Lost in translation

Introduction

How This Paper Relates To The Presentation

While this paper outlines the main topics which may be raised during the Lost in Translation presentation at 2006 PMI Global Congress, it will not necessarily cover all the issues discussed during the presentation itself. The presentation is intended to be highly interactive, with a great deal of input from the participants on the day, and therefore may differ somewhat from the discussion below.

Overview

The presentation will look at the issues raised when working in multi cultural teams. It will explore the factors which can cause misunderstandings, false expectations and disappointments – if not downright conflict – within a project team.

During the session, participants will be asked to consider some of the causes and to identify some common indicators and symptoms of misunderstandings in a global team, both in written and verbal communications. Theoretical models for predicting differences in communication will be put forward for further discussion, after which possible solutions to such problems will be considered, and a template Communications Plan provided.

Objectives Of The Presentation

Participants will be able to:

1. Understand the common problems of communication within a global project team.
2. Describe the cultural influences that may exist when communicating with people from other organisations and other countries.
3. Avoid some of the issues, which cause misunderstandings and conflict in multicultural teams and prevent existing issues from escalating by addressing them in the communication plan.

The Theoretical Models

As identified by Richard D Lewis (1999) communication problems arise from differences in:

• Communication patterns
• Values and core beliefs
• Orientation of cultures whether task/data orientated, people/dialogue orientated or respect/listening orientated
• Choice of communication methods
• Cultural conditioning and the influence of language on thought
• Interpretations of body language
• Listening habits
• Audience expectations, and attitudes to time, meetings and leadership
• Leadership styles
• Language of management

In a later work, Exploring Culture (Hofstede, Pedersen & Hofstede, 2002) the authors identify issues to do with different cultural views about identity, hierarchy, gender, truth and virtue.

All these influences will be raised during the group discussions.

Case Study

Throughout this session participants will be referring to a case study. This is fictional, but has been developed to include several examples of misunderstandings and communication problems. Participants will be encouraged to use their own experience of different cultures and project teams to help identify examples and, within small groups, to present possible solutions and improvements.

Scenario

We are a telecommunications company, with an excellent track-record in mobile telephony and a healthy turnover.

We have undertaken a project (Project Worldview) for a major client in the pharmaceuticals industry. They are a global enterprise and are looking to us to provide a state-of-the art communications system for their own project teams spread around the world. For us, this is new technology – webcams and internet-based systems rather than ‘traditional’ mobile telephones.

We are five months into the project, which is scheduled to take 18 months overall; we are at the beginning of the Implementation phase, with a specification for the new products, but many people in the team think the requirements are still unclear. The contract is fixed price, and everyone is very nervous about the risks. Currently we are on schedule, but the holiday season is approaching.

Our corporate headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland, and the team members are as shown in the attached profiles below.

Written Communication

Participants will be asked to discuss, in small groups, the emails sent between team members prior to a meeting to be held in Geneva, site of the company's Headquarters for its European, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) operations. (The relevant emails are attached on the next page and will be available at the presentation).

Meetings

Following discussion of the learnings from the email discussions, participants will then be told what happened in the first face-to-face team meeting for the Worldwide Project.

Communication Plan

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK^® Guide), recommends that each project team develops a Communications Management Plan, which is “contained in, or is a subsidiary plan of, the project management plan.” It goes on to say that the communications management plan, among other things, “provides:

• Stakeholder communication requirements
• Information to be communicated, including format, content, and level of detail” (PMI, 2004, p227)

An example of a high-level communications management plan for the case study project is provided on the next page.

Participants are encouraged to adapt this template to suit their own project team requirements, and after due consideration and discussion of their own requirements, and those of the team.

Conclusions

It is a valuable use of the Project Manager's time to plan, monitor and control communications within the team, and this is especially true when different cultures are involved. Different cultures may be represented by team members from different countries, or, sometimes, they can come from team members with different preferred communication methods, values and beliefs, or attitudes.

The Project Manager should address the specific communication needs of each individual stakeholder, as soon as possible in the project lifecycle.

In particular, it may be useful to consider the following:

• Be open minded
• Don't make assumptions
• Communicate about communications – ask people what they'd prefer
• Find out what others' expectations are
• Prepare appropriately for each communication
• Establish with the team the ‘rules’ for meetings, especially around timing, agenda, chairing and leadership, participation, post-meeting actions
• Clearly identify the outcome you want or need
• Check whether there are any issues regarding use of language, mannerisms or terms that may cause misunderstanding
• Clarify how the team will know when misunderstandings are happening, and how the members will then deal with them
• Keep evaluating all of the above – as long as we're communicating there will always be misunderstandings – the secret is to keep getting better

Finally…

In the interests of improving communication, we would love to hear your feedback on the presentation. Please send your comments or questions to:

Colette Foan [email protected]

Jane Parslow [email protected]