In case you’re still busy writing up your goals for 2009, you might want to consider educating yourself in project management. Yes, even if your job title tells you you’re not a Project Manager.

Two weeks ago, me and two colleagues had the privilege of taking part in TenStep’s Project Management Preparation for Success course. Not because after both our directors became PMP accredited earlier this year we have to pursuit the same career path, but because all of us face projects on a day to day basis, as a project is work that:

• Has a defined start and end-date
• Has a defined scope, finite budget, specific end result (or deliverables) and assigned resources.
• Is unique
• Is managed according to the size, complexity and criticality
• Is not routine work / support / maintenance / operations

Based on this definition you might realise that you actually manage projects as well, although you wouldn’t consider yourself a “Project Manager”. We found it valuable to upskill ourselves as being able to apply a methodology adds value by managing projects more effectively, reducing errors, minimizing risk, improving communication, in order to deliver better quality that can be measured.

The TenStep Model

To me the TenStep course was very much a hands-on, in a perfect pace, with a good level of (practical) detail. In addition, the course material comes with a number of templates that can be used to manage projects.

The next opportunity to participate in this workshop is 20-22 January (Johannesburg) and 11-13 February (Cape Town). You can read more about the course here, and read more about the TenStep Project Management Process here.

I noticed the ‘New Ideas’ section at the IOL News homepage the other day. Isn’t it amazing how new product innovation happens every day? What I like about it is that innovation doesn’t necessarily need to be radical (we can’t all be Steve Jobs). In fact, every business that is solving a problem is innovative in a way. It’s about finding a solution to make things better.

Our team had a Creative Thinking session with Truida Prekel of SynNovation, and although I was a bit skeptical beforehand (thought I knew all about innovation), this was exceptionally practical and it was a lot of fun to practice the tools she taught us with our team. The tools allowed us to think out of the box to find other solutions that we commonly think of. Besides, she explored different communication techniques with us, to become more aware of our behaviour in interacting with others. Very valuable when it comes to teamwork and creating buy-in of colleagues for new ideas.

In October 2008 I enjoyed the privilege of visiting the Elephant Nature Park near the city of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand which provides a safe home to rescued elephants who were previously abused and neglected.

The Elephant Nature Foundation is a non-profit organization which advocates and acts on behalf of the rights of Asian elephants in Thailand. Their mission is to increase awareness about the plight of the endangered Asian elephant, educate locals on the humane treatment of their elephants, and provide sanctuary for rescued elephants at the nature park.

Founded by Lek Chailert, Lek and her Elephant Nature Park has been documented in numerous publications around the world.
In spending the day at the sanctuary, I experienced such sadness for the cruelty of humans. However, life’s ying-yang empowers one person like Lek Chailert to be courageous and do what is right. Along with international support from mainly the USA and UK, she and her team have created a place where elephants can live out the rest of their lives in dignity. I believe that these intelligent animals give back in their own way: I carry that experience in my heart.

Roll back to earlier this year, when we visited the Elephant Sanctuary near Plettenberg Bay in South Africa where Chris Kruger and his team are doing equally fantastic work for these amazing animals. The Elephant Sanctuary provides a “halfway house” or temporary home for African elephants in need of a home and is the only elephant sanctuary in South Africa that provides in this way for elephants. “It is our vision to release all the elephants back into a semi wilderness area once they are older and experienced enough to fend for themselves in this type of environment”, says Chris.

I salute those individuals who have a thought about making wrongs better, act on it and make it work. We cannot all make the same sort of difference, but we can do our own bit by supporting those who take the lead in any format that we are able to.

In hosting a year end dinner party for friends during the week, I was quite taken aback by the amount of plastic waste I had generated in preparation for the cheese, fruit and wine event.

Being busy and not keen on cleaning and chopping, the bulk of the food was prepared and packaged: all I had to do was open and flip the various containers. When I concluded my preparation, I realised that I would fill the kitchen bin to the brim if I put all these plastics in there. I then figured: wash 'em, and see if the shops where I bought these items (fruit, prepackaged snacks, cheese) from, have a recycling program. Surely it is not optimal to send all these perfectly well functioning, re-usable plastic containers to the rubbish dump where it will not degrade in my lifetime.

However, before I could contact the various stores, this morning I was driving back from a fun run (where again it struck me how so very many plastic water sachets were handed out during the run that once used, would end up in a landfill) and voila!!: six trucks bearing the name: Wasteplan entered the N2 ahead of me. Once home, I logged onto www.wasteplan.co.za to find a wealth of information on recycling. I followed the link to www.petco.co.za and wow!

During the week I “accumulated” more plastic food and water containers and stored them in my garage in a couple of shopping bags. My key observation: It is indeed astounding how many items we ditch in the bin that can be recycled. So, my garage now has 7 large shopping bags as part of my recycling program. From the Petco website I printed the following to structure my plastics recycling system as follows:

PLASTICS IDENTIFICATION LOGOS

Under plastics containers, there is an identification logo that contains a number in order for the plastic to be correctly identified to assist with recycling, and these should be separated for recycling.

NUMBER DESCRIPTION APPLICATION

1. PET Polyethylene Terephthalate Cooldrink, juice and water bottles, jars e.g. peanut butter, salad dressings, oil, cosmetics and some household cleaners and food trays
2. PE-HD High Density Polyethylene Motor oils, crates, milk bottles, some domestic cleaning, some cosmetics and toiletries
3. PVC Polyvinyl Chloride Clear trays for food packaging, toiletries, blister packs, chocolates, soft clear vinyl pouches (in the main now replaced by PET) (White line visible when folded)
4. PE-LD Low Density Polyethylene Garbage bags, frozen veggie bags, building film and some soft squeezable bottles, cosmetic tubes, dust covers and shrouds
5. PP Polypropylene Bottle caps and closures, battery cases, cups and plates, hinged or pill containers, buckets, flexible yoghurt containers
6. PS Polystyrene Disposable cups and plates, rigid yoghurt containers, foamed styrene trays, cosmetic tubs, audio and video cassettes, CD and DVD covers, retail coat hangers and toys (cracks easily when squashed)
7. Other (Largely not recyclable)
   

PA+PE-LD (Example) other could refer to nylon and low density polyethylene laminates; vacuum packaged meat, cheeses. Mainly multi-layer and specialised packaging.

Simply by thinking and relooking, I am geared to recycle. In my visits to Japan and Germany over the last 7 years, I envied their recycling culture and discipline. Go South Africa!!

At Pétanque we are constantly looking at ways to be “GREENER”: RELOOK RETHINK RECYCLE is a very do-able contribution we can make.

By: Michélle Booysen

Other runners probably can relate: the one race isn’t like the other. I did a half marathon last Saturday, one in which I battled last year, and with that mind-set I prepared for the race. On race day I noticed the map with the route on the wall at the registration, and I decided to break the race up into 3 pieces: the road to the loop, the loop itself, and then back to the stadium. These bite sizes made this race so much more chewable! I finished 2 minutes faster, and enjoyed the race much more.

This bite size approach is what we now offer with VizPro® as well: we offer a two day workshop to map (document & analyse) a particular process that is critical to your business. Once you decide the project offers you the desired value and you’re comfortable with the taking the next lap we proceed documenting and analysing other processes. For the fast decision makers: If you schedule a project for 2009 by the end of this month, we will develop a positioning map with you free of charge. Read more about a pilot project here. The benefits? A project that is easy to manage (it’s short), and that won’t put too much strain on your resources. Contact us for an enjoyable run!