Introduction
The word project is something that is synonymous with any type of organisation setting. Yes, an idea that is to be implemented, is only really in its professional form when it is within the context of a 'project' along with all of its quantifiers e.g plan, budget, human capital, all underpinned by relevant key performance indicators (KPI's). At one point in time or other we have been involved in one type of project or another on a small or large scale. So what does research say? The question though, is that, are all 'projects' actually meaningful or are they just fancifully drawn up more for acceptance with little or not attention paid to its actual 'management'? According to a report published by the Project Management Institute in 2017 (i.e. 9th global management survey): Projects Meeting Goals
Project Failures
This most certainly tells us that not all is well is 'Project Management Land'. So what can we do/contribute as project professionals to ease the tension? because projects are not going away, they are here to stay and whilst they do, they are rapidly evolving in regards to project team acquisition, project working methodologies, sources of funding and how to access funding etc. As much as we perceive that we are professionals ourselves to be professionals, we also need to include at the very heart of project acquisition and management, a bit of human psychology in regards to how people think and behaviour in project teams and how such observations might become objective/subjective contributories to aligning strategies relevantly and productively. So... Do you have/had any experiences surrounding project acquisition and successful or otherwise management? What lessons did you learn? A little while ago one of our articles published explored the issue of global team project collaboration so this article is sort of a follow-up.
Looking into the Middle-East (Dubai in particular for now) and Africa (Nigeria in particular, for now) has been quite informative and a few lessons have been learnt which is good for business at such an early stage. Most certainly, there are cultural, social, economic and political differences that have been seriously looked into but it has paid off because now our QuiSec-Project's team now have been able to adopt a versatile mindset which has to be changed from time to time depending on which global team we are dealing with. What did we find out?
Our provision at the moment is within the following project management and consulting fields:
However, we have since realised that since 'one cap does not fit all' that things will need to be shifted around due to a variety of things such as political climate (which is key to driving funding and feasibility of projects) and the actual people's needs e.g. in the Middle East Learning and Development has not quite taken off and still a lot of awareness is still being campaigned, so to actually undertake a project that will be feasible within this area would initially for now be best focused on raising its awareness so that teams actually understand what it is all about enough to target business and function on meaningful way. On the other hand, our findings concerning Women & Youth Entrepreneurship projects appear to be 'right up their alley', there is a common cause and need to look into employability amongst both women and youth in the Middle East and most also most specifically for women, the need for them to actually be able to work alongside with their family life, preserving it at all costs. So acquiring and working with a global project team for the latter is very feasible as the vision and mission is something that politically is already being promoted. Also, in Africa, we also found out that although there is an awareness of Career Development, it is at present (but growing) something that people see as a real necessity and within a corporate sector, it is seen as rather a privileged aspect of personal development within corporate careers. However, there is also the controversial aspect of how young it really needs to take place and the need to build such a provision into the educational system rather than being that of an external entity intervention (i.e career fairs set up by private organisations) and the list goes on. Overall, it has been quite an insight that has surely enriched our perspective of engaging global teams within our project work. On a new point though, partnering does come to mind, to be covered on another day another blog. Are you newly going global, acquiring a global team whatever your experiences, we would love to hear from you. You can drop us a line by clicking on 'comments' Introduction
Gone are the days when project collaboration was something synonymous with only large corporations. Nowadays, 'everybody' seems to be 'collaborating' and yes, pooling capital resources has something to do with it but it is not the only reason. Companies are very rapidly understanding and 'buying into the idea' of what I have coined as the 'pay-as-you-go-project-resource', this means that for a specific skill/skills a collaboration is worth thinking about. Some could might argue that this is what is referred to as outsourcing, but actually it is a bit more than that. When you outsource, the person/s come into the 'project arena' as a freelancer/consultant/contractor or whatever you want to call them, take up their portion of work get it done and leaves the scene. The onus of responsibility such as that of a full time employee could be seen as full-time time vs part-time/freelancer and we all know how that works! Project collaboration be it long/short term is not only seen for the temporary acquisition of knowledge and skills but also a sort of an added opportunity or 'guarantee' backup marketing strategy for either or both companies involved. However, all of this has to be planned from the onset (as explained by Murray Newlands Forbes contributor) of the 'collaboration agreement', which is common practice or is it not? (that is a question to be viewed at another time, another blog). So maybe the questions to collaborators or those intending should be:
The above listed five points are in addition to the general questions that are usually asked prior to collaborating. The above five have been highlighted due to the degree to which they can either positively/negatively impact project work of a collaborative nature. There are two main outcomes to a project-collaboration that goes wrong:
At the end of the day, you have decided to collaborate on a project for a specific reason so, does the other party know what this entails and vice versa. Presuming that part has been dealt with, does it really work for you? We would love to hear your views on this blog topic. You can drop us a line by clicking on 'comments' Going Global Although our company is based in UK, we also looking to go across the shores in search of global projects. The world that we live in is rapidly becoming one big global pot which also means that for the sustainability of any type of business there is a need to 'get with the programme'. Thanks to the internet, we now have no excuse whats so ever for not getting online and setting up an e-presence, get your presence on there (how it should be done is a story for another day, another blog). However, besides the technology development of any type of business, there is the bigger issue at hand which is that of 'internal team dynamics'. Each person has their own personality profile; how they work, how they perceive things etc not to mention putting together a global team. Thinking of global teams we are now looking at more than just personality profiling, we are now looking at cultural, social and political issues and boundaries. Overview of global-project team project collaboration
Global Differentiation As a company looking to grow we have done quite some research in line with our mission and vision and looking to countries such as the Middle-East (Dubai, to be specific, for now), Africa (Nigeria, to specific for now) and United States. You might see the most obvious which are the first two mentioned however, yes the United States does need also be looking into as they also have a slightly different way of doing things and we are going to collaborate with them in terms of project team work, we need to get a good understanding of what actually 'makes them tick', 'chips' vs 'fries' comes to mind and the list goes on. To sum it up, getting to know your global is as important as the services about to be provided as it is the global team who will be dealing with the 'global clients' so we need to get it right. Any experience with global teams from countries mentioned? we would love to hear from you. You can drop us a line by clicking on 'comments' |
AuthorTabitha O. Abiola is the CEO & Chief Principal Learning & Development Consultant of QuiSec-Projects, a spin-off from QuiSec Consulting. Archives
March 2018
Categories
All
|