Managing Projects in Asia

I've had the privilege of working in a multi-cultural environment in Asia for many years. So many times I've seen conflicts arising from a clash of values, practices, and behaviors due to diverse cultures, particularly between people from different parts of the world. The old saying "East vs. West" may be a bit simplistic, but it's not far from the truth that Westerners do not truly comprehend subtleties of Asian culture.

I presented a paper three years ago at the first PMI Asia Pacific Congress in Singapore. The feedback to the session was very good and many people came back to me for more advice. I'll use this blog to share both this paper as well as some new thoughts on this topic.

Introduction

Over the past thirty years, Asian cultures have become a dominant theme when companies are considering business ventures or making investments in Asia. It started with Japan in the seventies, then the four “little dragons” – Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore in the eighties, and then China, India, ASEAN, and the rest of Asia in the nineties. When managers from the West thought that they’d understood Asia based on their experience in one country, they discovered that in another not-so-far-away country, people with similar color and look think and behave differently. We are talking about a very diverse cultural environment – multi-racial, varied historical background, different values, and multi-lingual, in Asia.

Hand-in-hand with business ventures and investments are projects. So project managers are facing more or less the same, if not more complex, cultural issues. Even experienced managers with good people management skills find it daunting to manage projects in Asia which has more than thirty countries/territories based on geographical classification (excluding Pacific Islands), at least ten major languages spoken, and more than twelve major economies. A project manager typically faces issues like miscommunication, clash of values, disparity in religions and customs, misunderstanding resulting from petty etiquettes, and difficulties in motivating people.

This paper will provide an analysis of Asian culture from four perspectives that a project manager is most concerned with – Authority, Conflicts and Their Resolution, Team Motivation, and Negotiation. Asians exhibit dissimilar behaviors and thinking due to their diverse cultural background, yet on a closer look some commonalities exist in most countries irrespective of their geographies, ethnicities, and languages. Based on real-life experience in managing large and complex projects in Asia, this author will share his views on handling tough cultural issues and conflicts, and offer a list of do’s and don’ts. In particular, he will focus on areas that have prevalent impact on a project, namely stakeholders’ interests and behaviors, team building, and conflict resolution, all under the context of diverse cultures.

To be continued...

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A Pragmatic Model for Managing Project Risks （4 and Final）

Execution Phase

During the project execution phase, risks should be regularly monitored and properly controlled. Just like any other activities during execution, this sounds like common sense, and I’ve not seen any organizations that say they are not doing it. There are also no hard and fast rule on who, what, when or how to do it. Overall speaking, we think the following guidelines should add value:

Regular meetings – Most people include risk review as part of the regular progress meeting. For really large projects there may be separate meetings. Sometimes regular meeting may not be able to help the team to deal with some unforeseen and urgent risks. Having said that, this is still the occasion when risks can be detected through discussion with team members.

Alertness to risks and open communication –Most risks can be discovered early if every project team member is alert to symptoms of risk. A seemingly harmless comment from the client, a minor concern expressed by a senior executive, or a report on the newspaper about your client being acquired by another company – All of these can indicate trouble for the project you are currently handling. And one person cannot do it all. If all team members have a high level of alertness to risk that would be a big plus to your project. Sure this sounds easier said than done, or even a bit far-fetched. In real life this differentiates a good team from an ordinary one. The project manager should at least cultivate an atmosphere of open communication and encourage sharing of any signs of risk, no matter how unlikely or remote they look, within the team.

There are a few things that should be consistently and regularly done to properly control risks:

Documentation – This is a very effective impact mitigation measure, in particular if there are external organizations involved. For example, vendors can use documentation such as meeting minutes, project reports etc. to protect themselves in an unfavorable situation. For in house projects, documentation can also be used by the project team to shield themselves from unnecessary accusation, albeit to a lesser extent.

Negotiation – This is a very effective means to avert the course of risk, or at least to reduce impact of certain risks. Before and during negotiation, you need to understand: What is at stake? The degree of criticality of each project objectives to key stakeholders? What are your bargaining chips? Any evidence to support your arguments? (Supportive documents would be very useful here.)

Communication - Information transparency through effective communication is an effective means to:

• Foresee new risks and re-evaluate known risks
• Avoid or control damage from risks
• Get support from senior management
  
• Open communication strengthens team spirit and the sense of being in a team. However, project team needs to be political savvy for external communication.
  

So that’s it. Our discussion of managing project risks stops here. Although we’ve spent 11 posts over a time span of 3 months to explore the subject, this can only represent the beginning of a somewhat long and difficult journey to shape the best risk management methods for projects of various scales.

Copyright © 2008 Knowledge Century Limited.