MyProjectAdvisor Newsletter
August 2009
In 2003, a corrupt deal between Boeing and the US Air Force became what CBS news called “the biggest Pentagon scandal in 20 years.” Darleen Druyun, an Air Force civilian official who was in the process of being hired by Boeing nearly succeeded in hugely inflating the price of a contract to favor her future employer, as well sharing information with their competitor, Airbus. The project was frozen in the face of an investigation, as government officials and taxpayers expressed shock and outrage.
Few would disagree that Druyun's actions, along with those of the people who cooperated with her, constituted an ethics violation. However, ethics is not an issue solely for large government procurement. Just this summer, Prince William County in Virginia, USA, uncovered one of the largest bid-rigging and embezzlement scandals in county history in its IT department. Four men have been charged with siphoning $9 million in work money into shell companies they created. In terms of ethics violations, even this instance, which will likely remain a fairly local news item, seems clearcut. But where do ethics come in on the smaller project decisions that we face on a routine basis?
For example, imagine you are leading a high-stakes, strategic project that will be cut if performance flounders. By consciously padding your resource needs, you can provide the extra time and cost needed to be sure your team will look good, even though you know this means tying up resources needed for other projects within the company. What is the ethical thing to do?
Or in the case of contract decisions, is it ethical to allow yourself to be swayed by gifts or entertainment? Or perhaps you have tied up a critical resource on your project when a better project plan would have allowed it to be used more efficiently.
With these smaller decisions, it is easy to convince yourself that whatever you decide can't possibly have too bad of an effect on the company overall, or even that you deserve a little something extra – whether money or the approval of your team - for all your hard work. But when we begin to judge the worthiness of an action by its imagined (negligible) consequences, we begin a journey down a steep slippery slope to greater dishonesties.
In times when money and resources are tight, high ethical standards are more important than ever. The ability to make consistently ethical decisions, even in difficult circumstances, requires honesty and courage, two characteristics that are built up through small everyday decisions. In order to be true service-based project leaders, we must have the strength to make the needs of others our priority, and make decisions based on high ethical standards. If we are consistently honest in our smaller, routine decisions, we will have the strength to be honest in the face of large ones as well.
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Links of Interest
New audio review of the “Build your Service-Based Leadership Skills” PM Lectures available here: http://project-reflex.com/podcastgen_Eng/
New review posted for “The Strategic Project Leader” on PMLectures, a downloadable lecture introducing Jack's book, worth 2.5 PDUs. Check it out here!
Interview with the Project Management Podcast (TM) on what it takes to be a successful project leader - give it a listen!
Great things come to those who serve!
Sincerely
Jack Ferraro PMP
President MyProjectAdvisor
Order Now,"The Strategic Project Leader: Mastering Service-based Project Leadership"
