Why Culture Really Matters

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.

  Organizational Culture   Teams  

During my career, I have worked in many different countries, and spent a large part of it in and around Toronto—one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world. As a result, culture has always been an important factor in how I lead my teams, how we all work together, and how we achieve success. I’ve also seen scenarios where cultural differences have created additional challenges, and I have learned how to bring different cultural backgrounds and perspectives together in a way that is supportive and productive.

However, I haven’t really noticed that many organizations prioritize this type of skills development for PMs. It might be a few minutes in a leadership course, and it’s undoubtedly included in corporate policy manuals, but by and large it is left to PMs to figure it out for themselves. While not an optimal approach, it does work if, like me, you have had the opportunity to work with highly diverse teams. But if not, the ability to bring different cultures and backgrounds together may well be missing from your tool kit.

That’s why I was so pleased to see that PMI is highlighting culture in its recent report, Building and Leading High-Performing Teams. There’s more to a positive, engaging culture than diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I), and that too is acknowledged. In my experience, DE&I can be an enabler of a …

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