People and Projects in a Culture of Health for Business (CoH4B)

Success Problem

Culture of Health for Business (CoH4B) places health and wellbeing centre stage in projects, enabling healthier choices. CoH4B is both the ‘way we do things around here’ and a way forward. It means creating a context of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, integrating ethical, financial and, naturally, environmental aspects. It concerns quality of life and optimising potential.

Impact

2.1 Projects are more successful as a result of good health, and when they encompass co-workers, customers, community and the environment – the four CoH4B pillars. Leadership underpins it all, as with any excellent project. 2.2 Increasingly health-conscious stakeholders will drive projects to meet their demands for health and wellbeing. This will require project managers to genuinely care about health in a broader context, not just safety, absence of disease or infirmity. Setting the right context, ensuring sustainable practices and open communication will be essential ingredients of project success, both on-site and remote. 2.3 A Culture of Health brings a range of broader possibilities to augment the appeal and utility of sustainable or ‘green’ project management. However, the concept is still new, complex and many may see ‘healthy business’ as just an HR issue. Yet CoH4B offers potential to significantly widen the range of situations where we can apply sustainable and regenerative practices. 2.4 In CoH4B, project managers can improve business performance via greater productivity, lower costs and more benefits. Above all, it brings new openings to create value for stakeholders - and an environment where they can thrive.

Recommendation

Project managers should: 3.1 Widen scope, awareness and responsibility for ensuring that CoH4B takes root in projects to ensure future success. 3.2 Extend the use of CoH4B metrics as a basis for managing and assessing projects better. 3.3 Lead through collaboration to set the context for CoH4B: sharing a clear purpose across the team, creating space for sharing and listening, enabling knowledge-sharing and asking questions. 3.4 Leverage the opportunities of CoH4B to change existing culture. by prioritising the organisation’s business needs and mapping them to CoH4B’s 4 pillars - team members, customers, community and environment.

Category

• Project Communication
• Leadership
• Ethics & Culture & Value