Risk management is all about providing a framework for assessing opportunities for health and threats to the project.
1. Keep day-to-day team management close
a. Promptly deal with confusion regarding responsibility
b. Empower the Project Manager. Project managers shouldn't lack the ability to act
c. Consider what local manager reported but verify in follow-ups
d. Training programs, chain of command, delegate issues resolution to area owners
2. Project monitoring and control
a. Weekly project status meetings
b. Email etiquette: some things required phone calls, and manners matter
c. Resolve issues in the soonest possible time
d. Communication barriers- investigate and resolve barriers promptly
e. Demonstrate cultural competency of certain types of responses or communication
f. Multiple issue-specific daily conference calls, where necessary
g. If multiple time zones or multiple shifts involved, consider time inconvenience for teleconference
3. Project issues
a. Use weekly calls to report project status
b. Derive a procedure for project management issues & resolution
c. Synchronization of project activities across sites (if multi-locations)
4. Time zone difference (or multiple shifts)
a. Productivity drops as team awaits coordination from other teams. Take yield!
b. Build site-specific expertise/ reduce inter-location dependencies
c. Handover strategy: one team handed issues to another at the close of their day and take over the following morning/or meeting date
5. Site/Location Management Priorities
a. Avoid conflicting directions from managers
b. Manage site-specific priorities so that they don't produce inter-site politics
6. Sub-projects with own features without involving other sites
a. Avoid duplicated efforts
b. Devise equal responsibilities across sites or shifts
c. Inter site travels (i.e. learning journey) (putting a human face of the project)
7. Working together (Blending Teams)
a. Inter-site (or inter-shift) communication multiplied (reduce redundancy where possible)
b. Show support for the new kid on the block
8. Finger points
a. Relationship building between sites/shifts/teams
b. Involve sites in decision making
9. Risk Management
a. Issue 1: Local team (or one team) treating risk as a local issue than an issue for the overall project (if project is multi-site)
i. Be careful of Inadequate risk reporting
ii. Tollgates strategy .eg. conduct extensive reviews before approving transition to next phase
b. Issue 2: Cultural differences
i. Address Communication gaps, social sensitivity
ii. Capacity & competency building: Training & multiculturalism
c. Issue 3: Infrastructure across-sites
i. Hindrance of project success and quality due to infrastructure failure or unavailability.
ii. Seamless information access, 24-hour support systems where applicable
d. Issue 4: Moral issues
i. Regular communication, show of acknowledgement and visibility.