As I mentioned in my first green post I am not the poster child for going green. I don’t even recycle. I know, I deserve to be flogged.

But I can change. And if I can change, then you can change.

My first foray into “green” was replacing my BMW 750iL with a Honda Civic. Initially, I was motivated more by the cost of maintaining my BMW relative to how cheap it is to maintain a Civic. But that motivation isn’t any different than most business.

So here’s my personal list of projects to go green:

- Kindle. I love books. I read 50 books a year. I have around 1000 books in my house. They look good in my seven bookcases. But many (not all) of these books are available as a download to Kindle. That’s a lot of paper, space, and furniture saved.

- Replace disposable plastic with permanent water bottles. I drink from disposable water bottles. I use them for a few days (some times), and then throw the bottle a way. As a family, we use a case (35 bottles) of water every 2 weeks. That’s more than 900 plastic bottles disposed a year.

- Walk and bike more. We have a church that we go to each Sunday that is about a 20 minute walk away. But we drive. And we are there several times a week (scouts, meetings, church). We can walk more. The kids can ride their bikes. If weather is bad, we can carpool. I often visit friends in my neighborhood that are close enough to walk or bike.

- Paper. I don’t print a lot at home, but when I’m in the office I print more than I need. I can do less of that.

- Yard waste. We throw grass clippings and other yard waste out. But my wife and I have talked about, but not done anything, about a garden. We could use our grass clippings for mulch, along with other food waste. I think it’s time to start the garden too.

What I’m doing right:

- Energy. We keep our thermostat at 78 in the summer, and don’t use the heater much in the winter. Our windows are insulated and double paned.

- Water. We have a fountain, but don’t use it a lot. Mostly for when company shows up or if we want to hear the calming sound of the water splashing. We don’t own a pool (although sometimes we dread that in the summer). I try not to overwater the lawn. We could probably shorten shower times, but that’s the worst of it.

- Energy. We turn off lights and other appliances when not in use. I could power down my computer each night though.

Small changes, but a start. Notice I didn’t mention recycling. My city doesn’t have a recycling program, but it’s something I could research.

Any other ideas I should consider?

Businesses are immensely selfish enterprises. They’re always doing things for the bottom line.

No wonder most businesses reject environmental issues.

The assumption seems to be that “going green” means more cost and less revenue. Not all green products are pretty or functional.

Yet we see examples of companies profiting by “going green”. Toyota started addressing rising oil costs in the 1990’s. The result? The Toyota Prius, one of the best selling cars in America.

It’s no surprise that a Japanese company is now a world leader in cleaner technology. It was Japan that embraced Dr. Deming and the total quality movement. One of the central tenets of TQM is to minimize waste. Toyota expanded this idea from the factory to the product.

However, minimizing waste doesn’t have to mean breakthrough technology. Kaizen, an idea borne from TQM, means continuous improvement. Little improvements made consistently over time lead to huge savings.

So how can companies minimize waste? The first step is to identify waste.

There are many examples of waste:

- Time

- Resources (I exclude people as a resource)

- Talent (this is where I include people)

Going green focuses on resources, but I submit that minimizing waste is a mindset. If it’s a good idea to minimize resource waste, then it’s a good idea (or perhaps a great one) to minimize time and talent waste.

Some examples, by no means exhaustive, of waste:

- Commuting time. For years, this cost was the price paid for operating as a business. With the growth of knowledge work, is commuting time more wasteful than beneficial? Besides the time waste, commuting uses resources too, that create their own waste (trains, planes, and automobiles).

- Paper, ink, printers and copiers. How much waste is there in printing documents that could easily be shared via collaboration tools or projectors?

- Plastic, cardboard, and styrofoam. How much waste is there in disposable plastic water bottles, coffee cups, and boxes, that could be replaced by permanent water bottles, coffee mugs, or electronic storage?

- Water. Do bathrooms use water minimizing technology? Do your operations consider water conservation?

- Meetings. How much time is wasted in meetings? I believe that meetings are a valuable tool to collaborate and innovate; but many times, they waste time with too many invitees, too many people checking out of the meeting and checking the Blackberry instead, unclear agendas, and uninspired purpose. Are all these meetings necessary? Could more be done with less?

- Data centers. Do you consider the cost of managing a data center? Energy costs for data centers have been growing for years, with more powerful processors requiring more energy. Can servers be reduced? How about replaced by more efficient models? Can virtualization reduce the amount of servers you require?

- Boring jobs. Many jobs are narrowly defined, uninspiring, and use the least amount of human capacity. How can jobs be turned into callings? What movements are in your company that inspire people do their best, or to stretch them? How can jobs be redefined to get the best out of our available talent?

What other ideas do you have? What other kinds of waste do you see?

My firm has challenged us to be more innovative. One of the outputs of this challenge is the “Thought Leadership Card”. It’s a document designed to share with a client in order to structure a conversation around a specific business topic, like “Mergers and Acquisitions” or “Packaged Software Implementation”. These have been used in every consulting business I have been with (now going on four). They come in different forms (decks, placemats, pamphlets, etc.), but the purpose is the same.

But they don’t work.

These material serve primarily to stroke the ego of the person or group putting it together. They make us feel like we are thought leaders because, well, we have the materials that say we are thought leaders.

But where are the followers?

Not once have I seen material like this inspire a client to follow our thought leadership. Instead, they see it for what it is: marketing material.

Why doesn’t it work? Why don’t they follow?

Because material like this is a pronouncement. We shout to our client “Look, we are thought leaders!  If you implement our ideas, you will be more successful!”. What they need is a conversation: an actual ongoing dialog between us and our clients. We share something, they listen. Maybe they think about it, and join in the conversation. They share something. We listen. Repeat several times. Then the group grows. The conversation becomes more valuable, more interesting. Eventually, there is a tribe, a group of followers waiting for us to lead the conversation.

That’s when we become thought leaders.

Not because we created a thought leadership card. But because we cared enough to start a conversation, to listen, to respond, to initiate further dialog. And the tribe grew because we inspired them, and they told their friends.

You can’t be a thought leader if no one is following. Find the followers, nurture the tribe, initiate the conversation, encourage communication, listen, share, etc, etc, etc. Eventually it works.

That’s thought leadership.

I am the last person you would think to post on the going green. I was so conservative as a teen that my friends and teachers called me Mr. Republican. I own one of the largest lots in my neighborhood in Arizona, and 80% of it is grass, in spite of water not being so abundant here. I think Al Gore is a kook, and that Michael Crichton (may he rest in peace) is an environmentalist. The last car I had got 16 miles to the gallon and took premium fuel.

But I felt the pain when oil prices rocketed to $140 a barrel.

This story starts 15 years ago, when I first saw my dream car, the BMW 635 csi.

It had it all: sex appeal, speed, sportiness, not to mention that it spelled success. I knew at an instant this was my dream car.

Fast forward 20 years. Now I could afford a BMW, so after intensive research, I bought a 2002 750 iL. I was in heaven.

That is, until after the first year. Then it was in the shop every other month. I spent a year trying to get the “Service Engine Soon” light to go off. Then gas went up to nearly $4 a gallon, and I realized this dream was becoming a nightmare.

So I turned it in for a 2001 Honda Civic.

Now I get 32+ miles per gallon, and it hasn’t been in the shop except for routine maintenance.
So I am starting a conversation with you about how we can help our companies, our clients, our communities become more green, more lean, and a better place to be. Let me know your thoughts….

Bob Sutton points out research that suggests that emphasizing money leads to:

1. Were less likely to ask others for help
2. Less likely to give others help
3. Preferred to work alone
4. Preferred to play alone
5. Put more physical distance between themselves as a new acquaintance

See the full post here.

http://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/11/thinking-about-money-causes-people-to-avoid-asking-for-and-giving-help-research-in-science-magazine.html

In Henry IV Part One, we find Prince Henry, son of King Henry IV, carousing with Jack Falstaff and other criminals and deadbeats in a seedy part of London. This certainly is not the place for young Henry to grow into the next king. In the meantime, King Henry is dealing with a potential civil war from those that were more recently his allies. The last thing that the King wants to worry about is what his son is doing.

Yet the same Prince Henry, cum King Henry V, unites England from civil strife, and leads England to one of the most unexpected victories in military history. Facing the French who had as many as six times the soldiers and were fighting on their home turf, Henry V and England won the war convincingly.

This begs the question: why does the Prince Henry do this? Is he trying to test his father’s patience? Or does he find it more fun to hang out with Falstaff than in the stuffy corridors of the castle?

Here is what he says about his situation:

I know you all, and will awhile uphold
The unyoked humour of your idleness:
Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother up his beauty from the world,
That, when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may be more wonder’d at,
By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.
If all the year were playing holidays,
To sport would be as tedious as to work;
But when they seldom come, they wish’d for come,
And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
So, when this loose behavior I throw off
And pay the debt I never promised,
By how much better than my word I am,
By so much shall I falsify men’s hopes;
And like bright metal on a sullen ground,
My reformation, glittering o’er my fault,
Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes
Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
I’ll so offend, to make offence a skill;
Redeeming time when men think least I will.

The key is the last two lines: “I’ll so offend, to make offence a skill;/Redeeming time when men think least I will.” In other words, “I’ll behave badly so that when I start behaving good, I’ll seem to be better than I really am.”

Henry plans to underpromise and overdeliver.

This is a common cliche used to prescribe how to be successful. Specifically, how does one underpromise and overdeliver? We can’t perform poorly in the beginning, only to turn it on in the end, or we risk being fired before getting the chance. And we can’t create expectations so low as to cause the buyer to look elsewhere. Is it even possible to underpromise and overdeliver?

It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to underpromise. If our commitment is below the buyer’s/boss’s needs and expectations, then we won’t get the opportunity to deliver. We can try to temper expectations. We can argue that what the boss asks for is too much, or that it will take more time, or that scope needs to be shaved. Even so, there will be a minimum expectation that we will have to meet.

Perhaps the key is to overdeliver. I offer a few suggestions on how to overdeliver.

1. Free prize inside.

Seth Godin in his book “Free Prize Inside” talks about how as a kid he would run to be the first to open the new box of cereal. Why? Because there was a free prize inside. That free prize made opening the box exciting. It made eating the cereal fun, because as soon as the cereal was gone, he could open up another box for yet another free prize. In marketing, Godin argues, the free prize can be used to surprise customers. But for the free prize to work, it must have value to the customer and it must be unexpected. So listen to your boss, your buyer, your customer, or your client. What is important to them? Is there something that is important to them that is not part of your job description that you could do? Something that would be a free prize?

2. Be relentlessly nice

I once asked my uncle, a successful program manager for a software development company, what advice he would give me to be a successful project manager. His advice was to be “relentlessly nice”. He argued that much of what a project manager does is follow up with people to see where their tasks are – tasks that are critical to the project, but may not be that person’s top priority. A good project manager relentlessly pursues project status. He doesn’t give up until he knows what’s going on. But a great project manager is relentless as nicely as possible. She smiles. She finds out about the person’s personal life. She cares. She listens. She helps. She talks to the person even when there is no status to investigate. Yet, she continues to work hard at getting status, at encouraging, at getting results. She does it relentlessly and nicely; she is relentlessly nice.

3. Go the extra mile.

Jesus of the New Testament encourages his disciples to do extra when helping others: “And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.” This can take many forms in project work. Instead of finding and reporting a problem, you can investigate the problem until you discover it’s root cause, and then create a plan of action to resolve the issue. When hearing of a client need that you or your firm can’t serve, find a suitable vendor to fulfill that service. You can bring in firm experts to discuss an issue with a client, free of charge. There are myriads of ways to go beyond the scope of our contract, to go the extra mile and provide great service.

But be careful – if the intent is only to win more business, then these will backfire. These ideas only work when the intent is to serve the interests of the client, and not the provider. It’s not overdelivering if we expect payment every time we do more than is expected.

So while we may not be able to underpromise, it is quite possible to overdeliver.

David Heinemeier of 37 signals blogged about the impacts to him of working the next day without a normal nights sleep. All of the typical signs were evident: irritability, lack of creativity, decreased performance. Once upon a time, I had a boss that claimed he could operate effectively on 4 hours of sleep. I tried doing that, and after a week I was so tired and ineffective as to be quite useless at work.

After that experience, I did some research on the effects of sleep. Here is a summary of what I learned (thanks to Dr. James Maas in his book “Power Sleep”):

• deep sleep allows the body to restore energy for future performance
• improves immune system; increases resistance to viral infection
• improves memory storage, retention, and organization
• enables learning

The impact of sleep deprivation are as follows:

• daytime drowsiness and/or loss of concentration
• mood changes, such as irritability and depression
• increase in stress and anxiety
• lack of interest in social activities
• weight gain (combination of increase in cortisol production and using food to increase alertness)
• reduced immunity to disease and infection
• loss of motivation
• reduced cognitive functions; in other words, decreased performance

The next time you think that by pulling an all-nighter you will be more productive, think again. Only by getting proper sleep can you be at peak performance.

In an audit, quality means having an opinion that is supported by the facts. The PCAOB defines what are acceptable procedures for gathering and testing facts.

Quality components to a manufacturing process means that the components work according to the specifications. If the lugnut fits, screws on tight, and doesn’t slip over time, it’s a quality lugnut.

A quality car can mean many things. To the consumer craving speed, quality is going from 0-60 faster than most cars. To the consumer craving mileage, it’s getting better gas mileage than most other cars.

In a project, a quality project manager is one who can get the results desired by the organization sponsoring the project. Results can include specifications in time, cost, and scope.

In all these examples, quality is defined not by the person or organization providing the good or service; it’s defined by the customer.

So if you want to know if you are doing a quality job, ask your customer. Better yet, ask your customer up front what quality on your project means to them. Then go out and overdeliver.

I was talking to an expert in project metrics research. I asked him what are the most accurate metrics for measuring project schedule status. Based on his research, the best metric for accurate project schedule status is the best guess of the person closest to the project. Not earned value, not % complete, not critical path completion, not critical chain completion. The most accurate metric is the best guess of the project manager.

That does not mean that these other tools don’t have value. In fact, I find them quite useful in giving me insight into how the project is proceeding. But it shows that many, if not all, of these metrics have flaws. The project manager is able to cover up these flaws by using her judgment of where the project is in reality.

So keep using metrics; keep gathering status; update your project plan; monitor status of risks, issues, costs, and schedule. But be sure to add your judgment of where you think things really are. Your project depends on it.

I had lunch today with Professor Kenn Sullivan at ASU. I first met Kenn when he gave a presentation on project management to my local PMI chapter. One of the primary conclusions of Kenn’s research is that project performance improves where there is accountability for results, and that accountability improves when risks have clear owners and consequences for failure (i.e. not mitigated). To make this work, the project manager asks each project team member what are the risks that they don’t control. For example, a vendor may be responsible for installing cable at a customer’s location. A risk the vendor does not control is if the customer will open the building when the vendor arrives. The project manager accumulates these risks in the risk register. As part of the planning process, the project manager coordinates a discussion of the vendor’s risk with the person who can resolve the risk, such as facilities. Facilities needs to own the risk mitigation, with clear consequences for not meeting requirements. For example, it may cost the vendor an additional $1,000 to install cable to cover the overtime charges for starting late, or for having to come the next day. This amount would be charged to facilities if they do not meet the agreed upon risk management plan.

However, instead of Facilities or the Vendor, the risk register should list an actual person. So if Jim Hodges of Facilities is responsible for addressing the vendor’s risk, Jim will be responsible for costing Facilities $1,000 if he doesn’t fulfill his assignment.

To make this process work, the risk register must be reviewed regularly by the project. Kenn told me of one project where the program manager had every team member responsible for a risk to sign off that they had reviewed the risk register. This simple act of reviewing the risk register led to higher levels of accountability.

This sounds simple, but may be challenging in practice. Human nature is to run from accountability. It takes a savvy project manager to create a system of accountability while dealing with the politics in many organizations. But project performance depends upon it. Without accountability, how can the project succeed?