TRG Talk - Managing Conflicts in Project with Cross-Cultural Teams

On October 4th, TRG International hosted the TRG Talk: Project Management at the usual place - PJ’s Coffee Sala. The event welcomed Ms Jax (Jackie) Hamilton - Former Global Operations and Client Engagement Consultant. Ms Jackie has more than 25 years of experience as a project manager. She’s been living in different countries around the world, and South East Asia is where she’s been residing for the past 12 years.

Read more: [Infographic] What Makes a Successful Team?

With the vast experience of living and working in different countries, exposing herself to the diversity of cultures, Ms Jackie is certainly able to provide particular examples and practical solutions to working with multicultural teams in projects.

Managing conflicts in projects with cross-cultural teams

Listen and the 5W’s

According to Ms Jackie: "Too often we underestimate the power of listening." Though important, we often don't pay enough attention to this. Through listening, we are able to gain the value from another person's insight. In addition, listening builds trust and demonstrates respect during the give-and-take of creativity. As you work to understand your team member's idea, you show your team member respect that builds trust, increasing the likelihood that they will treat your ideas the same way.

Read more: Creating a “Team Spirit” in Your Organisation

Different languages can easily lead to miscommunication and different interpretations of one matter. Therefore, remember to listen, ask the 5W’s questions (When, Where, What, Who, Why) to clarify what you and your team members are going to do. Otherwise, you would end up failing the project because you did not listen or ask the right question.

Detailed documents

Jackie shared her story: she once had a manager who always took note of everything discussed in the meeting. After every meeting, he showed everyone his notes and said: "If nothing goes wrong, this is what we get.”

This is such a great example of using details to reduce the cross-cultural miscommunications, which often happens in a project. So next time, before starting a meeting, you should designate someone to take notes and share them afterwards. Before you wrap up the meeting, spend five minutes talking about an action plan, who will be the people in charge and the timeframe required to complete each phase of the project.

Traceability Matrix

The Traceability Matrix is a tool used to ensure the project’s scope, requirements, and deliverables remain the same when comparing to the baseline.

The Traceability Matrix can be used during all phases of a project to track all requirements, and whether they meet the current process and design standards.

At the end of the talk, Ms Jackie advised all participants to share the core values with their employees, despite the differences in nationalities or religions, to understand their goals and to make them feel like a part of the team to get the best results.

Read more: Essential Talent Management Lessons from Top Sport Teams

TRG Talk: Project Management is a monthly event that takes place on the first Thursday of the month. The purpose of the Talk is to equip attendants with the much-needed knowledge as well as to open up new opportunities for future project managers.

For more photos of the event, please check out our Facebook page.

About TRG Talk

TRG Talk is a series of events co-organised by TRG International and PJ’s Coffee Vietnam in order to promote the latest trends in the IT industry and the HR world, as well as tips and trick in improving your project management skills.

About TRG Talk - Project Management

A good Project Manager must be able to identify problems and risks. He/ She also needs to know how to minimise these issues and is able to make the decision needed throughout the entirety of the project. Do you consider yourself a good project manager? Do you have the required skills and power to handle the situation and the people involved in your project?

TRG Talk - Project Management is a monthly meetup that allows project managers to discuss in detail what it takes to become great at what you're doing. The event takes place every first Thursday of the month.