A person is a person through (other) persons – Best Practice for Survival
Ubuntu is a concept that has become very popular in the past few years. It has been mentioned in speeches made by prominent statesmen and politicians, including Bill Clinton, and most of us have probably heard it as the name of the popular open source operating system for computers. It has entered the management world too.
Sergio Marchionne, Chief Executive Officer of both Chrysler Group LLC and Fiat S.p.A. uses it repeatedly when addressing his fellow employees (Gregoretti, M., 2006), and there are a number of websites and consultants mentioning the Ubuntu way as a source of inspiration and improvement.
Ubuntu is a philosophy, a social system, a set of values, rules and behaviours that allowed people and tribes in the southern parts of Africa to survive through famine, harsh conditions and hostile governments for centuries. It is not a religion, neither a set of codified norms. It is more a collection of cultural and ethical heritage, habits, behaviours and beliefs. In project management speech we would probably call it “best practices”.
Best practices that allowed them to manage what probably is the most difficult project of all: survival.
If Ubuntu helped people survive in difficult environments and countries transition and improve, there may be some concepts useful for the survival and success of projects, a very simple and “small” matter when compared with the aforementioned tasks.
In this blog section, I would like to gather your comments and opinions. To avoid confusion, I will be sharing a new ‘ubuntu subject’ every two weeks…your contribution will be most valued.
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