Leading International Projects

Diverse Strategies for Project Success

Bob Dignen, Peter Wollmann

• Publisher: Kogan Page
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9780749476861
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780749476878
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: International Business
• Index: Business

Project managers leading international projects must deliver value and align the project outcomes to the wider strategic goals of the organization. However, they are faced with the challenges of cross cultural communication and behavioural differences, large-scale and technically complex projects involving multiple stakeholders, and slow decision making when speed is of the essence. Leading International Projects helps overcome these challenges by taking a holistic approach, drawing on systemic, behavioural and psychological perspectives to build team trust, communicate to avoid misunderstanding and conflict, and identify and minimize risk of derailment. It provides a practical toolbox for successfully managing international projects.

Leading International Projects provides case studies from experienced project professionals working internationally, each offering deep insights into the challenges of cross-border projects and practical ideas on how to lead successfully. It presents the experiences of consultants and senior project management professionals and their reflections on projects that they ran. Practical guidance on managing the complex dynamics of international projects is provided through individual, team and organizational diagnostic and development tools. Online supporting resources include lecture slides, a further reading list and research papers on culture and international projects and on hard or soft skills.

Appendix 1

Global Offensive: project management within 150 days

FRANK KÜHN

The detailed timetable

How did the project management capabilities develop in the company? The following description includes three paragraphs: (a) the main course, as planned in the beginning, (b) a practical application that emerged underway, and (c) the continuous improvement.

The main course

Timeline	Content	Involved
Week 1	Contact to external consultant (phone call).	HR, consultant
Week 2	First meeting with a delegation from the executive team, nominated to drive the initiative. Implementation strategy defined: common development of the standard, documentation in a handbook, training and feedback, consolidation step by step. The executives taking part in this meeting defined themselves as ‘Core Team’.	Executives, HR, consultant
Ensuing	First outline of a possible standard, with various options. First draft of a training workshop design.	Consultant
Week 4	Content of the future standard fixed. Final decision in favour of a train-the-trainer approach. The trainers (still to be nominated out of the staff) should feel free to further develop the content. Criteria for identifying internal trainers fixed, first ideas of candidates.	Core team, HR, consultant
Ensuing	Next outline of the future standard. Second draft of a training workshop design.	Consultant
	Nomination of internal trainers.	HR, heads of divisions
Week 8	Final discussion of standard, handbook and training approach. Short list of internal trainers.	Core team, consultant
Week 12	International train-the-trainer workshop. Parallel processes: (1) discussion and further development of the standard, (2) practising and reflecting the training design.	Internal trainers, HR, consultant
Ensuing	Updating handbook and training design.	Consultant
Week 14	Review of the train-the-trainer workshop. Lessons learned. Feedbacks from the wider organization. Training schedule.	Core team, HR, consultant
Week 17	First training delivered by a team of three trainers from Germany. Supervision by consultant. Participants: experienced staff members, works council representatives. Core team members joined the evening session, feedback and discussion.	Internal trainers, participants, core team member, consultant
Week 19	Second training in a European site. Mixed trainer team. Supervision by the consultant. Participants from different countries. Started with factory tour. Evening session with core team.	Internal trainers, participants, core team, consultant
Week 21	Third training oversea. Mixed trainer team. Supervision by the consultant. Participants from different countries. Started with factory tour, country manager taking part.	Internal trainers, participants, country manager, consultant
Ensuing	Roll-out	Internal trainers, participants worldwide
In parallel	Three workshops for superiors and upper management: their role in project management, lessons learned to date, further development	Superiors, internal trainers, core team

Rapid practice

An urgent infrastructure project was to be supported. This included three steps with the project manager, the project team and the external consultant as expert and facilitator:

1. Prep talk and one-day workshop. Application of the ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Online resources
• About the contributors
• Introduction
• 01    Consumer insights
• 02    The Italian Creative Network
• 03    Financial incentives in international projects: can money buy commitment and drive performance?
• 04    Distilling experience: a career in international projects
• 05    The Nordic Leadership Study Tour to India
• 06    A large global regulatory-driven programme in a large insurance company
• 07    An iterative evaluation of an online class to increase inclusion of international learners in an online forum
• 08    Implementation of a global performance management system
• 09    Global Offensive: project management within 150 days
• 10    A tale of David and Goliath: storytelling in projects
• 11    Setting up a RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) system in a Latin American context
• 12    Strategic business expansion
• 13    Making the case for a coaching approach to IT projects that implement substantial change
• 14    Project fan club: an effective means to achieve a performance boost in projects
• 15    E-learning product development with a virtual team
• 16    Global wine and global leadership: a striking analogy
• 17    Dialogue in Montalcino
• Conclusion: looking to the future of international project management
• Appendix 1
• Further reading
• Index
• Copyright