Becoming a Sustainable Organization's Global Impact

My book, Becoming a Sustainable Organization, is a primer on embedding sustainability and corporate social responsibility into an organization's culture by leveraging human capital management professionals and project management professionals. While the world of creating and maintaining a regenerative organization is constantly evolving, the tools, techniques, case studies, and best practices outlined in the book provide a strong foundation for those undertaking these challenges.

I am very pleased to share that globally, many academic researchers have used my work to support their own research on creating a more sustainable and socially responsible organization. Here is an excerpt of some of the research citing my book. Further citations can be found at Google Scholar.

Becoming a Localist in South Jersey

If you are interested in the Localist movement, you will want to check out the current edition of South Jersey Biz. It includes the Annual Resource Directory for businesses that serve our South Jersey communities and businesses. As a 2017 winner of Best of Biz, HRComputes is proud to be included in the directory. If you are looking for a product, service or business partner, I encourage you to reference the directory and to support these local New Jersey businesses.

South Jersey Biz

At HRComputes we can provide guidance on human capital information system selection and implementation. We have over 30 years of experience making your human capital software work for your organization.

Through our Becoming Sustainable division, we provide strategic guidance at the intersection of human capital and social impact. Current projects include Female Empowerment and Building More Sustainable Teams.

Visit us at HRComputes or Becoming Sustainable

Celebrating IPM Day with Nokia

We are pleased to be part of the Nokia International PM Day Symposium and to support Nokia’s PM Community with our thought leadership and presentation on the topic: "Building a More Sustainable Project Outcome." 

The theme of this year’s event is “Together”, and the response from Nokia is that their PMs' really felt that the presentations from this year’s symposium came together to create a meaningful and valuable experience.

It’s very early, yet already, hundreds of individuals have started to download and watch our webinar. The feedback has been resoundingly positive.

If you wish to view the webinar, please access the following link.

Building A More Sustainable Project Outcome

International Project Management Day 11/2/17

Happy International Project Management Day. To celebrate, Kristina Kohl, MBA, PMP, Principal of Becoming Sustainable presents "Building a More Sustainable Project Outcome" for Nokia's International PM Day. Global project management professionals are learning about:

1. Sustainable Development Goals and the Triple Bottom Line  
2. The Sustainability Journey and the Value Added by Project Management Methodologies
3. Projects and Best Practices for Embedding Sustainability into Organizations
4. Case Studies and Tools for Building a More Sustainable Project Outcome

Project managers can have a significant impact by driving organizational environmental, social, and governance vision through the PM process. Here are some ideas:

1. Incorporate Sustainability Criteria into the Portfolio Selection Process
2. Align Project Benefits with Business and Sustainability Goals
3. Engage Diverse Stakeholders
4. Create Organizational Value by Embedding Sustainability into Program Management Methodologies
5. Provide a Vehicle for Addressing Organizational Challenges and New Opportunities
6. Promote a Culture of Sustainability Through Adopting Sustainability as a Component of All Projects

How is your organization celebrating International PM Day?

Kristina Kohl Speaks at the Pyramid Club Author Night

 Kristina Kohl spoke about key topics from her book, “Becoming a Sustainable Organization”, on June 8 at the Pyramid Club in Philadelphia. The large crowd not only listened intently, but also participated in a lively discussion facilitated by Ms. Kohl. The attendees held a wide variety of professions including graduate students, engineers, and small business owners. Kristina engaged the gathering through discussion questions and real-world examples. After the presentation, people stayed to discuss sustainable strategy for their own businesses as well as for the United States as a whole.

“Becoming a Sustainable Organization: A Project and Portfolio Management Approach” provides tools to organizations as they embark on their sustainability journey. Through case studies, best practices, and lessons learned, organizations gain the techniques to drive change. The book highlights ways to engage both internal and external stakeholders in order to promote natural and social capital.     

It examines the role human capital management professionals and policies play in ensuring that employees become fully engaged in sustainability. The book is available at https://www.crcpress.com/Becoming-a-Sustainable-Organization-A-Project-and-Portfolio-Management/Kohl/p/book/9781498700818

 

                     

The Sustainability WheelTM

Driving Project, Program and Portfolio Success: The Sustainability Wheel by authors Richard Maltzman and David Shirley is another great resource for project management professionals who are seeking to drive the concepts of sustainability into their organization’s project, program, and portfolio processes. Using The Sustainability Wheel^TM , they have identified 6 key interrelated components that are critical for embedding sustainability into to project management process. While the approach is relevant for individual project managers, it seeks to address the enterprise level through focusing on the PMO level in order to develop systemic protocols that impact organization wide projects, programs, and portfolios.

This book is structured to help the reader understand how an organization is connected to sustainability.  In order to explain these connection points, the authors utilize the parts of the wheel to connect to the road leading toward a more sustainable organization. The book contains many case studies and real life examples of these practices.

 Rich and Dave have a great deal of project management experience and the bridge that they build between the project management profession and the core concepts of sustainability-people, planet, and profit-serve as a useful guide to project management professionals. The authors are winners of the 2011 David I. Cleland Project Management Literature Award.

It is a must read. Enjoy your sustainability journey!

Driving Project, Program, and Portfolio Success

Kristina Kohl, MBA, PMP

Author of Becoming a Sustainable Organization: A Project and Portfolio Management Approach

Becoming a Sustainable Organization

People, Planet, Profits, and Projects

People, Planet, Profits and Projects

The aforementioned piece provides great insight and tools to promote sustainability within the field of project management. The author, Rich Maltzman draws on findings from the survey that Kristina Kohl co authored with Tom Baker and Pedro Echeverria for PMI entitled "The Voice pf Sustainability Project Managers." The original survey can be found here.Voice of PM

Accelerating IT Success Article

Check out Kris' article entitled Becoming a Sustainable Organization published in Accelerating IT Success by Computer Aid. 

The headlines are full of reports on organizational compliance lapses, ethical missteps, environmental cover-ups, and social disconnects with key stakeholder groups. Yet the number of public companies reporting on environmental, social, and governance metrics has increased significantly over the past several years. If companies are incorporating sustainability into their mission statements, why do they continue to have environmental, social, and governance compliance problems? There is a performance gap between organizational sustainability vision and implementation of strategy because it isn’t being fully incorporated into the culture of the organization. Why is it so difficult to create a culture of sustainability that embeds valuing natural and social capital into the daily operations of an organization? Because it requires engaging the workforce and fundamentally changing policies, processes, and people in order to drive the sustainability vision forward.
Click here to continue reading

ITMPI Webinar -Becoming a Sustainable Organization

Recently, Kristina presented an ITPro webinar entitled Becoming a Sustainable Organization hosted by ITMPI to over 165 attendees who received PMI PDU credit.The focus of the webinar was to help project management professionals gain sustainability knowledge and skills to embed sustainability into project management methodologies in order to close the gap between their organization's sustainable vision and benefits realization. If you missed the webinar it is available in the ITMPI Library Becoming a Sustainable Organization  with a short clip available on YouTube Clip.

If you are interested in having Kristina speak at your conference or event, please email Kris@Becomingsustainable.org. Kristina's book Becoming a Sustainable Organization: A Project and Portfolio Management Approach is available through CRC Press and Amazon.

Project Managers Embrace Sustainability!

At the PMI Global Congress in Barcelona, sustainability was a hot topic with several presenters including our own, Kristina Kohl presenting on the topic. Kris’ session “Closing the Gap Between Sustainable Strategy and Implementation” focused on the impact that project managers can have in driving organizations toward sustainable strategy benefit realization. Topics discussed included identifying drivers of sustainability as well as barriers creating misalignment between sustainability vision and organizational adoption. The session focused on solutions to drive sustainability in people, process, and policy through the project management process. Leveraging project management professionals’ expertise and skills around driving and managing change within organizations has a significant impact. In order for organizations to address global challenges and to create new opportunities, projects that drive innovation and new solutions must be prioritized. In order successfully transform, leadership must create a culture that promotes incorporating triple bottom line (people, planets, and profit) criteria and requirements into all projects. Sustainable strategy requires taking a long-term view to create organizational value.

Kristina is the author of  Becoming a Sustainable Organization: A Project and Portfolio Management Approach. Conference attendees were the first to see the recently released title. Their response to both the book and presentation was overwhelmingly positive. For a brief glimpse at their reactions, checkout the #PMICongress Twitter feed for information sharing and comments.

Interestingly, many of the messages that I shared in my session were echoed in the remarks of Mark Stevenson, the Closing Keynote Speaker. Mark is an author, speaker, and advisor; He is an expert on global trends and innovation. He sits on the advisory boards of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Earth Challenge, future-literacy hub Atlas of the Future, and a start-up incubator Mass Challenge UK.  Through his advisory role, he meets many wealth individuals who understand the value of moral leadership. In the age of the millennial, philanthropy is social capital. Having the most “stuff” doesn’t give one influence and power anymore. These leaders are interested in engaging employees on ways to make a better future for all of us. Developing solutions to global challenges such as air quality, water shortages, resource limitations, poverty, and social inequity requires an optimistic outlook.  Leaders need to undertake ambitious projects that allow for mistakes. We learn from our mistakes. Take a long-term view that allows for innovation, new ideas, and engagement. In order to meet current and future challenges we need to be willing to adapt and change. Mark says, “Companies are brave or dead.” Which do you want to be?

As leaders and project management professionals, I challenge all of you to take up the mantle to drive sustainable change within all of our organizations.