Primed by this question from a participant in a recent session, "what are some of the impacts of cultural differences in (your) project management?", I figured we could take a warp speed ride through history and, as ever, I would love to hear from you about your experiences.
Culture is everywhere, in everything and, influences everyone. Culture and project management go hand in hand.
Merchant Shipping, for example, is awash with global cultural influences. In the late 18th Century when Project Management as we know it, was in its infancy, the U.S. first traded with China.
This triggered a technological "shipping race" with Britain that lasted more than a century. At this point in time, Spain, Portugal, England, and Holland had all been significantly involved in ship design and manufacture on a national scale.
By the 50s, Japan was using the shipbuilding industry to reboot its economy. South Korea then China and now the Philippines all got involved. The attraction of global trade, technological developments, job and income creation triggered a common culture of state-supported over-investment, leading to over-capacity, reduced profit margins, and widespread subsidization.
From these examples we have a significant example of how culture influences everything. And yet, in modern times it can be polarizing, reducing awareness to simplistic linguistic nuances, peculiarity of dress, food habits and worse a tick box exercise to pursue diversity.
Global trade is not new and nor is culture which can be spliced a number of ways as the car industry illustrates: Volkswagen (German) owns Seat (Spanish) and Skoda (Czech) and a powerful Franco - Japanese alliance includes Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi. (If you like puzzles, you'll like this infographic.)
Curry, an Indian dish, has supplanted fish and chips as a British tradition, contributing £5bn to the U.K. economy each year.
Tequila, a Mexican drink, is experiencing record sales in the U.S. The demand for craft cocktails leads to over harvesting of agave which is the primary food source for long - nosed bats.
Signing a contract in China indicates the beginning of a formal relationship in business; in Anglo, European and American businesses, contract signing marks the conclusion of formal negotiations. (I have experienced this firsthand and the next time the news shows a U.S. President signing an agreement with a Chinese Premier have a think about what's really being said.)
So, as you can see, culture is everywhere and can impact and influence everything.
With greater awareness we can leverage it to good effect through diversity of thought, variety of experiences and opportunities to find solutions that exist outside of our own frames of reference.
Vive la différence!
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