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Organizational change is a tough battle, and it takes a tremendous amount of time and effort to get it up and running, to maintain enough momentum to see it through until the benefits are realized. There are many phases that need to be developed and managed as you work through the initiative.
In fact, it’s not unlike starting up a new business - and I have found a few things that really help to keep myself, and the teams involved, motivated and ambitious to continue forward.
Read MoreAs project managers, or team leads, we frequently get to know what our team members are good at, and what they are not - over time. Their characteristics and working styles may vary, but each will have his or her own way of getting things done, and there will definitely be environments in which they excel, and other situations that they would love to run away from.
Perhaps it's time we should do a better job of recognizing our strengths, and our team's strengths in a more formalized way...maybe even using them to all of our advantages.
Read MoreIt has been said by many, that if you commit a vision to paper, express it in detail, so that others can see this vision, and then communicate it broadly in some way, it shall become true. Do you believe in that?
For projects and change initiatives, setting the vision, and gaining alignment with that is one of the most critical things that a leader can do to ensure success.
Read MoreI have been working in industry for 20 years now, over which time I’ve seen a few things shift. The awareness and outcry of our non-industry stakeholders of the need for environmental protection, and the response by regulators and industry alike, to step up their game, to develop and abide by standards designed to reduce risks and impacts to people and the environment.
Industry has come a long way since I began on this journey. And at the same time, I feel there is much more work to be done.
Read MoreOver the past 10-15 years, I’ve been working at the crossroads of what could be two very distinct career paths. Both necessary for our ways of living, and also for our future generations. These are mining, and sustainability - two worlds that don't often move hand in hand.
Read MoreWith a look at project management challenges, it seems it doesn't matter what sector the projects are in. They all face the same issues...
Without appropriate engagement and communications, project teams are bound to miss critical requirements for their project – and as such, develop an incomplete scope to proceed.
Without ensuring we are all well-aligned to the ultimate project goals, and to understanding when it might be okay to shift strategies to get there, we set ourselves up for failure.
Without taking a staged and iterative approach to our projects, and without a willingness to adjust scope and make alternate decisions, as more information is obtained, it is then inevitable that the ultimate goals of the project are put at risk.
Read MoreEverything comes with some form of risk.
As most commonly demonstrated, the concept of risk management conveys an acceptance of risks, an exercise performed to ensure we are identifying and managing our project risks, controlling them in some way.
But why do we focus on managing risk before we have eliminated as much of it as we can? What if, instead, we looked for as many opportunities to de-risk and optimize our projects first?
Read MoreEnvironmental Compliance. Beyond Compliance. Leading Performer. Responsible Operations. Responsible Procurement. Cradle-to-Grave Material Management. All markers on the path of continual improvement and environmental sustainability.
A new initiative, headed by Forum for the Future, has a goal “to encourage more companies to make ambitious Net Positive commitments, then equip them with the tools to turn those goals into reality.”
This newest initiative, combining both environment and social, "opens its arms to all organisations committed to becoming Net Positive"…and this one seems to be setting the bar the highest, suggesting that there should not be an allowance for impacts in one place, that are offset by benefits elsewhere. It sounds inspirational, something we should all strive for.
With most performance measurement indices, it is typical to place bounds around what is being measured and reported on. This is done to show where an organisation has "control" over its operations.
But the premise behind Net Positive is that you would measure outside of the operational bounds - to show how an organisation will "put back more into society, the environment and the global economy than it takes out."
So, this commentary is situated around this premise, and the inconsistency around these goals and the general practices of the purveyors of sustainability.
Will the initiative fly as defined?
Or will it need to be bound in a box?
Read MoreThis past week I shared a Huffington Post article regarding agile risk management, in which it was suggested that “risk agility is the key attribute of the survivors”, and that “compliance…is not an adequate form of risk management for the twenty-first century”.
I thought it a fitting article because it tied nicely to a couple of the themes I had planned on discussing:
This article suggested that we should be willing and able to monitor and manage risks according to how they arise, to make decisions as our risks shift and change over time. The author wrote,
“Aversion to risk is dangerous and implies being stuck in another era and held at a standstill by the inertia of fear.”
Given, the context of the article is that risk averse businesses will not survive.
But what of the things that need to stand the test of time, regardless of the changing conditions that they may be exposed to? What of those things, like infrastructure we might design and build, that are more permanent, and might be difficult or even impossible to make adaptations to, once they are complete?
How can risk agility be applied in that context?
Read MoreRisk - to human health and life, to the environment. It's one of those fuzzy things that everyone has different perceptions about - how serious it is, whether something should be done to address it, how critical or impactful the consequences of an occurrence could be.
A thing that we can be blind to, become lazy about, particularly when no failures or instances occur over a long duration. Or when past failures had consequences which were deemed to be small.
Risk - something that should be assessed, avoided and addressed, mitigated. But to what end can an unknown be tempered?
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