The difference between British and our US colleagues is neatly summed up by roundabouts (or traffic circles, if you’re American) and traffic lights. A former British Ambassador to Washington hit the nail on the head when he identified this (although I can’t find him credited with this major cultural discovery on the internet). Americans are direct: if …
Category: Project Management
Feb 17
The i in team
I have never met him but Ross Bradder should be knighted for services to business for sharing this on facebook from Santa Clarita, CA
Jul 15
Business travel: Keeping mobile roaming headaches at bay
With summer holidays coming up and international roaming data at £1 for 1mb – thats one email with an attachment, it’s time for drastic action. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14129868
Apr 30
From Global Solution to Big Problem
In six easy steps: Central: “Here’s our Global Solution” Local: “Does it work for me?” Central: “We will get down to the detail later but it can do everything we need. We will work together on this, now let’s get on..” Local: “But I can’t use it because it doesn’t do this” Central: “This is the …
Apr 15
Coach a team with 100 words
Footballers are not known for their extensive vocabularies. So it was hard to tell whether it was a compliment or an insult when Italian Fabio Capello, England’s football coach, said he could manage the national team using just 100 words. “If I need to speak about the economy or other things, I can’t speak,” he …
Mar 22
The Project Mahout
How do you get an elephant from A to B? There are four ways: You can Push it, Pull it, Pick it up and carry it, or You can climb up onto the elephants back and whisper in its ear “There is a bun in that direction.” In change management, the subject has got to …
Jan 03
Keep your plans agile and objectives personal
Your project plans need to be detailed for the near term so that everyone knows: What they are working on, What their accountability is for the deliverables and quality and How this fits into the greater objective. The only thing that is certain about a long-term detailed plan is that it will be wrong. PMs can …
Jun 17
The Global Project Managers toolkit
As you venture forth on a multinational project delivery, what tools you need to increase the chances of success? As soon as you start to cross borders, the geographic and cultural separation mean that the trusted team management techniques such as “Management by walking around” and “the team that drinks together, thinks together” no longer …
May 01
Travellers tool bag – What to take with you for the journey
As you venture forth on a multinational project delivery, Nic Evans looks at what tools you need to increase the chances of success. As soon as you start to cross borders, the geographic and cultural separation mean that the trusted techniques such as “Management by walking around” and “the team that drinks together, thinks together” …
May 01
Go Forth and “Multi-”ply
Going multinational opens up multiple extra dimensions in system complexity. The biggest strategic efficiency for multinational systems is gained by having front-end, administration and accounting systems that can travel in these extra dimensions Multi-Format – Culture-specific number formats (thousand and decimal separators) currency symbols (prefixes or suffixes) and date formats are essential to present users …
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