Global Project Management Enablers
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Global Project Management Enablers
- Enabling High Performance Global Project Teams
One of the competitive advantages of companies that successfully de-
velop new products globally lies in their ability to enable teamwork
across national boundaries.
The concept ‘‘Global Project Management Enablers’’ has proved to be
a valuable method of developing dialogue among project stakehold-
ers. The concept consists of a description of the enablers, an evalua-
tion tool as well as a toolbox for each enabler. 23
This paper gives a short introduction to the enablers.
Global Project Management Enablers
One of the competitive advantages of companies that successfully
develop new products globally lies in their ability to enable team-
work across national boundaries.
Global project teams are formed in order to ef- 1. Being a Project-Oriented Company
fectively draw on competences from different 2. Creating a Project Vision
professions, locations and often different organi- 3. Having Cultural Awareness
zations. Many of the challenges in global projects 4. Ensuring a Common Platform
are the same as for local projects e.g. cooperation 5. Facilitate Communication
between stakeholders, guaranteeing the project 6. Building Trust
resources and priorities in the organization. The
challenges however in global projects are in- The purpose of the enablers is to ensure high 23.02
creased because of increased organizational performance global project teams and to ensure
complexity, cultural differences and physical knowledge sharing and creation. One of the
distance between the participants. In addition, main purposes of global project management is
the project manager in global projects has to be to share knowledge (knowledge about the mar-
able to handle differences in language, time ket, knowledge from global knowledge centres
zones, organizational and personal culture, laws to the project, knowledge between different
and regulations, business processes and political competences located geographically dispersed).
climate. Having a good team culture also ensures attrac-
tiveness of projects in order to hold on to and
It seems impossible to formulate a “one answer attract important knowledge workers.
management solution” for global teams of cul-
tural diversity working at distributed locations. Enabler 1: Being a Project-Oriented Company
However it has been possible to identify 6 key The project-oriented company has high project
enablers for supporting high performance global maturity and provides the framework that ena-
teams. bles the global project team to work optimally.
Project maturity is a measure of both, how com-
petent the organization is in practicing project
“It has been possible to identify 6 key management, and how the balance of power is
enablers for supporting high between the project organization and line organ-
ization. The essential feature of the project-
performance global teams.”” oriented company is that projects have the at-
tention of senior management and management
clearly priorities the projects so that projects
The concept “Global Project Management Ena- have adequate resources to achieve optimal
blers” is based on theory studies in project man- performance. Efforts to ensure interaction be-
agement, knowledge management, intercultural tween line and project organization and its re-
communication and virtual teamwork, combined ward systems also reflect this enabler.
with observations, interviews and case studies in
global project organizations. If you are a project manager in a company with
low project maturity, you should be aware and
This has led to identification of 6 enablers for spend much time seeking political influence. This
global project management: can happen by having a good relationship and
close contact with the project owner as well as
the line managers who provide resources. A
method can be to prepare a project contract
© Hildebrandt & Brandi
containing agreements on project success crite- of different cultures helps to ensure market un-
ria, organizational structure, interaction between derstanding in multiple markets.
the project owner and the project manager and
specified role and responsibility of the project A project team with participants from different
manager. Another important method is the countries should together discuss the cultural
stakeholder analysis to identify which stakehold- dimensions each of the involved parties are af-
ers should help in the project and who has influ- fected by and agree on how to practically handle
ence. differences. The project manager should expand
the stakeholder analysis by including the cultural
Enabler 2: Creating a Project Vision dimensions. The analysis should be included in
Creating a vision is a key element in both project the group's work to understand and accept dif-
management and team building theory. Studies ferences. The analysis should be continuously
have shown that a strong project vision has updated as the project manager gets increased
helped to create a project success even in pro- knowledge of each participant.
jects where other critical success factors have
been lacking. A project vision is also beneficial at
the stage where project participants are unsure
A project team with participants
of what should be done and who should do it. from different countries should 23.03
In the global project creating the vision is even together discuss the cultural
more important. A program manager from LEGO
puts it thus: "A clear vision gives the direction
dimensions each of the involved
and leads teams to become more self-managing parties are affected by and agree on
and thus the project manager clearly becomes
less important. The goal of the task should be so how to practically handle
clear that people do not vacillate when you are
not there. "
differences.
The vision should be processed during a vision
seminar, where the entire project team partici- It is also recommendable that cultural dimen-
pates. It is a great advantage if representatives sions of the team members are on the agenda at
from the strategic management participate in the project kick-off meeting. The kick-off meeting
this meeting, so that it can be observed that the can be expanded with an introduction to inter-
strategic vision is understood, is meaningful and cultural communication training in case the par-
is motivating for the participants ticipants do not have cultural training in ad-
vance.
The vision is a part of the project charter which is
a valuable tool in every project and especially the Enabler 4: Ensuring a Common Platform
global team. In the project charter the project's To ensure a common platform it is important to
vision, mission and objectives are listed along develop both a physical platform for knowledge
with the team's vision for cooperation. sharing but also a common understanding of the
context of the team.
Enabler 3: Having Cultural Awareness Some of the main necessary activities are:
Intercultural collaboration may lead to challeng-
es in dealing with different perceptions. If the • Establishing a common project web
different perceptions lead to misunderstandings where all details concerning the project
the result may be counterproductive conflicts exists and where pictures and contact
and lack of knowledge sharing. Working in multi- information for all project participants
cultural teams, however, also contains great are available.
opportunities for increased innovation as posi- • Creating a common identity of the pro-
tive conflicts (different views appropriate man- ject and the team members, such as e.g.
aged) is a creativity factor, and the participation an appealing project name, is part of
creating a common motivating platform
© Hildebrandt & Brandi
• Creating common context, i.e. that peo- A communication plan based on a stakeholder
ple in the global team have met each analysis is a powerful tool in the global project to
other face to face and have had time to create an overview. Elaborating the communica-
create a common context. Common tion plan will give the project manager the op-
context can be stimulated by some of portunity to think thoroughly about the appro-
the processes mentioned earlier such as priate communication strategies.
a vision workshop, common culture
training and dialogue between team Another method is drawing a diagram of com-
members about ground rules for the munication channels: Draw first a picture of the
team. organization on a large board / paper - remem-
ber to include all stakeholders, also external sup-
The mental affinity is also created by having pliers and customers. Then draw the actual
agreed on a clear framework for each project communication channels. Hereafter the diagram
participant's role in the project. can be analysed in relation to whether some
persons are in risk of becoming communications
Enabler 5: Facilitate Communication bottlenecks or if any persons are not involved in
Communication is a prerequisite for both coor- the communication. Finally ideas for optimizing
dination and knowledge sharing in a project.
Similarly, communication plays a major role in
the communication channels are discussed and
implemented.
23.04
relation to the understanding, motivation and
ownership by project team members. In the Enabler 6: Building Trust
global project the physical distance is a chal- Since a virtual team is not physically together in
lenge, as distance is a noise-element in effective everyday life, it is both difficult to feel the atmos-
communication. In the choice of communication phere from other participants and to monitor
medium, one must take into account the com- project performance. A well-known management
plexity of the problem you are discussing, and / concept is "Management by walking around" in
or how complex the situation is. In projects tak- which the leader through her/his physical (and
ing place globally, many of the things that are mental) presence shows interest to both em-
communicated is of a certain complexity, just as ployees and work simultaneously to getting a
in a situation where there are participants with feel of things. This is an effective way of building
various backgrounds will be a complex situation. a relationship of trust with employees. In the
This means that there should be wide use of virtual team "walking around" is not a possibility.
"rich" communication media such as interactive Therefore, it is essential to allocate time for face-
media (video conferencing, telephone and online to-face meetings during the project´s first phas-
groupware) and face-to-face meetings. es. Thereby relationships are created and it gives
team members a possibility to understand the
individual behavioural patterns of other team
A communication plan based on a members. In global projects where much com-
stakeholder analysis is a powerful munication takes place by mail, it becomes even
more important to have an understanding for
tool in the global project to create an and knowledge of the sender of the message.
overview. Elaborating the A project kick-off meeting is essential to start the
communication plan will give the relationship building between the project partic-
ipants. One item on the agenda is to talk about
project manager the opportunity to trust and articulate team ground rules for work-
ing together.
think thoroughly about the
appropriate communication As a project manager you can build trust in your
team members by delegating work, listening and
strategies. taking other people´s views seriously and invest-
ing in people, to show them that they are valued.
© Hildebrandt & Brandi
Successful global project management
The top management’s involvement in creating
the right conditions for global development is
essential in order to be successful. Fundamental
preconditions for enabling global project man-
agement and innovation are:
• The strategic management in global
companies has to pay attention to mo-
tives and purpose of the organizational
design. Why do we choose to work
globally? - And how do we design a con-
figuration that optimally supports the
aim of the project?
• The top management has to pay atten-
tion to the resources needed for global
team work to be successful and dedicate
resources to face-to-face meetings and
23.05
technology for communication
• The team members must meet face-to-
face in the beginning of the project and
meet frequently during the project
• A common project web must be estab-
lished and information technology to
support communication must be availa-
ble for the team (e.g. video conference
systems)
• Training in cultural awareness and lan-
guage skills is an important part of creat-
ing a successful global project team
Managing global innovation and project man-
agement is a complex task and as described
earlier there is no easy fix-it-all-solution. The top
management has to build a solid business case in
advance and dedicate the needed resources.
However if you are prepared to take up the chal-
lenge and pay attention to preconditions and
enablers the benefits will be increased innova-
tion, better chance of timing to market and in-
creased knowledge of markets and technology.
© Hildebrandt & Brandi
Ulla Sparre er seniorkonsulent i Hildebrandt & Brandi
og rådgiver topledelser om forandring, udvikling samt
portefølje- og projektledelse. Hun har en baggrund
som produktionsingeniør og Master in Management
of Technology kombineret med flere års praktisk
erfaring som projektleder. Ulla kan kontaktes på:
us@hildebrandtbrandi.com
23.06
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