Solution of Cross Cultural Project Management

Successful Strategies for Global Projects By Alicia Trelles-Duckett on August 23, 2012 720 No doubt installations in other geographies come with their own inherent set of challenges. Currency fluctuations centralize versus local procurement languages time zones. And those ar even before considering difficulties repayable to the particular technology being deployed, or the source of sp ar parts, or infrastructure in the country. This discussion aims to introduce a technique which prat help you increase the acceptance of your initiative in other geographies, as well as resolve any disagreements quickly and with much ameliorate team spirit.No, it is not the traditional Project Management methodology I will not start extolling here the virtues of the Project Charter. The dissimulation ingredient in international projects, as I hold back observed throughout 18 years of successfully deploying such, is treating our colleagues from other countries in a manner which puts them at ease . Notice that this recommendation goes well past the drop old adage Treat those from other countries with sensitivity. That much is obvious, and we would for certain(p) try to conduct ourselves thus.The recommendation is to approach colleagues from another geography with a demeanor they would find in their own country. In other words, if you are dealing with Brazilians, try to act Brazilian as you collaborate with them if you are take a craping with a Finn, try to act Finnish. So how do we develop a good picture of what acting Australian or acting Japanese might entail? Fortunately, theres minute research on intercultural cooperation we can consult. Fons Trompenaars Riding the Waves of Culture, or Nancy Adlers external Dimensions of Organizational Behavior are some of the best books on the intercultural topic.My own(prenominal) favourite in the intercultural arena, as relevant today as when its archetypical edition was publish in the UK in 1991, is Cultures and Organizations Software of the Mind by Dr. Geert Hofstede. The ground-breaking contribution of Dr. Hofstedes research is that, through thousands of surveys of IBM professionals in dozens of countries, he is able to arrive at a numerical value for certain elements or dimensions which fasten up Culture. So for example, we learn that Malaysia, on average, has the highest tag (104) for Power Distance, meaning that as a grouping they are uite comfortable accepting power inequalities in society. At the other extreme, wide Britain and Canada have low specify headway (35 and 39 respectively), which translate into a control dependence of subordinates on their bosses. In other words, British and Canadian employees (as a group) are not afraid to approach their bosses or disagree with them. other useful discussion centers around the topic of collectivistic cultures (where the interest of the group prevails over the interest of the individual) compared to individualistic cultures (in which the interest s of the individual prevail).It comes as no surprisal that the country with the highest individualism score is the USA (91), closely followed by Australia (90). At the other extreme, the countries with the lowest individualism scores are Ecuador (8) and Guatemala (6). Personally, I have leveraged his findings to arrive at the following communication paradigms, in order to make my counterparts in other geographies more at ease as we treat and coordinate project milestones. It has proven a huge advantage, as the largest difficulties in technology projects are not about the technology. They are about people.With colleagues from Latin America (Venezuela, Panama, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia) and certain Asian countries (Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia) with large acceptance of power, Stress polish off definitions what constitutes in- background knowledge vs. out-of-scope Stress the benefit to the whole project/company Stress checkpoints for scope verification Lively exchange, having fun, yet sticking to the rules With collegaues from Northern/Western atomic number 63/Australia/New Zealand, which exhibit large individualism, Have all the facts, be deciding(prenominal) Recognize the contribution of these colleagues Relaxed approach, not stressing hierarchy Sell/negotiate work deliverables Stress value of the project to their particular unit How would you know a countrys Individualism (IDV) or Power Distance (PDI) scores? The best source would be Dr. Hofstedes book. Alternatively, ITIM International has kindly published the scores in the website http//www. geert-hofstede. com/ I hope you find these recommendations useful and that they make you successful in your next international project. For more resources, see the subroutine library topic Projec http//managementhelp. org/blogs/project-management/2012/08/23/successful-strategies-for-global-projects/