Gabi's Blog

Sunday, April 20, 2014

My first trip to the Middle East....

First and foremost I never thought I would make it to that side of the world, but I did. And what a trip that was!!

I have to be honest it literally started with a little bit of anxiety… I did not know what to expect.

Everything that I heard about the Middle East before the trip made me a little bit nervous… But I went to a place that was everything that I did not expect.

We left on April 1… April Fools' Day: that in itself added to the anxiety. Was I getting punked?

We bought our excursion through Groupon; it was a package deal through a agency called Gate1Travel. I did a lot of research about the agency online, and ended up meeting people that knew people that had purchased the same package and had gone on the trip last year. And they were all back to the US safe and sound. So all of that ease my concerns, and I was ready to go!

Quick Travel Tip: To stay organized throughout your trip, and have all your activities, events, flights and hotel information at your fingertips, check out TripCase. It allows you to store it all. You can download their mobile app that continuously (even when offline) reminds you of your upcoming events. It also looks up the information of your hotels and gives you quick access to contact information. I just love it!!

The trip was perfect!!! And I'm happy to share some of the highlights with you....

We left on April 1st and arrive in Dubai on April 2nd in the middle of the night and there was a guy waiting for us with a Gate1Travel sign. It was comforting to see someone from the agency right away when we landed. 6 other people arrived around the same time, and we were all taken to our hotel in a minibus. It was at the middle of the night and we were super exhausted after having traveled 24 hours to get there (13 hour flight... ouch) ... But right away we started to notice how different Dubai was about to be from anything we had ever seen...

Check out the waiting area outside of the departure gate... Men's Waiting Area. We did not see a Woman's waiting area anywhere... plus there was virtually no women out there. The ones that were out there, sat at a different area - an unmarked set of benches.

We stayed at the Traders Hotel in Dubai - an excellent 4 star hotel!! Their accommodations were great and very spacious. The service was impeccable - people were polite, nice and very attentive. The food was great - large selection during breakfast (which was included in our package - it was nice to have that included, as we spent the days out and about, it was important to have a big breakfast to hold us over.) The hotel also had a lounge and a bar, which we took full advantage of every night - especially since you cannot buy alcohol anywhere in Dubai except in hotels. Check out this article the British Embassy in Dubai issued with a list of 'Dos and Don'ts' for tourists or expats working in the Arab Emirate after a number of high-profile cases have seen Britons jailed.

We forced ourselves to go sleep once we've arrived in the hotel at almost 2am so that we could beat the jet lag and wake up bright and early the next day for our full day tour of one of the most diverse cities in the world.

The tour took us to both sides of Dubai Creek, where we experienced both the old world scenery and the stunning modern skyline.

We had the opportunity to go up to the 124th floor of Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world with 163 floors. It was breathtaking!

We ended the first day, ecstatic and exhausted!!

The next day, after having rested like a baby, we woke up to a free morning; so we decided to visit the famous Miracle Garden, the biggest natural flower garden in the world, containing more than 45 million flowers. It is amazing to see such beauty and life, in the middle of the desert.

That same day, in the afternoon, we went on a safari into the vast desert that surrounds modern Dubai... and once again.... Just beautiful!! We rode around the desert on a SUV, stopped at many different spots to admire the view, and take pictures. And then later ended the day at a campsite, where traditional dinner was served, we watched a belly dancing show and got to visit with some really peaceful camels.

The 5th day was also open... which was nice. We decided to explore Dubai on our own using their metro system. Their metro is astonishing clean, organized and very structured. Our first attempt to take the metro didn't go so well... The first car of the metro is reserved for women only, and of course, that was the car that me, Travis, my mom and dad walked into. A lady in the metro let us know right away that men were not allowed in that car, and we panicked and ran out. We could have just switched cars, but it was so unexpected and quick that we didn't even have time to think.

After the day adventure in the metro... we closed the night with a visit to the Dubai Mall, to watch the water fountain show, prior to embarking on the Dhow cruise for dinner. It was the perfect way to spend the last night in Dubai.

The next day, we departed to Abu Dhabi, but first visited Al Ain the Garden City of the UAE and one of its oldest settlements.

We visited Shiekh Zayed Palace Museum, the resident of Sheikh Zayed and his family between 1937 and 1966. It was there where I had the opportunity to witness one of the most beautiful and overwhelming sounds of my life....

That night we arrived in Abu Dhabi... we checked in at the Holiday in and went to bed. We had to be rested for our last day in the UAE.

The last day... We spent the morning touring Abu Dabhi. I have never seen so much wealth in a single city. The Emirate Palace Hotel is insane big! It is hard to even explain how enormous the place is. We only got to see it from the outside, as this is a very exclusive and expensive hotel.

The highlight of the last day for me was the visit to the Grand Mosque, built in 2007, which is the eighth largest mosque in the world. Guys had to make sure to wear pants, and all the women has to be covered top to bottom - you could only show your hands, face, and feet. It was an interesting experience.

Before saying goodbye to Abu Dhabi, we pay a quick visit to Ferrari World.... it completed the day with a bit of adventure and adrenaline!!

I rode one of their roller coasters, the one that reaches speeds of 95km/hr. The other one - the fastest coaster in the world I had to skip... you feel the acceleration of 240km/h in under 5 seconds and discover what 4.8Gs really feels like - check out the video...

And that was our trip... We returned to the US on the 8th day. The journey back was about the same in length, but because of the time change and the fact that we were returning to our reality, the trip back seemed 100x longer.

If you haven't visited the United Arabic Emirates (UAE) yet, I recommend you do so. It was an amazing trip for us! I was impressed by Dubai's modern buildings and diverse population (84% of the people in Dubai are foreigners). I was mesmerized by the natural beauty in the desert, and the sophistication of the country's infrastructure. I definitely want to go back, and as a matter of fact, I want to go back in 2020 for the World Expo - I'm going to succeed because I'm crazy enough to think I can...

I hope you enjoyed the reading and the pictures...

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Leading a multi-country, international project... Part 2

I have the opportunity to manage a multi country ERP implementation project in South America, and it's been a whirlwind. Meeting new people, enjoying the tropical weather and learning tons of new things are a few of the highlights of what makes me love this gig.

The other main reason for loving this gig is the opportunity to once again build an effective team. This project is particularly challenging given it's multiple location, language and culture. So to build a cohesive team that works well together and overcomes these barriers is an ongoing task.

For me there are a few things that I, as I lead a team, strive to do:

1) Provide direction and focus
2) keep momentum
3) drive collaboration

#1 Direction & Focus

As a leader this is your first and main job, to give the team and individuals a direction in which to follow. This is not about giving orders. Orders will need to be given, but this is about showing the way towards the end goal , making difficult decisions, and giving your team what they need to do their job and accomplish that goal.

Direction can come in many different forms - you can provide direction through listening to your team members work through a problem out loud with you; or through reminding them of the vision at times where that vision may not seem possible anymore.

It is however very important to build trust with your team because you want them to follow your direction and they want to know that they are being led in the right way.

Trust is a difficult thing to build and it comes with time, so in the early stages of your project and team building you want to focus on clear and constant communication to drive understanding of your vision and opportunities for interaction. Once you've spent some time together going through some hurdles and overcoming them you will begin to build that trust.

In my case, where my team spends most of its time working remotely it becomes challenging to build trust fast. The important thing to do for us is to find opportunities to get together and maximize these opportunities with focused task-filled days where collaboration is at it's peak - that's exactly what last week was all about!

Also don't forget to have fun with your team. When people get to know each other on a personal level they begin to understand the intricacies of what makes them who they are. Plus having those fun memories to pull from during difficult challenging times during the project is priceless.

#2 Keep momentum

We all deal with slow decision makers, red tape, and other obstacles that can delay and sometimes bring a project to a halt. When this happens people tend to get frustrated and loose faith in the process all together. They even begin to think that the project may not be that important if we're allowed to "waste" time with non-value added tasks.

As a leader your job is to insulate your team from all of the "nonsense". Maintain them aware because knowledge of it is important, but focus on keeping momentum on productive and value-add tasks.

The way I keep my team's momentum is by providing a bit of structure and through visualization. Structuring their days, their tasks and providing them high level views of the overall project helps them move passed the current challenges and focus on the goal.

I like to constantly review a graphical representation of the project plan with my team- in the agile world I would review a feature map but it's all the same : an opportunity to see the forest and not just the trees.

Also I'm a list queen! One of the best most simple but life changing concepts I've learned with Agile was the concept of "backlog grooming" - a concept I carry with me everywhere I go.

A backlog is essentially a list of tasks (stories) for a team; and the process of prioritizing, cleaning, removing and adding tasks to that list is referred to as "backlog grooming" - for more details visit this site : http://guide.agilealliance.org/guide/backlog-grooming.html

In the context of my project, while we're not using Agile as the methodology, I still leverage some of the best practices; including backlog grooming.

I spend the last two weeks in Brazil, one to oversee the test phase of our project and the second one I spent together with my team to collaborate together and define next steps. That was a short week with a lot to do, so I created a simple list (backlog) of tasks for the four of us to complete. Together we "groomed" the backlog on the first day, to determine priority and decide how to complete them. We completed 26 out 45 items, all High priority items were completed and of the 19 left 10 of them are low priority. It was a productive and very collaborative week and I attribute that to having a backlog and grooming it together with the team.

#3 Drive Collaboration

Collaboration is key to success! When you have a team that works together and helps each other you get amazing results.

Collaboration suffers when egos get in the way. So your job as a leader is to focus on the team as a whole and the team goals to avoid individual focus. Obviously you can always recognize individuals for their contributions but in the early stages of team building, try to focus on the team as a whole and encourage your team members to recognize each other.Recognize when teamwork takes place and encourage collaborative behavior at all times.

In addition to providing direction, keeping momentum and driving collaboration, I strive to always lead by example. The best way to encourage a behavior is to model it. As a leader you should be the example of what you want to see in your team. So if you want results, deliver it; if you want collaboration, be a team player. Be the mirror of the team you want and need.

Friday, February 21, 2014

Late night talk with my fridge...

As I look into my fridge and I see the vast variety of nothing I realize why my dad feels so pressured to maintain his life style.

My parents house is and has always been a constant inflow of people. The three of us .... Sister vortex! And everyone else

Sounds bad, but it's amazing. These two people come together and together they invite others in. Yes it is under their terms but so invite you in.

These are the two most amazing regular people I've ever met.

Growing up we always had people at our house. We were always hosting and it was fun. As I grew older I got teenagery.... I know that's not a word but you know what I mean.

I got snooty, and independent and I just had to go. And yes, maybe I did have to go, that how I felt. When I have my own teenage daughter I'm sure my mind will change again. But that's how life is. Truths become here-say when they are not your own.

So weird to figure this out now...

But back to my dad... To spend a lifetime as a host and have the risk of letting go of the one thing he likes most is unbearable (wooah... The iPhone replaced unbearable with inevitable... Damn!)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Dublin,United States

Monday, February 10, 2014

Personal space, Physical touch and Forró

For those of you who do not live in Brazil nor have been there before, one of the things that you will find noticeably different when you go - and you should go at least once - is the notion of personal space.

Personal space in Brazil is a lot smaller than what I'm used to in the US. And I'm from Brazil, was born there, lived there for the first 18 years of my life, have the Latin blood running through my veins and all... but it still catches me by surprise.

Personal space is just smaller... And to be honest inexistent depending on the circumstances.

If you're in line for anything, forget it! There will be someone close behind you, on your sides and if you don't get up closer to the person in front of you, you may end up losing your place in line all together.

Check out this NPR Blog - it gives you a little bit more on "How Different Cultures Handle Personal Space"... including two reports from NPR's International Correspondents in Brazil and Cairo, plus a link to a super funny snippet of a Seinfeld Episode that anecdotes the concept: The Close Talker

Lines are not the only place where I felt the difference in personal space. Greetings is another area...

Back in June of last year, I visited Brazil on my first business trip, and I travelled to Joinville, where I met some wonderful people I've had the pleasure to work with ever since. That day however was intense for me... It was the first time in a while that I was speaking Portuguese in a business context, definitely first time in person like that, and the first thing you do when you meet someone anywhere in the world is to greet them.

The catch when traveling abroad is that you got to be prepared to greet people in their local way - and in Brazil they hug and kiss. Yep! A woman greeting another woman will kiss each other on the cheek - depending of where you are in Brazil, you will kiss only one cheek and in other places up to three kisses.

Men greet each other with a hand shake and sometimes a hug follows depending on how long you've worked together or know each other. Often a side hug with a belly tap is given between men - that is a true sign of trust.

Outside of a business situation, men will greet each other with kisses as well. This is very common in my family... You can ask my husband... He is now used to it.

Men and women greet each other with a kiss as well. So when I met the advisor for the project I'm currently managing, and I offered him my hand and did not lean in for a kiss he reminded me of where I was and pulled me closer by the hand that I had offered, and gave me a proper professional, greeting kiss.

I have to say that since then I have become more and more accustomed to the tradition and I do sometimes miss it when I am in the US.

Seems when you have to kiss someone on the cheek that you remove walls by default - you allow people into your personal space and you create an immediate sense of ease.

It can be time consuming tough - in a meeting with 30 people, where everyone has to greet everyone things can take a while to get started. My to-the-point-no-nonsense side would tell me sometimes to skip it, but I just couldn't... And to be honest I enjoyed it, it felt nice to greet people that way, and over time it has become a bit more natural for me. So if I kiss you the next time I see you, don't sue me please!

Oh and before I move on to the next thing... I would like to call out that you do not actually kiss the person's cheek with your lips - that's weird! You touch cheeks and make the kiss sound. That's not weird..

Before I proceed I would like to call out that culture is not something to be judged, and sometimes it can't even be understood. Culture is just the make up of people, how their wired and how they behave as a result of their surrounding. So all that I'm sharing here are my experiences, as I lived them in Brazil, in their culture, through my lenses.

So now let me share a difference side of my journey... Less work related, still an illustration of how different cultures handle personal space.

While in Brazil, I was invited to go to a Forró club and I could not decline. I love to dance! I love how it makes me feel, how it frees my soul and doesn't hurt that it is an awesome way to exercise.

Forró is one of the many Brazilian genres of dance, and one that I find to be exciting to dance and watch ... I had the pleasure to go to a Forró dance club with my sister Bia and her boyfriend - her boyfriend always talks about forró and wants to go all the time, but I didn't think he was really into it until I witnessed his complete immersion into the beat of the drums and the sounds of the accordion when the band started. Watching him alone made my night!

But the night was just beginning and I was mesmerized by the number of people, the heat and the closeness of it all. I especially enjoyed to watch the people dancing. There were two couples that were fascinating and I could not stop watching them... they never even noticed me because they were so engaged into the dance and the moves ... But I definitely felt like I was creeping for a minute there.

The first couple I watched... I can still see them if I close my eyes. It was a very flamboyant guy... His moves were grand and his face was interesting ... It was like he wasn't there. He was somewhere else in his mind. But he was smiling and throughly enjoying the dance .

The girl was beautiful! She was a beautiful black girl, probably on her late 20's with long vey curly hair. She was wearing a sparkly sequen shirt and short black short. She had her eyes closed the whole time while they danced. And they danced for 4 songs straight - as the beat sped up they sped up. The song changed, the moves changed. As they picked up speed she started to add arm movements that made them look like one - like a bird or a waterfall - that's probably a bad metaphore but their dance captivated me and left me in awe. In awe of how two people could be so in sync and move so well together.

The second couple was different - I don't even remember what the guy looked like- which probably means he was a great dancer as he led the girl in such a seemesly manner that made her stand out. And she did stand out - she was gorgeous. Tall, dark, hair down to her waist - she was wearing a short jean shorts, white tang top and Beyoncé like hoops. She was beautiful - effortlessly beautiful. They didn't dance as flourshly as the first couple, but they dance beautifully sexy. She was taller than him so all you could see was her. He supported her dance perfectly, spinning her around and back and forth. It was hard to take my eyes away.

As I stood there and admired these and other people dancing, I begin to feel uncomfortable - I love to dance, I love the music and I love to people-watch, but I begun to feel uncomfortable because I didn't know what to do there. I was asked to dance a couple of times but I politely declined.

I guess I was afraid to suck at it, but mostly I was uncomfortable with how close I would have to get to a random stranger.

Most people in Brazil don't even notice how up close and personal they are ... But having spent the last 12+ years in a different culture where personal space is private and restricted, becomes a real challenge to let go and join in.

While joining in is a challenge, it is not impossible. It is mostly a matter of letting go of preconceptions and allowing yourself to be immersed into the culture.

I will need a couple more trips down to Brazil and to the forró club to get used to things and let go of my inhibitions and join in.

In the meantime, I will continue to share with you the highlights of this one trip...

Next up is "Grandma's Stories"...

Location:Atlanta,United States

Sunday, February 2, 2014

A month in Brazil.. 13 years later!

I left Brazil and moved to United States when I was 18 years old. I wanted to see the world. I moved to the US to go to college but mostly motivated by the overwhelming passion and love I felt for my boyfriend at the time. He was cute, he was nice, he was everything I needed.

13 years later, I find myself back home - Brazil. I did marry the boy so that is super cool but the coolest thing of all is that life has somehow brought me back home.

Since I left Brazil when I was 18, I really didn't have an adult life here. I grew up, and became an adult in the United States of America. My other home. The states has been all I know as an adult. I've visited my family back in Brazil throughout the last 13 years but not until this January that I had experience living, working and being an adult in Brazil.

And yes, it has only been a month... So it's not fair for me to say I've seen it all, but I have seen so much this month, and I've lived so much this month that I can't help ... I have to share!

First and foremost, I'm very blessed to have a gig that challenges me at the same time as it provides me with the opportunity to be in my home country.

I arrived in Brazil, January 7th, and I've been here since. Today, January 30th, I'm heading back home. It's been 23 great days of hard work, family time and lots of living.

My goal for this month was to design a system with 20 to 30 people that throughout the month were coming and going into our meetings as needed.

I am please to share that everything went great.... No I'm not making it up or exaggerating ... It really did go great. We had people from Brazil and Chile traveling into Rio Claro a small city in the interior of the state of São Paulo. We did not loose anybody, no one was delayed, everybody participated and was fully engaged and we even had some good old fun some of the days when we finish up early.

Our days were long and intense - we were discussing the design of a system, but for the people there, we were really defining how their lives would be - they will use this system everyday all day once in production so this is serious stuff for them. The systems can ease their lives at times and at other times can make life hell. Some of them were gaining, some of them were loosing. But they were all engaged and ready to contribute.

Throughout these sessions I had the opportunity to meet some really great people. People from different places, different cultures and different life stages.

And I'd like to share some of the experiences I take back with me....

I will be sharing with you over the next few blogs some of the highlights of my month (Jan/14) in Brazil...

- Personal space, Physical touch and Forró
- Grandma's Stories
- Driving to Rio Claro
- Sisters vortex
- Customer Service in Brazil
- Campinas... Taquaral e muito mais!
- Meeting someone that gets it
- Swimming with an imaginary friend
- Stopping to smell the roses, and watch the stars
- The coconut, mango metaphor...

Hope you enjoy it!!! I certainly did...

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Taking a moment to reflect and say Thanks!

About 16 months ago, I decided to leave Nationwide Insurance - this company had been my home for almost 10 years - and that was one of the toughest decisions I've had to make.

I started there as an intern, during my junior year in college. I met some really wonderful people - people that taught me, welcomed me into their circles, and invested and support my career.

Throughout those 10 years, I worked in many different roles... and was fortunate to meet some really amazing people. It would be impossible to list them all, but today as I reflect over the last year, I realize and am thankful for the key influences that have built me into the professional that I am today.

Starting out as a developer I had the opportunity to learn from two of the best out there - Mr. Guy Royse and Mr. Chris Judd - I'm thankful for Guy's judgment free and patient style and for working with me on my first web service (AutoPrefill); and I'm thankful for Chris's candid and objective style, and for taking the time to help me re-engineer my first Shared Component code base (A2A) - back then I knew very little about Java development and they both made a significant impact in my life - teaching me, taking the time to listen to me and my questions and giving me the tools that I needed to find my answers.These were invaluable moments in my career that built an important foundation that supports me till today. And for that I am Thankful!!
As an architect in the SOA team, I had the pleasure and opportunity to work closely with some of the best I've met: Tiffany Meyers - a mentor, a friend and a role model for passion, drive and ability to design an elegant and cost effective solution; Hemanth Kolla, an amazing architect and technical leader that taught me the importance of designing solutions that are easily maintainable and reusable; And for that I am Thankful!!
And when I was ready to become a manager, Jenn Mayberry took a chance on me - she gave me my first manager job, and taught me that being a manager is a different thing than being a leader - and being a leader is more than just telling people what to do, is being there for them, and wearing whatever hat needed - the confidant hat, the therapist hat, the motivator hat, the protector hat, and many more. Jenn allowed me to learn, and she was there for me (and still is) every step of the way. And for that I am Thankful!!

Many others, over the 10 years at Nationwide, made a significant impact in my life. I was very fortunate to have had several mentors that help me learn about myself and learn techniques to continuously improve. I am very Thankful for the opportunities I had and the friends I met at Nationwide - and I miss them all!!
But today I can see that leaving Nationwide was the right decision for me. I needed to see more - see more of the IT industry, see more of Columbus and see more of the world. And over the past year I have had the chance to explore a lot - and I know this is just the beginning of much more to come.

I had the opportunity to work with some great people at Cardinal Solutions, including my great friend Kelly Fricky - who introduced my team (Concierge) back at Nationwide to Agile in a way I will never forget - her passion open their minds and set the tone for our transformation. And for that I am Thankful!!

At Cardinal I got to learn what it meant to be a consultant and the challenges and exciting opportunities that come with it. Met more great people at Huntington Bank, where I had the opportunity to coach Agile and lead a SOA Program - wow... two of my favorite things!!!! And for that I am Thankful!!

During my stay at Huntington, I met my buddy, friend, partner in crime, connector and voice-of-the-wise John Jolley. John has been a great friend, and has helped me see the world with different eyes - he has brought lots of other people into my life, and he continues to be a great supporter and the tough-but-fair adviser I need in my career. And for that I am Thankful!!

And of course, I'm extremely thankful for my current client engagement - I've always said I wanted to find an opportunity where I could bring my experience and skills into a role that serves as a liaison between my current home (USA) and my always-home (Brazil) - and that's exactly what I am getting to do these days!!! And for that I am Thankful!!

All throughout the years... when first starting in college, and barely speaking English... when overwhelmed with Abstract Algebra homework... when driving to downtown Columbus for the first time, on my first day of internship and getting lost .... when having to make a decision to leave a comfortable career to take a risk into the unknown... one person has always been there for me - helping me become the individual I am, teaching me about leadership with few words and lots of action, and believing in me, even when I could not believe in myself.... I'm very much thankful for my husband Travis, for being my best friend, best mentor, an exemplary leader and the funniest supporter I could ever ask for!!

The days, as they go by can seem hard and often times we forget to say thanks... I know I do. So today I went a little overboard... but I needed to, because I know I didn't get here alone. So Thank You all that have helped me, supported me, hated on me (that helps sometimes too - believe it or not) and been there for me... And thank You Lord, for my health, my family, my friends and my puppy Amigo!!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving....

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Leading a multi-country, international project... Part 1

Earlier this year I was approached about an amazing opportunity to lead a International, Multi-country Project. The project's main task is to implement Oracle ERP for an organization in South America - rolling it our to 5 countries of operations, starting with two main operations in Brazil and Chile.

If you've heard of ERP systems and this type of project, you already know some of the things I am and will continue to face like the challenges involved in clearly defining business requirements, setting realistic implementation expectations and involving employees and key users accordingly throughout the project lifecycle.

If you haven't hear much about ERP systems and this type of project, take a moment to review the following links - they will give you a quick glimpse into this world - there is soooo much more out there, so don't stop here... research on your own as well!

What is ERP?: http://tinyurl.com/8yr9k
Implementing an ERP system: http://tinyurl.com/7ea3cvt
Lessons Learned from Failed ERP Implementations: http://tinyurl.com/n94d793

In addition to the typical Project Management and ERP Implementation challenges, my current project also has an extra layer of complexity related to collaboration and communication amongst multiple countries, languages and cultures... and that is what I believe will be the biggest and most exciting challenge to overcome during this assignment.

So I thought I journal some of my encounters and experiences here in this blog.

Part 1 - Effective Communication

I've been working on this project since May, and much like any other project, Effective Communication is one of the key to continued success.

What does effective communication mean? Our beloved Wikipedia defines Effective Communication as follows: Effective communication occurs when a desired effect is the result of intentional or unintentional information sharing, which is interpreted between multiple entities and acted on in a desired way. In lamest terms: the results achieved are as expected and communicated.

It seems easy... but it is not. There are a lot of internal and external factors that could cause a communication breakdown, and prevent effective communication; including but not limited to language barriers, translation gaps, cultural preconceptions, educational background, role context, personal agendas, individual motivations, terminology gaps, nonverbal cues and others.

With all of the potential for miscommunication, being intentional and careful about what and how you communicate is absolutely necessary for managing/leading a project.

Don't get me wrong... I'm not perfect at communication - I have made and I'm sure will make future mistakes... The point however is that you must be aware of the importance of Effective Communication, and prepare yourself with tools, tactics and strategies to ensure you able to effectively communicate with your team and all involved.

The following are some (not all) of the simple tactics I've used in the past and will most likely continue to use during this project:

- Meeting Agendas & Minutes - seems silly, and for the note taker it may seem a pain in the you know where. However meeting agendas and minutes are easy communication mechanisms that will greatly help you in setting expectations upfront and alignment commitment and accountability afterwards.

The agenda needs to be simple and to the point - it should include:

a Purpose statement (The Why - the reason for having such meeting). This will help invitees understand why the meeting is taking place, and also begin to understand why they have been invited.
the Topics list - a list with all the topics that are to be discussed. I strongly recommend you describe the action expected for each topic - for example, you may have a topic that is informational (simply an update, or data sharing), you may also have a topic that is a Open Decision, not only will you discuss the topic but a decision has to be made at the end. For open decisions topics I recommend you list the question that needs answered - for example: Define frequency of Steering Committee meetings - Options: 1) Weekly, 2) Biweekly or 3) Monthly.
the Expected Outcome - I personally like to explicitly call out the expected outcome of the meeting as a separate item in the agenda, in addition to the purpose statement. The purpose statement defines why the meeting is happening, and the expected outcome identifies an action that must occur as a result of the meeting. For example: You could have a meeting with the purpose of reviewing and approving a Requirements Document; the expected outcome of that meeting would be a final Approved Requirements Document which would imply all changes identified during the meeting should be made there and then, rather than taking updates offline.

The minutes should be simple as well. I recommend you leverage a consistent template throughout your project so that people get familiarized with the format and are able to easily consume the information. My minutes template include:

Meeting organizer's name
Meeting Note taker (always assign one at the start of the meeting!!!)
Date, Time and Location of the meeting
Invitees
Attendees (not everybody will attend all of your meetings... that's just reality!)
Discussion Points (These should match your Topics List, but could include more or less. If less topics were discussed you should have a action item or note that identifies the plan for covering the remaining topics). I sometimes will include Decisions and Conclusions in this section - I have in the past broken those into its own sections - the point is that you should capture any decision made during the meeting and any conclusion reached.
Action Items - don't forget to capture the action items identified throughout the meeting. Make sure to have, as much as possible, one single owner for each action items, and an associated due date. As the meeting facilitator, you must follow up on the action items and hold people accountable for them.

- Verbal Communication Strategies - One of the things that have helped me in the best in ensuring effective communication has been the repeat it as I understand it approach. When in a meeting or conversation, where a point is being made by someone, or a question or answer is being given, where my understanding and agreement is expected, before I agree or consent, I repeat what I heard as I understood it to the person so that he/she has the opportunity to hear how I received the message. This approach helps with sorting through ambiguity and individual linguistic abilities.

I recall a recent meeting that I attended in Brazil where we were meeting with a vendor to discuss a partnership and during an entire hour I was listening to this guy talk about their Support Team and how they operated. The meeting was fully in Portuguese (which is my native language) but he often used English terms (techy jargon) to explain certain methods and practices they were utilizing, and throughout that entire hour I was certain that he was stating that they leveraged Agile... turned out that what he was saying was ITIL. Since he is Brazilian and was speaking Portuguese, when he said ITIL I heard Agile - this miscommunication came about as a result of a mix of what my brain and ears are trained to hear, my background and his accent. We sorted it out and his presentation made a lot more sense after that... But this is a common situation where repeat it as I understand it can help.

- Written Communication Strategies - If you've worked with me, you know how much I hate emails... My beloved Concierge team will vouch for that... But that is, unfortunately a necessary evil. The key is knowing how to use it. In my current project, I will need to leverage email frequently since I will need to maintain constant communication with multiple locations, in different languages and timezones. So, for all my emails, I adhere to the following guiding principles:

Always design your message!!!
Select the correct audience and don't copy everyone and their cousins on every email... Escalation should be treated with respect - if you copy too many people, or send an email to too many recipients, you may not ever get a response, as it may be unclear who the email was intended to.
Don't write a "quick" email that needs to be well-thought out.
Ask yourself, is email the best mechanism for this topic. There are certain topics that should not be discussed via email. I used to get really mad at my team when I saw 10-20-50 emails back and forth, where people were trying to troubleshoot a system problems. This type of collaboration is better accomplished via a chat-interface like sametime, google-hangouts, lync, etc.
If your topic is time-sensitive, email is probably not the best mechanism. For time-sensitive topics, I always side with a phone call. I may send an email with details, or background on the topic for future review and to leverage during the phone conversation, but never an email alone.
Structure your email effectively - people receive hundreds of email a day, so your email will be another one in the list. According to a recent survey by Harris Interactive, majority of people can only digest about 50 emails a day. As the numbers go above this threshold their attention spam and responsiveness declines. So, your email may only get about half of the attention, so your intuit, your message's goal should be the first thing people read. State it clearly and upfront so that the reader knows what is expected of them as soon as they glance at it. If you need help, state it; if you need a decision to be made, state it. The background information can come below it, as it is supporting info but not the ultimate goal.
Oh, and don't forget to get up and walk over to someone's desk when possible... sometimes that is the best communication strategy for certain topics. Of course always being respectful of their time.

As I continue on this journey, I will continue to share with you some of my experiences and lessons learned. I'd love to hear your comments, and learn from you as well... so feel free to leave me a note....

Till next time...