Managing Global Projects

Curt Finch is the CEO of Journyx.

  Communications Management   Talent Management   Teams   ProjectsAtWork  

Global projects present significant obstacles to project leaders, but with the right tools, a little flexibility and the willingness to step out of your comfort zone, you can prevail. Here are six common challenges and suggestions for overcoming them.

The world seems to be shrinking at an alarming rate, but this increased global exposure hasn’t managed to erase the differences that make cultures unique. Sure, I can swing out on my lunch break to grab some sushi, but this doesn’t mean I can now speak fluent Japanese or possess an intuitive understanding of Japanese social conventions. Though global access to culture and resources has made worldwide collaboration possible, this development hasn’t altogether eliminated behavioral divides.

Organizations must either seize this growing collaborative potential to expand their horizons or watch as the competition eclipses them. As a result, businesses increasingly find themselves locked into projects that span the globe and cross cultures. With team members sprinkled across continents or a project manager located in an altogether separate region of the world, significant barriers still remain to global project success. Collaboration is possible, but it hasn’t yet become routine enough for all issues to have been worked out.

Though new generations may not experience the same obstacles that we face …

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