How Do You Manage Project Culture?
When beginning work on a project, it is important to understand and pay attention to the relationships, organizational history, context of the project and corporate culture. Corporate culture is an umbrella term, used to encompass beliefs, attitudes and values that are shared amongst members of the organization, and the behaviors that are consistent with these beliefs and values.
Corporate culture is a key factor that separates organizations from one another, and determines how members of the organization view and interact with each other. In this same sense, projects will also have their own project culture that exists among the team members and those involved.
The factors that make up a corporate culture are mixed; some factors are easily observed and can be considered “surface level”, and some are harder to see and are more behind the scenes. It is easy to observe how people in an office dress and speak to one another, yet how they work and their proximity throughout the day is harder to analyze.
The subtle components of a corporate culture, such as values and overall business philosophy may be harder to see and understand, but these are often the foundation of strong, successful organizations. These factors are most detectable through actions and small moments throughout time.
Project Culture Management Checklist
Once the corporate culture is identified and understood, members should aim to add variation and “layer” their culture to create consistency across the organization. Making these small adjustments will impact the project culture, the team’s efficiency and project satisfaction, and will increase client satisfaction as well.
Below are some critical questions a project manager should ask in order to guide their management and approach to the project.
- What is the role of the stakeholders in this project, and who will be involved in decision making? Where do these stakeholders reside on the chain of command? If project decisions are filtered through certain stakeholders, what are their important factors they will look for within decisions and project actions?
- What type of communication is preferred by stakeholders and by the project team? If these two parties have different preferences, how will the project manager facilitate between the two? Who has the most influence in the communication that occurs throughout the project?
- How have past projects been organized and how did they work out? If there is past information that could benefit a project manager, it is always worthwhile to gather this information and understand what should be used and what areas can be improved.
- What areas may be organization-specific? Some organizations are particular with how their documents are formatted and organized, so understanding how stakeholder and the organization prefer their information and documents is a vital part of project success.
Managing Project Challenges
In today’s world, most organizations are made up of employees and members with varying worldviews. A worldview can best be described as each individual’s perspective on the world based on their personal experiences and opinions which shape how they view the world. A person’s worldview will dictate how they process things and make decisions, as well as guide their actions. The reason it is important to understand worldviews is to better understand how project team members will interact and collaborate on decisions and tasks.
In most organizations and environments, varying worldviews can create divides between team members since each person is providing input from their own perspective. An effective project manager will understand this and aim not to have everyone see things from the same perspective, but mediate between the varying opinions and perspectives.
One of the most successful approaches to this is to address the gaps directly, which shows the team members that they must be open-minded and hear the opinions of others and understand that diverse teams are advantageous.
Having a diverse team allows for more personal experience, and thus casts a wider net of understanding and insights. For example, a team member may have worked on a similar project in the past, and can give information about the successes and failures of the team and project. If this team member was the only person to work on a similar project, the rest of the team should understand they have the most expertise on this matter and weigh that person’s opinion above their own, as they have already been in this position.
Summary
To wrap up, corporate culture is a concept that will change by organization, and even by team or project. The culture is made up of the shared beliefs and values of the members and, in turn, is also evident through the actions of the team. The most efficient teams are the ones who incorporate their culture in as much of their work as they can, and will resort back to their culture in times when needed.
One of the hardest parts of corporate and project culture is managing conflict among teams, because even though the team may share their culture, each member has their own worldview. Therefore, it is important for the project manager to aid members to understand their differences and work together to use their experiences to their advantage.