EU OKs Trade Talks with Ottawa – April 28, 2009 AP  

In an article from the AP news wire service, the Toronto Star reported that the EU has approved plans to negotiate a free trade deal with the Canadian government. Talks are scheduled to begin on May 6^th at the EU-Canada leaders’ summit in Prague. These talks could take up to 2 years to conclude.

The focus of the "enhanced" trade deal will be the opening up of trade in numerous areas including investment services, government procurement and agriculture goods. A study evaluating the potential benefits of freer trade between Canada and the EU estimates potential trade benefits of $18bn for the EU and $13bn for Canada.

The agreement would include the freer flow of workers between Canada and the EU and also align regulatory rules on most aspects of trade such as copyright laws, food, and animal safety rules. The EU is Canada’s 2^nd most important trading partner, after the United States, and Canada is the EU’s 11^th most important trading partner.

As with the other news articles posted on this website, there is a reason for posting this one that relates to project managers, or at least Canadian project managers. Since we can expect at least some of the new trade to be in the technology area, Canadian project managers who find themselves at liberty will have another market to look to. The good news is that there is time to prepare for those opportunities, the bad news is that they’re not likely to appear for another 2 years.

You can put those 2 years to good use if you are a project manager who is currently on the shelf, or looking for new challenges. Of special interest to executives looking for managers to lead projects will be the project manager’s ability to communicate with geographically diverse team members. Project managers who already have experience dealing with team members remotely located in Europe or Asia will have a head start here, but those who haven’t can make up for it by familiarizing themselves with the technology which facilitates remote communication. Just remember that distance doesn’t alter communications preferences, it just makes it more challenging. Some tools and techniques that may help you prepare for your EU opportunities:

·          Audio conferences – if you haven’t had a chance to conduct a team meeting by phone, look for opportunities to do so. Although the technology is old, this is probably the single most commonly used communications tool by geographically diverse teams.

·          Audio/Video conferencing – this may prove more challenging to access since the technology is expensive compared to audio bridges. One way around this challenge is to trial and audio video product that uses your computer monitors and existing phone line.

·          Research the different European countries customs and holidays. Sensitivity to cultural differences and taking holiday schedules into account is a key requirement for good communications.

·          Study and understand time zone differences. You need to take these into account when planning your project’s work. Where time zone differences don’t allow work days to overlap (i.e. > 8 hours) you’ll need to assess the need for quick communications turnaround and devise alternatives where next day just doesn’t cut it.

·          Research the subject of communicating with diverse teams on the internet, at your local library, or by purchasing books on the subject from vendors such as Amazon.com.