Teams Unstuck!

As a PM, you can identify a team that is stuck and help it to mature. Chief Unstuck Officer, Tom Sheives, presented to the MileHi PMI, why teams get stuck and how this destroys performance or success.

The aperture of cultures within a team expand as projects, teams, and companies become more virtual and global. Your team is stuck because people have different cultures, values, and expectations. The "dimensions of culture" presented by Geert Hofstede and others allow us to diagnose (or anticipate) the problems. Cultural differences can present in sensitivities to time, quality, authority, structure, and conflict. Multi-culture dynamics are all of the unique social differences that individuals bring from their personal environment that include values, education, language, gestures, and other "norms" from their experiences.

He gave an analogy comparing a person's culture to an iceberg, "the identifiable differences (language, dress, gestures, food) are only the tip of the iceberg (15-20% of the whole)."

Which statement resonates with YOUR culture?

• "life is what you make of it" or "its a matter of luck"
• "loudest duck gets shot" or "squeaky wheel gets the grease"

Considering that some Asian cultures are thousands of years old and manage 100 year plans in their community and corporate business, they clearly have a different concept of time over a culture with a history of a few hundred years.

You inherited a team. How long will the trust-building take? How much structure do colleagues need? Will they take direction from you? Will they deliver on time? Will they speak up in disagreement if something goes wrong?

Tom recommends an introductory meeting to "normalize" these expectations among the group allowing them to accept these "rules of engagement." A PM might even consider these culture tendancies when "selecting" the teammembers based on the project details.

Tom is the author of "OPPORTUNITY Unstuck!" and an engaging speaker and available for coaching your teams. http://www.unstuckcompany.com/

Other references:
"Doing business internationally," Walker, Walker, Schmitz 2003;
"5 Dysfunctions of a Team," Patrick Lencioni: 1. abscence of trust 2. fear of conflict 3. committment 4. accountability avoidance 5. results not shared