Forward Momentum: Delivering Results

By Bruce Beer, PMP

Working with virtual teams and PMOs has enough challenges when they are all contained in the USA; however when these teams are global with different time zones and languages, it has a certain dimension that adds “interest” to life!

My first experience with a virtual team was when I based in the UK and was asked to manage a Pan-European project to implement a support service for Hewlett Packard throughout Europe. The application was developed in the US and was being implemented throughout eight European Countries as well as Asia-Pacific and the Americas.

OK so you get the idea – it was certainly a large virtual project. The things that made it interesting to manage were the different cultures, time zones, and languages. Take for example the European cultures – they ranged from those who conducted projects with total precision and accuracy, to those who agreed a course of action then went off and did “their own thing”, to those that tried hard, were great fun to work with, but didn’t always take life too seriously.

In Europe there are only two time zones – UK and European, so this was not a great problem, but we also had regular communications with HQ in Palo Alto on the West Coast – an 8 hour time shift. As for the language issue, I did not adopt the general English approach to languages, “Shout louder in English and they will understand”. I made an attempt to at least show willingness by using my schoolboy French and German which often caused much merriment from my colleagues, leading to everyone resorting to English as the common language – thank goodness.

What were the important lessons I learnt from this experience?

The first one was that for a virtual team, in my opinion it is imperative that the team meets face to face at least once, preferably on a regular basis. I held a kick-off meeting in the UK, then in addition to regular phone conferences we had status meetings every month rotating around the other Countries. When I say “we” I mean just the Project Manager from each Country, not all of the team members. This did of course add to the expense, but in my view the cost was easily justified by the smoother communication and running of the project. There was quite a lot of interdependence between the various Country teams, and trying to negotiate and get another Country to cooperate was so much easier when you had met the person concerned, had a meal and a drink together, and knew something about their family, hobbies, etc.

This leads to communication on a virtual team. This is even more important than with a local team where you can just go and visit a colleague to ask a question and catch up on progress. Communication has to be well thought out and planned taking into account time differences, language issues, project complexities, and cultural differences.

As for the different cultures, I just had to embrace that – I wasn’t going to change their culture, I just had to incorporate it into the plan. Some Countries needed more management or direction, others – once we had agreed a course of action, just went away and did it.

Languages did cause me a problem initially, but it seemed I was the only one who had a problem  – everyone seemed to speak English at least as well as I did, some were even better! There was one Swiss guy who could carry on multiple conversations at dinner in multiple languages, at the same time – I was impressed! In this project I was lucky we all spoke English – had I been dealing with non-European language speakers who could not speak English, it would have been very difficult if not impossible to manage.

I did meet and liaise with the US central developers and the PMs from Asia Pacific and the Americas to discuss any issues and cry on each other shoulders as necessary.

So the key lessons from this and subsequent large virtual teams were to:

1. Meet face to face at least once not just to discuss work but also to socialize and get to know the other team members a little, even though it added cost
2. Allow for and even embrace the different cultures
3. Consider and plan communications very carefully
4. Hope everyone speaks English!! Seriously, this could be a major issue on a global project and it can’t be ignored – a solution to communication and language must be found

By Kathy Martucci, PMP

We don’t find the concept of trust on most traditional lists of project critical success factors. Yet it may be the number one consideration in establishing and maintaining a high-performing virtual team. While it can be argued that trusting relationships are needed by all teams, they are even more important to virtual teams because of a lack of face-to-face time.

Let’s face it – we wonder what those people are REALLY doing? We email them; maybe call them, but have we ever met face-to-face? Do we share anything of ourselves beyond work issues?  Do we actually see them operate on a daily basis? Are THEY working as hard as WE are?

While multiple media are the channels by which members make the “physical” connection, there is little to no face-face communication in a virtual team. Yet it is only through meaningful interactions that people develop trusting relationships. More importantly, informal encounters (walking through the hallway, meeting in the kitchen), something that virtual team members cannot do even with the most advanced technology, have been shown to provide a common perspective that leads to enhanced collaborations.  

This is yet another challenge for the Virtual Team Project Manager to address. Building and then maintaining trust, which can easily be fractured given time and spatial differences, requires genuinely engaging the team toward that end. If trust can be achieved, more open communication, cooperation, a higher quality of decision-making, and more satisfaction in the decision-making process follows.

By Craig Covello, PMP

Many of us who manage large projects are flooded by e-mail and their associated attachments each day. These discrete items of information sit in our in-box silently demanding attention, yet often the subject lines do a poor job of drawing our attention to items which should be read first.  This is particularly true when e-mails have been forwarded multiple times.  Each contributor adds something new which may or may not be relevant to the topic at hand. This can slowly transform the original message, while leaving the subject line unchanged. To make matters worse, items arrive from a variety of sources in chronological order, which further serves to hide what is truly important. Some of us attempt to prioritize the information by simply reviewing each document, either chronologically or starting with the most recent e-mail and moving backwards. Often times, we try to commit the information to our memory.  But since it is difficult to retain more than four or five topics simultaneously, we resort to a more “stimulus driven” approach by acting on each document immediately after we’ve read it.  That action might be to:

• Make one or more phone calls to inform, clarify or initiated an action.
• Respond or forward the e-mail via e-mail for the same purpose.
• File the information in an e-mail folder.
• Disregard the e-mail and delete it.

The problem with the stimulus driven approach is that it ignores prioritization based upon our situational assessment of a large project.  Typically, these projects are comprised of sizable teams in a matrix business structure spanning large geographic areas, aka “virtual teams”. There can be much diversity of thought as well as physical distance between contributors.  With so many voices, we sometimes allow external forces to manipulate our work day.  We become subservient to the in-basket.

There is a better way.  You may want to consider summarizing each email by creating your own notes. In many cases, I find this approach much easier than trying to commit the information in memory or filing it in its original form. Here’s one method: 

Read the email or attachment in its entirety.

When you have a general understanding of what the sender is trying to convey, read it again, but this time simply scan for information that is important to you.  When you find it, use the Windows copy/paste function to drop it into your notes.

Once the information is in your notepad, you can then rearrange keywords and sentences in ways that are meaningful in the context of your assessment as the project manager. You can also juxtaposition the summary notes from one source with summaries from other topics to get a larger, more accurate picture of the situation or issue.

Admittedly, this method does require a little more upfront effort. The thought of writing summary notes may not be compatible with your work style, but for me, the work invested up front when a communication is received pays tremendous dividends downstream. Your workload will lighten dramatically, since summarizing will reduce the amount of time you will spend revisiting a topic.  You will be capturing information on your own terms.  That is a key concept. Writing summary notes will force you to critically think about each fact and assumption contained in an e-mail. It will also enable you to prioritize, and in some cases, correct the information.  By using this method, you may

• Increase your understanding of issues and events by connecting the dots.
• Help others by dramatically reducing the amount of time that would normally spend reviewing e-mail chains and interpreting meaning.

So you might want to give it a try. You may find that this method gives you more confidence, more time and less stress.  It may also help foster common understanding among virtual team members, regardless of background or geography.

by Rob Zell

Many organizations are struggling today with the concept of incorporating social networks into the workplace. I don’t blame them. There are plenty of issues that immediately come to mind:

• How do you secure the information?
• How do you keep conversations appropriate for the workplace?
• How do you keep people productive?

There is plenty of information out there on this topic. A friend of mine sent me “a stack” of blogs and white papers that he uncovered to help me with some work I’m doing. The more I read, the more impressed I become with the usefulness of the technology and the speed it brings to organizations that embrace it.

As energizing as the technology is, there are those who worry that work will come to a screeching halt while employees tweet, blog, and update their status. Here’s the thing: they already are, whether you have a network or not.

Most organizations probably have a break room with the standard microwave, water cooler and coffee machine. Yours might be more high tech with a vending machine or two, maybe a TV running cable news or company announcements. You might have comfy chairs or even a video game machine. Of course if you are Google you have snacks, food service and even games. At some point in the day, people will gather there and chances are they will:

• Talk about the business and what they are working on (which you probably don’t want just anyone to hear).
• Talk about something inappropriate (but hey, you weren’t there so it’s not like you’re responsible right?).
• Be unproductive.

To the best of my knowledge, and I admit I haven’t done any research on this, I don’t think anyone is trying to ban break rooms. In fact, more companies are focused on what goes on in the break room as a way to reinforce culture: team message boards, specialized services, recognition walls, fun artwork, etc. (See Google). To make matters worse, many of the people who “pop down” to the break room aren’t being social or engaging in your culture because they are on their Smartphone tweeting about how lame your organization is for not doing more to engage in social media.

So why not encourage dialogue and interaction in a controlled setting? There are some good tools out there that organizations are using to create conversations and accelerate productivity. Tools like Yammer (yammer.com) and even Microsoft Sharepoint encourage the kind of sharing that you desire. These tools have built in search functionality. With some training, your employees can quickly find the information they need. Learning often takes place on the job, with information shared between peers or handed down from supervisor to employee. With unlimited access to a monitored knowledge base, your employees can get immediate answers to performance questions and more importantly can get the right answer rather than the best shortcut.

Finally, in this increasingly virtual age, gathering around the water cooler is hardly feasible. With teams spread out across the globe, tools that shorten the distance between teams and improve working relationships aren’t just nice to have. Tools like these are a competitive advantage.

With the right tools and some cultural motivation, your teams can spend time in virtual space talking about the business, sharing best practices, adding productivity and providing real-time feedback on the state of the business. If that isn’t a strategic advantage, I don’t know what is.