The recent rains across Northern California and the snowfall in the Sierra have provided us with a needed reprieve concerning the long drought we have been facing. It has given us a chance to breathe for a second, but it has also given us a glimpse into what climate change will look like if we don’t implement stronger policies and practices now. One example of the new policies is the recently released document titled “San Francisco’s Climate Action Plan 2021,” which is a 136-page plan that covers everything from racial equity to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to transportation and land use; to name just a few of the topics. The plan is ambitious and a great step in the right direction towards enhanced sustainability and great potential to positively impact our economy. That said, because it is an ambitious and multi-faceted plan, it is crucial to start with the most appropriate management approach; whether projected, program, or portfolio management.
To take one example, land use and transportation directly impact and/or are impacted by social equity, which involves detailed and thorough stakeholder, risk, and change management, since land use is a sensitive subject. On the one hand, you have property owners who want to garner the highest rate of return on their investments, which is normal. Then, on the other hand, you have people and advocates trying to obtain adequate housing, which is a basic human need. Therefore, it is essential to properly engage the various key stakeholders and address their expectations and needs; identify all risks, both positive and negative, which can respectively enhance the project outcomes or negatively impact its success; and, finally, change management is crucial to help people at all levels, and from all direction of the land-use issue, understand the need for change, as well as understand the benefits of the potential changes to policy, organizational structure, and the way they have been doing business.
The rest of this decade will pose interesting challenges and their corresponding benefits to our overall environment, our city, and various communities because of the climate action plan and people’s desire to see urban improvement and improved quality of life, which we desperately need. To that end, there will be countless projects emerging from the new policies, which means that it is an exciting time for almost every industry, but especially in the project, program, and portfolio management fields. However, moving forward, almost any new endeavor, which will result in a new result or product (i.e., project), will require even more hands-on, adaptable, and rigorous oversight and leadership, which are the essentials of effective and efficient project management.
We at PM Workshops provide consulting and training in project management to accomplish success in all projects and coach our clients to enhance their abilities and achieve both their project and organizational goals that will also positively impact our city and the overall global ecosystem.
