Global Project Teams: Unique Challenges for Project-Based Work

 

I am still amazed at how small the world has become since I started my career—the technology that allows me to interact with colleagues instantaneously from around the world continues to blow my mind.  Computers, cell phones, VOIP, and video conferencing allow me to work from almost anywhere in the world.  Although my adult children harass me about growing up when dinosaurs ruled the earth, we did get a lot of work done without cell phones, personal computers, or SKYPE.

As convenient as things are now, there are some unique challenges to working in a global project environment.  Organizations regularly working with teams from around the world need to consider the cultural, language, geographic, and time differences that can sometimes make working with global teams problematic.

• The Challenge of Different Time Zones: Collaborating with teams in South America, China, the UK, and Cincinnati can sometimes be problematic.  For example, as I write this at 7:45 am local time, it's 11:45 pm in Tokyo, 2:45 pm in London, 12:45 pm in Rio, and 10:45 pm in Beijing.  The challenges of putting together a project team meeting with a globally diverse workforce are sometimes as basic as determining what time to hold the meeting.
• A Possible Solution: Nobody on the project team should be asked to regularly stay up until 2:00 am just to make it more convenient for you.  Everyone on the project team should be able to share the burden of an inconvenient meeting time once in a while.  A simple solution is to try to hold team meetings when everyone is at work, which might be early in the workday where you are and later in the workday where part of the team is located—at least everyone should take turns meeting at inconvenient times.

• The Challenge of Bringing the Team Together: Sometimes it's important to bring the team together, which has the potential to be pretty expensive.
• A Possible Solution: At @task, we have global project teams that work out of Europe and Asia.  Although we don't get together often, we do get together.  Online project management tools help organizations collaborate and work together in different countries, timezones, and languages—but the need to get together doesn't completely go away.  Personally meeting together as a team once or twice a year is important for building morale and team esprit de corps.

• The Challenges of Different Languages: The nuances of different languages beg for miss-communication.  Even where your particular language is spoken as a second language, it's critical that communication be clear.  We need to be cautious, particularly where the lion's share of communication is written, where body language and facial expression are not available to aid understanding.
• A Possible Solution: Video conferencing is a good option, but at the very least, make sure emails contain all the information necessary to communicate your ideas clearly.  I try to address all my emails with a salutation and a name to remind me that I am actually communicating with a real person.  Even amongst my co-workers, where English is our native language, we sometimes misunderstand and misinterpret an abrupt email.

• The Challenges of Cultural Differences: If part of what defines us is our shared experiences, taking time for global team members to become better acquainted, and share experiences to create a team culture is important.  This is true even if your team only spreads across your own country.
• A Possible Solution: Take the time for global project teams to become familiar with each others varied customs and cultures.  It might be as simple as sharing a regional dish for lunch.  In this regard, a little effort goes a long way.

Managing project-based work with global project teams might be a little more complicated, but keeping expectations realistic among team members and stakeholders can lead to success.

If you work with global project teams, what are some of the things you are doing to facilitate collaboration and successful project management best practices?