In any team, there will be cultural differences. That is true whether you have team members in Southeast Asia, the UK, and North America or across the hall from each other. The nature of our workplace is such that cultural diversity is increasingly ubiquitous. The same tools that we use to manage co-located project teams work as effectively with geographically dispersed teams. It is imperative that leaders implement sound governance structures and foster constant, clear communication in their teams. This not only helps us acknowledge cultural differences, but focus on team similarities and common goals and objectives.

That’s not to say that cultural differences are not, oftentimes, significant. Say you have an implementation going live in the fall. Fine. But if India is one of your geographies, then you have to be careful. In the fall, there are multiple festivals that are of great religious and cultural importance. Your team may start to disappear as they participate in the festivities and observe their traditions. It is crucial that a project leader know this upfront and has a plan in place.

• Can we either speed up or delay implementation?
• If not, can we compensate the team in some way?
• How can we work around this?
• What are the sensitivities of which we need to be aware?

Some cultures do not use “No” in their business lexicon. They may say, “Yes,” but what they might mean is, “Yes, I’m hearing you – but no, I’m not going to do that.” In other cultures, it is not acceptable to bring problems to the boss; you might be expected to solve them on your own. Failing to address issues immediately can cause them to escalate and take on a life of their own and impact other locations and project deliverables.

It comes down to establishing those clear accountabilities and maintaining constant communication. The conversation is about business, not personalities. It is about the business goal and objectives. All stakeholders need to be aligned with the overall deliverables of the project and buy into the strategy upfront.

With geographically dispersed teams, there is a tendency to say, “It doesn’t work that way in Hong Kong,” or “We don’t do it that way in India.” When everyone understands the goals, objectives, and strategies, we can look at the common elements that need to be in place, regardless of geography of culture.

We recently worked with a global team to implement an HR platform solution, and about 80 percent of the processes were common across the board. The only reason we found that things would deviate was because of regulatory requirements that may have been particular to a country. You need that consistency, otherwise you have 10 HR systems – or what have you – and everyone is doing their own thing. That won’t work for a global enterprise that needs consistency.

Project managers need to find the balance between respecting cultural differences – and levering them – and applying consistent expectations and accountabilities to all team members. When they do this, they have a powerhouse team on their hands.