pertain to project management.  Heather posted this article which provides 4 compelling reasons why COP17 does matter.

We’d like to draw our readers’ attention to reason number 4:

4. Business leaders are increasingly involved — across sectors and continents.

Industry leaders are increasingly involved in the COP talks. As clean energy deployments in over 80 countries have skyrocketed, clean energy suppliers and adopters need assurance that governments will support this market.

In addition, COP 17 will work to establish a technology center that will serve as a hub for leveraging and deploying climate monitoring, management and adaptation solutions in different countries. This will require significant collaboration with technology and information industry leaders.

Two significant business events in Durban that are concurrent with COP 17 intend to elevate the voice and influence of industry at the talks:

• The World Climate Summit. This organization will host its second event on December 3 — 4th with leaders from Ernst and Young, PWC, Coca Cola, Phillips.

• Business for the Environment (B4E). B4E is gathering leaders from Tata Steel, Bank of America, HP and others on December 6 to discuss a clean industrial revolution.

So…that’s reason number 4.  If you’re interested in Heather’s other three reasons, click here.  We assert that reason number 4 alone is enough to get the Project Managers of the world interested.  We’re talking about “skyrocketing” clean energy deployments.  Translation: projects.  So at a minimum, become conversant in this practice area, improving your ability to be gainfully employed as a productive project manager!

Working together – saving tomorrow today.  That’s the theme of COP17.  If you want to find out more about the conference, here is the link to COP17.

November 19th, although you probably missed it, was World Toilet Day.

World Toilet Day’s objective is to raise global awareness of the struggle 2.6 billion face every day without access to proper, clean sanitation.WTD also brings to the forefront the health, emotional and psychological consequences the poor endure as a result of inadequate sanitation.

We see it, of course, as YAIOPMAS (Yet Another Intersection Of Project Management And Sustainability).  After all, the need to get 2.6 billion people access to sanitation will certainly yield projects and jobs for project managers, and the effort fits neatly into the “social” and “ecological” sustainability.  Economic, ecological, and social – the three elements of sustainability.

So, if you’ll excuse our toilet-language analogy, we’re really talking about the triple bottom line.

Science Friday, a radio program from the US’ NPR network, recently covered this topic. And when we say ‘covered it’ we don’t mean that they put the seat down.  We mean that they gave it interesting, fact-based, and detailed coverage.  Coverage you’d like no matter who you are.  But if you listen to it as a project manager, you should hear the sound of opportunity.
In fact, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is offering grants in the area of innovation for waste disposal.  We suggest you have a look at this video:

The link to the Science Friday program is HERE.

If you’d like to see some of the project work that has already gone into this, have a look at this short video, showing one of the winners of the Gates grant:

In any case, hopefully this not only increased your awareness of how those many billions of people have issues about where to “go”, but also we’ve increased your awareness that project managers could have an active role in improving the situation.

We focus on projects, project management, the connection between sustainability and project management, projects, and most importantly, YOU – the project manager.

That focus includes ecological but also economic and social continuity and success – in other words, running projects that consider the long term effects of the project’s product on the enterprise financially, for its employees and customers, and for the long-term health of the planet.

We are not tree-huggers, even though the picture on the cover of our award-winning book is of a tree.

But some of our rationale for taking on our work is rooted (pun intended) in caring for our home – Earth.

And we know that there are many of you out there who are justifiably skeptics – even cynics, and deniers, when it comes to climate change.  That’s fine with us.  We are left-brained, engineer/scientist types and we like that type of questioning.  It’s what keeps innovation going.

Still, we think it’s important to keep the project managers out there up-t0-date with news and recent findings with respect to climate change.

The most recent news, unfortunately, isn’t good.  It’s downright scary.

In this article, based on findings from the UN (I can almost hear the groan from some of you, but that’s okay, too), indicates that “heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are building up so high, so fast, that some scientists now think the world can no longer limit global warming to the level world leaders have agreed upon as safe”.

And in this story, World Meteorological Deputy Secretary-General Jeremiah Lengoasa said,  “With this picture in mind, even if emissions were stopped overnight globally, the atmospheric concentrations would continue for decades because of the long lifetime of these greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.”.

Our book has tips on how you can bring these facts to bear on your projects.

No, the sky isn’t falling.  But “the sky” is over, under, around, and inside your project.  So you should know about how it affects your project and its project – and vice-verse.

In this post, we’re going to summarize – and point you to – an excellent resource from an outstanding source of all kinds of excellent resources, called the Network for Business Sustainability.
The resource of the subject line is actually designed for folks who “are asked to lead …company’s sustainability efforts”.

But as project managers, we know a couple of secrets.

Secret 1: Sustainability efforts are often shepherded in via projects, so project managers had better know this stuff, even if they don’t have a formal “Czar of Sustainability” title

Secret 2: Projects are like little “core samples” (sometimes huge) core samples” of the enterprise and thus, each PM really is indeed leading sustainability efforts in a microcosm of the company.

Here, from this outstanding document, is our spin on the 10 things project managers need to know – about sustainability.

1. Do sustainability investments pay back?

Short answer: yes, based on decades of research, the rewards are tangible and show in terms of share price, cost savings, and customer loyalty.  We’d also say from our own research, that another aspect of the pay back is innovation – and thus, MORE PROJECTS!

2. How can we make sustainability part of our project culture?

See the answer from the referenced document for a corporate view, but from a project standpoint, understand how your project fits into the context of the program(s) and portfolio the enterprise has launched, and most importantly, “hitch your wagon” to the the corporation’s public statements on sustainability.  Also – drive home the point that sustainability isn’t limited at all to ecological aspects but runs across economic and social planes as well.

3. How can our supply chain be more competitive and sustainable?

Use this framework from NBS.

4. Will our customers pay for sustainable products or services?

Yes, depending on a whole set of factors, laid out by NBS.  However, you should also be aware that instead of framing the question this way, be prepared for customers who may not be interested in your project’s product if the sustainability efforts of the project or the enterprise are viewed as inadequate.

5.  How can I best engage stakeholders?

As PMs we already know about stakeholder analysis.  Simply add an aspect to your stakeholder register which includes sustainability for each stakeholder.  How do they feel about it, prioritize it?

6. What are the best measurements of my company’s (project’s) environmental impact?

We suggest the LCA as the tool for PMs to use.  See these tools.

7. How can our corporate (project) sustainability practices attract and retain great employees (project team members)?

See the entry for Question 7 on the NBS document.  The principles are the same for employees and project team members – or at least they overlap significantly.

8. How can my company mitigate and adapt to climate change?

Depending on the project, climate change (whatever its source!) may have to be considered as a threat when you are identifying risk.  Even if it’s not climate change itself which presents a threat or opportunity, you need to consider climate change contribution factors also as risk triggers (again, consider both threat and opportunity).

9. What is business sustainability?

We like NBS’ definition of “organizational resilience”.  We also like the way Auden Schendler, of the book  Getting Green Done says it: “it’s about planning to be in business forever”.

10. How can I find resources on other questions or find out about new research or research in progress on other issues?

Go to NBS’ knowledge center.

The irony for this blog post is quite amazing.  Astounding, actually.

I’m writing this blog post from a friend’s house, because a freak snowstorm in the northeastern US caused thousands of trees and major branches to fall on electrical transmission wires (due to excess weight from wet snow).

I had no backup power.  No generator.  No batteries.  No resource leveling.

By candlelight that night, I read a story which was about the “uneven” supply of power from renewable sources, such as wind, tide, and solar.

The article – from the Boston Globe – laments the failure of renewable energy to provide regular, “leveled” amounts of energy.  And yet, as I write this, the following day, it’s intensely sunny out.  Solar power would be very productive and reliable today.  The electricity provided by non-renewable sources, though, is unavailable, eliminated by the effect of  hundreds of downed tree limbs have taken out the “reliable” standard electrical power supply.

There’s a connection to Project Management here, and it’s multi-faceted.

Here are two of those facets: Opportunity, and a connection to Resource Leveling.

1. Opportunity knocks.

The article discusses several very interesting projects and developments around the effort to store energy from uneven sources (tide, solar, wind) so as to provide a steady-state supply.  So there are opportunities galore for project management.

Says the article: “The challenge for people developing renewable power projects is that you get a low price if you can only provide sporadic power,’’ explains Rob Day, an investor at Black Coral Capital in Boston who focuses on the energy industry. “If you can deliver a consistent load of power, you can get perhaps double the price, so developers might be willing to invest in additional equipment.’’

In New Hampshire, a start-up called SustainX is designing and testing compressed air storage systems. Founder Dax Kepshire says the technology could store power from any sort of generating facility. Electricity from the facility powers an electric motor that pulls air into a maze of pipes and compresses it to about 3,000 pounds per square inch. (A typical car tire is inflated to about 30 pounds per square inch.) “When you reverse the process, uncompressing the air drives the same electric motor, which functions as a generator,’’ Kepshire says.  Is there opportunity here?  Well, SustainX has raised $24 million in private financing, along with a $5.4 million grant from the Department of Energy.  That’s going to provide some work for project managers, for sure.

General Compression, a company from Newton, MA, has raised $75 million in funding. The company  plans to use “underground geologic formations’’ to store the compressed air.  They are – one could say – “caving in” to pressure.  Sorry.

Other companies in the Boston area, A123 Systems, Boston-Power, and 24M Technologies – are working on large-scale energy storage systems. “We’re still in the R&D phase,’’ says Throop Wilder, chief executive of Cambridge-based 24M, which received $10 million in venture capital funding last year. Like executives at SustainX, Wilder wonders whether his company will find interested buyers in Asia and Europe before the United States.“Even though the US doesn’t believe in climate change, the rest of the world does,’’ he says.

2. Resource Leveling

When you think of what’s going on here, whether it’s compressed air, batteries, or whatever, it should sound familiar.  Why? What these companies are doing is something with which we project managers are already quite familiar.  It’s resource leveling resource leveling.   What’s resource leveling?   From an IBM source, we have this nice explanation:

 Resource leveling is the project management function of resolving project resource over-allocation. By definition over-allocation means that a resource has been assigned more work than can be accomplished in the available time as dictated by the resource’s calendar definition.

In most scenarios, over-allocations can be remedied manually by extending tasks or moving them to accommodate the resource’s availability.

In other instances, however, schedules can be impacted not only by the resources’ assignments in the current project, but by planned and proposed assignments in other projects as managers compete for the most critical resources in an attempt to align them with the most critical initiatives.

As well, project constraint dates, estimate to complete forecasts that do not align with the constraints and dependencies can all play a role in whether a manager chooses to level or manually adjust the project schedule.

So in PM, we have a need for a resource (power) and not enough power to meet that need – at times – and too much power (for example when it’s very windy) when we don’t need it.
You want more?  More, more more?  We have resources – right on the level.

• You can read more about the energy technologies here.
• And you can read more about Resource Leveling in this nifty article from Penn State University here.

Keep tuned to EarthPM for more stories like this that are right at the intersection of sustainability and project management.

Sustainability and Integrity

A Guest Post From Rick Valerga

I’ve recently seen two definitions of sustainability that I’ve found intriguing:

1. From Wikipedia: The capacity to endure
2. From Auden Schendler (via EarthPM’s blog): Staying in business forever

I wrote in Projectegrity that integrity means never letting your project live a lie. This statement really is one of sustainability. It means that your project will endure, will make it to the finish line, will satisfy your customers, and that it will not kill your organization in the process.

• What if your project plan is predicated on night and weekend work over a long period oftime? Is that sustainable for the team members and their families? How will their level of engagement stay be sustained?

• What if you are committed to seriously unrealistic deadlines? Is that sustainable for your organization? How many shocks can it tolerate?

• What if you proceed despite significant evidence that your product will fall flat in the marketplace? Is that sustainable for your investors? Shouldn’t they be given the opportunity to realign people with critical initiatives?

Now what if you uncover something in your project that will be environmentally unsustainable? Again, the same guidance applies: never let your project live a lie.

First, recognize that there are differing viewpoints on environmental sustainability. For most working professionals, this was not a required course in school. There isn’t a common back

ground that most people agree upon. Be patient–it may be difficult to achieve common understanding among key decision makers.

Second, consider your role in the project and the resources at your disposal. Are you on the purchasing side of the project? If so, what regulations can you consider that will steer the project toward sustainability? Be sure that you can justify them with tangible benefits.
Finally, think of how to frame the problem in business terms. Why install solar paneling on the roof of a new facility? Consider the offsets to purchased energy and the tax advantages. Consult with other stakeholders and seek as many opinions as time permits. Approach this with an open mind and model whether the benefits really do significantly outweigh the costs. The due diligence that you put in up front will help you survive scrutiny down the road–and make it more likely that someone funds the improvement you advocate.

The key with sustainability in projects is to build and execute upon a realistic, responsible, high integrity plan. One that reflects your values, while at the same time supporting the success of your customers, your team, and your sponsor.

Visit Projectegrity for blog posts, resources, and access to Rick Valrega’s highly regarded books, his latest being called – you guessed it – Projectegrity – Using Integrity to Make Your Project Great.

Project Managers: May the Force be with you.

Take a look at this document. (Click here).  Then come back here when you’re done.  We’ll wait…

Dum de dah….dee dee dum…dum…. OH, you’re back.  Good.

Okay, we know that many of you (you know who you are)  have not actually read the document, even though we told you it was short.  So (alas…) we’ll summarize it for you.  The “it” is a fine summary of how Sustainability is tied to innovation, and it’s provided well-respected consulting firm called Deloitte.  Perhaps you’ve heard of them.

“Sustainability helps drive innovation through design constraints – the need or desire to reduce or substitute resources used, such as energy, carbon, water, materials, and waste. This focus on reduction or substitution can create a powerful driver for developing  innovative products and operating models.

Examples of how Sustainability Strategy 2.0 thinking drives innovation include:

• Commodity and raw material availability and use. Can we procure all inputs for our production operations? How are environmental events affecting biological stocks? Is consumption depleting nonrenewable resources?

• Energy consumption and cost. Are significant fluctuations in the price of carbon-based fuels likely to continue? Can we reduce our energy intensity to maintain or increase production but use less energy?

• Emissions and waste. Will legislation cause us to account for the cost of greenhouse gas emission? How would the rollout of packaging or waste disposal taxes affect our business?

• Water availability and quality. Will increasing water scarcity affect our ability to use water in production and manufacturing? Will stricter regulations require us to rethink production?

• Demand for sustainable products. How much do consumers and our extended value chain care about the sustainability attributes of our products? Are they willing to pay more for “greener” offerings?”

The report ends with this – in gigantic font:

Conclusion: A broader view of sustainability leads to value creation.

We like this report.  It echos what a lot of leaders are saying.  We just blogged about Ford’s leadership, and prior to that we have quoted Marvin Odom of Shell, in an excellent report from Sloan MIT, in which the Shell Oil President says that sustainability is a major engine of innovation for his company.

And here’s where the Force comes in.

Think about it.  If you’re in electronics, as a project manager, what did the transistor, the chip, the processor do for your career?  How many tens of thousands of projects were launched only because of those innovations?  If you’re in IT, think about the microprocessor.  Or Agile software development.  You know that these innovations have either launched or facilitated millions of projects.  And on and on, with the laser, new developments in pharmaceuticals, materials… the list is nearly infinite.

So if you buy into the idea that we, as project managers, count on innovation as our lifeblood, you should look forward to new innovations coming from – you guessed it – sustainability thinking in organizations.  We preach that project managers need to pick up this form of thinking for the pure value it brings us as PMs.  But with this post we want you to recognize that it is also a driving force for the very projects that keep us employed in the first place.

Maybe it’s no coincidence that Yoda is green….

Take a look at the image at the top of this posting. Are those ‘flowers’ spinning?

C’mon. Look at them for a while, or glance at them while you read this.

Or, look back and forth for a moment.

Are they moving?

Sure looks that way.

We know that you think they are.
But they are not.  Well, at least we can say with absolute certainty that they  have not been animated in any way with software.  It is indeed a still image. You perceive motion due to the way your brain processes images.  So it’s about perception and reality. And you can see that you’ve had some trouble with this even though you are viewing solid, clear-cut shapes.

So if there’s trouble for the human brain when clear-cut shapes are involved, imagine the trouble we have with the squishy topic of sustainability.

Take this into account along with our most recent posts about translating ideas and strategy into operations – and the role of the project manager as the bridge between strategy and operations.  Combining these two ideas, you can see that it would be important for the project manager to understand the brand identity – the messaging – that their organization is trying to give their customers and stakeholders.  And it also is important for PMs to understand how that message is currently being perceived by those customers and stakeholders – and where gaps exist in that perception.

We’ve located a superb resource in this area.  It’s called the Sustainability Leadership Report, produced by Brandlogic and CRD Analogic.  This report looks at ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) factors amongst 100 prominent brands across a bunch of industries and across the globe.

In their own words, the goals of this study were to:

• Provide new insights on the opportunities and risks global corporations may face in the investment community, among supply chain partners and in the market for talent. These insights are based on:

––The degree of alignment or misalignment of perceived versus actual ESG performance.
––Perceived versus actual ESG performance relative to competitors and exemplars.

• Provide an objective basis for companies to take internal initiatives that address the highlighted opportunities and risks among key constituencies by identifying specific priority areas for potential investment and action.

• Establish a statistically valid approach and benchmark for measuring progress over time on both the actual and perceived dimensions of ESG performance.

To compare perception to reality, the study developed two “scores” or indexes, which they then compared to each other:

• SRS (Sustainability Reality Score): 175 metrics in environmental, social, and governance, (ESG) 5 key performance indicators in ESG, and 1,200 rated corporations
• SPS (Sustainability Perception Score): Over 16,000 company ratings, including 100 prominent global corporations, in 6 major countries (China, Germany, India, Japan, the UK, and the US).

Then, as most good consulting companies (including ours) do, they came up with a powerful 2×2 matrix which looks like this:

Challengers, Leaders, Laggards, and Promoters.  These are the four categories that fall out of the analysis.

Here is a summary of the results – we know it’s probably too small to read – that’s intentional because we want you to see the report in its full context (link below).

Where’s your company in this matrix?

What does it mean for the company?

What does it mean for your company’s customers?  Suppliers?  Contractors?  Partners?

What does it mean for its (your) projects?

What does it mean to YOU?

We’re here to tell you that it means alot.  Knowing your company’s ESG (or Triple Bottom Line, as we like to put it) goals and objectives is a source of power for you as a project manager, and knowing how well those goals and objectives are perceived and real in terms of your project’s customers and stakeholders is critical to you, your projects, and your enterprise.

This report provides you quite a bit of intelligence (read that as power) as a project manager.  Take advantage of this.

Here is a link to the full report. You can thank us later.

“Sustainability Thinking Improves Project Management” – you’d think that would be something we’d say.

And it is.  In fact, it’s the basis of our non-profit startup, the International Society for the Integration of Sustainability in Project Management (or ISIS-PM).

But besides being something we would say, it also is the name of a presentation given at the Queensland Chapter of the Project Management Institute a little less than a year ago.  We just found it today (okay, so we’re a little bit slow), but we’re ironically thrilled in a “great minds think alike” sort of way.

Andrew Wilford, the presenter, is a self-admitted engineer and PM who enjoyed a long career in the aerospace and defense, holding senior positions with Boeing Australia and Air New Zealand. He was also involved with the development of the Complex Project Management competency Standards that have been adopted by the Australian Defence Materiel Organisation. As Clinical Associate Professor of Project Management at Bond University’s Mirvac School of Sustainable Development, Mr Wilford is currently researching project management capability models, leadership systems, complex network-centric operations and the application of sustainability principles in project management.

So we’re glad that he’s covering this topic publicly and well.

PMI’ Queensland chapter has graciously shared the presentation slides here, and you can see a video of the presentation here.

And so, from down under, it’s over and out.