Rethink your Projects

About working in projects in a sustainable way. Daniel Hendling in an interview with Roland Gareis, March 2012

"Roland, in short terms: What are we looking at when we are talking about Sustainability?“
"Even though there are different interpretations of sustainability’ depending on the situation, generally speaking we are looking into three dimensions: An ecological, economical and social. Acting in a sustainable way means to look into the question, which ecological, economical and social consequences are associated to our work. Looking not just into a short-term, but also middle- and long-term future.“

"Often we hear the expression‚ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)’. What exactly does this mean?“ "Larger enterprises – sometimes those which are more publicly present and exposed to observation – more often have ‚CSR measures’ in their portfolio, there are special CSR responsibles or even departments. The term and the idea of Corporate Social Responsibility originate from the idea of Sustainable Development. Here it is all about linking your business to sustainable values. Titled 'Rethink your Business’ you ask yourself, which ecological, economical and social effects result from your business – and you align your way of doing your business accordingly. A consequence of this might be to make your processes more sustainable. To change the way you do your business.“

"So it is not just all about ‚doing good things’?“
"Right. What is not meant are activities that are not related to your core business. If a company is motivating its managers to engage themselves in activities for social good, this is a good thing. But this doesn’t have anything to do with the way how the company is doing business. That’s exactly where the controversy starts: Doing things which are ‘just good’, which have a positive PR effect, but do not touch your own business – they don’t have anything to do with the idea of Sustainable Development.“

“How ‘sustainably’ are companies already doing their business?”
“In some areas the topics ‘health, safety, environmental and quality’ (HSEQ) are already pretty much in focus. There are people being specifically responsible for these topics, also working in project teams. Focusing on these topics is not a consequence of Sustainable Development, but just of operational health and risk management. In addition there are sometimes simple legal reasons forcing you to plan and work in a sustainable way.”

“What does it mean, to ‘Rethink your Project Management’ in a sustainable way?”
“One aspect are the three dimensions of Sustainability: Ecological, economical, social. Those three dimensions are specifically being looked at, and integrated. As an example when it comes to setting your targets, you also ask yourself which ecological, economical and social effects you are striving for. In risk management you look into additional risks lying in those areas. The second dimension is time: Next to a short-term view you also look into a middle- and long-term future. Next to an increased complexity, which you have to face when designing your projects in a more sustainable way, and – depending on the horizon of time you are looking at – higher costs at the beginning, there is another thing which happens: Conflicts are starting to be more likely to happen.”

“The idea of ‘Sustainability’ has not been just invented yesterday. Why do still many business say ‘no’ when being asked whether they are looking into that topic?”
“One fundamental aspect here is the fact that 'Sustainable Development’ is strongly based on core values, including values such as transparency, fairness, justice, tolerance. If you think mainly or only in money – see ‘Shareholder Value’ – you rather give it a ‘no’. Being able to trust in a positive economical effect in the long-run when acting socially and ecologically considerate requires a certain degree of maturity of the company, a mature system of values.”

“Means?”
“In how far does the company have a sustainable target setting? How much do you ask yourself in which way this might add complexity and effort? Does it bring frustration – that’s more than likely – and how will I deal with that? How many glasses of how many stakeholders am I willing to wear in order to understand the situation and consequences of my work more holistically, and discover additional correlations? There is evidence that sustainable investments pay off in the long run, as opposed to short-term investments. But it is still a matter of maturity of the company’s management. If the company has a mature system of core values, you will likely see components of the concept of Sustainability integrated. Unfortunately there are still only a few companies where this is really the case.”

“Shouldn’t a project ‘anyways’ be managed taking sustainable aspects into consideration?”
“Yes. Some principles, such as risk orientation, are already part of your project management, as well as managing stakeholders and environmental analysis. In a certain way a project being managed typically might make it already a little bit easier to integrate aspects of Sustainability – simply because some of its components are already included. It’s about the ‘doing more than before’: The more resources you invest in these areas, the more you raise your eyes, the more sustainable is the way how you do your work. Wearing the glasses of Sustainability managing your stakeholders you would be able to see additional people, which might be affected by the results of your project in the long-term. Similar when it comes to the environment: If you look further, you might discover aspects which are crucial – and which you maybe wouldn’t have discovered looking just in the short-term future. Applying additional creativity and imagination doing your risk management you might discover – and anticipate – risks, which you wouldn’t have thought of before. Looking into the future beyond five years from now: How will the situation be then?”

“When people are talking about ‘Sustainability’, do they mean the same everywhere?”
“Of course there are differences between nations and industries: Values which affect your project work are different for each country and areas of business. One should not expect people to mean the same when it comes to ‘Sustainable Thinking’. It does also make a difference whether a project is sponsored by the public or a govern-mental organisation, or privately. Projects which are more likely to be influenced by the public, which are more of a public interest, are more likely to be having a focus considering sustainable values.”

“How much value can a single project manager add?”
“A project which is being managed taking sustainable principles into consideration needs the appropriate set of values in the company. It is a good thing when a project manager thinks and acts sustainably. But at the end of the day it would be too much to ask from an individual to incorporate a sustainable way of thinking into the company as a whole. His possibilities doing that are simply limited. Well, you may act in an ecologically sustainable way by reducing your amount of travel and looking into collaboration in virtual teams. Especially as a service provider your possibilities of ecological measures are limited. This is different when it comes to economical measures: By planning more in the long term. Most opportunities you will find in the social dimension: The known and especially the not-yet-seen stakeholders. And also here it is important to look into the individual values of each person, and to ask yourself: What are the values guiding your own way of working? How far do they fit together with the company’s values? In how far do they support a sustainable way of planning and working?”

“…if one happens to start thinking about such questions at all.”
“A prerequisite for changing the way you are dealing with things depending on your personal values is knowing enough about Sustainability as such. It all starts with in-forming yourself and your surrounding about what that is, which you’re suddenly starting to look at. Yet only a few people understand the dimensions and principles of Sustainability. Terms such as ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ and other, sometimes politically charged, expressions, contribute to having a blurry or simply wrong picture of the topic.”

“Don’t you often just mean ‘Recycle your paper’ when it comes to Sustainability?”
“Yes, you’re often ending up with the cliché of ecology. One reason why ecology is often highlighted might be that in the past people often thought they’d ‘anyways’ be acting economically and socially. In addition the topic of ‘ecology’ has been politically charged more than economical or social behaviour. Yet especially in service providing companies the economic and social lever is stronger than the ecologic. The broader your view on managing stakeholders the more socially sustainable is your project work. This starts with your own project organisation: Who are you involving into the project team and which aspects should be covered by this person? Creating your business case or cost-benefit-analysis looking into a timespan of ten, fifteen years –see ‘Lifecycle Costs’– is more sustainable than just looking until the end of the project or into the near future. How much does it pay adding complexity at the beginning of the project while saving corrective changes and double-work in the long-run?”

“Which are the prerequisites in order to work in your projects in a sustainable way?”
“Given the fact that an appropriate set and level of values within the company exists this is of course a question of the personal qualification of the project manager. In how far does the company look for such qualification when recruiting or developing project managers? Not to forget all the other roles in a project. Which aspects of Sustain-ability should the project sponsor consider in his role, which should the team members? In how far are those aspects reflected in everyone’s role description? How does the company-wide or project-internal Code of Ethics / Conduct look like and how do you make sure everyone knows it and works according to it? How are economical, ecological and social targets defined in your project charter? In which way does your business case touch these areas?”

“What are the benefits of sustainable project management and how do you measure them?”
“An assumption when it comes to managing your projects in a sustainable way might be that as a consequence of a more intense stakeholder management and by taking additional environmental factors into consideration there are less change requests and project aborts. Any increased effort at the beginning of the project is compensated by those benefits in the long term. That’s the theory.”

“But how do you measure the positive effect? And when?”
“The amount and extent of changes within a sustainably managed project as opposed to a ‘normal’ one may be measured easily, as well as the occurrence of project aborts. The middle- to long-term consequences are maybe to be seen by simply looking whether they occurred or not. But honestly these are hard to measure. How can you be sure that a certain measure lead to a certain effect 20 years later – and that this wouldn’t have happened anyways? The answer is not easy to find, as there are also ‘soft’ aspects concerning Sustainability, which are hard to be measured using hard figures, and definitely not to be measured purely within the context of project manage-ment. But for sure there will be new experiences made and findings in the future.”

“Having established a value based, sustainable project management culture: How do you ensure that it lasts?”
“This is possible by performing audits and reviews. If there are already review and audit processes in place in the company those new aspects just need to be added. If there are not yet any of such processes established, now would be a good point in time to do so. Auditing and reviewing your projects is already a measure of Sustainability by itself. By adding questions of economical, ecological and social components and consequences you create a good basis to ensure the project’s success in the long term.”

“So you should ‘integrate’ a sustainable way of thinking?”
“It is important not to see the topic of Sustainability as an add-on to existing processes. Doing that – defining a distinct term such as ‘CSR’ – leads to the risk that this component, perceived as an addition, might be left apart once in a while. May it be because of budget or resource constraints, or just because the project manager is not capable looking into that area properly. Sustainable project management should be an integrated component of everyone’s project work. Not something separate. Better than establishing a “Sustainability Manager” is to establish this new way of thinking within the minds of all the people and within your company’s processes.”

“What’s the line management’s view on sustainable project management?”
“Especially line managers sometimes don’t immediately see the benefit in the value based aspects of sustainable project management – as opposed to other aspects which develop by themselves. If the project itself develops subject matter experts in a certain area or leads to an increased loyalty towards the company, this directly benefits the line organisation as well.”

“What does sustainable project management mean for the Bigger Whole?”
“Establishing a sustainable way of thinking and working simply out of your projects is of course just a part of the Whole. Later when it comes to your portfolio management, which is directly linked to your company’s strategy and by that, your company’s values, you have to ask yourself the question, how’s the situation in those two areas. If you are working in your projects according to sustainable values different from the company’s this won’t work out in the middle or long-term. Sustainable thinking and acting should be part of your company’s culture, strategy and processes. Looking into the values of bigger corporations you often find them to be blurry – not just to say interchangeable. Within companies managed by their owners you may find the company’s values often being stronger established and lived upon more explicitly.”

“What does this mean for each of us?”
“You should not just wait for your company’s management to initiate a process towards sustainable values. It’s up to all of us. And a project manager is, simply because of the way he is working in projects, a certain degree of ‘ex-clusivity’ within the company – to a certain extent ‘exposed’ from the typical line organisation – and his high degree of networking with different areas of the company, a perfect candidate to trigger, assist and guide processes of thinking in order to establish value based, sustainable processes within the company.”

Univ. Prof. Dkfm. Dr. Roland Gareis is managing the PROJECT MANAGEMENT GROUP department and the Professional MBA “Project & Process Management” at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. He has developed the management method “Management by Projects” and is author of different publications, such as the books “Happy Projects!” and “Processes & Projects”. Roland
Gareis is managing director of the ROLAND GAREIS
CONSULTING GmbH.

Daniel Hendling, PMP, works as Deputy President and Board Member of PMI’s Austria Chapter being responsible for Volunteers and Membership. He supports the PMI Educational Foundation, PMI’s social arm, developing educational programs for young people in project management.