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The center span is gone.  Driving north on Route 1 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire got a little more exciting.  You can’t do it!  As part of the demolition of the Memorial Bridge over the Piscataqua River in Portsmouth, the 2-million pound center span was lowered onto a barge and is destined for Boston Harbor where it will be dismantled and assembled.  The next, and fascinating part for me will be the removal of the massive concrete weights that can be seen high up in the bridge structure.  I haven’t seen any discussions on the plans for those weights, but I am keeping my eye out.

London Bridge at Lake Havasu

The decision to recycle the bridge components comes after a search for someone to reuse the structure.  Perhaps someone would choose to buy the bridge, for a nominal fee, and then rebuild it over some big western reservoir.  Unfortuately, our Memorial Bridge, while beautiful and historic to us, did not provoke the same feelings in others, at least not enough to “have bridge will travel.”   It did not have the same allure as say the London Bridge. In Lake Havasau, Arizona, there is an entire resort village built around London Bridge.  Now that’s reuse.   I have a great photo of Memorial Bridge taken on a foggy day.  I know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  I guess I will have to be content with knowing that the bridge, while a classic to me, will live on in whatever project receives its material .

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This particular post is not particularly about project management – it’s just an interesting observation that we think you could at least attach to the concept of Cradle to Cradle.

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts – Radiolab, by WNYC.  Check it out, it’s amazingly smart radio.

One of the podcasts was called “Loops” and it was about things that repeat.

One of the podcasts was called “Loops” and it was about things that repeat.

One of the podcasts was called “Loops” and it was about things that repeat.

Okay, you get the idea…

In one segment of the show they discussed “whalefall”, something with which I was not familiar but which fascinated me.  Whalefall is the description of the fate of a whale carcass once it lands on the ocean floor.  It has a certain symmetry, in that whales live about 70 years and the ecosystem their body supports can live another 70 years (maybe even 100).

Have a look at the video below.  It’s obviously a little morbid because it’s about the death of a whale.  But it’s a bit invigorating because it speaks to the way nature excels at reuse.

So perhaps there is a lesson for us project managers after all.

 

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We’re very pleased with the way in which African organizations have accepted the ideas of Sustainability and Project Management.  Very pleased.

We wonder why Africa “gets it” so well and the other continents lag so much further behind.  Any ideas or thoughts?

We’ve been invited to, and accepted, the opportunity to address the Project Management South Africa “Good in Green” conference as well as their National Conference in Johannesburg.  We’ve been featured in several issues of the very classy magazine PM Foresight, endorsed by PMI Lagos, Nigeria and produced for all of Africa by visionary publisher Lambert Ofoegbu.

Sites like AllAfrica-Environment show how many projects are already launched and about to be launched which focus on sustainability.  But what impresses us most is that for some reason, African enterprises have done a better job of listening to our message and have better understood the connection between PM and sustainability.

Europe, Asia, North America, South America…where are you?

 

 

 

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In 1979, a paper was published by A. Chapanis, asking the question Quo Vadis, Ergonomia?  (Latin for “Where are you going, Ergonomics?).  It was considered a landmark paper.

Chapanis was trying to challenge his colleagues in ergonomics (the study of human-machine interface and ‘ease of work) to think hard about what their discipline did and didn’t entail and how they could improve the lot not only for people in the field but for all of its stakeholders.

So – what the HECK does any of this have to do with Projects, Programs, Project Managers, or Program Managers?

Alot.

A whole bunch.

Much.

Tons.

You see, today, PMI posted on Facebook the following announcement:

 

“Get ready…beginning 6 February 2012, you will have the opportunity to participate in the update of two key PMI Standards. Visit the Exposure Draft page in the Standards section of PMI in February to view and comment on The Standard for Program Standard—Third Edition and A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)—Fifth Edition.”

 

 THIS IS A CHANCE TO HELP TELL PMI ABOUT THE DIRECTION OF OUR DISCIPLINE.

 

Let’s take advantage of it.

Here is a link to the standards exposure page:

http://www.pmi.org/PMBOK-Guide-and-Standards/Standards-Exposure-Drafts.aspx

Mark your calendar now – for February 6.  Mark it to remind yourself to begin the review of the documents.  Of course, we’d encourage you to review them to assure that the documents take into account the long-term, sustainable view of project management we’ve been discussing with you ad nauseum (keeping the Latin theme here) since we started with a couple of hundred hits per month on this site (we’re now averaging 40-50 thousand).

They didn’t specify when the exposure period ends.  That’s why it’s critical that you initiate a Start-Start dependency with February 6 and review/comment as soon as they’re available for exposure draft.

 

 

Thanks for your attention.

 

 

 

 

 

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This is a brief, but (we think) interesting post.

It’s about air.  Not just any air, the air in China.

Now I’ve been to China, visiting Hong Kong and Beijing in 1999.  It was a great trip, but I noted even back then, that Beijing had a brownish tinge to it.  A haze of smog was ever-present in the city.  And that was then.  The growth in vehicle and power use since then has been immense.

So, it can only be worse now – and it was bad then, I can tell you from experience.

So where is the irony?  Well, as you know, China’s economy has grown and they’re becoming a leader in alternative energy manufacturing.  And, China has recognized the problem of air pollution, setting aggressive goals for renewable energy sources.

In this story from yesterday’s Boston Globe, learn about A123 and AMSC, and how their alternative energy projects born in the Boston area, but deployed in China, are challenging US companies to take advantage of this craving for clean air.

 

 

 

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