Wondering where you might catch up with the team this week?

We’re pleased to have Phil Stockbridge back from his trip to India, and you’ll find him in the UK this week, along with Kevan Hall and Rod Farnan.

Tony Poots and John Bland will both be in Zurich.

At home in the USA, you’ll find both Tim Mitchell and Robyn Green, whilst on the same continent, but further south, you’ll find TH Ong in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

Continuing our Matrix Monday series summarising some of the limited literature available on the matrix, today we look at Leadership and trust facilitating cross-functional team success: by Sheila Simsarian Webber (The Journal of Management Development, 2002)

This is paper examines the challenges faced by cross-functional teams (CFTs) which normally come together for a limited period of time, and looks at why a team climate of trust is an essential requirement to meet challenges successfully.

The author argues that CFTs have a great potential for success if the team’s internal environment is based on trust, but that organizational intervention must normally take place for this to be achieved. She outlines the several challenges that CFTs can face with regard to developing trust, broadly speaking: functional diversity, time allocation diversity, multiple reporting relationship. The implications of these for team trust are also discussed.

First defining what a team climate for trust comprises of, the author goes on to describe the importance of trust in teams and how leadership can promote the development of an internal climate for trust. This process, it is stated, should begin even prior to the formation of the team (for example, through careful selection of the team leaders in addition to team members), as well as during its formation (for example, through the development of positive relationships between team/project leaders, and effective conflict management).

To summarise, Webber says that organisations need to recognise that CFTs will not achieve full performance potential without these necessary interventions.

Further summaries on material relating to the matrix can be found by following Matrix Monday on this blog. Summaries are being shared each Monday on Twitter using the hashtag #matrixmonday. And you may want to become part of the conversation on the matrix on LinkedIn: Matrix Management.

In this entry to the Global Working video competition, Debbie Davies takes a look at how folk in the UK see folk in USA –   cultural difference through the eyes of Ken (to great comic effect).

We’re wondering how Debbie persuaded people to take part!

It’s a great little video, very funny and beautifully produced, but if you want Debbie’s entry to be in the top 20 that go in front of the judges, you need to vote for her on her entry page: Working USA.

Hot on the heels of our mini-mechanic entry, in this video for the Global Working video competition, the youngsters set the pace again, offering their view on Globalization and global working.

Credits go to:

Josh-Filming, Script & Stitching the Video

Ben-Filming & Script

Annie-Filming & Script

Josh, Ben and Annie need your votes on their competition entry page if they’re to make the top 20 videos submitted to the judges for viewing: Globalization and global working.

The latest entry to the Global Working video competition, ‘Finding Your Path In The Digital Age’, suggests a sustainable economy relies on the sharing and development of sustainable methods to solve the challenges our world faces in the 21st century.

To vote for this entry, go to the competition entry page, Finding your path in the digital age, where author Alex Rutledge needs your votes if he’s to be shortlisted for the judges.

Alicia Glenn has used the Global Working video competition to discuss ways students can harness opportunities offered by global working to earn money.

And she’s spotted a way to turn that into a business.

You can vote for Alicia here: Globalization and College Students.

At the end of 2011, we asked the team what they thought 2012 would bring. This was the response from training consultant Rod Farnan.

Rod Farnan, Training consultant, Global Integration

In 2011, every market segment was adjusting to the new economic situation.

Almost every segment I am working in is now moving to a virtual matrix organization model. There is a gradual movement away from thinking of this as the latest in a long line of re-organizations: people are appreciating, I think, that this is a new way of working, a new reality, demanding new skills (which is why Rod was so busy last year!).

There are still some unresolved issues though, notably in the systems to support this new way of working.

Compensation is a big one. Are people being compensated to reflect the loyalties they are expected to show? If people have a regional role but also have to be a member of a global project team then does their bonus reflect that? In addition, are HR ready for these compensation plans to change much more frequently as the shape of the virtual matrix changes?

Performance measurement is another. How do we measure our people when we am one of three managers who impact that person’s time and performance? What about the budgeting process? If the person is working on a global project team, they presumably have an increased travel need and require money to support that (and an acceptance by their local manager that they wont be in the office so much).

These were Rod’s thoughts as we came into the New Year. To date, they’ve been pretty much accurate. These challenges are rearing their heads for many of our customers. Have you noted these same trends?

Our latest entry to the Global Working video competition is from Rasma Kass, based in Brussels, Belgium, who shares some of her top tips for managing high performing remote and global teams by interviewing, and being interviewed by, others.

The video is well worth a watch, but to ensure a place on the judges list of the top twenty videos, Rasma needs your vote on her entry page: Tips for Managing High Performing Remote and Global Teams

The latest entry in our Global Working video competition focusses on globalization. Young Canadians, Josh and Lewis, discuss how three elements of globalization – technology, production and economy – have improved the areas of trade and transaction, knowledge and immigration.

They need your vote on their entry page (earned by sharing the page) to be in with a chance of being shortlisted for the judges: Vote here.

Paul Stamper created a visually beautiful video on global warming as his entry to our global working video competition, with just one simple message: “I believe we need to know this; and we can work together to live more efficient lives.”

To vote for Paul’s entry, you’ll need to vote on his entry page: Global Warming: A Global Working PSA.

In the latest entry to our Global Working video competition, Howard Lake discusses how technology has facilitated far more effective global working amongst not for profit organizations, who have been able to see some of the benefits of genuine co-operation across organizations that might even consider themselves competitive. A forward thinking manager let Howard experiment in his early days at Amnesty International with en email forum. The rest, as they say, is history.

You can vote for Howard’s video on his competition page – he needs your votes to be included in the top twenty videos that go through to the judges for the winner to be selected.

To see all of the videos in the competition, please visit the Global Working Video Competition pages.

January 26 is Australia Day, and at least half of Australia’s 21 million inhabitants stop to party.

The date officially marks the raising of the Union Jack flag at Sydney Cove by Captain Arthur Phillip, in 1788, when the First Fleet of convict ships arrived from Great Britain.

Although many celebrate with a mixture of organized community events, family and friends get-togethers, barbeques and fireworks, the day’s official celebrations are now celebrations of citizenship.

Although it’s a national holiday, Australia Day shouldn’t be confused with ANZAC Day, 25 April, which is an equally important national occasion.

The day has also been known as Foundation Day or Anniversary Day.

For those working with people in Australia, most will note little more than a day off (public holiday), particularly as Australian Schools are still in their summer recess.

However, it pays also to be aware that the day is contentious with Aboriginal communities, many of whom see the occasion as invasion rather than foundation, leading to alternative names for the day including Survival Day, Invasion Day or Day of Mourning.

Global Integration offers cross cultural training around the World. To discuss your training needs, please contact us for a no strings attached chat with one of our teams of experts.

Leaderboard Jan 24

Today marks the ‘one week to go’ mark for our Global Working video competition.

The prize is huge, but genuine – $15 thousand (or £10k/12k Euros) and there are just three eligible videos already entered, so there’s everything to play for.

With a current total of eight votes, Scott James of Influence People, a social media expert, uses his video to demonstrate that globalization is pervasive.

With 132 votes, eleven year old Rhys talks about global working in the context of his dream profession as a Formula One racing mechanic.

And currently leading the board, university student and global citizen Yehia Amar has 158 votes for his video offering perspectives on globalization.

There’s an old English expression: “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions”.  Many people have expressed an interest in using the competition to try and raise money for a charity, to raise awareness for an issue, or to harness the opportunities for learning and development.  Team that expression with the more  ’pop culture’ one, “You have to be in it to win it”, and you know what you have to do!

You have until January 31st to enter. Good luck.

Whilst training consultant John Bland can be caught up with in the UK this week, and Tim Mitchell will be in the Oregon area (USA), Vienna is the place to be this week if you want to catch up with most of the Global Integration senior team in person. Several of our senior team are working there together in the early part of the week.

If you’d like to take advantage of the fact that they’re close by to catch up, do reach out to them directly, or contact your closest regional office and we’ll make the arrangements for you.

Our Matrix Monday series summarises some of the limited literature available on matrix organizations. Today we summarize Challenges and Strategies of Matrix organisations [sic]: by Dr Thomas Sy and Laura Sue D’Annunzio (Human Resource Planning 28.1, 2005).

This paper defines five key challenges of the contemporary matrix organizational form and, following discussion of those, makes best practice suggestions for managers to help improve their matrix organizations. After gathering data based on surveys, workshops and interviews with 294 top-level and mid-level managers in multinational corporations in six industries, the authors identified the five challenges most likely to be present in a matrix structure as being:

1. misaligned goals;

2. unclear roles and responsibilities;

3. ambiguous authority;

4. a lack of a matrix guardian;

5. silo-focused employees.

An overview of what comprises the matrix organization is offered at the start, outlining the strengths  - and weaknesses – of a matrix structure, before going on to look more closely at each of the identified challenges. The authors then confirm that the challenges faced by mid-level and top-level managers differ. As an example, top-level managers more often report a higher frequency of misaligned goals, where mid-level managers tend to report that a challenge they more frequently encounter is ambiguous roles and responsibilities.

To conclude, while the research does admit its own strengths and weaknesses, it notes that organizations often fight ‘complexity with complexity’: in order to win this particular battle, they must overcome the five identified challenges.

To find out more about Global Integration’s consultancy and training  to help build the people capability to make complex organizations faster, less expensive to run and more satisfying to work in, please contact your closest regional Global Integration office. You might also enjoy our LinkedIn Matrix Management Group. 

Entrants have just over a week to go to enter the Global Working video competition.

The competitors need your votes to get them into the top 20, although with just three qualifying entries all last minute entries stand a great chance of winning the cash. We are expecting something of a last minute rush if all of the entries promised materialize.

We’ve had lots of questions from entrants. These have been responded to and our Q&A pages updated, but in the interests of fairness, the questions are repeated below:

What exactly is the “public voting”?  Is it Views or Likes on YouTube?  Perhaps Likes on www.global-integration.com itself? 

The votes that count are the ones against the submission itself on the video competition website.  In this, non-eligible, example, you’ll see the the sharing buttons underneath the video: http://www.global-integration.com/video-competition/entries/global-working-thoughts-on-a-complex-world.html

These are the numbers that count for the top 20 shortlist.

It looks like the submission period is until January 31, but the voting process only goes to January 31 as well

It’s been extended for a week – but that’s an incentive to post your video up quickly!

There is no suggested length of time for the video, how long would you say is an appropriate amount of time?

This was deliberate. Most people’s attention span can only run for 3-5 minutes at most. But if your subject is compelling, there’s no reason it can’t be longer or shorter.

Is the topic of “global working” meant to be vague? (Can I speak about globalization in specific terms as well as generally?)

What global working means to people will be something completely different. We’re interested in having these perspectives. Globalization is part of the picture, so if you want your video to focus on this aspect, go ahead.

How does the selection of the winner work, is it by voting or by judges, if there are judges then what are the facebook votes for?

The votes will give the judges a shortlist of 20 to review.

Finally, if selected, how does the prize get delivered?

Cash will be paid to the person who made the entry. We will reach out to them and make appropriate arrangements.

Chinese New Year is THE major Chinese festival of the year, falling this year on 23 January, 2012. This will be the Year of the Dragon.

Celebrations will be held in countries including  China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore and Korea, Indonesia and Singapore and, of course, anywhere with a Chinese population around the World.

(Thailand celebrates New Year’s Day on April 13, and Japan now officially uses the  January 1 although a large Chinese population has traditionally continued to celebrate Chinese New Year.)

Chinese people use the Lunar calendar for festivals (so the date on which Chinese New Year falls changes annually) – using the Chinese Calendar it’s already 4710.

The date of the New Year corresponds to the new moon (black moon) which falls in either late January or February. Celebrations traditionally last for fifteen days – yes, some are already celebrating – ending on the date of the full moon.

Around a sixth of the people in the world celebrate Chinese New Year, each with different customs. At the core though is one central value: family is important. It’s the time to wish everyone health and prosperity, offer gifts, and sweep out the old (quite literally) to welcome in the new.

Traditionally, red and gold decorations are used as a symbol of good luck and to wish others good fortune, and, as with any good tradition, stories and fables abound. There is much feasting and street celebrations, and fireworks are launched.

From a business perspective, tourist businesses will remain open, but offices, some shops, factories usually close. The Chinese public holiday lasts three days.  In other places, the close down ranges from two days to a week. The traditional red envelope that is given to children (containing gifts of money) often extends to adults in the form of a month’s salary paid as a bonus to employees.

In China, the cities will be emptying and transport will be crowded as people return home for the celebrations, and prices will rise. According to CBS World Watch “it’s the largest annual human mass migration in the world, with more than 3 billion planned passenger trips in the next 40 days.”

Chinese colleagues working in European and North American companies and unable to return home for the celebration deserve some special attention over the holiday period. However professional we are, being away from family and friends is felt more sharply at certain times of the year. ‘Start the year as you mean to go on’ is felt keenly in Chinese tradition – people make a special effort with their relationships, appearance and finances.

It can never hurt to make a special effort to find out what someone’s plans are, and as cities from San Francisco to Sydney hold celebrations, it’s a great excuse for a party.

So hang out the red lanterns, if only metaphorically: respect the importance of the break and if you want to wish Chinese colleagues well over their New Year, the correct expression (phonetically) is ‘Gong Xi Fa Cai’.

Wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous Year of the Dragon.

To contact Global Integration in Asia, please contact our office in Singapore, where we will be pleased to help you (although over Chinese New Year, don’t be surprised if we ask you to leave a message).

Continuing with the Matrix Monday series of summaries and reviews of the somewhat limited material available on the matrix, today we summarise Cross-functional structures: a review and integration of matrix organisation [sic] and project management by Robert C. Ford, W. Alan Randolph (Journal of Management, June, 1992)

This paper comprises a substantial review of the literature of cross-functional structures and matrix organizations that has been published since 1976 until the early 1990s. It includes definitions of matrix structures according to the published work, as well as the recognised advantages and disadvantages, and the benefits and costs, of organizational management in this form.

The article examines the need for further research on disadvantages and advantages of cross-functional structures, and provides a model for effective implementation of a matrix structure within an organization, looking at which factors should influence structural choice. These described factors include environmental influences, organizational characteristics, project characteristics, project team characteristics, project leader characteristics, and project effectiveness. Each one of this issues is explored in some depth.

Every section offers discussion from the authors around points made and the research still needed to develop further understanding. The paper concludes by suggesting that there is a need overall for theory-building in relation to cross-functional structures.

Please reach out to us if you would like to contribute your own summary, or to recommend papers for summary or review. The conversation continues on Twitter, using the hashtag #matrixmonday, and on our LinkedIn Matrix Management Group.

There is no longer an archive of past polls available on this blog.

Some of those polls have been used in blog posts, including (May 2011) Business Moving East Demands Greater Cultural Awareness.

In January 2012 we introduced a tag for blog posts relating to polls on this site. Following it will offer you the articles that we have written up based on polls (approximately one per quarter): http://www.global-integration.com/blog/tag/poll

 Return to the Global Integration blog

Celebrating Janet Davis' long service

Three times a year, the Global Integration team gets together.
As a virtual team of trainers living mostly out of suitcases, it’s important for a sense of community that not only are the operational and housekeeping issues addressed, but that we make time for both community and celebration. And our kick off meeting in 2012 was no exception.

At this year’s first meeting we celebrated the long service of one of our senior consultants, Janet Davis from the UK. (It was a ten year celebration, even though she’s been with us for twelve, but we had to run the celebrations in order of longevity. Our team has had little attrition over the years.)

Janet joined the company by accident, having responded to an advertisement in The Times.  CEO Kevan Hall already knew her as a great trainer, having worked with her at Mars. But she had taken time out as a ski instructor, enjoying life on the piste, and it was in that context that she had been reading the paper.

The rest, as they say, is history. Over the ensuing decade, Janet has had a huge influence on the way that Global Integration’s training was delivered, ditching the PowerPoint ‘Sage on a Stage’  in favour of the company’s current, more interactive style of training that keeps learners engaged and participative, valuing and making the most of the experience that is inevitably already in the room in any training or consultancy setting.

We think Janet is incredible. Over the years she has demonstrated that ‘good enough’ just isn’t!  We once ran a team event around horses. Janet insisted on taking lessons beforehand. Any really dysfunctional teams? Janet loves working with them, delivering fantastic results. The fact that she didn’t just don some skis on the piste, she took herself to a level where she was competent to teach, speaks volumes.

Nowhere does this show more than in her love of dance, in particular the Balboa.  She likes to keep her work and home life very separate, something that we’ll respect here (although if you’re chatting with her, do ask about the penguins – it’s a great ice breaker) but this line has been taken from a review of a dance event that Janet was due to appear at:

“…known for their lively and interactive style of teaching, encouraging people to learn for themselves and look at things from a new angle “

The qualities that we value her for are more than just for show at work!