The Story of Responsible Project Management
Six stakeholder types in the logo
june 2018
We chose the term ‘Responsible’ to build on the idea of Responsible Management and a UN initiative called PRME (Principles of Responsible Management Education) that supports the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The term ‘sustainable’ was already widely used in project management to emphasise impact on the environment - and this is clearly needed. We suggested that ‘responsible’ might highlight the role of society (as well as the environment) in influencing projects . One early proposal was that project decision-making needs to incorporate the requirements of a wide range of stakeholders including local communities, wider society, biodiversity and finite, natural resources. The idea of a project professional balancing and juggling a range of different perspectives is reflected in our logo.
Social learning in action
july 2018
A social learning workshop was hosted at Bournemouth University to explore what ‘being responsible’ might mean in the context of project management. The workshop brought together practitioners, educators, researchers and students, from a range of disciplines and industries to extend traditional project management thinking. We took inspiration from the call for action by the Project Management Profession on Climate Change and a collaboration that used future visioning to create Future of Project Management.
First edition of the Guide
november 2018
With the output from our workshop compiled into a Guide to Responsible Project Management, we were ready for our London event, “Creative Futures in Projects, Programmes and Portfolios”, hosted by UCL as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science. The Guide was created using insights gained from collaboration with Gwyn Jones (Director, the Association of Sustainability Practitioners), the Association for Project Management, the Project Management Institute (UK Chapter), Rob Leslie-Carter (Arup), Prof Darren Dalcher, Prof Andrew Edkins, Prof Gilbert Silvius and the many project professionals, academics and students who kindly shared their insights. It was the beginning of a journey.