Source: theHRDIRECTOR
Date: October 2006 

Launching a new business for a global company the size of WSP Group Plc sounds like plain sailing. But identifying and harnessing existing skills in a global business of 6,000 people, and delivering consistent leadership and practice in a cross-cultural operation, are tough challenges.

New company WSP Energy draws together existing skills from within the global organisation, WSP Group plc, the international provider of management and consultancy services to the built and natural environment. The new senior management team acknowledged the importance of bringing together a strong virtual team to deliver a global service underpinned by shared local knowledge, across five continents and 17 time zones.

To achieve strong virtual team-working, the new management looked to their colleagues in WSP Environmental Ltd who, through a joint venture with Transnational Management Associates Ltd (TMA), run Real World Learning (RWL). This is a training company that uses highly focused, challenging situations within community projects to engage senior management in the issues facing global businesses.

THE PROGRAMME

• 24 people from WSP Energy took part, representing eight global offices and 10 different nationalities.
• The training delivery took place in the Limpopo Province in the North Eastern region of South Africa, through a project to build a shelter for a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) that cares for HIV orphans.
• Concurrent classroom-based sessions examined lessons learnt from the project, which could then be applied to the development of WSP Group’s new business.

LEARNING EXPERIENCES
There were four main areas of learning from the programme:

• Virtual teamwork
  During the planning stage, a diagnostic tool called ‘Country Navigator’ was used to help the team develop cross-cultural understanding – ‘cultural intelligence’. The tool, developed by TMA, enables participants to analyse their own cultural preferences, and identify strengths and development areas for successful interaction with colleagues from different cultures. Personal cultural profiles can be compared with national profiles
  from over 30 countries whilst updated country-specific knowledge and learning tools are provided to help each person modify their approach and be effective in different cultural contexts.
  
• Cross-cultural communication
  A key learning point established that relationships across cultures don’t just start, they build up over time. This was as true for working with the local community as it was amongst WSP Energy’s own international team. In the planning stages, a local NGO acted as the liaison and communication point between the community in the Limpopo Province and the WSP Energy team. Through this, the team were able to understand the physical project that would provide most sustainable benefit to the community and, once the WSP Energy team arrived in South Africa, members of the local community were involved in project meetings throughout the construction work. This process demonstrated the value of building relationships through continual communication, whilst respecting and understanding different cultural approaches.
  
• Decision making in complex environments
  The power of the RWL experience is that the physical work makes a positive impact on the life of a community, which makes the team’s decision-making of the utmost importance. It provides real focus and understanding of how in every situation, decisions taken and information assessed have real consequences for people whatever their location.
  
• Ambassadorial leadership
  The RWL programme promotes an ethical decision making tool that, through effective collaboration, helps cross-cultural teams to assess decisions according to the needs of, and effects on, all relevant stakeholders, some of whom may have conflicting agendas. The importance of this tool was seen during the project when competing agendas for the local community arose and the team had to make and communicate decisions for the greater benefit of the whole community.

VALUABLE OUTCOMES
Encouraged by the ‘total engagement’ aspect of the RWL experience and the fact that it delivers a quality of learning and an experience of change management equivalent to a module of a leading MBA school, the WSP Energy team were prepared to invest considerable senior management time in the project to establish effective team interaction across international boundaries at the earliest stage of their new business venture.

The team enjoyed the challenge, learnt many key lessons that could be applied to their own business roles, and the whole project provided a positive contribution to the company’s corporate responsibility through a continued dedication to training and improved social development within South Africa.