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Perspectives · Perspectives

Lessons from Harvard 1: Organizational Dynamics Set the Stage for Change

Peter Milsom March 7, 2021
This is the first of four posts based on my experience at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health's Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership program that I took in November 2017, led by Dr. Leith Sharp, integrated with some of our GPM Global content where appropriate. The intent of these posts is to show some interesting research and recommendations by Harvard around sustainability leadership that will be useful for sustainable projects. The intent of the program is to educate leaders to "learn powerful new strategies for enacting high-impact sustainability leadership that positions sustainability as a driver of organizational engagement, authenticity, agility, innovation, and change-capability." I strongly recommend others to consider this excellent program. It is a complementary offering to GPM's sustainable project management training and practices. This post deals with understanding the organizational ecosystems and the impacts of change on people and cultures. This is a common topic, but I liked the perspectives presented. The second post provides background on how to identify two organizational "operating systems" that do not traditionally work well together. The third post provides background on the strategy and research on new idea life cycles and the resulting model to analyze these project initiatives. The final post will deal with the strategy, tools and techniques of how to empower the two "operating systems" identified in the second post to successfully implement important organizational change and deliver the expected project outcomes and benefits. The program provided invaluable lessons, tools and techniques including an exceptional model for dealing with the different political landscapes and "operating systems" within organizations and providing strategies for how to use this insight to better implement change. Particularly multi-stakeholder and transformational change.  

Recognition

This post's graphics and content were adapted from the Harvard University Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership November 2017 program presentations by Dr. Leith Sharp.  

Context

Many are recognizing that business as usual is often more complicated than just doing the same predictable routine processes every day. In reality everyone is very, very busy and change is falling on the shoulders of the few: With the challenges that business as usual is dealing with, new objectives and changes are being thrown into the mix. However, if we add on to that the demands for change that are being demanded by governments, investors, consumers and societies in general...
"The essential demand placed upon humankind by myriad global environmental, social and economic imperatives is the demand to change almost everything we do, quickly, stably and constantly. This epic amount of stable change can only be achieved by the ongoing application, scaling and adaptation of enormous numbers of new ideas. Ideas of all scales, ideas that involve all disciplines, ideas that emerge within and across all types of organizations" (Sharp, N.D.).
One of the many challenges is that we have inherited an organizational change model that was designed for a different era. The 21st century demands continuous innovation and change, not just continuous improvement. This graphic shows time on the horizontal access and rate of change on the vertical.   To help set the stage, the following is a humorous, but honestly realistic, interpretation of change agents / cultures within many organizations: Often those that caused the last set of modifications in the area being changed are the most dead set against any upheaval.  

Conditions

So those that are involved in change initiatives must understand that the organization and its people and "tribes" already have a history, cultures, multiple often conflicting priorities and they must reduce risk and build capital and trust across the organizational ecosystem (and sometimes beyond)...  

Importance of Mitigating Social Risk

The following quote from Dr. Leith Sharp further reinforces the need for risk mitigation, and highlights the need to deal with the social challenges (Sharp, 2017-5, licensed for sharing and adapting under Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0):

The most important work the change agent does is remove risk and uncertainty in order to unleash the latent capacity of others to make change happen.

It seems evident that the most common type of risk/uncertainty preventing engagement are social in nature.

 

Our Non-conscious and Socially Focused Behaviour

Though we would like to think otherwise, most of our behavior is driven by learned and hard-wired non-conscious forces, and a significantly smaller amount by our actual conscious behaviour (Bargh & Chartrand, 1999). This follows Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow" observations around "System 1 Thinking " that is fast, instinctive and emotional, and "System 2 Thinking" that is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The following quotes come from David Rock's article “Managing with the Brain in Mind,” and I recommend it as a great read.   Based on these references, it is an interesting perspective that not only is most of our behavior non-conscious, but the following indicates that we are first and foremost wired to be a social species focused more on thinking about other people. Indeed, the ability to intentionally address the social brain in the service of optimal performance will be a distinguishing leadership capability in the years ahead.  

Developing Trust and Group Intelligence

Leadership must develop the building blocks of trust within the organization, to allow consistent experiences that are psychologically safe and that nurture social/relationship health. As David Rock identified, “the brain experiences the workplace first and foremost as a social system.” Therefore, there are particular qualities that we should focus on to enable employees and executives alike to minimize the threat response and enable the reward response. Though the research has demonstrated this, for the most part we intuitively understand that this makes sense. We also understand what further research has shown that working against our social "algorithm" stifles our human creativity (Rock, 2009):

“... people who feel betrayed or unrecognized at work — for example, when they are reprimanded, given an assignment that seems unworthy, or told to take a pay cut —

experience it as a neural impulse, as powerful and painful as a blow to the head.”

  We need to work on developing these types of environments where psychological safety is high as is motivation and accountability. Organizational managers and leaders, indeed the organization's culture, needs to understand that psychological safety is key for the organization to survive and thrive. Exposure to surrounding peer behaviors is the largest single factor in driving idea flow. For group intelligence, the pattern of interaction is more important that all other factors taken together – individual intelligence, personality & skill (Pentland, 2015). The desire to change is thought to be largely motivated by the intrinsic desire to communicate with and have the acceptance of others. Feldman states that “The facilitating effect of social interaction has been confirmed by recent research on moral judgment and conservation” (Feldman, 1994). This indicates that group intelligence may indeed be an under-tapped resource
"When it comes to intelligence, the whole can indeed be greater than the sum of its parts. A new study co-authored by MIT researchers documents the existence of collective intelligence among groups of people who cooperate well, showing that such intelligence extends beyond the cognitive abilities of the groups’ individual members..." (Dizikes, 2010). "They discovered that groups featuring the right kind of internal dynamics perform well on a wide range of assignments, a finding with potential applications for businesses & other organizations.” (Dizikes, 2010).
Three key factors that enhance group intelligence:
  1. Groups whose members had higher levels of "social sensitivity" (ability to perceive emotions)
  2. Groups where one person dominated were less collectively intelligent than in groups where the conversational turns were more evenly distributed”
  3. Teams containing more women demonstrated greater greater collective intelligence.
  The following highlights important considerations around the social risks and how they are experienced or interpreted semi-consciously. We have to be aware of these perceptions and drivers. As quoted by Dr. Sharp,

Often, social risks and uncertainties are experienced semi-consciously or unconsciously.

They are often connected to old stories and involve feelings and even physical sensations (Sharp, 2017-5, licensed for sharing and adapting under Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0).

As quoted by Dr. Sharp,

The process of resolving social risk must typically be experiential.

That is, the change agent must support people to experience their way into new ways of thinking/feeling, rather than hoping that they will think their way into new ways of acting (Sharp, 2017-5, licensed for sharing and adapting under Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0.

  One of the many advantages we have though, is that we have many purpose driven leaders as our organizations and change agents have gained mastery in leading from the middle. However, they are largely unconsciously competent. These perspectives, particularly around understanding, working with and experiencing the organizational biases and risks will become more important in later blog posts.  

Conclusion

The next blog post will provide some more research from Harvard around organizational "operating systems" and the need to get them to work. The next post will deal with the questions:
  • Who in the zoo affects the successful implementation of new ideas?
  • How can we work with these groups and individuals to mitigate the risk and establish the social trust to obtain the authority and buy-in to design and deliver the change?
 

References

Anderson, Marc. (2009). The role of group personality composition in the emergence of task and relationship conflict within groups. Journal of Management & Organization. 15. 82-96. 10.5172/jmo.837.15.1.82. Retrieved on September 1, 2017 at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269638378_The_role_of_group_personality_composition_in_the_emergence_of_task_and_relationship_conflict_within_groups Bargh, J. A., & Chartrand, T. L. (1999). The unbearable automaticity of being. American Psychologist, 54(7), 462-479. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.54.7.462 & https://acmelab.yale.edu/sites/default/files/1999_the_unbearable_automaticity_of_being.pdf Buchanan, D., & Badham, R. (1999). Politics and Organizational Change: The Lived Experience. Human Relations, 52(5), 609–629. http://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016930112943. Retrieved on September 1, 2017 at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/001872679905200503 Dizikes, Peter. “Putting Heads Together - New Study: Groups Demonstrate Distinctive ‘Collective Intelligence’ When Facing Difficult Tasks.” MIT News, 1 Oct. 2010, news.mit.edu/2010/collective-intel-1001. Eisenhardt, K. M., Kahwajy, J. L., & Bourgeois, L. J. (1997). How Management Teams Can Have a Good Fight How Management Teams Can Have a Good Fight. Harvard Business Review, 75, 77–86. Retrieved on September 1, 2017 at https://hbr.org/1997/07/how-management-teams-can-have-a-good-fight Feldman, David Henry. Beyond Universals in Cognitive Development. Ablex, 1994. Haidt, Jonathan and Iyer, Ravi. (2016). "How to Get Beyond Our Tribal Politics." The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved on September 1, 2017 at https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-get-beyond-our-tribal-politics-1478271810 Haidt, Jonathan. (2013). The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Retrieved on September 1, 2017 at https://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Mind-Divided-Politics-Religion/dp/0307455777 Hibbing, John R.; Smith, Kevin B.; Alford, John R.. (2013). Predisposed: Liberals, Conservatives, and the Biology of Political Differences. Taylor and Francis. Retrieved on September 1, 2017 at https://www.amazon.com/Predisposed-Liberals-Conservatives-Political-Differences/dp/0415535875 Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015. Kim, W. C. and Mauborgne, R. (2003). Fair Process: Managing in the Knowledge Economy. Harvard Business Review, 81(1). Retrieved on September 1, 2017 at https://hbr.org/2003/01/fair-process-managing-in-the-knowledge-economy Lencioni, Patrick M.. (2006). Silos, Politics and Turf Wars: A Leadership Fable About Destroying the Barriers That Turn Colleagues Into Competitors (J-B Lencioni Series). Wiley. Retrieved on September 1, 2017 at https://www.amazon.com/Silos-Politics-Turf-Wars-Competitors/dp/0787976385 Martin, N. A. (2012). Project Politics: A Systematic Approach to Managing Complex Relationships. Ashgate Publishing Limited. Retrieved on September 1, 2017 at https://www.amazon.ca/Project-Politics-Systematic-Approach-Relationships-ebook/dp/B0091QC2G4 McCalman, J., Paton, R., & Siebert, S. (2016). Organizational Politics and Change. In Change Management: A guide to effective implementation (pp. 256–281). Los Angeles: SAGE. Retrieved on September 1, 2017 at https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/change-management/book241248 Pentland, Alex. Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread - the Lessons from a New Science. Scribe Publications, 2015. Pinto, Jeffrey K.. (1996). "Power & Politics in Project Management." Project Management Institute. ISBN-13: 978-1-880410-43-1. Retrieved on September 1, 2017 at http://my.safaribooksonline.com/1880410435 Rock, David. “Managing with the Brain in Mind.” Strategy Business, 27 Aug. 2009, www.strategy-business.com/article/09306?gko=9efb2. Sharp, Leith. (N.D.). “Idea Flow Mapping.” Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership, eesl.sph.harvard.edu/idea-flow-mapping. Sharp, Leith & Hsueh, Joe. (2017-1). "Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership 2017 Program - Module 1: The Secret Life of Ideas." Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health - Department of Environmental Health Sharp, Leith. (2017-2). "Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership 2017 Program - Module 2: Idea Flow." Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health - Department of Environmental Health Sharp, Leith. (2017-3). "Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership 2017 Program - Module 3: From Friction to Flow." Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health - Department of Environmental Health Sharp, Leith. (2017-4). "Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership 2017 Program - Module 4: Ideas and Context." Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health - Department of Environmental Health Sharp, Leith. (2017-5). "Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership 2017 Program - Module 5: Working With Our Social Algorithm to Unless Flow." Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health - Department of Environmental Health Tjosvold, D. (2008), The conflict-positive organization: it depends upon us. J. Organiz. Behav., 29: 19–28. doi:10.1002/job.473. Retrieved on September 1, 2017 at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/job.473/abstract

Perspectives · Leadership

We Need to Raise Capable Leaders; Yesterday.

Dr. Joel Carboni February 8, 2021

We in the Project profession must rethink what leadership means.

The textbook dictionary definition of “leader” is a person or thing that leads or a guiding or directing head, as of an army, movement, or political group. "Directing hand" is close but doesn’t quite exemplify what we need in order to raise capable successors.  We need mentors. There is a wealth of wisdom that over the next 10-20 years will be lost unless we focus on raising capable people and in order to do so, we have to focus on a true mentorship model. Why? We work in a world where people age 60 and over will soon outnumber children aged five and under. Demographers predict that in countries that are ageing well, more than half the children born today will live to 100 – and some researchers believe that the first person who will live to the age of 150 has already been born. Wow! Therein lies both the challenge and the opportunity.  We must imbue tomorrow’s leaders with the wisdom of this generation and in order to do so, we must eliminate what causes leadership failure. Mark Moses a CEO Coach at CEO Coaching International listed seven problems with leaders today.
  1. Failure to Communicate —Effective communication is so hard because it takes commitment. You have to make effective communication a priority and that takes discipline, consistency, clarity of message, and a willingness to keep at it day after day.
  2. Lack of Accountability — Not enough people Build the systems they need to support accountability and get distracted until they are a part of your operations.
  3. Fear of Firing — Self Explanatory... Essentially constantly looking over one’s shoulder.
  4. Lack of Alignment — make sure that when the decision is made, your team is behind it and they move forward in unity to make it happen
  5. Lack of Clear Vision — Real leaders create a compelling vision for the future that ignites a fire under their team and keeps them working hard and doing the right thing even when nobody’s looking.
  6. Poor Execution — First, they don’t follow their own plan with discipline. Second, they fail to keep score on what matters. Third, they don’t have the right people in the right jobs to make it happen.
  7. A Company Culture by Default — Did you create your culture by design or did it just happen by default? When you consciously think about and design your culture to foster your desired behavior, your culture becomes a competitive advantage that attracts top talent and drives massive results.

What can we do?

We must become better mentors and focus on servant leadership.  In Buddhism, there is a concept called shitei funi  (師弟不二) This is the relationship between the mentor and the disciple (mentee).  Also called the oneness of mentor and disciple.  In this mentor-mentee relationship the functions of the mentor and mentee may vary, they share the same goals and ultimately the same responsibility. I want to outline the relationship and how it is relevant to the style of servant leadership that is needed today.   Phase 1 At the beginning of the relationship, the goal is the focus and both the mentor and mentee are focused on it. In project management, think of the PM as the mentor and a team member or Junior PM as the mentee.  Initially, in the relationship, the mentor does slightly more heavy lifting than the mentee. Phase 2 As the relationship progresses, the mentee’s role is set slightly at the forefront while the mentor has assumed more of a supporting role.  The mentee seeks out support and receives feedback from the mentor.  Notice though that both the mentor and mentee are both focuses on the same objective however the mentor has an added responsibility of sharing the wisdom of their experience. Phase 3 As the diagram shows, the mentor has completely fallen back to a supporting role and has entrusted the mentee to lead.  The mentor is still accountable for the realization of the goal and through their leadership, has supported the development of the mentee to the extent that they are more capable than the mentor.

Why there is no time to waste

Today, with a population of 1.2 billion young people between the ages of 15 and 24 (the largest differential in recorded history) the potential for powerful, youth-driven change is unlimited; but only if we arm them with the knowledge and wisdom of previous generations.  The goal isn’t to create carbon copies of ourselves, but to give them what they need to innovate and lead us into the future. All too often, rather than being seen as essential partners in innovation and solutions, young people are too often viewed as a problem to be solved. Depictions of young people as reckless, or self-obsessed – adding a negative connotation with millennials for example is dangerous and does a great disservice to the vast majority of young people who are hardworking, solution-oriented, and community-minded. Even when not viewed as problematic, young people are sometimes regarded—even in the development space—as passive beneficiaries. This is why we need bold young leaders. The voices of the next generation, your voices, need to be included in important decisions that directly impact your future. What’s more, we need to arm you with the knowledge from our generation as a foundation and provide you the tools you need to do important work, because there is important work to do.  Project work accounts for more than 30% of global GDP which is roughly 24 trillion us dollars.  As a profession, we have the power to create positive change and as Uncle Ben in Spiderman says “with great power, comes great responsibility”. If you are a senior in the profession, we need your leadership to support the next generation, as they will have monumental problems to solve and we must do our part. For more on servant leadership, check out our online self guided workshop and rate your abilities!
Leadership Mentee Mentor Project Management Servant Leadership

Perspectives · Perspectives

Putting 2020 in the Rearview Mirror

Dr. Joel Carboni December 8, 2020
When COVID-19 decided to lay claims to 2020, every organization on the planet was impacted. As we search for the light at the end of the tunnel (and hope it is not an oncoming train), we are all faced with the question, "what now?"  I am sure many of us during this pandemic have felt like Ving Rhames playing Marcellus Wallace in Pulp Fiction when his character was asked by Butch (Bruce Wallace) "Are you ok?" The entire clip is on YouTube if you haven't seen it. Butch Coolidge: Are you okay? Marsellus Wallace: Nah, man. I'm pretty f* ckin' far from okay  Marsellus Wallace: Nah, man. I'm pretty f* ckin' far from okay Source: rottentomatoes.com  "Ok or not," we have no choice but to move forward, and while a lot of us are wondering "what now?" we have an excellent opportunity to rethink and reshape how we do what we do.   The pandemic has created a new landscape, forcing businesses to reassess and establish long-overdue change; according to EY and Accenture, it is estimated that over 70% of executives plan to completely rethink their business approach to become more resilient.  There has been a lot of cross-pollination with the use of sustainability and resilience. Some frame them as one and the same, others lay claim to sustainability being a sub-set of resilience, and others claim vice versa.  I am going to go out on a limb and say that it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because we are not focusing on the right area. As long as someone's resilience comes at someone else's expense or at the expense of society and the environment, what is the point? We need to rethink our priorities because what we have experienced in recent months that when there is no toilet paper on the shelf, we are all forced to realize just how vulnerable we are to a system in decline.

Do I have the answer? No. Do I have a recommendation to take the first step in the right direction? Possibly.  

I had the opportunity to attend the UN Global Compact Leaders' Summit this summer (virtually), and COVID dominated most of the sessions in the form of a "Post-COVID world." There is no "post." This is part of us now. We have forever changed. In order to take the next best step, we need to assess where we want to go. We can't try to go back to business as usual because it doesn't' exist anymore.   Moving forward, we have to learn to run (not walk) and chew gum at the same time. We need young people to lead and support them if we are going to be able to regenerate ecosystems while innovating for future challenges. To start, we need to enact a worldwide ban on the words "that is how we have always done things." This is why we need youth .  The resilience, innovation, and empathy that springs forth from the world's youth are as incredibly inspiring as it is innovative. This is what is critically needed in a post-pandemic world that still has an enormous number of challenges coming.  Unfortunately, rather than being seen as key partners in innovation and solutions, young people are too often viewed as a problem that needs to be solved. Often, young people as reckless or self-obsessed – adding a negative connotation with millennials, for example, is dangerous and does a great disservice to the vast majority of young people who are hardworking, solution-oriented, and community-minded. Even when not being referred to as problematic, young people are sometimes regarded—even in the development space—as passive beneficiaries. The voices of youth need to be included in important decisions that directly impact their future.

Move Forward!

Now the COVID-19 crisis has challenged us to adapt and made painfully visible where we fall short as humanity. It has also reaffirmed the importance of the work change agents like all of you do, whether it be in the public and private sector or civil society.  Globally, with a population of 1.2 billion young people between the ages of 15 and 24 (the largest youth population in human history), the potential for powerful, youth-driven change is unlimited. We are all living in a world that is more connected than at any other time in history. As we have learned through this pandemic, how quickly a crisis in one country can spread across the planet. That fact made painfully clear that in times of a worldwide health and economic crisis, is why global development led by innovative young people is critical.

Perspectives · Perspectives

COVID-19 Sustainable Lessons 07: Dealing with Cobb's Paradox

Peter Milsom April 13, 2020

“We know why projects fail; we know how to prevent their failure—so why do they still fail?”

Martin Cobb, Treasury Board Secretariat 1995

Cobb's Paradox and the Solution

This paradox has been frequently raised again and again in the project management community over the years. A generally accepted solution to it though seems particularly appropriate to remember in the international communities response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The simple and intuitively obvious response to this paradox is:

"The medicine was too painful for the patient."

  The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) outlined the following interpretation to this response (Archer & Manicom, page 12, 2007):
Our view is that the medicine prescribed by those who understand the problem has generally been rejected by the patient as being too strong. To succeed, we will need:
    • mechanisms to ensure that only achievable projects are undertaken with practical approaches that are likely to be workable;
    • environments that are supportive of projects and make success likely; and,
    • involvement of only qualified people in executive oversight, leadership and working positions on projects.
  Frequently the organization does not hire or invest in competent or capable sponsors or project managers, or they do not invest in the business case to be able to adequately monitor the project, or they do not invest in the appropriate project costing and scheduling and risk management or other key disciplines. It is the old response: It is important to emphasize that there were a lot of strengths and weaknesses in many nations and on many initiatives. These posts are intended to provide different perspectives from the COVID-19 outbreak to highlight certain areas where project teams can take some lessons learned and help our organizations better understand.

Project Failure

This post is not about project failure (successful project outcomes and benefits) or project management failure (how the project was managed). Let us use a simplistic perspective to say that project failure is that the project does not deliver the benefits expected from the business case and the benefits realization plan in support of the organizations objectives, and project success is that the project does delivers the benefits expected from the business case and in the time frame outlined in the benefits realization plan in support of the organizations objectives. This post is also not about the validity or viability of the Standish Group CHAOS reports or their analyses (and does not endorse said publications).

Successful COVID-19 Projects

Lets look at some successful national COVID-19 projects around setting up the testing facilities. Certain governments and their citizens clearly and early on recognized the threat of COVID-19 and that protecting their citizens was their first priority and objective. Protecting and maintaining their economies was also a key objective. They listened to their experts, were able to look at the long term scenarios, and decided that an early investment in projects such as testing were appropriate to their unique national requirements and culture and would provide significant dividends in being able to keep their citizens healthier and maintain their economies. By setting up the testing infrastructure, the governments and citizens would know who was contagious, who needed to be quarantined, the extent of the spread and if their actions were making a positive difference. In short they could make informed fact based decisions. We have all seen the flattening the COVID-19 curve (Please refer to the posts: Three Keys to Project Work During the Outbreak & Transformational Change Requirements). Certain nations, however, understood that a successful project that could provide provide the information to obtain the necessary information to track the COVID-19 case curve that was decisively completed early and aggressively would be cheaper than paying later. They knew that the initial high cost of the "medicine" to manage the project aggressively and successfully was appropriate to saving the patient: the country, its people and its economy. What was the "cost of the medicine": They did their research and listened to the experts early on. They moved quickly. They had good sponsors and good project managers. They hired competent resources who successfully delivered. They communicated well and engaged their citizens and stakeholders. They leveraged their suppliers and medical community to provide the infrastructure they needed. They had faith in the business case and the projects to deliver the benefits that would support their countries objectives. Below is an example of how this business case might have been modeled: Success for them was that:
  • the country knew to a high enough level of confidence the impact and spread of the virus,
  • they identified and contained infected citizens and tracked their engagements resulting in the successful containment of the spread of COVID-19,
  • because of their early testing and containment of infected patients, their medical system was able to deal with the infected patients and was not overloaded, and
  • their economy was able to continue without a reactionary shutdown.
In short their successful project investment helped protect their citizens and economy. The patient was willing to pay the price of the medicine.  

Unsuccessful COVID-19 Projects

There were many causes for COVID-19 project failures in various countries. From a project perspective, the delays in not deciding and investing early and significantly will have lasting impacts on the nations citizens and economy. GPM has provided another post dealing with the impact of delay: Sustainable Lessons from COVID-19: The Cost of Delay. Other countries did try to establish a testing infrastructure but had delays in establishing successful COVID-19 tests, successful COVID-19 testing centers, reinforcing their supply chains for the necessary components, and testing laboratories to review the results (though new tests will allow for onsite results). Their projects were either badly funded, prioritized or managed (or a combination of these). The resulting lack of appropriate, accurate and timely information caused significant problems and also delays which resulted in the rapid spread of the disease and an uniformed leadership and public that did not respect the social distancing recommendations. The example below shows two country project responses. The Western Pacific Region Example demonstrates successful projects where the spread of infection was contained and flattened out, whereas the European Region Example shows the results of a testing project that was not as successful and experienced exponential infection due to the delays. The chart below shows from January 18 with the first test results for the Western Pacific Region (the European first test was January 25) up until April 12th 2020.   The populations of these countries by the way are approximately 47M and 50M. The key to all of these graphs is the trending over time and the "flattening of the curve" that was / was not done based on the timing of the project.   The countries that had less than successful projects because they did not pay the price caused a catastrophic impact to their economies due to the herculean responses that were required to compensate for the delays.   The patient was not willing to pay the price of the medicine. The cost of the medicine was to high for the leaders of certain countries. The leaders were not willing to pay the price for the medicine they and their citizens and economy required.   If you would like a copy of the spreadsheet used to make these analyses, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. This spreadsheet contains data from the following countries from the World Health Organization's (WHO) Daily Coronavirus disease (COVID-2019) situation reports: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-reports/
  • Western Pacific Region: China, Republic of Korea, Singapore
  • South-East Asia Region: Thailand
  • Eastern Mediterranean Region: United Arab Emirates (UAE)
  • European Region: Russia, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, United Kingdom (UK)
  • Region of the Americas: Canada, USA
We have included daily updates from January 1, 2020 to April 12, 2020 for Confirmed Cases and Deaths.   GPM Global joins the global community in thanking the hospital and emergency staff, firefighters, police, grocery store workers, bus drivers and countless others whose exceptional sacrifices and acts of courage remind us of the best we can be. Also, to remind the global community that we can all be better in improving our collective futures. Stay home, stay safe, practice social distancing.    

REFERENCES

Archer, D. & Manicom, R., (2007). Improving IT Project Performance: Conception, Assessment and Monitoring - An investigation into the causes of IT project failures in the Government of Canada and a recommended course of action for improvement. Treasury Board of Canada, Secretariat.

Perspectives · Change Delivery

COVID-19 Sustainable Lessons 06: The Cost of Delay

Peter Milsom April 10, 2020

"The early bird may get the worm, but its the second mouse that gets the cheese." No idea who said this.

"Sometimes the early bird gets the worm, but sometimes the early bird gets frozen to death." Myron Scholes

Many of us instinctively procrastinate and delay. There are times though, where the cost of delays on organizational objectives through projects can have serious and often unnecessary negative impacts on the success of the the anticipated delivery, timing and value of benefits. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted this emphatically. It is important to emphasize that there were a lot of strengths and weaknesses in many nations and on many initiatives. These posts are intended to provide different perspectives from the COVID-19 outbreak to highlight certain areas where project teams can take some lessons learned and help our organizations better understand. Using the recent COVID-19 project examples, what could be the costs of delay?

COVID-19 Example Responses

We can use the costs of delay from the creation of the COVID-19 virus testing infrastructure projects as an example. It was recognized by experts that COVID-19 spread quicker than other viruses (in January), had a higher death toll (in January), and that the virus could spread even when the afflicted were asymptomatic (in February). This information was made available to all nations in January / February 2020 through the World Health Organization (WHO), national agencies and research / academic institutions... not to mention the media. Some countries early on invested significant capital and resources to deal with this threat on projects such as:
  • devising COVID-19 tests for their citizens;
  • educating their population on the pandemic and the importance of testing and self isolation if at risk of illness;
  • establishing an accessible infrastructure to conduct extensive testing for their citizens;
  • the ability to handle this extensive testing and return / report on test results in a timely manner;
  • the facilities and support infrastructure to quarantine afflicted citizens and trace their recent associations and test and quarantine those that could have been exposed;
  • the ability to collect and analyze the data around exposure, growth, and recovery to make informed decisions and empower their citizens;
These countries obtained the necessary information to make informed data driven decisions about how they chose to move forward. Some of these countries have been able to not shut down many of their economies as they know where the outbreaks are, and are able to deal with the additional medical costs and threats from COVID-19. They were also able to limit the exponential strain on their medical and support infrastructures that other nations suffered from, and were able to save lives. These nations understood that paying early and aggressively with investments in key projects would be cheaper than paying later and chose to respond decisively.

COVID-19 Early and Successful National Response

Lets show a country in the Western Pacific Region that early on recognized the threat, listened to their experts, and spent significant capital and resources on projects like those previously listed. Note the initial high numbers obtained due to extensive testing and tracing exposure and then the flattening of the curve as they quarantined and limited the spread of the virus. The chart below shows from January 18 with the first test results up until April 12th 2020. The population is around 50 million approximately. It is important to emphasize that things change quickly in scenarios like this. This country, so far, successfully flattened the curve and their economies are not completely shut down. For this post we are focusing on only one component of the response... a rapid response. There were numerous other reasons for the preliminary successes.  

COVID-19 Delayed and Expensive Responses

For those countries that delayed any or all of these projects, they did not have the necessary information or infrastructure until too late. Also, they are suffering from the need to compete globally for scarce medical resources and an overwhelmed medical infrastructure. The image below represents three European nation's situation in a very simplistic way showing the dramatic impact of the cost of delay and the rapid loss of control. Please note also that the left hand range shifts dramatically between the previous example (0 - 900 per day versus 0 - 12,000 per day). It also starts on week later later after the first tests on January 25 until April 12 2020. The populations of the countries are 47M, 60M, and 67M approximately. If we are to show one country from the first graph (50M) and one country from the second graph (47M) together, you can see the visual difference of the impact on both nations.   If we were to include the United States in this previous analysis, the following would be the result:   The key to all of these graphs is the trending over time and the "flattening of the curve" that was / was not done based on the timing of the project.

Conclusion

From a sustainability perspective, it is important to identify the key organizational priorities. Either ideologically, ethically or practically. The countries that decided their first priority was to protect their citizens saved countless lives and billions (if not trillions) of dollars and kept their economies intact. Those countries that delayed ended up costing countless lives and seriously damaging their economies to the tune of billions (if not trillions) of dollars. To help with this, GPM recommends conducting P5 analyses to ensure that your organization gets the full picture of the initiative and understand the full asset-life-cycle impacts. We discuss this in further detail in the post: People or Economy - What is more important ? From a sustainable project perspective, we need to help our organizations understand the importance of not delaying. If you would like a copy of the spreadsheet used to make these analyses, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. This spreadsheet contains data from the following countries from the World Health Organization's (WHO) Daily Coronavirus disease (COVID-2019) situation reports: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-reports/
  • Western Pacific Region: China, Republic of Korea, Singapore
  • South-East Asia Region: Thailand
  • Eastern Mediterranean Region: United Arab Emirates (UAE)
  • European Region: Russia, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, United Kingdom (UK)
  • Region of the Americas: Canada, USA
We have included daily updates from January 1, 2020 to April 12, 2020 for Confirmed Cases and Deaths.   GPM Global joins the global community in thanking the hospital and emergency staff, firefighters, police, grocery store workers, bus drivers and countless others whose exceptional sacrifices and acts of courage remind us of the best we can be. Also, to remind the global community that we can all be better in improving our collective futures. Stay home, stay safe, practice social distancing.
Change Delivery Competence Global Goals Risk Management Sustainability

Perspectives · Perspectives

COVID-19 Sustainable Lessons 01: Summary

Peter Milsom April 10, 2020
The world is trying to deal with and understand the recent challenges and upheaval caused by COVID-19. Though it is still early to wrap our heads around what is happening and what the future will entail, it is possible to taken in some of the early lessons learned and reminders that are coming out of this crisis. First and foremost, we recognize that some of our assumptions and practices need to be re-evaluated. Taking a sustainable perspective will help provide a framework to reconcile the existing problems that we see and are experiencing and help to guide our future investments. GPM Global has started to identify and document some lessons in no particular order. We started with some suggestions for managing projects during the COVID-19 pandemic in a post called Three Keys to Project Work During the Outbreak. Associated with this post was another that provided more detail on how to deal with the societal and organizational transformational changes required during this pandemic called Transformational Change Requirements. We identified an interesting shift in cultural / political priorities during the early days of the crisis. The lessons learned out of the crisis have suggested that cultures should focus more on the people / citizen priorities over the profit / economic priorities as outlined in People or Economy - What is more important? One of the reminders of the COVID-19 crisis is the importance of not delaying important and time sensitive projects. We put together a post illustrating the enormous economic and health of citizen costs caused by government delays in a post called The Cost of Delay.   GPM will continue to add posts to this series as new lessons learned and reminders come to light to provide different perspectives to help us all understand and internalize what is happening and how to successfully respond in a sustainable and practical manner that we will all be proud of.

Perspectives · Perspectives

COVID-19 Sustainable Lessons 04: Transformational Change Requirements

Peter Milsom April 10, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has turned the world upside down, and many countries and communities have been forced to make dramatic changes in lifestyle, plans and expectations. What is being demanded in many of these communities is a dramatic transformational change. Sustainable project management can help provide guidance with this. What is being asked worldwide is for a major transformational acceptance and change in our behaviours with "short term pain for long term gain". GPM Global recommends incorporating the Prosci A-D-K-A-R management of change approach [Reference 3] as a sensible framework to start to frame the response:

1 Awareness of the need for change

What is COVID-19?

The virus has been named “SARS-CoV-2” and the infectious disease it causes has been named “coronavirus disease 2019” (abbreviated “COVID-19”).

It results in an outbreak of a respiratory disease caused by a novel (new) coronavirus [Reference 4].

This new virus and disease were unknown before the outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 .

How confident are we on what we really know?

A key point to remember is that doctors and researchers are scrambling to better understand the basics of COVID-19 (the disease caused by the coronavirus), including how it is transmitted, how it affects the body, and when a vaccine might be available [Reference 6].

What is a Pandemic?

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic.

An outbreak is a sudden rise in cases of a disease in a particular place.

An epidemic is a large outbreak.

A pandemic means a global epidemic.

Pandemic is a scary word but it has nothing to do with how serious the illness is. It just means a disease is spreading widely [Reference 7]

As of March 15 from the CDC (https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200315-sitrep-55-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=33daa5cb_6):

As of May 7 from an informative website nCoV209.live: https://ncov2019.live/data

How does it spread?

COVID-19 is a new disease and we are still learning how it spreads, the severity of illness it causes, and to what extent it may spread in the United States [Reference 8].

People can catch COVID-19 from others who have the virus. The disease can spread from person to person through small droplets from the nose or mouth which are spread when a person with COVID-19 coughs or exhales. These droplets land on objects and surfaces around the person. Other people then catch COVID-19 by touching these objects or surfaces, then touching their eyes, nose or mouth. People can also catch COVID-19 if they breathe in droplets from a person with COVID-19 who coughs out or exhales droplets. This is why it is important to stay more than 1 meter (3 feet) away from a person who is sick .

Can CoVID-19 be caught from a person who has no symptoms?

The main way the disease spreads is through respiratory droplets expelled by someone who is coughing. The risk of catching COVID-19 from someone with no symptoms at all is very low. However, many people with COVID-19 experience only mild symptoms. This is particularly true at the early stages of the disease. It is therefore possible to catch COVID-19 from someone who has, for example, just a mild cough and does not feel ill. WHO is assessing ongoing research on the period of transmission of COVID-19 and will continue to share updated findings .

How long is the incubation period for COVID-19?

The “incubation period” means the time between catching the virus and beginning to have symptoms of the disease. Most estimates of the incubation period for COVID-19 range from 1-14 days, most commonly around five days. These estimates will be updated as more data become available .

How long does the virus survive on surfaces?

It is not certain how long the virus that causes COVID-19 survives on surfaces, but it seems to behave like other coronaviruses. Studies suggest that coronaviruses (including preliminary information on the COVID-19 virus) may persist on surfaces for a few hours or up to several days. This may vary under different conditions (e.g. type of surface, temperature or humidity of the environment).

If you think a surface may be infected, clean it with simple disinfectant to kill the virus and protect yourself and others. Clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or wash them with soap and water. Avoid touching your eyes, mouth, or nose .

How quickly does it spread?

The reality is that for those of us in the Americas, we are significantly behind on testing facilities and data [Reference 9]. We do not know what we do not know. That is why governments are recommending aggressive social distancing and isolation.

To see the current growth rate, please refer to the CDC website: [Reference 10]

As of March 15 from the CDC (https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200315-sitrep-55-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=33daa5cb_6):

Globally 143 countries/territories/ areas (09 new)

153 517 confirmed (10,982 new)

5,735 deaths (343 new)

The trending is noticeable. COVID-19 spreads quickly as shown below:

The World Economic Forum provided the following graphic to show the growth [Reference 11] from January 21 to March 10 2020:

Research is still in its early stages, but some estimates suggest that each person with the new coronavirus could infect between two and four people without effective containment measures. That is enough to sustain and accelerate an outbreak, if nothing is done to reduce it.

 

2 Desire to participate and support the change

Here is the simple reality that we should all respect [Reference 4]:
  • The complete clinical picture with regard to COVID-19 is not fully known.
  • Reported illnesses have ranged from very mild (including some with no reported symptoms) to severe, including illness resulting in death.
  • While information so far suggests that most COVID-19 illness is mild, a report out of China suggests serious illness occurs in 16% of cases.
  • Older people and people of all ages with severe chronic medical conditions — like heart disease, lung disease and diabetes, for example — seem to be at higher risk of developing serious COVID-19 illness
For context, this is the percentage of the elderly population at risk per region [Reference 12]: As of the time of this writing, we could not find a reference for the demographics of those with chronic health conditions world-wide. Also, the worldwide medical support systems are already at capacity. This disease has been aggressively spreading: Coronavirus... appears to transmit effectively in humans – current estimates show that without strong containment measures the average person who catches Covid-19 will pass it on to two others. The virus also appears to have a higher mortality rate than common illnesses such as seasonal flu. The combination of coronavirus’s ability to spread and cause serious illness has prompted many countries, to introduce or plan extensive public health measures aimed at containing and limiting the impact of the epidemic [Reference 13]. For the elderly and chronically sick, and to take the pressure off our medical infrastructure, all of us have the accountability to actively respond to minimize infection and spreading of the disease [Reference 14].    

3 Knowledge on how to change

You can reduce your chances of being infected or spreading COVID-19 by taking some simple precautions [Reference 2]:
  • Regularly and thoroughly clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or wash them with soap and water. Why? Washing your hands with soap and water or using alcohol-based hand rub kills viruses that may be on your hands.
  • Maintain at least 2 meters (6 feet) distance between yourself and anyone who is coughing or sneezing. Why? When someone coughs or sneezes they spray small liquid droplets from their nose or mouth which may contain virus. If you are too close, you can breathe in the droplets, including the COVID-19 virus if the person coughing has the disease.
  • Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth. Why? Hands touch many surfaces and can pick up viruses. Once contaminated, hands can transfer the virus to your eyes, nose or mouth. From there, the virus can enter your body and can make you sick.
  • Make sure you, and the people around you, follow good respiratory hygiene. This means covering your mouth and nose with your bent elbow or tissue when you cough or sneeze. Then dispose of the used tissue immediately. Why? Droplets spread virus. By following good respiratory hygiene you protect the people around you from viruses such as cold, flu and COVID-19.
  • Stay home if you feel unwell. If you have a fever, cough and difficulty breathing, seek medical attention and call in advance. Follow the directions of your local health authority. Why? National and local authorities will have the most up to date information on the situation in your area. Calling in advance will allow your health care provider to quickly direct you to the right health facility. This will also protect you and help prevent spread of viruses and other infections.
  • Keep up to date on the latest COVID-19 hotspots (cities or local areas where COVID-19 is spreading widely). If possible, avoid traveling to places  – especially if you are an older person or have diabetes, heart or lung disease. Why? You have a higher chance of catching COVID-19 in one of these areas.

Maintain social distancing

This is a big deal and the best thing we can all do.

We strongly recommend that you reference the following Washington Post article to visually see the options and recommendations. As they clearly and factually point out, these recommendations to prevent the exponential growth of the disease are not based on prophecy... this is basic mathematics [Reference 18].

4 Ability to implement required skills and behaviors

Everywhere there are reminders of what to do. A key strategy for adopting these new patters is to remember who we are doing this for: our parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, the elderly and chronically sick [Reference 15]. Also once again to take the pressure off our medical infrastructure, all of us have the accountability to actively respond to minimize infection and spreading of the disease.  

5 Reinforcement to sustain the change

Keep an eye on reliable sources of information for updates and new recommendations. Also, keep an eye on the COVID-19 "hotspots" and avoid those areas and those who visited those areas.  

Conclusion

No matter what, during this outbreak and the associated responses by society, government, business, academia, non-profit etc. we all must take into account these transformational changes. We can use the AKDAR approach to guide and lead those that may have challenges. If your stakeholders do not desire or respect the need to participate and support the changes required, it makes no sense to try and educate them on what to do. Everyone needs to successfully accept each of the previous A-D-K-A-R steps before being able to engage in the next step(s). In order to sustainably move forward, we need to successfully incorporate these transformational changes in our communities.  

References

GPM Global is dedicated to ensuring that our posts are transparent and fact based from sources that can be trusted. Providing these references can also take up a lot of space and distract from the blog post. We have provided the detailed sources for our post here.

Perspectives · Perspectives

COVID-19 Sustainable Lessons 05: People or Economy - What is more important ?

Peter Milsom March 26, 2020
With the recent COVID-19 responses, a question came up regarding what is more important for certain segments of society: people or the economy? The backdrop to this question is something called the Triple Bottom Line (TBL): People, Planet and Profit (or Prosperity). NOTE: GPM Global believes that each of the parts should be treated with equal consideration and respect. The triple bottom line (TBL) is a framework that...
... recommends that companies commit to focus on social and environmental concerns just as they do on profits. The TBL posits that instead of one bottom line, there should be three: profit, people, and the planet. A TBL seeks to gauge a corporation's level of commitment to corporate social responsibility and its impact on the environment over time. In 1994, John Elkington—the famed British management consultant and sustainability guru—coined the phrase "triple bottom line" as his way of measuring performance in corporate America. The idea was that a company can be managed in a way that not only earns financial profits but which also improves people's lives and the planet. Kenton, Will. “How There Can Be Three Bottom Lines.” Investopedia, Investopedia, 5 Feb. 2020, www.investopedia.com/terms/t/triple-bottom-line.asp.
The traditional TBL model is represented by three overlapping circles of equal proportion. However, different cultures and political communities perceive the weighting of these circles very differently based on their values or priorities. GPM Global has noticed over the years a clear message during our international travels that each country, region, culture, industry and organization interprets sustainability differently and prioritizes components like these differently. Here is a representative model of this spectrum for context. In our teachings of sustainability, we recognize that everyone has different perceptions, values and priorities. And that is absolutely okay. It is important to emphasize that we recognize that society needs both sides of this spectrum, the yin and the yang if you will, to identify problems correctly and come up with the appropriate solutions together.   The segment of society on the left perceives that the planet and “mother nature” should be the main and critical priority of humanity. The belief is that if we do not take care of the planet first and foremost it will negatively impact all of us. For those on the right we have historically represented a humanity first model. For this segment, they do not care as much about the loss of polar bears, flying insects or exotic rodents as long as people are taken care of and are prosperous. So with this background and context, here is the question: For the right hand side of the image...  

... should People have the priority (as we currently represent it)?

 

... should Profit (Prosperity) have the priority?

 

... or should both People and Profit have an equal Priority that is greater than the planet?

 

Conclusion

It is far to soon (as of April 8, 2020) to make any conclusive observations regarding the COVID-19 outbreak. Regarding this question though, it appears that focusing on people over the economy / profitability makes the most sense based on the lessons learned. We have discovered that societies with the support structures (medical and economic) are fairing better at this juncture. Those that do not, have had to expend unprecedented amounts of money to protect and stabilize their citizens well being and economy causing enormous additional national debt. For some of these nations, their infrastructure cannot even get this funding in an appropriate or timely manner to the required stakeholders due to their inefficient and weakened systems. The notion of paying a livable wage to suppliers and personnel will most likely become a key discussion item in the near future, as well as paying taxes to ensure that governments have access to the resources and can support the funding of the required national infrastructures in case of similar predictable crises.   Any guidance, perspectives, research is most welcome.  

ANNEX

This is a great visual model that is easy to understand and part of the business lexicon for describing sustainability and how society responds to it. GPM Global has incorporated it as part of the primary architecture of the P5 standard. It should be noted that in June 25, 2018 John Elkington wrote a post in the Harvard Business Review called "25 Years Ago I Coined the Phrase 'Triple Bottom Line.' Here's Why It's Time to Rethink It." The rationale for the recall was:
Critically, too, TBL’s stated goal from the outset was system change — pushing toward the transformation of capitalism. It was never supposed to be just an accounting system. It was originally intended as a genetic code, a triple helix of change for tomorrow’s capitalism, with a focus was on breakthrough change, disruption, asymmetric growth (with unsustainable sectors actively sidelined), and the scaling of next-generation market solutions.

REFERENCES

Elkington, John. “25 Years Ago I Coined the Phrase ‘Triple Bottom Line." Here's Why It's Time to Rethink It.” Harvard Business Review, 13 Sept. 2018, hbr.org/2018/06/25-years-ago-i-coined-the-phrase-triple-bottom-line-heres-why-im-giving-up-on-it.       Haidt, Jonathan. (2013). The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Retrieved on September 1, 2017 at https://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Mind-Divided-Politics-Religion/dp/0307455777           Hibbing, John R.; Smith, Kevin B.; Alford, John R.. (2013). Predisposed: Liberals, Conservatives, and the Biology of Political Differences. Taylor and Francis. Retrieved on September 1, 2017 at https://www.amazon.com/Predisposed-Liberals-Conservatives-Political-Differences/dp/0415535875           Raworth, Kate. Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think like a 21st-Century Economist. Random House Business Books, 2018. Retrieved on September 1, 2017 at https://www.amazon.ca/Doughnut-Economics-Seven-21st-Century-Economist-ebook/dp/B06X9C63SX           Epley, Nicholas. Mindwise Why We Misunderstand What Others Think, Believe, Feel and Want. Vintage Books, 2015. Retrieved on September 1, 2017 at https://www.amazon.ca/Mindwise-Misunderstand-Others-Think-Believe/dp/030774356X Eberhardt, Jennifer Lynn. Biased: the New Science of Race and Inequality. William Heinemann, 2019. Retrieved on September 1, 2017 at https://www.amazon.ca/Biased-Uncovering-Hidden-Prejudice-Shapes/dp/B07PGWG6VV Stout, Lynn A. The Shareholder Value Myth: How Putting Shareholders First Harms Investors, Corporations, and the Public. Berrett-Koehler, 2013. Retrieved on September 1, 2017 at https://www.amazon.ca/Shareholder-Value-Myth-Shareholders-Corporations/dp/1605098132

Perspectives · P5

COVID-19 Sustainable Lessons 03: Three Keys to Project Work During the Outbreak

Peter Milsom March 16, 2020
The worldwide coronavirus outbreak is not the first world war, nor the great depression nor the second world war. For those with an awareness of history, we know that those events were horrific and challenging times that we got through and fortunately came out stronger on the other side. The worldwide coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and the resulting economic, financial, and social challenges is something we must understand, accept, and actively respond to in order to get through successfully once again. What this crises has offered humanity though, is the realization that many of our beliefs, priorities and practices need re-evaluating and that we need to make some hard societal decisions moving forward. GPM is uniquely positioned to help with these discussions and initiatives to re-balance the people, planet and profit implications. In this post we are coming from the perspective of Project Health and Safety, an element in our P5 Standard for Sustainability in Project Management [Reference 1], a free download, that says:

The project team should:

  • Identify and comply with any relevant health and safety laws and regulations.
  • Identify and evaluate options for controlling hazards.
  • Develop plans to protect workers during emergencies and non-routine activities.
  • Review new technologies for their potential to be more protective, more reliable, or less costly.
  • Minimize the impact of the product on the health and safety of all involved.

Enhanced project health and safety helps to achieve the following sustainable project outcomes:

  • A safe, secure, and healthy workplace for the project team, which in turn results in a more engaged and committed staff.
  • Minimal lost time and costs from workplace illness and injuries.
  • Avoidance of fines and penalties from breaches of health and safety laws and regulations.
In sustainability, there are many aspects, but one that is actionable is that sustainability and risk mitigation go hand in hand. i.e. brand protection and product life-cycle maximization. The following three approaches regarding projects and implementing new practices during this outbreak will help empower your chances of success by incorporating basic sustainable project recommendations. But please... remember the basics outlined below fro the World Health Organization [Reference 2]... be a good person... and be sustainable and socially responsible:

1: Accept the reality of the current demands

It is important to emphasize listening to the recognized and respected professionals (Doctors and Scientists from globally recognized and internationally respected institutions such as the World Health Organization WHO, obtain and focus on the real numbers and trending, and focus on the facts. Also recognize that this is an evolving situation requiring flexibility and (dare I say it) agility. What is being asked worldwide is for a major transformational acceptance and change in our behaviours with short term pain for long term gain. Following the Prosci A-D-K-A-R management of change approach [Reference 3] is a sensible framework to start to frame the response. We had originally included a detailed A-D-K-A-R management of change approach in this post, but due to its length we have provided a separate post on transformational change: COVID-19 Sustainable Lessons 03: Transformational Change Requirements. As we indicated in the beginning around P5, Project Health and Safety needs to be a priority. We have all seen the flattening the COVID-19 curve outlined below. The threat and issue with COVID-19 is the impact of the exponential growth within unprepared communities. If not incorporated in our practices and treated early and aggressively, COVID-19 can spread out of control, and in many cases the national lack of preparedness and the additional cost and stress to the medical infrastructure and resulting impact on economies can be overwhelming. The image below is from April 6, 2020 showing the daily growth rate of the virus confirmed cases internationally. Each bar represents the additional cases per day globally based on region. Coronavirus disease (COVID-2019) WHO Daily Situation Reports Please listen to the experts, and incorporate the transformational change practices into your initiatives.

2: Use risk management techniques such as GPM's P5

For your projects continue to use the GPM P5 analysis tool and the GPM P5 Impact Analysis toolkit. Remember to consider all of these areas. By taking the time, unnecessary crises and threats like those created at US airports during the new pre-screening can be avoided [Reference 16]. Please refer to our blog post "How to Use GPM’s P5."  

3: Take an asset life cycle portfolio & benefits perspective

For most, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, and most recover in a couple of weeks. For older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illnesses, including respiratory crises and pneumonia, and possibly death. We should consider asset life cycle, benefits management and portfolio management guidance in our assessments to have the appropriate perspectives and understanding.

Asset Management and Benefits Management Considerations

The challenge is that the current mortality rate is flawed due to bad data, and the concept of lag effect [Reference 19] [Reference 20]. What this means is that we have a similar problem associated with benefits management and asset management... it depends when you conduct the assessment. Do we test people after 5 days, 10 days, 15 days... what if those that had Coronavirus died later due to implications related to the illness.  As with benefits management, we don't know when we will realize the threats / costs / deaths and benefits / returning to being healthy. To extend this perspective:
  • When does the population accept the requirements for social distancing practices and other outbreaks guidelines (benefit and opportunity)?
  • When is the medical infrastructure able to respond appropriately to societies basic health needs (benefit and opportunity)?
  • When does the population achieve a sufficient "herd" resistance to help slow down the infection rate (benefit and opportunity?
  • When does society have the testing infrastructure and tracking mechanism for infected citizens and vaccines to respond to this disease (benefit and opportunity)?
  • Do governments not react quickly enough to test and track the disease and advise the populace of necessary information to survive and cope (dis-benefit and threat)?
  • Do governments, social media and talking heads continue to focus on ideology as opposed to proven scientific data and mis-inform the populace resulting in unnecessary delays, confusion, misunderstandings and dangerous behaviours (dis-benefit and threat)?
  • Does the disease spread so quickly and infect so many that the medical infrastructure becomes overwhelmed (as in Italy) and their is unnecessary deaths (dis-benefit and threat)?
  • Does the disease mutate and cause another outbreak to deal with (dis-benefit and threat)?
 

Portfolio Management

From a portfolio management perspective, we need to look at the population as a whole and what actions make the most sense to invest in (testing, social distancing, social and financial support, monitoring movement). Some of the options presented and recommendations based on scientific and mathematical scenario planning are outlined below [Reference 18]: If we consider portfolio management we can assemble a portfolio of project / work package responses for our assets such that the expected return is maximized for a given level of risk. The key insight is that an asset's risk and return should not be assessed by itself, but by how it contributes to a portfolio's overall risk and return. So what does this mean:
  • For our projects we should avoid social interaction through moderate and extensive distancing
  • Work at home
  • Leverage online meetings and collaboration
  • Reach out and stay in touch with our peers and share ideas, updates and factual data and recommendations
  • As much as possible continue to engage staff and suppliers and pay them
  • You do not want your staff and suppliers going bankrupt or suffering through this period, or getting a negative reputation with your network about how you responded
Evaluate the level of risk and the benefits return of your actions (taking a longer term asset life cycle and reputation / brand perspective).

Conclusion

Let's ensure our projects, our teams, and our stakeholders are safe and healthy!

References

GPM Global is dedicated to ensuring that our posts are transparent and fact based from sources that can be trusted. Providing these references can also take up a lot of space and distract from the blog post. We have provided the detailed sources for our post here.
P5 Sustainability Sustainable Project Management™ Tools and Methods

Perspectives · Perspectives

COVID-19 Sustainable Lessons 02: References

Peter Milsom March 16, 2020
GPM Global is dedicated to ensuring that our posts are transparent and fact based from sources that can be trusted. Providing these references can also take up a lot of space and distract from the blog post. We have provided the detailed sources for our COVID-19 Sustainable Lessons below.

References

Carboni, Joel, et al. “The GPM P5 Standard for Sustainability in Project Management v2.0.” GPM Global, Sept. 2019, greenprojectmanagement.org/gpm-standards/the-p5-standard-for-sustainability-in-project-management. “Advice for Public.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 16 Mar. 2020, www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public. Creasey, Tim. “ADKAR Change Management Model Overview.” Prosci, 15 Mar. 2020, www.prosci.com/adkar/adkar-model. “Situation Summary.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 14 Mar. 2020, www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/summary.html.

“Q&A On Coronaviruses (COVID-19).” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 15 Mar. 2020, www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses.

Pearson, Catherine. “Can You Get Coronavirus Again After You've Already Had It?” HuffPost Canada, HuffPost Canada, 12 Mar. 2020, www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/can-you-get-coronavirus-again-after_l_5e6a8e2fc5b6dda30fc57d7d. Chatterji, Rohini. “Coronavirus: What The WHO Pandemic Declaration Means.” HuffPost India, HuffPost India, 12 Mar. 2020, www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/coronavirus-what-the-who-pandemic-declaration-means_in_5e69acebc5b6bd8156f16046. “Transmission of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4 Mar. 2020, www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prepare/transmission.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/transmission.html. Cheung, Helier. “Coronavirus: Can the US Catch up on Testing?” BBC News, BBC, 13 Mar. 2020, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51875871. “Novel Coronavirus (2019-NCoV) Situation Reports.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 15 Mar. 2020, www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-reports/. Parker, Ceri, and Jaci Eisenberg. “'Over-Reacting Is Better than Non-Reacting' - Academics around the World Share Their Take on Coronavirus.” World Economic Forum, 12 Mar. 2020, www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/coronavirus-covid19-global-academics-insights-pandemic. Duffin, Erin. “World Population by Age and Region 2019.” Statista, 20 Sept. 2019, www.statista.com/statistics/265759/world-population-by-age-and-region/. Devlin, Hannah, and Sarah Boseley. “Coronavirus Facts: Is There a Cure and What Is the Mortality Rate of the Virus?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 15 Mar. 2020, www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/15/coronavirus-facts-cure-mortality-rate-virus-covid-19. Wiles, Siouxsie. “After 'Flatten the Curve', We Must Now 'Stop the Spread'. Here's What That Means.” The Spinoff, The Spinoff, 13 Mar. 2020, thespinoff.co.nz/society/14-03-2020/after-flatten-the-curve-we-must-now-stop-the-spread-heres-what-that-means/. Grant, Adam, and Reb Rebele. “A Trick to Stop Touching Your Face.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 15 Mar. 2020, www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/trick-stop-touching-your-face/608050/. Derek Hawkins, Hannah Natanson. “Coronavirus Screening Causes Massive Bottlenecks at O'Hare and Other U.S. Airports.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 15 Mar. 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2020/03/14/europe-travel-ban-airport-delays/. Andrew, Scottie. “The Psychology behind Why Toilet Paper, of All Things, Is the Latest Coronavirus Panic Buy.” CNN, Cable News Network, 9 Mar. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/03/09/health/toilet-paper-shortages-novel-coronavirus-trnd/index.html. Stevens, Harry. “These Simulations Show How to Flatten the Coronavirus Growth Curve.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 14 Mar. 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/corona-simulator/. Narayanan, Charit. “Why The Coronavirus Mortality Rate Is Misleading.” Medium, Towards Data Science, 13 Mar. 2020, towardsdatascience.com/why-the-coronavirus-mortality-rate-is-misleading-cc63f571b6a6. Narayanan, Charit. “Exploring the Coronavirus Mortality Rate.” Medium, Medium, 29 Feb. 2020, medium.com/@charitnar/exploring-the-coronavirus-mortality-rate-82a86fb2c31.

Other Interesting References

Kirkey, Sharon. “COVID-19 Pandemic Means It's Time for Canada to Get Serious about Aggressive Social Distancing: Experts.” National Post, 12 Mar. 2020, nationalpost.com/news/covid-19-pandemic-means-its-time-for-canada-to-get-serious-about-aggressive-social-distancing-experts. Wilson, Mark. “The Story behind 'Flatten the Curve,' the Defining Chart of the Coronavirus.” Fast Company, Fast Company, 13 Mar. 2020, www.fastcompany.com/90476143/the-story-behind-flatten-the-curve-the-defining-chart-of-the-coronavirus?utm_source=pocket-newtab. Sheikh, Knvul, et al. “How Bad Will the Coronavirus Outbreak Get? Here Are 6 Key Factors.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 31 Jan. 2020, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/asia/china-coronavirus-contain.html. Humphreys, Adrian. “What Might Our Lives Look like When Canada Is in the Full Grip of COVID-19?” National Post, 14 Mar. 2020, nationalpost.com/news/may-soon-be-completely-out-of-control-covid-19s-dire-possibilities-could-dramatically-change-canada. “Management of Mass Fatalities: Canadian Pandemic Influenza Preparedness: Planning Guidance for the Health Sector.” Public Health Agency of Canada, Government of Canada, 15 Feb. 2018, www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/flu-influenza/canadian-pandemic-influenza-preparedness-planning-guidance-health-sector/guidelines-for-the-management-of-mass-fatalities-during-an-influenza-pandemic.html. Hanage, William. “I'm an Epidemiologist. When I Heard about Britain's 'Herd Immunity' Coronavirus Plan, I Thought It Was Satire | William Hanage.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 15 Mar. 2020, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/15/epidemiologist-britain-herd-immunity-coronavirus-covid-19?CMP=share_btn_link. Hutchins, Aaron. “Coronavirus in Canada: Should You Shame Friends into Cancelling Their Vacations? (And 17 Other Urgent Questions).” Macleans.ca, 14 Mar. 2020, www.macleans.ca/news/canada/coronavirus-in-canada-should-you-shame-friends-into-cancelling-their-vacations-and-17-other-pressing-questions/. Grady, Denise. “How Does the Coronavirus Compare With the Flu?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 29 Feb. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/02/29/health/coronavirus-flu.html. Petrone, Mary, and Nathan Grubaugh. “Coronavirus Mutations: Much Ado about Nothing.” CNN, Cable News Network, 7 Mar. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/03/07/health/coronavirus-mutations-analysis/index.html. Devlin, Hannah. “Could the Coronavirus Mutate If a Vaccine Can't Be Found in Time?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 10 Feb. 2020, www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/10/could-the-coronavirus-mutate-if-a-vaccine-cant-be-found-in-time. Barclay, Eliza, and Dylan Scott. “How Canceled Events and Self-Quarantines Save Lives, in One Chart.” Vox, Vox, 10 Mar. 2020, www.vox.com/2020/3/10/21171481/coronavirus-us-cases-quarantine-cancellation. Elkington, John. “25 Years Ago I Coined the Phrase ‘Triple Bottom Line." Here's Why It's Time to Rethink It.” Harvard Business Review, 13 Sept. 2018, hbr.org/2018/06/25-years-ago-i-coined-the-phrase-triple-bottom-line-heres-why-im-giving-up-on-it.     Haidt, Jonathan. (2013). The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Retrieved on September 1, 2017 at https://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Mind-Divided-Politics-Religion/dp/0307455777           Hibbing, John R.; Smith, Kevin B.; Alford, John R.. (2013). Predisposed: Liberals, Conservatives, and the Biology of Political Differences. Taylor and Francis. Retrieved on September 1, 2017 at https://www.amazon.com/Predisposed-Liberals-Conservatives-Political-Differences/dp/0415535875           Raworth, Kate. Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think like a 21st-Century Economist. Random House Business Books, 2018. Retrieved on September 1, 2017 at https://www.amazon.ca/Doughnut-Economics-Seven-21st-Century-Economist-ebook/dp/B06X9C63SX           Epley, Nicholas. Mindwise Why We Misunderstand What Others Think, Believe, Feel and Want. Vintage Books, 2015. Retrieved on September 1, 2017 at https://www.amazon.ca/Mindwise-Misunderstand-Others-Think-Believe/dp/030774356X Eberhardt, Jennifer Lynn. Biased: the New Science of Race and Inequality. William Heinemann, 2019. Retrieved on September 1, 2017 at https://www.amazon.ca/Biased-Uncovering-Hidden-Prejudice-Shapes/dp/B07PGWG6VV Stout, Lynn A. The Shareholder Value Myth: How Putting Shareholders First Harms Investors, Corporations, and the Public. Berrett-Koehler, 2013. Retrieved on September 1, 2017 at https://www.amazon.ca/Shareholder-Value-Myth-Shareholders-Corporations/dp/1605098132

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