OzHR #20 - Succeeding in Cross Cultural & Cross Geographic Projects

I am so excited to introduce you to the topic and host for our 20th OzHR - what a fantastic topic for our region! Juhi Jhunjhunwala is such a smart cookie, and has been a regular OzHR chatter on her twitter account at @hrtechgirl. OzHR is open to anyone to set a topic and host a chat for getting ideas and feedback on current challenges they're facing. A few weeks ago, I hosted a topic on workshops, getting the wisdom and inspiration I needed to host my own workshop. This week, Juhi is bringing her own challenges, and asking for our community's wisdom on succeeding in cross cultural and cross geographic projects. What a killer topic! Take it away Juhi!

"Hi, I'm Juhi, and I lead the HR Systems and Process Improvement projects cross culture and cross geography at Oil Search Ltd. I'm also a SoMe enthusiast who is about to get married and wants to start my own Vegan foodosphere! It is extremely difficult, because of many many many reasons :). One of the key challenges related to my paid job is we have a very interesting operating model much like other Oil and Gas companies where Corporate in theory is the policy and standards maker and the oil producing assets are run as a separate unit but need to follow corp. policies and standards. In theory should be easy, one makes it and other uses it. Of course not! Add to that communication challenges and understanding of the model and multiply that problem by cultural and economic differences you have a complex recipe. Sounds like a dream challenge job doesn't it? I am keen to know if there are people out there who have implemented projects and change programmes in such countries or circumstances and learn what their experiences have taught them."

The chat will be Thursday 6 February starting at 7pm AEDT. Now we're in daylight savings time, find your city (or corresponding time zone) below, for the starting time:

7pm - Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne (AEDT)
6:30pm - Adelaide (ACDT)
6:00pm - Brisbane (AEST)
5:30pm - Darwin (ACST)
4:00pm - Perth (AWST)

Or join in from international waters at 4:00pm in Singapore, or 8:00am in London.

Just make sure to pop a #OzHR in your tweet so we can see it, and be sure to invite others along for the ride!

The questions this week are:

1. Do cross-cultural & cross-geo projects require special skills as opposed to normal project & change management practices?
2. What are the signs of failure for cross-cultural and cross-geo projects?
3. Is sponsorship the key ingredient of leading successful projects?
4. What makes change stick in cross-cultural and cross-geo projects? Is there a magic formulae/ingredient?