Category Archives: Inshoring

Staying relevant in outsourced environment

Every outsourcing engagement goes thru the pulls and pressures of work.  The concept of do more with less has pushed both sides of the outsourcing engagements to the brink at times.  The combination of pressures arsing from people, process and technology impacts people (human beings) the most.

Sometimes finding the way forward takes some self-reflection. If you’re feeling stuck, frustrated or tired of dealing with the same problems again and again, there might be solutions right in front of you that you just can’t see.

Lack of mentoring and support structures on both sides at times leaves resources perplexed.

Here are the four questions can help clear away your mental blocks so that you can move forward.

1. What’s your mindset?
Start by looking at your attitude about your situation. What are you telling yourself? For example, it could be:

  • “I don’t have the energy to deal with this.”
  • “Why try harder? It won’t really make a difference.”
  • “Things will never get better.”
  • “Why do I care”
  • My loyalty is limited to myself”

Your mindset may be the very thing that’s holding you back, because it affects your choices and how you engage with others. If you find that your self-talk is negative, what messages do you want to replace the current ones with so that you can make more progress?

2. What are you tolerating that you need to let go of?
We all have things, large and small, that we tolerate in our lives. When you hold onto them for too long, they can significantly affect your progress. Take a look at the list below to see if any of these apply to you:

  • Being disorganized, resulting in unproductive time
  • Failing to plan ahead, allowing lower priority work to take over
  • Doing work that others should be doing because of a failure to hold others accountable or delegate

What one small change can you make to free up some energy, and create capacity to find a solution?

3. What choices are you making that are keeping you where you are?
Things typically don’t just happen to us. Outcomes are usually the result of a series or choices that we and others have made along the way. When we make some choices over and over again, they form patterns that may not serve us well.

So, if you’re frustrated by what’s going on around you, ask yourself how you are enabling that situation to continue. The following questions may provoke some ideas:

  • Do you keep trying the same approach, but expect a different result?
  • Are you putting off a difficult conversation?
  • Have your engaged others in solving the problem with you (e.g., escalated the issue that needs to be addressed)?

As you consider the questions above, what do you notice about your own behavior?

4. Are you burnt out?
Finally, your physical health could be a surprising factor that’s keeping you from making progress. Are you getting enough sleep? What does your diet look like? Feeling physically drained can lead you to make more emotional rather than rational decisions. Even getting 15 minutes more of sleep, making sure you don’t skip a meal, or taking five-minute breaks throughout the day can make a big difference

Handling underperformers on your engagement

Managing performance across boundaries in a outsourced environment is always a challenge.  More so not having direct control over your outsourced partner’s resources whose performance is the key to your success.

On the larger teams it is often not unusual to be frustrated with a team member who isn’t performing as you need — and who’s showing no signs of changing?

As frustrated as leaders are in this situation, sometimes they aren’t giving employees the honest advice and specific feedback they need to change. They might be worried about damaging the relationship, or they think that an employee should “just know” what to do.

You can take an approach, though, that helps the employee (and keeps your relationship healthy) while getting you better results. Here’s the process that could help you in dealing with a “stuck” employee.

Look at Your Mindset

Think about how you’ve been engaging with this employee. What role are you playing in the current situation? How are you enabling it to continue as it is? For example, I’ve noticed that when a leader starts showing frustration or micromanaging, it can put his team member in a place of fear and self-doubt. That can make it much more difficult for the employee to make change happen. What would help you get centered so you can address the situation in a more constructive way?

Set Clear Expectations

Sometimes leaders assume an employee should know, without being told, how to handle an assignment. Then they’re disappointed when the employee doesn’t read their mind and meet all of those unvoiced expectations. You’ll do more to boost the employee’s performance when you delegate with clear expectations. Spell out the deliverables, define their decision-making authority, and specify how often the employee should check in and any other key parameters of the project.

One of my clients has a boss who’s discouraged by her performance but doesn’t communicate expectations. He gives her assignments to test her capabilities – but doesn’t tell her this upfront, or let her know what skills he’s looking to assess or build. That approach hasn’t served either one of them well. He would improve his effectiveness if he communicated at the outset, “I’m giving you this assignment to see how you’ll do and where I need to coach you, to help you be successful.”

Give Specific Feedback

Think about whether you’re offering the employee tangible, specific feedback. Are you communicating regularly about what’s working and what’s not? If you want her to make a shift in a certain area — say, being more strategic instead of tactical — are you letting her know this and explaining why this would help her succeed?

There is a  two-part formula for giving feedback. This approach gives the employee useful information she can take action on and keeps the emphasis on performance and results instead of personal criticism.

  1. As objectively as possible, tell the employee what you observed her doing. Share facts without interpreting them.
  1. Describe the impact of those actions. Your goal is to help the employee understand what she did and how it affected others. For example, did the actions she took (or didn’t take) lead to a missed deadline? Misalignment of goals? Wasted time?

Attrition Problems ….How not to lose your best resources

Attrition is one word that every manager dislikes. The Expense of losing someone, recruitment all over again, training, knowledge transfer and all that is associated with replacing a good resource is a painful process. It impacts more than your bottom line, if you are in a large organization with outsourced component this can get more complex with lot of hidden costs associated with it.

Though a level of attrition is expected and is sometime encouraged to draw in fresh blood, it is imperative to keep your best resources at all costs and by all means.

It is easy to lose our best resources both knowingly and unknowingly, if only we know some of the tips and techniques and used it to our advantage we would be in much better shape. Here are some tricks.

1. Be dishonest.

Yes, #1 on the list is dishonesty. Integrity matters. Most good employees – and all great ones – have integrity. So, lying to them, to their coworkers, or to customers / suppliers is sure to turn them off. Over-billing a client, ripping off a supplier, bending the rules, cooking the books, and even just “little white lies” are all sure to catch the private ire of those employees who can best help you and your organization succeed. Don’t think they don’t notice; they DO.

2. Don’t say “Thank you.”

It’s a small thing, but it really does make a difference. Even small gestures of appreciation, complements on good work, acknowledging that someone stayed late / came in early / went the extra mile help keep talented people motivated and engaged. A small gift card, permission to leave early for the day or work from home the day before a holiday (if work is getting completed), a kind word, an email, all of these things cost very little but go a long way. I suggest making a point of doing them. People care if someone notices when they are doing a good job.

3. Forget the values that made your organization a success.

I’ve been part of organizations that truly lived their core values (and even years later can recite them by heart, because they were so prominent). We all knew what they were.We all agreed they were important, or at least accepted them as such. The leadership talked about them, and everything we did as a company HAD to align to them. When you build a team, you have to be very explicit about expectations and the team culture, and then review the key elements of that together from time to time.

4. Don’t take time to listen (to their concerns).

Good people almost always actually want what is best for the organization. They may have differing opinions on what that is, but they can be passionate, even fiery about it.If you’re dismissive of their concerns, when raised, you’re headed down the road to losing top performing people. Even if you can’t change a policy or a decision, you may be able to adjust how it is implemented to optimize the situation based on the concerns that your talented people raise. Just what kind of weak, arrogant, incompetent, narcissistic leader doesn’t want to hear this, anyhow?

5. Ignore their personal and professional development.

Note that there are two dimensions to this – professional development (technical skills, industry knowledge, expertise, professional certifications, formal training, etc.) and personal development. I would include leadership skills, street-smarts, maturity, self-awareness, EQ, general health and well being all as part of this.Leaders only follow stronger leaders, so if you want to keep current or future leaders, be sure you are mentoring them. Let them learn from your own life experience; telling good stories from your experience can be a great way to do this. Help them become better professionals – and better people.

6. Don’t be selective who you hire in the first place.

We all know that hiring people who really fit and are highly talented is tough. We know that the repercussions of a bad hire are awful for everyone. Make sure people really will fit into your organization. I have found that the recruiting process is often commensurate with the organization and role. The better (and more prestigious) the entity and higher profile the role, the tougher the recruiting process often seems – and it should be. Talented people often don’t mind a tough (within reason) selection process because they are usually competitive people who thrive on challenge. Invest the time needed to really explore what makes a person tick before you hire them.

7. Micromanage.

Do I really need to go here? Yes, unfortunately. Though we all know better than this, don’t we? Sadly, I’ve seen way too much of it. It’s not just classical micromanagement either. I’ve seen truly exceptional people who excelled in their role end up with their jobs “dumbed-down” to cater to the lowest common denominator, and to the point they were no longer challenged or motivated. Needless to say, it wasn’t long before they were looking for an opportunity somewhere else.

8. Set the bar low.

Great people will get discouraged and either leave or adapt to mediocrity if that is what they perceive is deemed acceptable. I’ve seen mediocrity accepted, rewarded, applauded, and even promoted! The impact of this on team morale (and on the highest performing team members) was palpable. Set the bar high and then become a cheerleader – even if people don’t make it over the high bar, point out how high the bar was set and how high people did get, and celebrate the success they did have at the right level. They may just make it over that high bar the next time.

9. Be cold and uncaring (to them and to their coworkers).

People are human. Why do we seem to forget this so often? They have personal struggles, ambitions, families, crises, etc. One of my favorite bosses from the past was a gentleman, he knew most about me and my family. He didn’t go beyond appropriate boundaries, but I really knew he cared about me as an employee and as a person (note #5, above).He was personable and when I needed a friend, a true mentor, someone I could go to with a problem. I knew I could talk to him and he’d help me out however he could. He got a lot of loyalty from me in return. I should also point out that talented people watch how you treat other people, not just themselves, and they take note of it.

10. The “usual” things (under-pay them, intrude into their personal lives, harassment, etc.)

Yes, the “usual” things will usually get a good person out of your organization as fast as they can possibly find an opportunity elsewhere. Incredibly, I’ve seen organizations under-pay very good people. One executive even said to me, in private, “Well, just what are they going to do? Leave? They have no place to go. The (job) market is poor.” This was his way of rationalizing, those many years ago, reduced bonuses for a group of people who really had earned them – and who were contractually entitled.This was disappointing to say the least, and I lost a lot of sleep over it at the time, even though my own bonus was good that year. Plus, it wasn’t long before people actually did have someplace else to go, and go they did.

Recruiting leaders for outsourced engagements

You will always at some point find that you will likely have to replace some people on your team and recruit new leaders. As you rebuild your team, what traits and qualities will you look for? What indicators might help you identify higher-potential staff and likely “A” players?

Here is a good listing of traits and characteristics you should look for in a global world which ever culture you think fit. As leaders to lead teams globally you need to have these to succeed.

THE ESSENTIAL TRAITS

There are six key leadership traits including: curiosity, courage, perseverance, integrity, confidence, and empathy. Some of these traits may be innate―while some are born with a particular trait―while other traits were developed over time, forged in the crucibles of critical moments and relationships.

1. Curiosity

Curiosity is both the most surprising and most frequently mentioned trait. The desire to understand and learn new things helps leaders to build the diverse experiences that later gives them the foundation to be an accomplished leader. Yet, the importance of curiosity as a critical employee or manager is rarely studied in the management literature, curiosity is one of the most important qualities top recruiters look for in recruiting talent. Whether innate or cultivated, curiosity is vital to motivating leaders to pursue experiences and learn lessons that build deeper insights and understanding in an ever-changing knowledge economy.

2. Courage

Courage is the willingness to face uncertainty and perhaps danger. There are always critical moments in which leaders are called upon to be courageous and willingly move into unfamiliar ground in order to go forward. Often, courage is manifested in the willingness to take on new challenges that stretch the individual well beyond what he or she already knows how to do. Courage helps the leaders to master new skills and experiences critical to their advancement and their personal credibility.

3. Perseverance

Perseverance (the willingness to work through challenges without giving up) is another trait vital to individual success in both professional and personal contexts. Often, perseverance provides the drive to master a difficult subject or situation. Among our respondents, this willingness to persevere was sometimes learned in childhood. Others work at cultivating this trait, training with determination to excel in an area where they are not naturally gifted, such as a musical instrument or a sport, to achieve a high level of proficiency. Perseverance enables leaders to undertake challenging and difficult assignments and advance in their chosen professions.

4. Integrity

The trait of “ethically saying what you mean; and doing what you say” is highly desirable . Being able to marry the right intentions with right actions provides a foundation for trust within and across an organization. Getting things done with integrity also makes it easier for others to work for and with you.

5. Confidence

Confidence is another trait that is highly valued. Confidence does not have to be innate; a calm and self-assured style can be cultivated through practice. Confidence that’s grounded in prior experience and confidence in engaging the unknown are particularly valuable. Leaders expressing confidence can assuage anxieties and make it easier for staff to follow direction.

6. Empathy

Empathy—the ability to understand and consider another’s point of view—is also highly valuable for leaders. Empathy can be valuable in testing your point of view against those of others and in avoiding blind spots in decision-making. Furthermore, it can help executives be more effective communicators to, and influencers of, their key stakeholders by driving understanding and helping to find points of convergence that meet each other’s needs.

Other attributes of high-potential talent

Many of the above traits align with other findings on the qualities of high-potential talent. Recently, for example, in “21st century talent spotting: Why potential now trumps brains, experience and competencies” (Harvard Business Review June 2014), Claudio Fernandez-Araoz notes five indicators of high potential:

The right kind of motivation—a commitment to fiercely pursue unselfish goals (additive to the trait of integrity above)
Curiosity—a penchant for seeking out new experiences and an openness to learning and change (same as our prior study)
Insight—ability to gather and make sense of information that suggests new possibilities
Engagement—a knack for persuasively using emotion, logic, and communication (similar to empathy for communications)
Determination—a wherewithal to pursue difficult goals and overcome challenges (similar to perseverance)

Traditionally, the most used gauges of the above traits are analysis of personal and work histories, reference checks, and interviews. But one other method—observation of the trait—can also be feasibly employed in the recruiting process. For example, an executive walks potential recruits through a manufacturing plant in order to discover what the candidate observes about the plant and what questions they ask about the operations.

Recruiting and onboarding of new talent to your team is likely to create significant demands on your time, and success is not always guaranteed. Beyond gauging proficiency in their functional specialization, recruiting to the above traits may help to improve the odds and return on recruiting—helping to identify high-potential, future leaders who are adaptive to changing organizational contexts and needs.

Trust & Relationship in outsourcing

Trust is a core ingredient to build successful relationships. Both personal and professional ones. It is a major leadership characteristic. However, you can´t take it for granted. You need to work hard to earn trust and to keep it. In an outsourced environ, it is even more important to trust each other side and work towards the common goals. Given the distances, relationships in a typical outsourced arrangement, cultural differences etc. it is imperative to keep trust in each other and enhance the relationship further. Most often promises are made and not kept or not taken seriously. Given the multiple levels at which works gets done in outsourced engagement, building trust from the top to the bottom most levels would be extremely rewarding.

Isaac Watts once said that “Learning to trust is one of life’s most difficult tasks.“ If you´re not seen as a trustworthy person you can´t neither form engaged relationships nor high performing teams. And without them you can´t become a successful leader and manager. If you were not careful, you can lose trust within days or even hours.

In today´s article I´d like to share with you my thoughts and what I consider being the most important principles to build, regain, and sustain trust:

Walk Your Talk. Mean what you say and keep your word. Deliver your committed tasks and duties on time and in full. Be consistent and reliable. Arrive promptly to meetings. If you might risk missing an agreed timeline, proactively communicate and explain it, apologize and come forward with a new proposal. Try not missing it a second time to protect your reputation. Lead by example and permanently demonstrate that you deliver on your promises and that others can count on you.

Communicate Frequently And Openly. Direct, quick, accurate, and honest communication builds trust. Share regularly with others. This underlines that you have no hidden agenda. Address possible trust issues within a team in an open and prompt manner. In this context also crucial to develop and possess good active listening skills.

Tell The Truth And Take A Stand. Be honest and don´t lie. This is not as easy as it might sound. Of course, we wouldn´t admit it, would we? Anyway, it´s key not leaving out relevant facts, figures, and opinions when discussing and arguing. Even, and especially, when it´s awkward and painful. People will appreciate it. Also be willing to say no. You can´t be everything to everyone. Taking a stand based on sound arguments – well and politely articulated – will earn you respect and trust.

Be Transparent And Unite. Share your objectives, strategy, agenda, and values. People want to know what you think and believe and to understand how they might fit into the picture. This gives them security and confidence in you and your intentions. Create a common identity and establish a sense of companionship.

Show People That You Care About Them. Be out for others and not primarily for yourself. Appreciate all people you´re dealing with. Show sensitivity to their interests, wishes, and needs. Value them and thank them. Express sincere gratitude rather two times too often than missing it just once. Do it from the heart.

Empower Others. Show people that you trust them. Grant flexibility, stimulate initiative- taking, and ask for regular feedback. Have faith in others skills and capabilities. Be willing to let go and to share power. “The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them” (E. Hemingway).

Focus On The Positives. Don´t punish mistakes. As they can happen think and speak about them in a results-oriented and forward-looking way. Jointly look with others for solutions and implement actions to avoid that they´ll happen again.

Coach And Train Others. Guide people around you and assist them in finding their way and the right solutions for themselves. Don´t tell them what to do. Instead ask them for their opinions. Support them in becoming great and outstanding.

Follow High Ethical Standards. Do the right things. Even, and especially, when it might be hard. People will like, respect, and trust your integrity.

Admit Mistakes And Weaknesses. Fortunately, you´re only human. So, when you don’t do the right thing, admit it. Be transparent, authentic and willing to talk about your mistakes and faults in a constructive manner. When you are vulnerable and have nothing to hide you radiate trust. That´s what people love.

Establish Long Term Relationships. Trust is usually not the result of short term actions and profits. It´s stemming from deeper values, ethics, and fundamental principles. Take your time and don´t rush. Be willing to let trust evolve and flourish. The best trust fertilizer is to “give without any strings attached.“ Don´t expect always something in return.

Website Development: Outsourced or Outhoused? « Workbox Blog

Nice article – courtesy Workbox…check this out

 

Website Development: Outsourced or Outhoused?

You’re a brilliant marketing consultant and web designer!

The site you designed for your client launched on-time and on-budget. The outsourced development shop did a great job at a great price. Your client loves you.

The trouble started a month later.

Maybe this is what you experienced:

  • The client wants some new features and the developer isn’t responding.
  • You need to update WordPress, but don’t have a staging site on which to debug.
  • The platform or design isn’t scalable for new features or content sections.
  • You and your client don’t have permission to access the web server.
  • You don’t own the Google Analytics account.
  • Who has the domain registrar login?
  • And your client doesn’t want excuses.
  • And your profit margin is shrinking.

Yeah, you went cheap, and now that $500, $2,000 or even $5,000 isn’t looking like such a bargain after all!

You “outhoused” your website development.

Don’t get me wrong – a lot of marketing and design consultants have great success with inexpensive website development outsourcing. They’re successful because they did their homework and clearly defined the project, not just for the developer, but for their client as well.

There are some big issues that inexperienced consultants have with outsourced developers.

> The developer isn’t going to warn you about or protect you against things that will cause problems later on, and may actually have an incentive to NOT warn you (issues around hosting, content management systems, analytics systems, domain registration).

> The developer isn’t going to tell you things you don’t want to hear or say “no” to any request.

> The developer will not “fill in the blanks” if instructions aren’t accurate or clear.

This isn’t necessarily the developer’s fault. They make money by quickly and efficiently building websites – and assume you know what you want. When they get a request that doesn’t fit into their basic model, they get confused and unresponsive, and don’t know how to pull clarification out of you. Also, they may use a simple, inflexible solution to solve a problem you don’t understand or want to deal with so they can keep the project on-time and on-budget. Sure, some are flaky jerks, but most are really trying to do a good job.

Here’s the deal: you’re not getting a true partner with many inexpensive outsourced development teams. You’re getting worker bees. Clearly and accurately define the task and everything works great. Deviate and get stung.

Here are some tips so you can avoid “outhousing” your web development project:

  • Discuss hosting and be sure you are permitted to have access to the live website code.
  • Understand your client’s long-term plans (1-2 years is enough) for the website and be sure to account for them in the design and technology platform.
  • Confirm that your client has the logins for everything! Hosting, domain registrar, analytics accounts, third-party service providers.
  • Define a website software update process. WordPress and other software needs to be updated regularly for security purposes.
  • Require a development or staging site to test software updates and technical enhancements.

The good news is that if you do your homework, clearly and accurately describe your project and requirements, and manage your development team correctly, you can build a great relationship with an outsourced developer. Then you get a reliable partner – and you and your projects won’t fall into the outhouse!

 

Developing Talents at Rank and File levels in Outsourced Engagements

In any outsourcing engagement, developing talent is directly related to improving maturity, gaining efficiencies and increase productivity on teams.

Managers who invest time and effectively develop talent have

• 25% better performers
• 29% more committed
• 40% more likely to stay than their peers

For exactly the above reasons, Building Talent” is one of the important dimensions in any outsourcing engagement. Building Talent over a period of time helps develop maturity on the teams and pays immensely to retrain other resources as new recruits join. If you understand the pyramidal structure in any relationship, the longer the resources stay and move to the top of the pyramid, they help guide others at the next levels helping with maturity.

Here are three ways you increase your own effectiveness in developing the talent on your teams.

1. Make work meaningful – Many associates know what they should be doing, but they may not understand how what they do makes a difference to the business. Your job is to connect the dots. People who understand how their work fits into the bigger picture are more engaged, higher performers, and more likely to stay with the account. Take every opportunity to help your teams understand the impact of their work on your outcomes and how what they are doing is helping them develop professionally. Don’t assume it’s obvious!

2. Check-in regularly and deliver feedback in real-time – Performance feedback, whether positive or constructive, shouldn’t be limited to formal mechanisms, via their Managers or during mid-year or end-of-year discussions. Checking in with your direct reports on a regular basis and delivering real-time feedback creates transparency and encourages two-way discussions. And when you check in, don’t just talk about performance. Take time to ask questions about your associates’ overall experience as well—you’ll likely learn something new and insightful, and they will feel heard!

3. Assign a variety of projects to build capabilities – know the 70-20-10 rule? 70% of our development comes from our day-to-day work, 20% comes from mentoring and coaching, and 10% comes from formal training. Day-to-day work activities are the best opportunities to help associates strengthen and develop new capabilities. Assign a diverse set of projects that will challenge your associates to continue adding to their personal portfolio of skills and knowledge.

Don’t forget to use collaboration tools if you cannot get face time, if you do get an opportunity to meet use that to your fullest advantage.

Outsourcing Contracts & Performance Measurement

One of the major pain points and stumbling block in outsourcing contracts is the contract itself. It’s almost impossible to get all the ducks in a row when it comes to writing a solid contract that eventually will drive the relationships. There are always unknowns and things that occur as you get into execution of contracts which at times leads to relationships going sour. Resources both people and process are to blame for poorly written and executed contracts that sometimes lead to end of a relationships.

Underperformance strains relations between commissioning CIOs and outsourcing firms, flaws in outsourcing agreements makes it difficult for outsourcers to deliver real value to companies. Lack of transparency and setting clear objectives for performance are chiefly among the problems behind this perceived underperformance.

Contrary to popular belief that outsourcers should have the authority to make decisions, only a third actually give their partners these decision-making powers, greater transparency and building trust are critical to improving relations and performance that goes with it. Furthermore, CIOs should set clear measurable delivery objectives from the outset, this doesn’t happen in many cases. There are signs of tension in every outsourcing relationship sometimes at various levels linked to their expectations from company executives, board members, middle and lower levels of management.

Transparency, trust, understanding and innovation are benchmarks – and more often the service delivery where the most tension lies is rated lower than perceived importance in all four instances.

While the Service Integration and Management (SIAM) model is favored by IT directors and boards at an incremental pace, the middle management and lower tiers feel that their organisation had the skills in-house to manage the model effectively thus posing challenges with performance of contract. There is a move towards using such models so that companies can capitalise on different outsourcers’ specialisations and become more agile and reduce their labour outgo overall. These offer an opportunity for both outsourcers and clients to improve the performance of contracts.

Whether contracts are single source or multi-source the answer is simple: put in place objectives and measurements that focus on the achievement of business goals – then report on them consistently. Though this is simple enough, carrying it through won’t be quite so. Principally, it’s for the large cap firms and with that comes internal thought processes and board level considerations. While some firms are even availing the services of the big consulting firms at a cost to achieve those objectives, some depend internally for their teams to help create value and foster relationships.

Many clients evaluate success entirely or mainly on service levels as opposed to actual business impact, this often clouds the judgment. Then there is tendency to show everything is fine despite some level of underlying non-performance from both sides at times. Measuring performance based on service levels becomes a bit tricky when ‘business transformation’ ‘strategic alignment’ are the most critical way the outsourcing partners are put to use.

There is need to create a collaborative and insightful way of managing current performance, future performance, decision-making and risk management of outsourcing contracts to enable reconciliation of IT performance and desired business outcomes.

While cost efficiency has always been a major driver with outsourcing, other facets are gaining importance. We are seeing trends in outsourcing contracts now that focus more than “Cost efficiencies”. The current themes includes innovation, process improvements, globalization etc. after all outsourcing is here to stay.

IT education not keeping pace with Industry needs – Part 2

Lets look at the necessary future of IT education. This is a fundamental problem, and it exists in every IT shop in every business in every country. Now what do we, as CIOs, CTOs, IT directors/managers, and business owners, what can we do to make sure we don’t slip further into obscurity.

First, we must put the expectation of “professional” back into the job descriptions of those people we call IT pros. “Professional” should mean the same thing for IT as it means for any other credentialed profession, whether medicine, law, education, architecture, or finance. Professionals are held to a certain standard of skill and behavior including holding them for liability. We dont trust doctors that don’t know their patients well, same with lawyers who cannot win cases, or engineers who design faulty bridges just to name a few.

Almost every profession requires its members to engage in continuing education. Not IT. Furthermore, it’s one of the few professions that isn’t licensed by the government. Now, I’m no fan of government regulation, but its licensing of other professionals allows us to implicitly take them at their word. Personally, I’d like to keep the IT profession unlicensed, but in order to do that, we’re going to have to police ourselves.

Second, we must give IT pros the opportunity to develop their own skills and careers. We should empower them to spend time and even reimburse them for developing necessary skills outside their jobs. Inspite of my busy schedule I attempt to go for atleast one training every year lasting about a week and also stay connected with our local chapter of project management learning newer trends and keeping abreast with what is happening around me. I volunteer on their board, participate actively in their annual symposium etc.

Third and most important, we must develop our people’s critical thinking skills — again, so that they can recognize a problem, identify and analyze the symptoms, and develop and implement the appropriate solution.

Fourth keeping them ahead of the learning curve, constantly look for avenues to make sure they are in touch with today’s market place needs. Outdated skills are not going to help. Untrained resources are a drain on your productivity.

With major innovations taking place the IT systems will get ever more complex, requiring IT pros to have advanced technical, business, and analytical skills. As technology leaders we have to play a greater role to provide them with the opportunity and resources to develop those skills. Our business survival depends upon it.

Surviving with virtual teams in outsourced environs – Part II

In my last post I covered most of the tips and techniques to adapt, lets look at some more additional tips to succeed.

1. Build a strong sense of team – bringing all team members together
It’s human nature to build the strongest relationships with the people that you spend the most time with simply because you get to know them better. Relationships are more important than ever now with the new realities in workplace with lot of gadgetry and the influence of millennials. When a colleague is simply a voice at the end of the phone or a name in the e-mail directory, it’s difficult to be as invested in their success as the person sitting next to you whose hobbies and kids’ names you know. Use every opportunity to know better and get insights from others as well where feasible.

In a project, it is vitally important to build a high-performing team where each team member feels as though they do have a responsibility to each of their colleagues on the team, where they feel that they are letting their colleague down if they are late or perform badly. That means that each team member has to be “real” to every other team member.

In a perfect world, I will try and hold a project kickoff meeting with all resources onsite so that the project starts with a strong foundation of people getting to know one another. But in reality, that isn’t always possible. What I will always try and do is create an environment where everyone views their colleagues on the team as complete people, not just resources responsible for tasks. There needs to be awareness of cultural differences and respect for people’s privacy, but there are a number of ways that this can be achieved.

I do think that it’s important to try and incorporate both voice and video in these initial kickoffs. With modern technology video conferencing, Skype, webcams are readily available and it’s always nice to put a face to a voice—again, it helps to create a sense that the person is more “real”. Of course the kickoff is just the first step in overcoming the communication challenges that can exist with virtual teams, and as we continue this article next time we’ll look at the remaining steps as well as bringing everything together as a cohesive project management approach.

Break down the barriers
It’s impossible to avoid communication barriers when you have virtual teams–physical distances remove the option of face-to-face communications, time differences may limit options for telephone conversations and language barriers may make direct communication virtually impossible. However, those barriers don’t need to create problems for the team, and I always work on the premise that it is the responsibility of the person initiating the communication to ensure that the barriers don’t prevent understanding of the message.

We do this all of the time in our daily lives–we talk to our children differently than we talk to our spouses, we speak differently with friends than with colleagues, we use different styles in formal versus informal communications, etc. With virtual teams, we need to apply this same approach to our colleagues, consciously attempting to provide messages in a format that the recipient will be able to understand with the minimum of “translation”. At the simplest level, that may actually be language translation–the person originating the message should ensure that the message is translated into the language of the person who receives the message, but in many cases the need is more subtle.

Consider a situation where the project manager needs to communicate a change to a virtual team. The change isn’t occurring in a vacuum–it’s come about as the result of various discussions, it has a knock on impact elsewhere on the project and potentially beyond the project, and it may have been approved only after consideration of a number of alternatives. While a virtual team may have some awareness of that, they likely won’t have as complete a picture as the team members who are co-located with the project manager–so the project manager needs to make sure that he or she communicates not only the change itself, but also enough background information to allow for the change to be understood and accepted.

Validate messages
The physical communication of messages is only part of the solution–the other key element is to validate that the message has been received and processed appropriately. This is something that happens automatically when teams are working in the same place–a simple “Did that e-mail make sense?” or “Did you have any questions about that change request?” is all that’s needed.

When team members are virtual, validation requires more conscious effort–and it also needs to be done in a way that is constructive rather than inadvertently belittling. I know of a virtual team member who got very upset when asked if he understood a change that had been introduced; he felt that the project manager was suggesting that he was too stupid to understand it (although that may well be evidence of failings in building a strong sense of team up front).

Validation really comes down to testing assumptions that are made, and there are a number of ways that this can occur. With a team that I have worked with quite a lot, I can get away with using simple voting buttons in e-mails–an underused piece of functionality that allows for basic feedback such as confirmation of comprehension or a request for further explanation. With issues that are more complicated, I will only use push-type communication methods like e-mail to provide backup material and will address the issue in a status meeting allowing for immediate discussion and indirect confirmation that the message has been understood (“How do you think that might affect you?” for example).

In some cases, validation can be built into the project portfolio management (PPM) tool, especially when communication is from the team to the project manager. An easy example is to have the project manager review and approve task updates that are provided by the team, but in this case all tasks should be reviewed–not just those from virtual team members that could cause a sense of double standards. The validation also has to be meaningful–if the project manager approves everything automatically, then the validation fails.

Appropriate technology use
Building on the concept of building validation into PPM tools, these tools now offer tremendous support for the management of virtual teams. Many include powerful collaboration tools or are capable of integrating with an organization’s existing collaboration software, providing a consistent platform for virtual teams to work together and share information. The problems start when project managers assume that the tool is capable of doing everything and that all users will embrace the tools in the same way. Just because tools offer collaboration tools doesn’t mean that people will maximize the benefits that those tools offer–we can all think of organizations that use tools like Microsoft SharePoint as nothing more than a directory structure.

The project manager needs to work with his or her team to agree on how the different features of PPM and similar software will be used for this specific project, and needs to monitor for compliance with that usage. In some cases, there may need to be further training and support provided to individuals to help them to become comfortable with the tool, and this can also be a way for team members to strengthen relationships with one another. I have often been in a situation where one office is more familiar with a particular tool than another, and I can then ask a team member who is more comfortable using the tool to act as guide and coach for virtual team members to help them in developing their skills with the tool. Frequently, the virtual team contains the expert users on such tools and end up teaching the “home” team on how to make the most of the tool.

Remain focused on positives
One of the biggest challenges with virtual teams occurs when things start to go wrong on a project. Because virtual relationships between team members are often not as strong as the relationships with people who are co-located, cliques can quickly develop resulting in people “taking sides” and pointing blame at others. This most obviously shows itself when the virtual team is from a vendor, but it also happens when everyone is with the same organization. Often the remote workers feel as though they are the victims because they don’t have immediate access to the project manager or key stakeholders, and they therefore don’t feel as though their positions are given fair representation.

It is vitally important that the project manager helps teams to stay focused on resolving problems and not pointing fingers at one another; he or she must clearly be seen to be objective, never allowing any suspicion that one group is being favored over another. While the steps described above and in the last article will help to create such an environment, there is still the potential for difficulties when problems arise. The PM must lead by example and act swiftly to correct any inappropriate behavior. During such stressful times, the barriers to communication may be greater, so the PM should focus on the best possible means of communication–telephone over e-mail, and ideally with voice and video to ensure that body language is also communicated and the potential for misunderstanding is minimized.

Conclusion
From what we saw in the last two posts it is no more apt to say this is “impossible” to be successful with a virtual team, virtual teams were becoming the norm so PMs would have to be able to manage them if they wanted to continue managing projects. Virtual teams have been a reality for many PMs for many years, but it is fair to say that they are still intimidating for many PMs and are viewed as somehow “different”. A quick browse of job boards reinforces that sense–many ask for experience with virtual teams if they are going to be used as if it is a different skillset than traditional project management.

lets also remember that fact that it does a disservice to those people who work virtually. Success with virtual teams comes from an ability to focus on effective communication and building teams with strong bonds between the team members–not always simple to do, but also not something that is fundamentally different from any other form of project management. If a PM finds that “impossible”, then I suggest that they look at their own skill set before anything else!