the smart pms blog http://thesmartpms.posterous.com Most recent posts at the smart pms blog posterous.com Tue, 02 Nov 2010 10:38:00 -0700 PMI Madrid Chapter Leads Reconstruction Methodology Translation Team http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/madrid-chapter-leads-reconstruction-methodolo http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/madrid-chapter-leads-reconstruction-methodolo

Project management plays a vital role in dealing with the aftermath of natural disasters around the world. When disaster strikes, countries and individuals promptly respond to help those affected. But although immediate needs may be fulfilledm there is still more work to be done after disasters.
Read more at http://www.pmitoday-digital.com/pmitodayopen/201011/?folio=11#pg10

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1572503/BestoftheBestCM.png http://posterous.com/users/4SirDmU49YtP Conrado Morlan thesmartpms Conrado Morlan
Sat, 23 Oct 2010 17:46:00 -0700 Managing a Multicultural Team - Part 2 http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/managing-a-multicultural-team-part-2 http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/managing-a-multicultural-team-part-2

Haptics studies the physical contact in nonverbal communications.
For humans touch is an extremely important sense since it provides information about surfaces and textures and is an important component of nonverbal communications in interpersonal relationships.
Touching varies in cultures and range from low/moderate to high contact cultures (i.e. Latin countries are high contact)
Not any area of the body can be touched and this also varies depending on the culture. It's common to identify non vulnerable body parts (NVBP) and vulnerable body parts, which would be inappropriate to touch in any social setting.
In this segment the call center manager wonders why he cannot "connect" with his team.
Is appropriate for him touch his team members in the office environment?
Is appropriate to keep his "American office environment" behavior with his Indian team mates?
Check the video and decide.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1572503/BestoftheBestCM.png http://posterous.com/users/4SirDmU49YtP Conrado Morlan thesmartpms Conrado Morlan
Sat, 23 Oct 2010 17:26:00 -0700 Managing a Multicultural Team - Part 1 http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/managing-a-multicultural-team-part-1 http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/managing-a-multicultural-team-part-1

NBC is broadcasting the sitcom "Outsourced" in which an American call center manager is transferred to India to run the call center. 
The new manager's cultural intelligence is very low and he does not know how to approach his new team formed by locals from different geographic areas from India. 
In the sitcom some cultural situations are shown and due to the lack of cultural background may seem funny but this is a real issue that project managers face when managing a multicultural team.

Note the call center manager's "first impression" of India and how he greets the call center team members. In some cultures the "touching" for some cultures may be misunderstood and may be a source of conflict.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1572503/BestoftheBestCM.png http://posterous.com/users/4SirDmU49YtP Conrado Morlan thesmartpms Conrado Morlan
Fri, 22 Oct 2010 18:02:00 -0700 Project Management Meets the World http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/project-management-meets-the-world http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/project-management-meets-the-world

In the last four weeks I had the opportunity to attend two PMI congresses. One was the 5th Central American and Caribbean Project Management Congress held in San Jose Costa Rica and the PMI Global Congress 2010 – North America.

In both congresses, I had the opportunity to interact with project management professionals from different latitudes and continents. I tried to learn from those interactions and identify the personality treats which set a difference for the project management professionals from around the world.

We manage projects, follow project management guidelines and apply methodologies to their day to day work. In a way we “play by the book”. But in a multicultural environment the project manager professional needs to adapt because an expression, a word or a gesture can be interpreted in multiple ways.

Interacting with project managers I was able to identify different communication styles which were tied to their cultural background among them:  different ways of greeting each other, table manners, personal space, perception of time and many others. All this elements of communication have a great impact on the project execution.

 Multicultural teams should pay particular attention to the risk of miscommunication. Recommendations to the XXI century project managers are described in the article http://bit.ly/9gmJdP.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1572503/BestoftheBestCM.png http://posterous.com/users/4SirDmU49YtP Conrado Morlan thesmartpms Conrado Morlan
Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:01:00 -0700 The Risk of Miscommunication in a Global Project Team http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/the-risk-of-miscommunication-in-a-global-proj http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/the-risk-of-miscommunication-in-a-global-proj

The Risk of Miscommunication in a Global Project Team

by Jamie B. Gelbtuch, MBA, PMP, and Conrado Morlan, PMP, PgMP

1 Votes

 

i
 

Quantcast

8:30 a.m. Members of your global project team are all in town and you arrive at your office for the 9:00 a.m. meeting, which by your U.S. standards should begin promptly at 8:55 a.m.

Agenda? Check. Technology working? Check. Breakfast on its way? Check.

At 8:50 a.m., you head to the meeting room and find Lucy, who arrived five minutes earlier and is casually preparing with her feet up on the table, but nonetheless ready to go.

8:55 a.m. Vijaykumar from India, Abdul Azim from the Middle East, and Masao from Japan arrive engrossed in a conversation that you cannot really understand due to the different English accents.

It’s 8:59 a.m (you are already four minutes behind schedule, you think to yourself) and Fatima from Brazil arrives.

In what seems like an eternity, 20 minutes pass, and you receive a phone call from reception asking permission to allow your last colleague Iván, from Argentina, permission to come upstairs.

Before the meeting even begins, the obvious question starts to percolate in your head: How will this team finish the project on time when they cannot even agree on the meaning of “9:00 a.m.”?

Project managers should count risk identification and prevention among their most important activities. In a global project context, risk management becomes more complex. Multicultural teams should pay particular attention to the risk of miscommunication.

Here are three ways to mitigate this risk:

Timing is everything
For some cultures, time is money, and each minute can be assigned a value of loss or gain. Other cultures are more comfortable with less-structured senses of time.

The realities of life across the world impact how people’s time is used: Traffic makes arriving on time a near-impossibility in one location, but efficient transportation networks make that a non-issue in another.

It is essential to be cognizant of other cultures’ theoretical views and daily realties concerning time. As a project leader, you need to suspend judgment when the members of your project team seem to be operating not only across different time zones, but also different time realities.

Is that a “yes – yes” or a “yes – no”?
 When lacking the advantage of a shared language, a common tactic is to boil communications down to simplistic levels, often resulting in an excessive amount of yes/no questions. However, many cultures, in order to avoid conflict, tend to use a “yes” response to indicate that they hear you, even when the answer to the question is “no.”

The “yes” may be accompanied by subtle contextual cues (tone of voice/silence, eye contact/avoidance, facial expressions) that indicate that it is, in fact, a “no.” Keep yes/no questions to a minimum and opt for more open-ended questions instead.

“You can say you to me”
There is a famous account of former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl meeting the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan for the first time and proclaiming, “You can say you to me.”

In order to understand the humor of this statement, consider that many languages distinguish between formal and informal words, titles and grammatical constructions for “you.” Chancellor Kohl was implying a friendly relationship and demonstrating it through the “informal you” that gets lost in translation to English—where there is only one “you.” 

While learning the language of every colleague is neither a viable option nor a necessity for most, knowing whether a language includes elements such as this will provide insight into how that person might view working relationships with others.

Today's project managers need to not only focus on how to mitigate risks associated with project requirements, but also the risk of miscommunicating within the global project team. As Einstein said, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

As part of the plan for your next project that includes a global team, integrate a cultural awareness component to mitigate communication risks stemming from different cultural attitudes, experiences and behaviors. If you treat the risk of miscommunication in your project as "one size fits all", you might soon find yourself without a project to manage.

Jamie B. Gelbtuch, MBA, PMPJamie B. Gelbtuch, MBA, PMP, is founder and principal consultant of Cultural Mixology, which designs, delivers and facilitates cross-cultural and language training programs in academic, business, and expatriate environments. She is fluent in English, Spanish and French, with a working knowledge of Portuguese. She has particular expertise in working with Latin American cultures and French-speaking countries. For questions, comments, or feedback, please contact Ms. Gelbtuch.

 

Conrado Morlan, PMP, PgMPConrado Morlan, PMP, PgMP, is the regional program delivery director at the global market leader of the international express and logistics industry. He has more than 15 years of experience managing programs in the Americas, Europe and Asia and has led multigenerational and multicultural project teams. He is a contributor to INyES Latino and thesmartpms blog as well as an avid PMI volunteer. For questions, comments or your feedback, please contact Mr. Morlan.

 

Project managers should count risk identification and prevention among their most important activities. In a global project context, risk management becomes more complex. Multicultural teams should pay particular attention to the risk of miscommunication.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1572503/BestoftheBestCM.png http://posterous.com/users/4SirDmU49YtP Conrado Morlan thesmartpms Conrado Morlan
Sun, 17 Oct 2010 12:18:00 -0700 Time Constrains, Schedule and Other Issues Impacting Projects #pmot #pmp #pm #leadership http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/time-constrains-schedule-and-other-issues-imp http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/time-constrains-schedule-and-other-issues-imp

Project Management professionals still consider meeting the schedule as one of the critical success factors of their projects. Although meeting the schedule is important, nowadays projects may be considered successful if they bring the expected incremental benefits to the community, employees and the organization that pay for the proyect. 

In a global team, the concept of time may differ and the "interpretation" of the schedule may vary from country to country. Among it's main functions project managers need to consider the cultural factor in their project teams to ensure that milestones will be completed as planned.

How would you deal with a team member in which his/hers language or dialect there is no words to describe the future? Would this be a roadblock for your project? Phil Zimbardo describes on his video "The secret Powers of Time" the different concepts of time across different geographies and religions views.

This video is a must for all those project manager that have not consider the time perception impact on their projects teams.  

Enjoy!!

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1572503/BestoftheBestCM.png http://posterous.com/users/4SirDmU49YtP Conrado Morlan thesmartpms Conrado Morlan
Sun, 17 Oct 2010 11:21:00 -0700 The President's Project - Opening Keynote Session by President Bill Clinton http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/the-presidents-proyect-opening-keynote-sessio http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/the-presidents-proyect-opening-keynote-sessio

Image002
 

 

On the eve of his 35th wedding anniversary, President William J. Clinton addressed the thousands of project management professionals attending the PMI Global Congress 2010 North America.

 

During his address, Mr. Clinton expressed his fascination by project management and how it had positively impacted him as on his political career running campaigns as attorney general, governor and president.

 

When President Clinton took office for his first term in 1993 the world was changing and he faced the challenge to reduce the deficit. He asked Vice-president Gore to lead and build a national partnership to reduce the deficit and reshape the government fairly quickly considering different alternatives, among them technology projects that would provide quick wins. 

 

Examples of those quick wins include:  the Inc. Magazine award presented to the Social Security Administration for being the most consumer responsive organization in America, the electronic tax filing and how government created value and doubled American people’s trust in government according to the survey conducted by the University of Michigan.

Today, thru his foundation Mr. Clinton leads many projects toward the benefit of people in America and throughout the world providing medicine to children in need and fighting obesity. On annual basis he meets with world leaders, philanthropists and NGOs leaders of to focus on specific actions. In 6 years, Mr. Clinton foundation spent 60+ billion dollars to positively change people’s life.

Image007

The three current challenges the world is facing, according to Mr. Clinton are:

•             Global instability

•             Growing economic inequality between rich and poor countries

•             The need for change in the way energy is produced and consumed in the world

 

There is still a lot of work to be done in Haiti after the earthquake and he invited project managers to join his cause and develop standards to make sure that everything is done in Haiti during the re-construction is hurricane- and earthquake-resistant.

 

One of the most interesting quotes from Mr. Clinton was “If you're a project manager and you're a professional, there's always going to be something you can do for the next 50 years in the 21st century".

 

During the Q&A session with Greg Ballesteros, CEO of PM, Mr. Clinton Mentioned that two people that had influenced his life was Nelson Mandela, Nobel Prize and former President of South Africa and Yitzhak Rabin, fifth Prime Minister of Israel. From both he learnt the power of strength and that adversity should not change ideals.

 

Image008

 

Mr. Clinton keynote was the best way to start PMI Global Congress 2010 -- North America.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1572503/BestoftheBestCM.png http://posterous.com/users/4SirDmU49YtP Conrado Morlan thesmartpms Conrado Morlan
Sun, 10 Oct 2010 09:48:00 -0700 PMI Global Congress 2010-North America @ Gaylord National Resort Washington, D.C. http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/pmi-global-congress-2010-north-america-gaylor http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/pmi-global-congress-2010-north-america-gaylor

The Congress features three full days of learning and networking for the global project management community. On Saturday took place the PMI Award Ceremony and Reception in which the best of project management was recognized.

 

The recognition included PMI chapters and Specific Interest Groups, individuals and companies focused on project management education and project management professionals for their  contribution to the profession. To culminate the ceremony, the PMI Project of the Year award was announced.

 

After the event, the reception was a great venue for networking with people from various geographies who attended the Leadership meetings and/or the global congress. A large group of Latin American representatives got together after the reception to continue “la fiesta”.

 

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1572503/BestoftheBestCM.png http://posterous.com/users/4SirDmU49YtP Conrado Morlan thesmartpms Conrado Morlan
Fri, 08 Oct 2010 16:46:00 -0700 How great project managers inspire action http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/how-great-project-managers-inspire-action http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/how-great-project-managers-inspire-action

Take a look to Simon Sinek's video and take his recommendation. You as project manager must inspire action to the project team and stakeholders. Try to use the golden circle and the question "Why?" in your next project status or stakeholder meeting and see the diference

The video is available at http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html (subtitles available in different languages).

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1572503/BestoftheBestCM.png http://posterous.com/users/4SirDmU49YtP Conrado Morlan thesmartpms Conrado Morlan
Fri, 08 Oct 2010 14:53:00 -0700 The Cultural Challenges of Matrix Organizations http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/the-cultural-challenges-of-matrix-organizatio http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/the-cultural-challenges-of-matrix-organizatio

Managing projects in any type of organization is not an easy task. Structures vary from functional to projectized to a blend of both, the matrix organization.

How do you face the challenge? Here some recommendations. http://www.pmi.org/eNews/Post/2010_07-23/The-Cultural-Challenges-of-Matrix-Or...

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1572503/BestoftheBestCM.png http://posterous.com/users/4SirDmU49YtP Conrado Morlan thesmartpms Conrado Morlan