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Culture as a success factor.

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Ieva Dragune Crew Coordinator| airBaltic Riga, Latvia, Latvia
Hi!
Do you think that culture influences project success factors or project success? Or maybe culture can be considered as a success factor?
Please share your opinion!
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Andy Kaufman Host| People and Projects Podcast Lake Zurich, Il, United States
I love your question, Ieva. Culture can mean different things so here are a couple quick thoughts:

* Organizational culture influences project success, probably more than we realize. The PMBOK Guide acknowledges that Enterprise Environmental Factors are inputs to many of the processes, which is another way of saying that the culture/environment of the organization shades nearly every aspect of projects. If the purpose of a project is to instill some change to the existing corporate culture, there could be one or more success criteria related to culture. Regardless, understanding the impact of an organization's culture is critical. Dr. Ed Schein is the guy who coined the term "corporate culture". To hear him talk about this in his own words, check out: http://PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com/25

* Culture in terms of people's individual background has enormous influence on a team's ability to deliver successfully. This includes considering the preferences and tendencies of team members, stakeholders we involve during the project, and those who have to live with the results of what we deliver. Tom Verghese is a great voice on this topic. To hear him discuss it in his own words, see http://PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com/146

I would love to hear your opinion on the topic as well, Ieva!

Warm regards from Chicago,

Andy
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2 replies by Mayte Mata Sivera and Vincent Guerard
Jan 05, 2017 1:39 PM
Mayte Mata Sivera
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Andy, thank you for sharing the links.
Jan 09, 2017 2:28 PM
Vincent Guerard
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Thanks Andy for the links
Always interested in how culture impact project or life
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Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Very Interesting Questions Ieva - There were lots of similar discussions about the same topics in the past year such as:

https://www.projectmanagement.com/discussi.../Cultural-Risks

https://www.projectmanagement.com/discussi...ject-Management

Culture can influence projects negatively or positively. This depends on many factors and it also depends on which type of culture you are referring to: Organizational Culture, Country Culture, People, and so on.
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Anupam India
Great question Leva.

Culture is always a topic of big debate. Managing cultural differences effectively plays vital role for project success.

@Andy: Thanks for sharing the links to podcast
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Mayte Mata Sivera PMO Leader | Speaker | Author Ut, United States
Jan 05, 2017 10:56 AM
Replying to Andy Kaufman
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I love your question, Ieva. Culture can mean different things so here are a couple quick thoughts:

* Organizational culture influences project success, probably more than we realize. The PMBOK Guide acknowledges that Enterprise Environmental Factors are inputs to many of the processes, which is another way of saying that the culture/environment of the organization shades nearly every aspect of projects. If the purpose of a project is to instill some change to the existing corporate culture, there could be one or more success criteria related to culture. Regardless, understanding the impact of an organization's culture is critical. Dr. Ed Schein is the guy who coined the term "corporate culture". To hear him talk about this in his own words, check out: http://PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com/25

* Culture in terms of people's individual background has enormous influence on a team's ability to deliver successfully. This includes considering the preferences and tendencies of team members, stakeholders we involve during the project, and those who have to live with the results of what we deliver. Tom Verghese is a great voice on this topic. To hear him discuss it in his own words, see http://PeopleAndProjectsPodcast.com/146

I would love to hear your opinion on the topic as well, Ieva!

Warm regards from Chicago,

Andy
Andy, thank you for sharing the links.
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Mayte Mata Sivera PMO Leader | Speaker | Author Ut, United States
Leva, from time schedules to team building activities going thru something that seems fool as dress code, managing cultural differences always is a challenge for a project manager, and as mentioned before, it's key to a success development on the project.
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Andy Kaufman Host| People and Projects Podcast Lake Zurich, Il, United States
So, here's a quick cultural observation. Ieav, I'm pretty sure your name starts with an I, not an L, is that correct? Since that's not a name we see everyday in some countries, it's easy to replace the I with an L.

Whether or not I have this correct, it brings up an interesting tie to the original question. Even seemingly little things like how we spell or say names can make the difference between team members or stakeholders feeling respected and listened to or not. I had a client who specifically called this out last year. Though Ieva may not take this personally, my client was clear that the proper pronunciation of her name meant a lot to her.
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3 replies by Ieva Dragune, Mayte Mata Sivera, and Rami Kaibni
Jan 05, 2017 6:52 PM
Rami Kaibni
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I agree, it happened with me on one of the projects. Good example Andy.
Jan 06, 2017 4:14 AM
Ieva Dragune
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Yes, Andy, you are absolutely right - my name starts with an I, not a L. But I have faced it several times, and now I am not correcting each time, when it happens.

Thank you for your answer and useful links as well. Really helpful!
Jan 09, 2017 2:18 PM
Mayte Mata Sivera
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Great example...the names!
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Stéphane Parent Self Employed / Semi-retired| Leader Maker Prince Edward Island, Canada
The best successes are usually found in projects that created their own culture. These project cultures are created and stimulated through kickoff meetings, ice breakers, trust-building exercises and team events.
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Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Jan 05, 2017 2:09 PM
Replying to Andy Kaufman
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So, here's a quick cultural observation. Ieav, I'm pretty sure your name starts with an I, not an L, is that correct? Since that's not a name we see everyday in some countries, it's easy to replace the I with an L.

Whether or not I have this correct, it brings up an interesting tie to the original question. Even seemingly little things like how we spell or say names can make the difference between team members or stakeholders feeling respected and listened to or not. I had a client who specifically called this out last year. Though Ieva may not take this personally, my client was clear that the proper pronunciation of her name meant a lot to her.
I agree, it happened with me on one of the projects. Good example Andy.
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Sergio Luis Conte Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations Buenos Aires, Argentina
Why do you start a project? Because you need to put strategy into action. Strategy is about, between other things, to move the organization from one state to another. That means to take into account the whole enteprise architecture. Strategy belongs to the business layer inside the enterprise architecture. Before a project exists, the first thing to do is to evaluate how the enteprise will be moved from one state to another by mean of the project. If you use models like Tom Peter´s Seven S to evaluate the actual state and the future state you will find that culture is one of the variables. So, if you forget the culture, you are lost.
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Ieva Dragune Crew Coordinator| airBaltic Riga, Latvia, Latvia
Jan 05, 2017 2:09 PM
Replying to Andy Kaufman
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So, here's a quick cultural observation. Ieav, I'm pretty sure your name starts with an I, not an L, is that correct? Since that's not a name we see everyday in some countries, it's easy to replace the I with an L.

Whether or not I have this correct, it brings up an interesting tie to the original question. Even seemingly little things like how we spell or say names can make the difference between team members or stakeholders feeling respected and listened to or not. I had a client who specifically called this out last year. Though Ieva may not take this personally, my client was clear that the proper pronunciation of her name meant a lot to her.
Yes, Andy, you are absolutely right - my name starts with an I, not a L. But I have faced it several times, and now I am not correcting each time, when it happens.

Thank you for your answer and useful links as well. Really helpful!
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1 reply by Stéphane Parent
Jan 06, 2017 7:09 AM
Stéphane Parent
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I can see why it could be difficult to know whether it's an L or an I. I've noticed a lot of people don't bother capitalizing the first letter of their own names anymore.
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