I feel lucky to be in a position in my career where I both support learners and work with peers globally. Supporting a global audience gives me a chance to work on a wide variety of learning content, and creating that content with a global team gives me access to perspectives and processes that I wouldn't experience otherwise. While global learning comes with some challenges, there are some key tips I've found that help promote a smoother process and the best experience for the learner. In part one of this two part series, I'll be offering some tips I've learned working with a global training team. |
Chances are, hopefully, if you support a global audience, you're going to have global counterparts. This may not always be the case, but luckily that's how my experiences have gone. We have a wealth of knowledge on our team around training, but also around content and its regional differences. Below are a few tips based on my experiences. It may not apply globally (pun intended), but take a look and see what you may be able to apply to your own global team.
Be Flexible
Ever have someone book a meeting with you at 5:00 p.m. on a Friday? Did you appreciate that? Probably not. Now, think about if you've ever done that to a global teammate. You may find yourself thinking, "Well, what time works best for me for this meeting?" However, it's not all about your schedule. Working with a global team, sometimes you need to make concessions in meeting times to stay in communication with coworkers and SMEs. That's not to say you always have to be the one with 9:00 p.m. meetings, but every once in a while, it might happen. A good rule of thumb I use is, "Who was inconvenienced last time?" I try to trade off if it's someone I meet with frequently. So, 9:00 p.m. meeting for me this time, 9:00 p.m. meeting for them next time.
Have frequent meetings? That doesn't mean you need to be chained to your desk in today's digital age! I once had a 7:00 p.m. meeting set with a teammate in the Asia Pacific region. We were exactly 12 hours apart, so his meeting as 7:00 a.m. Not really convenient for either of us, but it worked. However, I'd forgotten we were supposed to go out to dinner that night with friends. Was I going to have to cancel my plans for a 15 minute call? Nope. This is a digital world and I used that to my advantage. We use web conferencing software that has a mobile app, so I popped out to the car during dinner and ran an entire video conference from my phone, complete with my coworker sharing his computer screen to show me some things for the project. I made it work (to quote Tim Gunn). I told some coworkers about the app and they didn't even know it existed, so be sure to research your meeting options at your own company.
Use Regional Knowledge
Do you have all the answers? If so, why are your reading my blog? You don't. No one does! That is especially true when it comes to training. If I'm designing a learning for employees in India, chances are, the person who sits in the India office is going to know a heck of a lot more about what those learners are like, how they prefer to learn, and what their specific learning challenges are than I do. Use that knowledge! It may seem obvious, but when you design a "global training" that is meant to go out to all employees at the company, but was developed in one specific country, chances are, something they think is global isn't actually. That system your SME may say is used by everyone, may not apply to the Nordics, or China, or Argentina. What you then get is confused learners who aren't sure if they're using the right tools, following the right processes, or breaking rules. My advice: always double check. Just shoot a quick email to a counterpart and ask, "Does this sound right?"
Use Timezones to Your Advantage
I talked about timezones being a challenge to overcome earlier, but they can also be an advantage. If you're given tight timelines to create courses (Who, us? Never!), creating relay-race course creation can really help speed things along. The project can start in Europe, then when their workday ends, get picked up in the Americas, hop across a couple of timezones and teammates there, and then get passed along to another designer in Australia. On and on it goes! This may not work for every project, but if you're working on an eLearning that has a well-defined storyboard, content could keep being created in an almost 24 hour cycle to meet tight timelines or just wow your stakeholders at your teamwork.
Cloud Storage
Just as a quick note, many of you probably already use cloud storage to store project files (Box, Dropbox, SharePoint, etc.). Make sure to keep on top of your files! Being able to access your entire team's project files, no matter where in the world you or they are is crucial, and has saved more than one project from the occasional computer meltdown.
Well, what do you think? Do these tips resonate with your experiences working with global teams? Do you have additional tips you'd like to share. I'd love to hear them! Reach out in the comments below.