I tried to get these questions posed through the SMP website, but it didn’t work…or maybe the first one seemed to work and was validated but then it doesn’t show up.

So I am sending these in to you through this mechanism:

1. How can increasing the diversity of a project team enhance its operation and results?

(Eli thought that this topic might be ahead of its time, given that “diversity” is not a trend/concept that is washing over Switzerland in the way that it has in the United States…I remember when I came to work at IMD in the early 1990s and my MBA friend had just taken a job at P&G and was talking about how Diversity was the new flavour. This concept seems to have new wind beneath its sails with the growing awareness of minority communities (transexuals being at the forefront). But we could even leave it just at “women” being included to enhance diversity. Last night, I participated in a local council meeting where Aubonne-based “sociétés” had the opportunity to present themselves to the Cultural Commission. First up was Jeunesses de l’Aubonne. As part of their description delivered by a couple of (male) teenagers, I was shocked to learn that, having been founded in 1062, it was not that many years ago that the association formally allowed girls to join as members, and that they were the first in Switzerland to do so. Shocking!

2. Are there ways in which organisations can better manage attrition/succession/onboarding to enhance project results (or at least, minimize negative impacts)?

Background: In my UN work, I notice (increasingly) that the urge and expectation of Project Managers to continue ever more quickly up their career path (which can also mean sideways, not only up…but it’s the move, move, move that is having an effect. For instance, the project that I am currently evaluation for UNEP: the Project Manager left in Jan 2019, at which point, the 3-year project had another 9 months to run (a sideways shift to another programme in the same building). It took UNEP an entire year to identify and recruit (an internal!!!) replacement. So the new project manager arrived in Jan 2020. By this time, the project had to ask for a “no cost” extension, which was granted until June 2020. The project was granted another extension to Dec 2020 (blamed on COVID, but methinks it was primarily related to the previous attribution and poorly planned succession). This type of thing is rampant over the UN system. I evaluated a project last year in Liberia where the Project Manager was offered another contract by another UN organisation and she jumped on it, as she only had 3 months left on her current contract

3. Procurement effects on project management.

In the UN system, agencies are changing their approaches to shift cost and risk to contractors (individuals and companies). They are also being motivated to shift to lower levels of contracts in order to avoid having to do competitive tenders. This whole area is a morass. Maybe it is different in the public sector….but it could be worth exploring as gig economy generates very similar issues