As a consultant who spends a lot of time working on virtual team challenges of engineering companies, the engineering project skills for the future is often on my mind. The last few decades have each brought one or two major changes to the way major engineering projects are delivered, the... read more →
Feb
07
Jan
24
Where are the future international project communicators coming from? Where are they developing right now? and, How can their development be supported and facilitated so that there are enough of them available for future projects? Firstly, as an optimist, let me say that I believe there are many people around... read more →
Jan
10
Probably the most common way international projects develop their communications plans is through the simple trial and error of starting a project with an international, virtual team component with no different communications planning than would occur in a single country, co located team methodology. All of this means that those... read more →
Jan
03
I seem to have had a few conversations with clients recently on the need for personal motivation as a driving force to succeed in international communications. By motivation I am referring to the type of psychological drivers the individual needs to have the personal desire to really want to learn about... read more →
Dec
30
I have been thinking for a while now about where we find the role models for our future leaders, you know who I mean, the figures we recommend aspiring leaders model themselves on, and sadly, I keep coming up short when I try to think of public figures. A Limited Choice... read more →
Dec
27
We are all the same... only different. How many times on your project do you hear conversations of proclamations from team members that include something along the lines of "Why can't they just do it the way I want", or "That is not what I asked for" These comments are... read more →
Jul
12
When you need to send your people overseas for extended expat project deployments, how do you pick the right ones? Much of the early part of my career was spent working as an expat representative of my parent company in various parts of the world. Working amongst small, tight knit... read more →
Jul
10
I am delighted to say that I have had an article published in ICCPM Connect, the quarterly journal of the International Centre for Complex Project Management. In the article, which you can find on pages 16-18 at this link. In the piece I discuss some of the attributes and skills needed to successfully... read more →
Jun
28
Something which comes up quite frequently in discussions I have with colleagues, particularly those new to working in virtual teams, is whether there is a protocol for establishing contact at the start of participation in a new project. I have discussed this with a number of colleagues and given it... read more →
Jun
21
Often, during the process of initiating new projects, it seems that agreed budgets come under pressure. This occurs particularly when the newly appointed project manager and client are reviewing where the monies are to be spent when one of the the first things to be questioned and, often subsequently removed, is the... read more →