International Project Management: Key Strategies and Challenges

1. Managing an international project: do you have what it takes? Casestudy: European Education Programme

2. Intro What is Project Management_.mp4

3. What is a project? • A temporaryendeavour to create a product or a service, • With a definitebeginning and a definiteending • Alignedwithorganisationalobjectives • Involvesinvestment in staff and expenses • Mightalsoinvolveexternalfunding • Case study: multilateralprojects in highereducation

4. Possiblebenefits of optimizedproject management • Enhancedwork environment • Eliminatemistakes • Reducerisks • Reduce stress levels • Improved team work • Better time management • Betteruse of existing resources • Betterestimating • Better focus on goals • More research • More externalfunding and therefor more projects

5. Challenges in project management • Notdeliveringon time • Over budget • Notdelivering the requiredresults • Time investmentwhenusingexternal resources • Unexpectedeventsthatinfluence the project • Toorigidapproach (time, goals, schedules, etc.) • Conflictsbetween team members

6. Working in a team – what’syourexperience? • Ever worked in a team? • Positiveelements? • Negativeelements? • Howdidyoumaintain the positiveelements? • Howdidyousolve the negative issues? Take The Bus l De Lijn l HD funny videos.mp4

7. Working in an international team • Transfer this to an international team • Whichadditionalpositiveelements? • Whichadditionalpotential issues?

8. International project team Different behaviour does notmean different culture Culture evolves and is not a static concept There is nosuchthing as cultural ‘principles’ – there are situations, individuals, …

9. Project management and leadership • Does the team take the important decisions? • Is the companystrategy a team effort? • Does a decision have to beacceptedby the whole team? • Does everybodyinvolvedget a saybefore a decision is made? • Does the management uselisteningskills? • Are meetings anefficient tool? • Do meetings have a problemsolving goal?

10. Leadership

11. Leadership Project manager = the interpersonaldimension • Vision – clear goals • Valuesandinspiration • Leads byexample • Team building • Motivation, encouragement, recognition • Support and feedback • Clearcommunication • Conflict resolution • Understanding of interaction and developmentprocesses • Integrity = the factualdimension • Planning • Organisation • Monitoring • Contractual management • Financial management • Reporting

12. Leadership in an international project • Cooperative and democratic • Authorative and directive Leadershipcanmakeor break the project. If a good leader has donehis job well, peoplewillthinkthey have all doneitbythemselves (K. Blanchard)

13. Leadershipcompetences • Inspiring and motivating • Communicatingeffectively • Practicinginterculturalsensitivity • Building performing teams • Solvingemergingconflicts in a constructiveway

14. Organisational background of the team Personal relations Flexible time Tangible time (agenda) People Network – who you know Activity Organic Meritocracy (own merits) Who are You? What do you do? Relations are rational Systematic

15. Organisation

16. Organisation & training

17. Planning aspects - practical • Tree diagram of all ‘workpackages’, content and coordination

18. Planning aspects - practical • Ganttchart: project schedulecombinedwith the start and end of eachworkpackage – especially important forworkpackagesapproach • Project milestones

19. Organisation & time

20. Case study: project application • Know the rules and regulations • Know the buzzwords • Relevance of the projects • Quality of the workprogramme • Internal and externalcommunication • Management system and procedures • Innovativecharacter • Quality of the consortium • Europeanaddedvalue (Europeanfunding) • Cost-benefit ratio • Impact • Valorisation = beprepared (content andadmin)

21. Getting the project started • Analysis of • Contracts • Finances • Restrictions • Admin • Deadlines • Etc. • Setting up what was promised in the application good (realistic) application = easiersetup

22. Effectivecollaboration Fantasticmotivational teamwork montage video.mp4 • Team > bringing a group of peopletogether • Focusingonpeopleinvolved • Peoplewillmake the project happen

23. Diverse group project team • People in the project with • Different management styles • Different organisations • Different situations • Different project cultures • Different definitions • Different nationalities • Different languages • Different cultures • Different needs and expectations • Different personalities • Different jobs even with the same job titles

24. Kolb’sbehaviouralstyles The ideal team consists of • Innovator focusesonnewideas and developingnewways of doingthings • Pragmatist focusesonpractice and utilisespreviousexperiences • Theorist focuseson models and sees the big picture • Reflector focusesonunderstanding and considerswhat’sgoingon Find out what’syourstyle in one of the many free online tests

25. Alternative: Belbin Find out what’syourstyle in one of the many free online tests

26. Diverse group project team • …. Need to beenabled to • Sharedownership • Commonaims • Agreement and rules • Collaboration • Reflection • Learningprocess • … To come to aneffectiveintercultural project team

27. Characteristics of effective teams • Clearcommon and shared goals • Shareresponsibility • Have allocatedappropriateresponsibilities, roles and tasks to eachmember • Produce a collective output • Measuretheirprogresstowards the goals • Are fairlysmall • Necessaryblend of skills • Get support fromtheir superiors • Canworktogether • Cultivate trust and dialogue • Handleconflictsconstructively and openly • Get to know the team members • Appreciateculturaldiversity • Reflecton performance

28. Phases of successful team development • Forming • Storming • Norming • Performing • Mourning

29. Undesirablephases of team development • Diplomacy • Endlesstalks • Cheap consensus • Rushingtowardsdelivery

30. Very important keyword

31. Groundrulesforeach team member • Respect your team members • Be on time, and let the othersknowifyou’re late • Send the agenda one week before the meeting • Handleconflicts in a constructivemanner • Askwhenyoudon’tunderstand • Be helpful and supportive to your team • Askfor help, don’tstrugglealone • Follow the deadlines • Don’tbetoostrict, listen and try to understand • Giveeveryone a chance to try out different roles and responsibilities in meetings

32. Good project meetings • Agenda • Rolesduring the meeting: chair, expert, minutes, visualizer, evaluator, host, languageinspector, etc. • Visualisation • minutes

33. Yourrole in an international team • Who are you? • What are yourcompetences? • And yourskills? • Yourweaknesses? How do youtry to overcomethem? Anyexamples? • Whatcouldbeyourrole in a team? Try out online tests to find out! Considerthisbeforeyoujoin a project and noton the spot!

38. Conflicts • Conflict situations in international teams: • General misunderstanding (partner does notdare to show disagreementoraskfurtherquestions and stayspolite and silent) • Linguisticmisunderstanding • Culturalmisunderstanding • Non-compliancewith deadlines • Non-compliancewithfinancial and admin issues • Poor performance level • Non-performance, violation of contracualobligation

39. Case study: conflict One (Italian) team memberrepeatedlyignores the deadlines and hasn’tdeliverdanyacceptablematerialsyet, apart from a few roughlysketched and verygeneral pages. The other team members are furious… The whole team is supposed to workonjointlydevelopedmodular training materialsfor a courseon management byobjectives. The materialwillbelaunchedverysoon and testedwith a pilotgroup. Whatcouldbe the possibleexplanations?

40. Case study: conflict explanations Possibleexplanations • Francesco has family issues and can’tperformwell – is this the case ornot? • BeingItalianhe has a different approachtowards deadlines (‘suggestions’) – is thissoor is it a stereotype? • hisorganisationordepartment is strugglingwithnotenoughstaff and toomuchassignments • he’sanexperiencedmember of staffwhodoesn’tneed all theoreticalpreparation: heknowswhat MBO is and reliesonhisexperience – whatabout the quality of the outcome? • He thoughtheonly had to workon the generalapproach of the course, ratherthantangiblehandouts – misunderstanding • During the partner meeting the a colleague was quite explicit in criticisingFrancesco, whichdidn’t do the meeting muchgood - atmosphere

41. Conflict handling It is not relevant whatsomeonesays, Buthowit is meant, And howitwillbeunderstood. Said is notheard! Heard is notunderstood! Understood is notaccepted! Accepted is notdone! Done is notnatural!

42. Conflict handling • Define the level of communication • Rational level: contents, themes, topics – your tools are words, numbers and graphics • Emotional level: relationshipsbeteween the peoplewho are communicating – your tools for indirect communication are body languagelikefacialexpressions, gestures, posture, movements and intonation • Structural level: the frameworkaround the communication (situation, time available, socialsituation, location, personalfeelings, workpressure, norms, standards, values, etc. – usable tools canberoom, seatingarrangements, competence, rescheduling, even clothes…

44. Conflict handling • Managing conflicts • Try to tackle conflictson a rational level • Continue to express appreciation of the personinvolved in a conflict (emotional level) • Try to reach a commonunderstanding of the problem • Try to create a win-winsituation at the emotional level • Try to adopt a postive view of the nature of the conflict • Don’t put energy in avoidingconflicts: • youcan’tavoidthem, • they are sometimesnecessary to reach the overall project targets • They show differences and can help to create a new level of commonunderstanding • They are often complex butalso help to establishcommoninterests • The canmakechangepossiblebutalso help to preserve whatalreadyexists

45. Conflict handling • Hot and coldconflicts • Hot = yelling, negativeemotions, etc. = highlyvisible • Cold = silence, icyatmosphere, etc. = notvisible, difficult to discover • How to deal withit? ‘put iton the table’ = risky = needsbravery = adequate communicationskills But necessary…

47. Conflict escalation Notoften the case - most issues are solvedbyusing the followingstrategies: • Forcing (authority – reallocate to other partner – risk of demotivation and furtherconflicts) • Accommodating (deliveryby e.g. coordinator to avoid time lapse – risk of repeatedbehaviourby partner in notrespecting deadlines) • Avoiding (ignoringnon-deliverance – risk of multiplying the non-deliverance and the total project outcomes) • Compromising (reducing the volume of partner contribution – risk of lose-losesituationbecause of lowerquality, and partner stilldoesn’tperformadequatly) • Collaborating(exploring the reasonfornon-delivery and convince partner of cooperation – risk of losingtoomuch time and notfinding a satisfactorysolution)