At work, our complaints sound like … “Bill’s cluttered workspace drives me nuts!”, “I wish Mary would stand up for herself, she makes all us women look bad.”, “The boss never says anything to the Sales guy when he’s late to meetings, but he call me on the carpet every time. I hate favoritism.”  (Go on, recite your list of home-grown complaints to really get in the spirit!)

If we aren’t complaining about others, we complain about our selves: “Why do I keep saying ‘yes’ when I already have plenty to do?”  “I’m such a wimp. I just shut down when it even looks like an argument’s brewing.” “Everyone expects an answer right away and I don’t work well that way. But they stand there and pressure me and that just makes it harder for me to think.”  If it’s not others or ourselves, then it’s the system or the economy or something. “Do you believe it? The bridge took my bumper out!”

I don’t mind complaints. I do mind hearing the same complaint over and over and over again. I mind because I don’t like people to think they are victims.(There’s probably some other deep-seeded psychological reason, but, hey, i only have so much space here! If I had more space, i could say even more profound things. Darn limitation!)  Luckily, many years ago, a colleague introduced me to 3types of complaints which ended (not entirely, of course) my days as a victim and began my reign as a champion complainer. Here’s what I learned.

Type 1. Recreational complaint. With this kind of complaint, there’s no intention to change or solve anything. There’s no request.  My father-in-law in AZ complains about the weather: “It’s always blue skies. Our weather is boring!”  My friend in Oregon complains: It’s another dreary day in Portland. I guess I’ll get my umbrella and take a walk.” No one takes these seriously. They can be annoying, but there’s little harm in them. They are more a conversation starter, more akin to social grease.

Type 2. Expressive complaint.  Like the recreational complaint, there’s no intention to change or solve anything. There’s no request. “I can’t believe the new leader. He didn’t even send our department an invitation to the all staff meeting. He told our manager we were probably too busy because it was tax time.” There’s danger in this kind of a complaint. If this is as far as the conversation goes, it leaves both parties discouraged and in a mood of being a victim. It sucks the life out of the relationship and possibility.

Type 3. Committed complaint. Unlike the previous two types, this complaint includes a request for a change. “I am sending a request by Friday to the CEO that no department is left out of any whole staff meeting.”  No victims here. Speaking that interrupts the drift of the status quo. By the way, if you are the listener of an expressive complaint, I invite you to ask the complainer, “Do you have a request?”  If they look at you funny, congratulations!  You’ve interrupted the nattering! As a bonus, you may have been removed from the list of people to whom they complain. Hey, I just saved you 3 hours a week of energy-sucking time!

Complain committedly.  Make a request, listen for the response, (accept, decline or counteroffer).  Do this and you’ll stop sounding like a victim and you’ll start complaining like the champion I know you are – a champion who chooses “make it happen” and kicks “poor me” attitude to the curb.

PS: Share the most awesome complaint you’ve heard and I’ll add it to my “Complainers Wall of Champions”!

PPS: Want to learn how to communicate more effectively, beyond just complaining like a champ? Take an online assessment and have a 1on1 coaching call with me. I promise you’ll see what to improve and have a do-able action plan to put what you learned into practice.

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” Winston Churchill

“Notice the difference between what happens when a man says to himself, ‘I have failed three times,’ and what happens when he says, ‘I’m a failure.’ “  Samuel I. Hayakawa

It bugs me when someone shouts “Failure is not an option!”  The icing on the buggy cake comes if their declaration is punctuated with teeth-grinding and fist-clenching.

Sure, I hear their determination and desire that they must succeed, no matter what, come hell or high-water, or no water at all, if that’s the case.  Still, it bugs me.  It seems out of touch with reality and, in my experience coaching people as they increase their level of success, not the best way to actually succeed.

Ken Peter, in his blog “Failure Is an Option,” captured my sentiments when he wrote:  Preparing for the possibility of failure isn’t a sign of weakness – it’s the sign of a professional.

Failure isn’t the opposite of success. It’s part of it. People up to ground-breaking, out-of-the-ordinary outcomes must be comfortable with failure. It could be said that they have to pursue it.

Michael Phelps’ coach tells how he would intentionally crack Phelps’s goggles so Michael would learn to swim that way if it ever happened in a race. In the 2008 Olympics, Michael’s goggles failed and filled up with water, severely impairing his vision.  He was reduced to counting strokes rather than seeing his opponents. He won gold.

Rafael Nadal’s coach made him practice with under-inflated tennis balls and poorly-strung rackets so whatever circumstances occurred in a match, Rafa would have the mindset and skill set to adjust.

The parachute designed to slow down the descent of Curiosity, the Mars rover, ripped to shreds during some of the wind tunnel trials.  The scientists didn’t know what the problem was. They did know that if the parachute didn’t work flawlessly, the entire mission would fail. Because failure was not an option, and hope was not a strategy, they conducted experiment after experiment and added more cameras to see the failure in greater detail. When it failed, they were ecstatic. The additional visual data let them see what to fix. Curiosity is on Mars today.

There are no shortages of failures in business (Facebook’s IPO, Enron, Netflix split into Qwikster), in state and federal governments, in social, religious institutions, public and private. Failure doesn’t stop progress. Stopping stops progress. Mary Pickford, actress of the silver screen, is credited with saying: “Supposing you have tried and failed again and again, you may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call “failure” is not the falling down, but the staying down.”

Here’s what you can do to deal with the possibility of failure as a business owner. Ask these questions at the launch of your project and throughout its lifecycle. These questions are helpful only when you ask them from a commitment to speak and hear the truth and not killing the messenger. Caution: If you feel yourself turning into Pollyanna or Debbie Downer, snap out of it. Neither are helpful.

Ask:

• What might not go as planned?
• What early warning signs do we need to watch for?
• What contingency plans can we have at the ready?

Finally, act on what you learned.  If you’re not going to act, Do Not Ask. Acting on what you learned may include adjusting timelines, redoing   budgets,  adjusting relationships so people can speak and listen to opposing points of view, identify issues sooner and have difficult conversations today, not tomorrow. Want to learn how to communicate more effectively? Take the Performance Style & Ambitions online assessment and have a 1on1 with me.

Success in business — or relationships or life – rarely comes from playing it safe. Forget the Moon…. shoot for Mars. Set unreasonable goals that freak you out a little. Failure is always an option.  Don’t fear it. Anticipate it. When it shows up, pay attention, learn from it. Be calm and carry on.

We dump it off, move on, don’t think about what we dumped off until we pick it up later. Dumping off is not delegating.

Right reasons.  Let’s own up to why you and I don’t delegate. We say… (1) I’m used to doing it. (2) It’s easier for me to do it. (3) It takes too long to explain to someone what I want. (4) I don’t think they’ll do it right and I’ll probably have to do it over anyway. (5) I don’t want to ask someone to do it because I already don’t like doing it and why would I have them do something I think is unsavory?

These are the right reasons for someone whose role does not include developing others.  However, because a leader’s role is always to develop people (oh, did you forget?), being an effective delegator is essential.

I consider dumping/dropping off to be a transactional conversation and effective delegating a transformational conversation.

Delegating.  Effective delegation requires a partnership. It is the intentional act of giving someone the power and support to do something that you are accountable for. When we delegate, we ask the person to think, act and produce a result.

Right Commitment. Being an effective delegator – meaning: the task you delegated gets done to your satisfaction  – is not about getting your stuff done by others. It’s about building the capacity of others.  As with any developmental process, effective delegation takes time and requires understanding what it takes for someone to act and think from your perspective. It takes a commitment to build leaders around you.

I’ve expanded Susan M. Heathfield’s (an about.com guide) take on this topic:

7 Steps for Effective Delegation

1. Why me? Tell the person why you chose them. What’s in it for them?
2. Give them the whole task. If you can’t give them the whole task, give them the whole picture so they can see how their part contributes to the whole.
3. Be clear about (a) what you want them to do, what the outcome should look like; (b) a “how to” if it is relevant for success, including if you need to know progress, specify what you need to know and by when.
4. Share what you know that works. If you foresee potential bumps in the road, tell them what they can do if encountered.
5. Create a structure for success: (a) Ask them what support they need and provide it; (b) Connect with others they can contact for support; tell the support people who will be acting on your behalf. Do not leave it to the delegate to make this connection; (c) Be available.
6. Thank them personally, publicly and appropriately when task is done.
7. Debrief. Ask what they learned, request feedback on process. Share what you learned and what might be next in your partnership.

Choose when to drop-off and when to delegate.  As the delegator, you are still responsible and accountable for the result whether your hand did it or not (oh, did you forget this part?). How you respond to the result not being delivered as requested will speak as loudly as your acknowledgement that it did … perhaps, even more so.

Regardless of the size of your organization, whether everyone’s co-located or dispersed, or spread out around the world, effective delegation builds capacity to perform for both the delegator and delegatee’s and that’s a leadership move for everyone.

Need to be better at not just talking, but in having your team act on what you say? You can. Take an online assessment and have a 1on1 coaching session with me to learn the elements in effective communication.

On a recent flight, I read Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain. I picked it up because in my work to maximize team performance I’m constantly looking for insights to have the more quiet members contribute. Why? Because I know quiet people are smart and insightful and we need to stop talking long enough to hear them.

Consider some of Cain’s findings:

• It’s a spectrum: no person is a pure introvert or pure extrovert.
• Our culture has a bias for talkers, against non-talkers. Introverts are often passed over for leadership roles.
• One-third to one-half of the population is introverts. If we don’t listen to them, we lose their intelligence!
• Solitude is essential for creativity.
• Steve Wozniak (inventor of 1^st Apple) worked alone in his HP cubicle; states he never would have become an expert if he hadn’t been too introverted to leave his house when growing up.
• Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) spent days ensconced in his private bell tower, rarely ventured out to meet young readers, fretting that kids would expect an outspoken Cat in the Hat-like figure and would be disappointed by his reserved personality.

To validate what I’d read, I recently asked a dinner companion if she was an introvert or extrovert. “I’m an introvert who’s had to force myself to be an extrovert. I learned early that I had to speak up or I would be passed over. It took a lot of energy to do this. It always felt like I was betraying myself. I did it so I could have more of an influence on our organization, but, it was tiring.”

Cain illustrated how soft-spoken, self-described introverts – Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Gandhi – took the spotlight because they were driven by their commitment to make a difference and do what they thought was right, not because they loved the attention.  This validated my experience in working with thousands of people around the world: Our commitment to contribute can supersede our preferences, pull us out of our comfort zones, pull us through difficult situations to achieve meaningful, purpose-filled goals.

To support all your folks to make their contribution and share their talent and insights:

1. Create time and space for reflection and solitude. (For ex., 1 no-talk afternoon a week)
2. Invite quiet people to lead; then, let them lead in their own way.

Listen to Cain’s stimulating Cain’s TEDTalk.  If you’d like to share your story as an introvert, I promise to be quiet and listen. Whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert, or a little of both, take an online assessment to improve your communication, performance and, most of all, your satisfaction!

My message: Who you are BEING when you connect matters more than being connected 24/7 or any time.

Red or Blue Pill?

Remember the movie The Matrix? (1999). Computer programmer, alias “Neo”, doubles as a hacker driven to learn the meaning of the “Matrix.”  Neo meets Morpheus, chooses to take the red (not blue) pill and wakes up in a liquid-filled vessel as part of the human battery making electricity for the machines that are generating the “matrix” that humans live in and think is real.

Neo joins the rebellion against the machines; dodges bullets by altering time; is killed by Agent Smith (hum…) and brought back to life by Trinity’s kiss. Neo, the “One” as proclaimed by the Oracle, phones the Machines to say he will show humans “a world where anything’s possible”, not just what the matrix allows. Steps out of the phone booth and flies into the sky.  End the movie and begin the audience being plugged into the matrix’s matrix, i.e., the sequels.  (“Resistance is futile.”  Sorry, mixing my movie metaphors.)

Which pill would you swallow?

The choice — and it is a choice — is between the blissful ignorance of illusion (blue) and embracing the sometimes painful truth of reality (red).  Which world will help you lead your team? Contribute to your family? Which reality will support achieving your commitments that really matter, the ones worth pursuing regardless of the outcome?   

I spoke at SIPACON 2012: Always On, Always Connected – New Era of Connectivity.  My communication workshop was entitled: As technology advances, so must your leadership & communication skills.  The attendees were investors, programmers, hardware and software designers, makers of video games, entrepreneurs, inventors of augmented reality and making texting possible for the illiterate. They spoke of terabytes, zettabytes (Google it, I had to) and how 72 hours of media is being uploaded to the internet every minute. Yes, I was addressing the matrix-makers themselves.

As committed and dedicated as they are to building the matrix with their genius that lets us connect to each other around the world, under the sea and over the stars, they readily admitted that their technical expertise doesn’t help them when it comes to dealing with people.

While they could create a mobile device that sends your medical history to the ER before you arrive in the ambulance, they did not have a technology that helped them resolve team conflict, grumpy bosses or figuring out the next step in their career.

We talked about how different communication preferences required different approaches if a solid connection was to be made.  For example,

• People with a “commanding” style of decision making (I’ll make the decision now!) prefer to hear the bottom line first, then the details.
• People with the “commanding” style can steamroller the “collaborative” people, negating their valuable insights (“Let’s gather different views to make the best decision.”).

After my presentation, a man waited for the crowd around me to clear. “I’m more objective and opposite of your outgoing, so it’s not easy for me to talk to you because you’re pretty energetic. But, here’s my question. Do I have to be all these styles? I’m an entrepreneur and have to get along with lots of different people. How do I do that?”

Being “the One”

In that moment, it was clear to me he’d taken the red pill.  Maybe he had to swallow a handful because the crowd around me didn’t clear for a good 20 minutes.  He was willing to be vulnerable with someone he didn’t know, and even better and more courageous, with someone who didn’t exhibit his preferred style.  He didn’t let his preference which includes being guarded and holding back stop him.  His courage demonstrated the power of choosing to risk stepping out of our comfort zone.

In that moment, he was Neo, “the One”, who stands outside the matrix (even though he built some of it) to authentically connect to another person.  Inspiring.  (Come to think of it, Nemo was a bit like that; but there I go again, mixing movie metaphors.)

You are your own “the One”. You can chose the pill that unplugs you from the 24/7 matrix so you can connect with yourself first, then others.   I think you’ll find it the best reality of them all.

Bonus: Get 4 steps to recover from burnout. See my video (FREE!), The Bright Side of Burnout: How to recognize & fix it! Why? You have more important things to do than burnout! Free to individuals by entering code: NOBURNOUT.   (Want your team to be less burned out? Buy the Team Package, DVD + facilitator’s guide. Contact Camille, 831-685-1480, camille@wipcoaching.com, for your license.)

We just spoke of global perspective of managing projects overseas, followed with how PMs can minimize culture gaps in these situations. We now conclude with a value-based sequel relating to simplifying the process as we successfully manage our project (s) overseas.

Meeting Your Timeline Objective:

As PMs we are expected to deliver on-time if we cannot make it happen ahead of time. Dell Corporation came up with a philosophy “Just-In-Time”  (JIT relates to Kanban started in Japan), where, as an example (in the US), vendors would arrive within a window to deliver the raw materials ordered by Dell. Coming in too early raises the inventory managing cost for Dell, while a late arrival means a product assembly hold causing delays to Dell’s customers.  So JIT was the industry mantra there onward. The Japanese religiously applied this in their industries as well as in society with their trains and passenger boarding process effectively. China started benchmarking this and even improved this with their major metropolitan commuting trains.

Likewise, a PM had to, at the least, deliver his project on time. I have heavily relied on a technique I termed as “Backward Integration of Forwarding Needs” (BIFN) in my approach, especially when there are at least two people involved in a project. When I speak with my customer on this concept to get them started on a Lean Six Sigma project, they tease me saying it is PM 101, the basics and rarely do I see someone actually putting it together and following it to the hill. I have personally observed that when I failed to institute this myself, the results were disastrous.

BIFN Technique – Not fully exploited – How could you tell if your PM is not using the BIFN Technique even though he claims to be a certified PM?  Here are some observations you need to watch for:

• BIFN Format (MS Project or Equivalent SW online or offline acceptable):
  • Got to be in MS Excel or equivalent (Not in ppt or word)
  • Has to be a prerequisite to project execution at each stage ongoing in parallel
  • No such thing as “I will do the BIFN later” and let me first get the project completed
  • Project Activity, Review, Progress, and Implementation all go hand-in-hand which is purely non-negotiable

• BIFN Tool in MS Excel:
  • Probably didn’t build in the formula for the timelines, but just typed in actions and dates
  • Each time some change occurs, a manual update would be necessary
  • Errors can occur and some dates can be left out if the project has multiple line items
  • Inability to analyze and estimate probability of “project closure on-time success”

• BIFN in mere Series or Includes Parallels:
  • He has ignored many action items that deserve being run in parallel?
  • He would be unable to execute efficiently as upstream errors would hold him from completing his part

• Pays his vendors for services independent of the BIFN
  • Budget for vendors and other elements in this overseas project is not in alignment with the supposedly clean BIFN plan.
  • Milestones based on time and resources allocated as opposed to linking project complexity to resources’ track record

• Review of Project Execution Per BIFN Plan:
  • Frequency of project review is inconsistent or inadequate – Client is not updated frequent enough
  • Shows weak linkage between objective and activities are not linked – Weak project mgt.

• BIFN and Budget Allocation and Renewal Time:
  • Do we have enough in the budget for the next quarter? (Is there value based on the project charter?)
  • Will we be able to allocate the needed budget? (Will be able to afford the 3Ds with the customer associated with this project?)
  • What scopes do we need to reduce if we lack the budget? (Why was the project scoped larger before?)
  • Are there interim allowances to reallocate budget as necessary?

In today’s world managers and executives are investing in tools and techniques of data analytics to design their business strategic planning. Whereas, in their project management areas, PMs have complicated the process to such an extent that PMP 101 has become a formality more than a reality.  There aren’t places where the projected date and actual date have been regressed and residuals drawn upon to reason and improve.

PMs and Program Managers including those signing the payments to vendors and external consultants need to be proactive in challenging the process not just when resist and ask tough questions during a budget crunch, but do so when there is a “Logic Crunch.” Logic Crunch refers to situations when work and payment have no rational between themselves and is running on pure emotions. True that the customer should also feel that they are getting value in the journey we take them through, but ensure through their internal financial measures, that business value has been achieved without doubt!

Simplifying the process refers to questions we would ask if we were to pay for these projects out of our own pockets:

1. Will I invest in these projects with these people at this time with my own funds?
2. If so, how would I want them to structure the work and payment schedule for my organization/business?
3. What am I getting for my investment (ahead of, during the, and post project activity)?
4. Why should I just invest in it just because I am not being asked to document and justify the projected returns?
5. Should I only ask these tough questions when my upper management questions me?
6. How are my peers performing and how do they think in these areas?
7. Am I doing “What is Right” proactively, or am I just doing “To Be Right” to cover my future?

This would simplify your efforts, time, and even help you get other projects down the line approved easier as you have a unique track record of keeping things simple, effective, and highly worth their returns.

With this final sequel, I sincerely hope you have all enjoyed reading the three parts and I look forward to your valuable comments, clarifications, as well as criticism, so that I would better understand the real-worl scenario out there for you as you either get ready or plan to manage projects overseas without having to go there physically, as we would otherwise.

Good Luck with your overseas projects!!!

The “Culture” gaps is not something that one would face when they work projects overseas. We can and are facing culture gaps here in our own nation. So what is this culture gap we refer to all the time? Are we referring to the food, or greetings, or the way we live our lives or anything on the civilization aspect. I wish it were as those aspects of the culture are much easier to adapt and adopt over time.

The “Culture” Gap:

When we say “Culture” we refer to the variance between ourselves in a given group and then variance between the us and the team overseas.  The variance is defined as the variation in the following areas:

1. The way we think and articulate
2. The mode of our behavior to a given situation – expected or unexpected
3. The form of how we communicate the message.

If you take our situation, say in a job we have ourselves running projects and then our boss. We have two types of variances as part of this culture.

• First the variational differences between myself and the boss and then
• Second, the variational differences between my boss and his upper management or his boss

So if I wish to have a successful career in the time period with my boss I have to align with his culture in a way that results in the least differences between him and I (culture) and a much lesser difference between him and his boss. if at any time long enough I let his difference with me become larger than his difference with his boss, I am probably looking for another assignment or a job to be more specific. So long as I am able to manage or minimize the “culture” gap between him and I to a level that is far below than him and his management, I at least have a chance to be in his good books assuming I also perform well in the job assignments delegated to my accountability.

Let us talk about some factors relating to “culture” gaps while managing projects overseas.

You may want to consider some tips provided here either to help you cope or even handle it successfully. So going beyond the pond” what should I keep in mind? These are all very general observations and so please do not try to name brand people or ethnic groups based on this discussion. They are just some feelers for you to be cognizant of. Your equivalent there also has some issues they want to bring to light and so be open, but not nervous.

1. Speaking Style (Not Accent):
   • While some of us insist not to name each of our children with the same starting letter, those of us who did it realize how difficult it is to remember that when we try disciplining them or get their attention. Imagine this situation – we cannot even remember our children’s names right and so why should we expect to remember the team members’ names right, let alone pronounce them correctly?
   • They told me once when I just landed here, “You all look the same” and for a while it angered me and then they started calling me with the names of other people. I then found that they never meant anything offensive but were actually showing me how they need to put a greater effort in remembering faces and names.
     • Message with Speaking:
       • Know their background – LinkedIn is a great place to get some small talk going (Less than 30 seconds).
       • Get the names right each time even if you have to say it slowly – never use another person’s name on the same team.
       • Speak slowly so that they can get your message and comprehend it and then respond effectively
       • Relate to their local events/news/the world around them, challenges they face and how they have overcame it
       • Integrate project execution within this framework of your speaking to make it fun
       • Build the foundation and once you have done that, the variance becomes a noise rather than a signal
       • Conference call etiquettes – One person speaks and all listen – Easier said than done!
2. Leveraging Technology Tools:
   • You know what happens when you assume Email etiquettes would be followed.
   • Internet speed and line bandwidth stability are constant hassles to deal with outside the US.
   • Texting, Calling, IM Chatting, Emailing and Meeting – Ensure you choose the preferred one.
     • Same City – Definitely Meet; Same State – At least Call; Same or Different Country – Email and call for sure;
   • MS Office (Excel, Word, Power Point and others) are all fine, but most prefer word/email or ppt to avoid Excel.
   • Cloud for information compilation as opposed to emailing file attachments
   • Are their reports telling you what they did for you or what they did that made a difference to your top and bottom lines?
   • Do they have any sensitivity toward the global traits of leadership (discussed in Part I)
3. Marching Orders Vs Socratic Approach:
   • Do we tell them what to do and get it done or do we draw a preferred behavior?
   • Telling them will cause lack of ownership
   • Drawing them to make a decision will take a toll on your project time
   • Documentation of Meeting Actions Items (Not Minutes)
4. Linkage of Project Execution to Pay and/or Performance:
   • What gets measured gets done (Peter Drucker)?
   • What gets improved gets rewarded?
5. Commander-in-Chief:
   1. You can and should only work with a central command
   2. Keep the responsibility and accountability with one person
   3. Let the local commander-in-chief handle the local army
   4. Don’t get bogged down with the local politics
6. Pull Vs. Push Methodology:
   • Create the needed pull to get results by drawing out the right behaviors
   • Avoid pushing by taking a pilot project
   • Establish a pattern of work culture acceptable to you
   • Increase the project complexity and volume accordingly

Minimizing these known “culture” gaps will help you increase the success of your projects overseas and add significant value for your customer and organizations. Creating success with teams beyond the pond is an experience and something that will make sense when you leverage the experiences of other PMs.

Good Luck with your ongoing and expected overseas assignments!

In Part-III, we will talk about “Process Simplification” in the role of a PM as they manage projects beyond the pond.

All of us have had a fair share of success in managing projects either in our own cities and/or across our country. While some of us on a few occasions have had the fortune of also engaging in projects that are overseas (the meaning of overseas as in something significantly different in its time zone from where we live, or culture of how the people think, or even in a region that is developed or emerging as an economy), the bumps and accidents did come with a hidden benefit of applying the lessons learned moving forward. I am sharing some of those experiences in a very summarized manner to help Project Managers (PMs) out there looking to initiate such projects on a global level.

Managing projects in these environments is never similar to what we have here in our own backyard. In Part-I, I would like to take some time talking about how PMs (Project Managers) van adapt and adopt a global perspective to suit their needs while working on projects that have tentacles of scope overseas.

So here is a list of areas I see that we should all be sensitizing ourselves while we manage projects with scope as they say, “beyond the pond?”

1. Technology Barriers:
   • Maybe their ability to connect online is not as robust as we do since we have a built-in seasoned infrastructure with the internet. Our attitude toward the internet providers in the US is simply ruthless. If the internet is down, we feel the provider has to compensate us for the business losses and so the providers take every care to keep their fibers and servers humming 24-7-365. This is not necessarily the case everywhere and even terms such as bandwidth can be unheard in foreign locations and speed and stability of connectivity can be an issue although they are getting far better now. This also applies to telephone, video, audio, web-conferencing, and other media based technology tools needed to interact when meeting online. I literally misplaced a file on one occasion and my colleague emailed it to me to save my day.
2. Time Zone Differences:
   • This can be a killer and understanding give and take one shouldn’t keep expecting others to match their own convenient time to meet but also share the burden reasonably. Yes, you do not wish to engage in a red-eye session all the time, however, doing so once in a while can send a positive image to those team members across and motivate them to success. Leverage the time-zone differences and don’t fall a victim to it! I missed a call time once not realizing the time differences and had to come online with the hair ferry having visited me the past night. Wasn’t fun, but managed!
3. Efficiency and Effectiveness (EnE) of Meeting and Working Style:
   • You may send them an email with attachments and an agenda and find that they just opened it when they arrived at the meeting. Recall this is not knew and also happened when you or someone you know was in that embarrassing spot. This takes time and tolerance is needed as team members haven’t seen each other in person and are getting used to each others’ styles.  When they travel to your location or somewhere even close to drive to, make it a point to meet them in person. Invite them over when they come close to your location likewise.
   • They may take time to adapt and adopt to some of the tools and techniques that are possibly mundane to you. Giving them the time and then setting high standards usually sustains far better than any other approach. The goal is never to embarrass anyone online publicly but handle the gaps diligently and offer suggestions to take them offline. What matters is that the project shouldn’t suffer and each of us has to contribute toward our roles sincerely and diligently.
4. Online Meetings:
   1. The rules of online meetings are dependent on how effective the web-conferencing tool works and the features it offers. In today’s world almost every one of these providers have the common critical features when it comes to conversations:
      • Recording a conversation for recap, training, recapture critical points and so forth.
      • Video and mike mute to keep unwanted noise out when you are listening to the speaker.
      • Sharing the laptop with others online on this meeting.
      • Knowing when to speak and when to interrupt, without drowning out someone’s voice.
      • …and so forth
5. Understanding their Needs:
   • Be it a customer, team member, or a vendor, they are all partners in some form or the other.
   • Their needs are more than just a list that needs checking them off.
   • Going beyond the mile of their world and then looping it back into their daily lives is a key.
   • Demonstrating via example and leadership increases trust between and within team members.
6. Bearing Traits of a Global Leadership:
   • High Energy for a Positive Mental Attitude!
   • Respond to their Need with Speed!
   • Illustrate a Concept using Videos, Images, and Graphics
     • Avoid the barrage of power point death bullets
   • Use tools and techniques of technology (minimum internet savviness)
   • Always Nurture Relationships

Creating success with teams beyond the pond is something special and doesn’t come easily, however, with each iterative project managed efforts, you can learn exponentially on getting those breakthroughs to success. Don’t be surprised if and when one of those team members moves into your geographical area one day and you would be the first one they would remember and contact and take you out to dinner for a special reunion.  Rejoice, Reflect, and Revive these Relationships.

Good Luck with your next overseas PM efforts!

In Part-II, we will talk about “Minimizing Culture Gaps” in the role of a PM as they manage projects beyond the pond.

Probably haven’t heard that one recently, have we?

I do an exercise with PM students – both experienced and just starting – the topic is about project problems and I give them a set of instructions.  When asked, “Are you ready to start?” there is a resounding, “YES!” – they are ready to dive in even though the instructions do not include any description of what output is expected (nor any acceptance criteria), nor any time constraint.

Even when primed “to think like project managers,” they just want to dive in.  Except for very rare occasions, there are no questions, just an eagerness to show that they are willing and ready.  When challenged, most responses boil down to: well, you’re in charge, you’ll tell us.

OK, maybe some of it is an indictment of our education system, but I see symptoms of this bias to action (and a bias away from critical thinking) in many projects.

Recently, I was working with a group of young (of course, there seems to be a lot more young people than there used to be for some reason) project managers.  They had just recently moved into PM after being successful in various fields.

The project manager is the person assigned by the performing organization to achieve the project objectives.

– A Guide to the PMBOK

That’s a pretty classic view – get it done.  Plan.  Execute. Control.  Close.

No one seemed to have real problems with those processes.  On the other hand, Initiating processes brought up some interesting debate.

Many of these newly minted PMs thought it wasn’t their place to do initiating.  What?  Develop/define a clear mission and identify stakeholders – of course, we have to do this!   Oh… wait… maybe it’s NOT the role of the PM to do these things?

Perhaps it is easy to overlook that other roles have responsibilities, too.  The sponsor role:

Project sponsorship is an active role with a crucial impact on potential project success, particularly in the earliest days of the project. The sponsor should proactively define the project’s mission and objectives.

–Samuel T. Brown, Global Knowledge

Ah.  Of course.  Many of these PMs had not been involved in the earliest days.  They had “inherited” the mission and objectives – the ones that had been carefully worked out by the project sponsor, right?  You know, the mission and objectives that represent an appropriate balance of our stakeholder needs, our allocation of scarce resources, etc.?

I think it’s interesting that the Initiating process group seems to expand in focus in each new PMBOK Guide edition.  Our profession “understands” the importance of starting well as it relates to project success.

Unfortunately, I’ve seen so many projects that do not have sponsors “proactively define” anything much more than “do it.”  Then, we have project managers that are thrown in and are expected to hit the ground running… Now, I understand that we have to show progress before we have everything in place, but it seems to me that we often sacrifice ever defining a clear mission.

Perhaps some of us have embraced agile processes to the extent that we deprecate defining mission and objectives to nearly the point of oblivion?  Actually, I don’t think that’s the main problem here (although, I do believe many are doing “agile” techniques in very un-agile ways).

No, there’s a systematic bias.

So, perhaps if our agile and iterative processes do not seem to be leading us on a path to success, maybe we just dove into the deep end without spending quite enough effort to understand how our stakeholders will be defining success (or even who they are), balancing competing interests over resources and time… and if our sponsors are not doing enough, who is going to step up?

Is Project Management a creative process?

Full disclosure: I believe it is.

I’ve had some colleagues vigorously take the opposing view.  Those holding this view came from many fields and disciplines – including a few working as project managers.

At first, I didn’t think too much about it.  I understood that what I did as a PM included much that might be considered uncreative drudgery AND included creating things at both trivial and significant levels.  So, it was probably just an issue of specific experience.

Now, I’m not so sure.  I find it impossible to think about managing projects without some creativity.  How can anyone deny that pm is a creative endeavor?  Is the disagreement about Creativity and/or Project Management?

Let’s take on creativity.  Perhaps some fields are more inherently creative than others.  We might look at artistic fields such as writing or painting as inherently creative.  Yet, one does not spend all the time creating – there is research, preparation, even planning.   Perhaps in some fields one spends a different percentage of time creating?  Is there a threshold above which a field is creative?

I can concede that there have been times as a PM where I wouldn’t consider what I was doing particularly creative.  Also, looking at some texts on PM, I can see little that seems particularly creative.  Instead, there seems to be a lot of emphasis on various charts and lines and some formulas.

Ahh… maybe that’s it.  The stuff in the texts are only covering a fraction of what many of us really do as PMs.  There are the “teachable” elements that are somewhat “cut and dried.” … and then there are things that are learned with time and experience, but are hard to quantify or put into an algorithm – what we might call judgment and wisdom.  Balancing conflicting needs of different stakeholders, for example.

I think we have an image problem here.  We’re just not widely perceived as doing creative things.  Certainly it can’t be that some PMs are doing project management uncreatively?  Hmmm… maybe I should be worried.