Vol.1 What is necessary for Global Project Management? -Workshop Introduction-

This morning, I was attending a workshop with guests from oversea head office. I was a little nervous since the meeting starts from 8 am, and I could not be late! I was invited as one of the project member. I then realized that our guests were late, and did not show up in the meeting at 8 am. Soon after, the guests called us and told us that they were going to be late, and they will take a walk in stead of taxi, as the weather was fine…We started the workshop after they arrived, and started the introductions. “I am Saito, and I am responsible for such and such.” Among with typical introductions, our guests made introductions with “soft” information such as, “I am Smith. I have a family with two sons and expecting another one next month …”

This kind of introduction can be seen well in our clients’ workshop. I am not saying Japanese are squarer, and non-Japanese are more relaxed and easy going, but they tend to use soft and hard information according to the situation.

According to some research, the work efficiency was improved if staffs are more relaxed and show their smiles in the office. One of the Japanese mega banks actually had training for smiling/making jokes! This may make a sense.

In the U.S., we call this as “Ice Break” in the introduction phase, but we do not see this in Japanese environment. In Japan, we start with a hard introduction, discuss hard topic, and cannot break the barriers among participants. This tends to lead to another meeting as they cannot communicate well and cannot reach the agreement.

The consulting firm I used to work in the U.S., we paid special attention to the opening of the workshop. We sometimes ask our participants to drop all business cards at the entrance of the workshop room, ask them put name tags on, provide no desks and set the chairs in circle so that each one of them can see each other.  Creating informal environment is a big challenge. We ask workshop participants to give us some soft information such as “Where is your favorite place in Tokyo?” with regular items such as names, roles and responsibilities, and sections of company where he/she belong to. We tried every idea how we can bring our team as a one piece.

In the workshop, the introduction is very important as this is the key to break the communication barriers among participants. Global projects are tend to be affected more as we see more cultural differenced.  Therefore, in order to “break ice”, we recommend having “Ice break” openings with Japanese in your workshop.

Kogure