PMI hosts luncheons each month and today there was one on Winning With Offshore, presented by Neal Reizer, VP of Product Development, Patient Logic (blog: nealreizer.blogspot.com). Having no current offshore development partners, I thought it might be a bit off topic for me but I was pleasantly surprised. I think his sage advise could be applied to contract partners from project managers to film crews.
1. People vs. Resources
Fundamental issue: Easy to look at and consider offshore resources as “the other” as awkward b/c suggests being used. Think of them as people. Otherwise it is easy to depersonalize the other persons working in other geographies. Proposed that this leads to turnover and burnout and costs.
Recommendation: Change language/terminology you we use so that it humanizes the others we are working with.
- Use their names, not deal just with a headcount (do you know them?)
- Talk in terms of we, not us and them
- Patients, not Patient Logic (generally, know who your customers are)
You set the tone. You can change and let the organization adapt around you.
IMPORTANT: Words Matter
Consider the phrasing on these stats:
- 32,885 “resources” died in motor vehicle crashes in 2012
- 599, 413 “resources” died of heart diseasse in 2009
- 4.2 million “resources” were born in 2008
Proposed: It matters whether you say people vs. resources.
2. Relationships vs. Transactions
- Once you get this right, you become interested in your offshore counterparts, what they are involved in, how to develop them. Ā Know why you hired them specifically, why they are leaving.
- His project encourages growth of individual. Ā He then becomes known for a good project for career advancement. Ā It becomes highly desired as an assignment, attracting top talent.
- As VP of Development it is a given that he does connect developers directly with their client–as directly as anyone in the states. Ā Admits it is context dependent but it has been hugely productive for his team (eg having a developer walk through a hospice to fully understand the gravity of the programming they are creating).
- Strong relationship is valuable to facilitate work, both quality and quantity.
- If you visit with senior exec team try not to let them control meetings or you will never actually meet the people working for you, only senior staff.
3. Favoring Collaboration Over Isolation
- Making the effort to include the entire team, developing relationships
- Transparency, not status reports
- Participation, not team lead briefs
- Solutions, not blame.
The Big Secret?
Collaborative relationships between people.
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