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“Tzu-lu said ‘ If the Lord of Wei entrusts the government to you, what will you do first?’ ‘Correct names, surely!’, Confucius (551-479) BC.
Project Management is a global language. PMI and many Organizations have been promoting Project Management as an efficient way to close the Communication Gap. August 2009 PMBOK Cafe held workshops in which Project Management was discussed in detail by more than 20 Project Management Professionals from diverse industries and more than 5 countries. These people have extensive experience in conducting projects in Cultures out side of their Native Culture.
One of the overriding themes that has emerged is the reduction of the Culture Gap. The Culture Gap are ideas that are difficult to express across cultures. When you are working across cultures their is a greater Risk of Ambiguity. Case in point our Current 2009 World bank President Robert Zoleick Stakeholder. As recently as 2006 during High Level government meetings between China and USA were stalled on the word Stakeholder. The finest translators in the world had issues with what does “Stakeholder” mean.
The practical methods to overcome this are email, messaging, voice, video and face to face travel. Finding the correct people who have the critical; language, cultural and technical skills is the first step. The Second step is Spending time to elaborate requirements is the best practice for management to mitigate this Risk of Ambiguity.
Project Management has been influenced by countless people and cultures. Japanese business Philosophy of Kaizen 改善 or continuous improvement have been synonymous with Project Management. Which was in turn influenced by Henry Ford. The Agile Manifesto is a child of this concept. I acknowledge that Agile concepts are a refinement to Project Management. The problem is Slang or Jargon that is meant to be something that keeps groups together and keeps people out.
One of the issues with the Agile Methodologies are the growing trend of labeling Project Management as “Traditional”. Traditional Project Management is most likely rarely practiced anymore. Traditional Project Management is something from the 60’s. For example the Apollo Program that successfully in less than a decade from initiation, safely flew 2 men to the surface of the moon and returned them to Earth. Fulfilling those requirements is a text book example of Traditional Project Management. The Apollo Program and the Project Managers who crafted the tools by combining humanities best practices are the true owners of arguably mankind’s greatest achievement.
People can call it Modern or PM 2.0 or any numerous labels. The bottom line is call it what it is, Project Management. Veteran Project Managers such as Glen Alleman of Herding Cats. are unconvinced that there has been a radical revolution that warrants relabeling the vocabulary of Project Management.
Global Projects require us to communicate across cultures. We need to drop the posturing; jargon and lingo and communicate in the clearest most easily translated way possible. Believe me if you walk into a team members office in Shanghai and tell them we are not performing Project Management anymore we are Scrumming, you will be viewed with some apprehension. Why, because Global Project Management has been practiced in Asia for thousands of years and the concepts in the Project Management Book of Knowledge are translated and being implemented globally. Having the PMBOK as a baseline is a first step in planning a Global Project.
Using the Project Management Book of Knowledge is an inclusive tool. With a Global Standard that has been translated into many of the languages around the world we can reduce the Cultural Ambiguity that is present on Global Projects. Working on a project in China, make sure that your Chinese team members have a copy, same in Japanese, same in Arabic, same in Spanish. Teams of global volunteers have been working to Create a way to Manage Projects across cultures. Having a common set of names, that can be used across cultures is a giant step to governing your project and reducing risks of cultural misunderstandings.
Manage Expectations on Global Project with a Team Charter Rule Book
Global Projects add complexity.
Culture gaps are difficult to detect. When you think about it, how can we step outside of the mindset that we learned from our family, teachers and friends. The insidious nature of Language shaping our thoughts is a barrier setting expectations.
Cultural Ambiguity
For example if we think about the future. The core of Projects. How people construct the future actually depends on culture. For example my western upbringing and English Mother tongue, predispose me to construct future references using the future tense. For example
Sounds pretty positive perhaps 95%. The same construct in Japanese literally is
The interesting thing is in Japanese there is no need to modify the verb to discuss the future, it is the same tense. Perhaps, if you are a westerner it might sound very strange. That is a cultural gap. Is it a big deal? The answer is yes. The present tense in English means 100% one plus one is two. The is in that statement means equals.
Documenting the requirements on global projects we need to close the culture gap. Interestingly, the NASA Systems Engineering Manual explicitly recognizes the vague qualities of English and states. On Page 131 Requirements Validation-
The NASA rule book instructs their project managers to format the requirement.
Team Charter
Good projects managers will use a kind of rule book or a team charter to manage these kind of expectations. Facilitating this can be fun on a multicultural team. Having an understanding of what exactly does; plan to, expect to, hope to, like to, want to…. mean for a team in the beginning of a project will prevent misunderstandings from happening on global projects. A very nice discussion presents this argument on LinkedIn http://bit.ly/1cKcb2 have to be a group member of Global Project Managers. You can also enjoy a video from a Japanese and Saudi Arabian PMP perspective below.
Cultural Environment of Japanese Project Management from Robert Higgins on Vimeo.