March 28 2025 at 08:00AM
A Sustainable Future in Project Management
This year, I had the opportunity to attend the PMI Leadership Institute Volunteer Planning Meeting in Austin, Texas. As a proud member of the Sustainability Outreach Committee, this experience was both enlightening and stimulating, reinforcing my commitment to sustainable practices in project management.
The conference, held in early 2025, brought together over 150 global attendees, each representing more than 10 PMI volunteer committees. The sheer diversity of participants and the wealth of knowledge shared was a testament to the dynamic and inclusive nature of the Project Management Institute (PMI).
The keynote speaker, Mick Ebeling of Not Impossible Labs, assisted our committee members in brainstorming their purpose and considering both large and small impacts. He reminded us that many things we use today were once considered IMPOSSIBLE, such as computers and chairs. The process involved thinking of one action that could help one person, with the idea that helping one person would encourage others to do the same, creating a ripple effect. This set the tone for the rest of the conference, highlighting the importance of innovation and collaboration.
The Sustainable Outreach Committee met with the Next Gen Outreach Committee as well as the Francophone Outreach Committee to learn how we can support each other and work together on events and share outreach ideas.
We also had lots of time to plan the goals for the committee for the year including webinars, chapter outreach and surveys.
I learned more about PMI’s goal to Maximize Project Success to Elevate our World and the M.O.R.E framework.
M.O.R.E stands for Manage Perceptions, Own Project Success beyond Project Management Success, Relentlessly Reassess Project Parameters and Expand Perspective.
In my opinion, M.O.R.E ties into sustainability as project managers have the skills, we need to take on new challenges, be leaders in an emerging industry, listen to and influence stakeholders as we enter a time where sustainability is especially important. The ‘E’ in M.O.R.E explains it succinctly “Expand Perspective: All projects have impacts beyond just the scope of the project itself. We all must consider the broader picture and how the project fits within the larger business, goals or objectives of the enterprise, and ultimately, our world.”
The closing keynote was Tom Urban author of The Story of Us, What’s our Problem and the Wait but Why blog.
Urban discussed his Chef vs Cook theory – in this example a chef is someone who invents recipes and a cook is someone who follows the recipes.
Cooks span a wide range from those who follow the recipe to a T and those who improvise. 
Urban spoke on how we can be both a chef and a cook depending on the situation. Sometimes we need to dig in and figure out a new way of working by putting on our chef hat. Sometimes we need to stay the course and put on our cook hat.
If you translate this into project management work, it could be a brand-new technology or new group of stakeholders, so we need to be more of a chef to achieve project success. If it is a routine upgrade the cook hat might be more appropriate. BUT we could bring a little bit of the chef with us in our everyday tasks! When I think of incorporating sustainability into my everyday it can be overwhelming and may seem that what you do will not make a difference and that is where the chef hat comes in. Even if you do not have the power to change your company's policy you can put on your chef hat and think, do we have to do it this way? Can we try X and see what happens? Could I recommend we price out hardware that is more energy efficient? Could I recommend a companywide initiative that focuses on volunteering?
Not Impossible Labs and the chef vs cook theory works together, if you think of helping one person and use your chef hat the possibilities are endless.
In addition to the workshops, there were numerous networking opportunities. I connected with fellow volunteers from around the world from Brazil, Poland, South Africa, New Zealand and more! These exchanges were invaluable, providing fresh ideas and fostering collaborations.
Stay tuned for updates as I begin my work with the Sustainability Outreach Committee and “We maximize project success to elevate our world” and leave you with this quote from Steve Jobs:
“When you grow up, you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money. That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact. And that is: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”
References:
https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/11/the-cook-and-the-chef-musks-secret-sauce.html
