2021 International Year of Responsible Project Management

coming of age

In many societies, reaching the age of 21 years is considered the start of adulthood. For Universities, many undergraduates complete their first degree at this age to begin formal roles in society and industry as new professionals. 2021 is therefore an appropriate time for the profession of Project Management to assume its societal responsibilities.

context is changing …

COVID-19 has highlighted as never before the dependencies between society and economies across the globe. Before the pandemic, climate change was used to illustrate some of the challenges to delivering projects successfully. Achieving the targets for reduction in greenhouse gasses will require a huge number of projects and these projects success will need to harness behavioural change alongside delivering technical solutions. For illustrations see, for example, the 2019 report by the UK Committee on Climate Change. Social activism, such as climate strikes and Project Managers Declare, make successful project delivery more challenging than ever before. Pressure to rebuild businesses and economies in many parts of the world will add to the pressure on those managing projects.

business is changing …

Increasingly, professions such as Finance, Supply Chain management and Engineering are reshaping their activities to adapt to future realities.  Recovering from the effects of COVID-19 seems likely to take priority over concerns about climate change as the most pressing and urgent of the issues faced by society today. There will be a wide range of adaptations and challenges of concern to a majority of businesses and projects will face unprecedented complexity.

The UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) upon which Responsible Project Management is founded, integrate economy, society and the environment. Declaring 2012 as the Year of Responsible Project Management will contribute to the post-disaster recovery phase of the pandemic, accelerate progress towards achieving the SDGs and will contribute to building resilience for the future.

project management as a profession

Project Management is an emerging profession.  Professionalisation implies responsibility and we are making a declaration of responsibility, inviting support from all the major European professional bodies: IPMA, APM and PMI.   While there are geographical and some philosophical differences among the professional bodies, all the individual responses about the ethical and environmental dimensions of project management are valuable.  We now need to bring the Project Management Community together to articulate a set of shared values and practices that can guide professionals as they develop and deliver projects.  We are aiming to create a shared space where professionals can develop tools, techniques, experiences and research that addresses our shared responsibility for society and the environment.

sustainability in project management

To date, there have been successful sustainability and social value initiatives by all professional bodies.  We launched Responsible Project Management in 2018 to build on this work by developing initiatives that engage Project Professionals’ hearts as well as their minds. 

Our perspective is that Project Managers need to develop new beliefs about their role and their projects; advocate for beneficial change via the Projects, Programs and Portfolios that they are engaged with; and develop awareness of new tools, techniques and examples.  We seek to support project managers as they work towards assuming their societal responsibilities.  

Since launching the Manifesto for RPM, we have engaged Project Managers in Europe, Asia and the United States from all professional bodies via our events, website and social media engagement.  Our work has attracted support from APM, PMI, IPMA, the UK Major Projects Knowledge Hub and the Association of Sustainability Practitioners.  We have been invited to participate at events, blogs, podcasts and webinars.  In November 2019, our work was recognised with three Awards from PMI UK.

the campaign

The Responsible Project Management Team is coordinating a campaign in 2021 that will incorporate at least 21 events that will be accessible to all Project Professionals. We are aiming for a series of virtual events that will be accessible around the world.  In addition, and subject to the lifting of restrictions currently in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we anticipate physical events hosted at universities in the UK and Europe. Later in 2021 we expect to launch an online Community of Practice/Special Interest Group (the Responsible PM Academy) that is accessible to learners and professionals from at least 21 countries.  This campaign, RPM2021, will involve 2021 being declared as the “International Year of Responsible Project Management”.