The Global Communications Challenge

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  Communications Management   Knowledge Management   Lessons Learned   Talent Management  

I believe that effective communication is one of the most important skills that a PM can have. I’ve spent a big part of my career trying to convince people of the benefits of becoming a skilled communicator, of the importance of adjusting your style to your audience and of seeking cues from your audience as to how well your communication is working so that you can adjust accordingly.

When we add a global perspective into the picture, things can get a lot more complicated. The physical distance can be a big part of that--as can time, language, culture, etc. In this article, I want to look at how communication needs to adjust on a global project in order to remain effective.

Language
Let’s start with one of the biggest areas where we can make mistakes--language. The stereotypical English-speaking tourist abroad springs to mind immediately (assuming that by speaking slowly and loudly someone who doesn’t speak English will be able to understand them!).

Those of us who are native English speakers are tremendously fortunate. In many parts of the World, English is considered to be the language of business and we can get by without having to wonder what the German term for “work breakdown structure” is, or how to say “contingency plan” in Mandarin.

If we have team members who are working in a second language, then we have …

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