Boundaryless Project Management

The term "boundaryless" has become a buzzword in business for working across department and division boundaries. It is challenging to get people to work this way within a company, but more and more projects cross significant boundaries and require boundaryless project managers.

Here's a common scenario. You are put in charge of a project that has team members in different cities, different companies, even different countries. It may seem like a daunting task, but the world of business is changing from one of direct authority to one of no authority.

Working outside of these boundaries requires special leadership skills based on collaboration, communication, and partnerships. Here are five tips for managing boundaryless projects:

1. Collaborative Planning - Involve all of your team members in the planning. Brainstorm tasks together. Discuss dependencies. Estimate as a team. Working together to agree on how to accomplish your project objective gives everyone a sense of ownership and pride to be part of the team. You will establish your leadership of the team quickly if you demonstrate to the team that each member can help shape the project direction.
   
2. Regular Communication - Set up a regularly scheduled conference call that is at a time suitable for everyone. You may have people calling from several time zones, so be considerate of everyone's business hours. You probably won't have access to everyone's calendars, so use your collaboration skills to plan a suitable meeting time.
   
3. Project Dashboard - Use your regularly scheduled conference call to review a project dashboard that clearly communicates milestones, issues, and action items. Language barriers and phone communication require a visual tool to help guide everyone through the meetings and to give each team member a handout for use between meetings.
   
4. Escalation Path - Although the tips above will help your project succeed, there may still be issues within your project team. It is important to have a clear escalation path for resolving conflict that can't be resolved within the team. Define this before it's needed so that you can turn conflict resolution into a process and keep your project moving forward.
   
5. Occasional Contact - There's nothing like meeting face-to-face with your team members. If your project budget and schedule permit, plan on some travel to bring the team together. Periodic in-person meetings help build teams that are easier to maintain over the phone and through email.
   

If you aren't already managing projects outside of traditional boundaries, you probably will soon. Get ready to develop boundaryless, collaborative leadership skills, and you will be ready to face the project management challenges of the next decade.