The World Is Flat: Project Collaboration In A Global Society

From Indonesia To Indiana, Collaboration Is A Must

In his 2005 book “The World Is Flat,” economist Thomas L. Friedman described the forces of economic globalization that had changed how people interact and, most markedly, how we do business in the modern world. And, while it was true that our global relationships had changed in enormous ways in the last several decades, Friedman could not have predicted the types of changes that would follow in the subsequent 15 years. In today’s highly connected and collaborative society, the world isn’t just flat – we all seem to have crowded into the same neighborhood.

Flat World Forces

How did we arrive in today’s “hot, flat, and crowded” world with its penchant for constant collaboration across boundaries? In “The World Is Flat,” Friedman identified ten key social, technological, and strategic changes, ranging from the fall of the Berlin Wall back in 1989 to the Netscape IPO in 1995 and, moving forward, workflow software, offshoring labor, supply chain development, and insourcing. In their initial forms, however, most of these innovations centered on big picture collaboration – what could happen over weeks and months. Still, each of these shifts led to today’s emphasis on real-time connection.

The Rise of Project Management

In order to support both long-term projects and in the moment collaboration, businesses have seen the rise of a specialized field: project management. Project managers work in industries as diverse as construction, film, and finance, but what unites them is their ability to support staff and organize tasks efficiently using new project management platforms. And, because they house so many specialized capabilities, it’s more important than ever that organizations use the right project management software for the job. The question is, how do you choose among them?

Break It Down

At the most basic level, businesses use project management programs to map workflows, create checklists and track project milestones, and ensure that everyone is sticking to the established timeline, but just about any project management program can ace those tasks. For real-time collaboration, however, you’ll need something more.

A collaborative project management platform is much more than the sum of its parts. By bringing together centralized file management and secure transfers, automation, and constant communication, these programs allow team members to jointly contribute to a task, whether simultaneously or asynchronously, by sharing knowledge, applying in-platform tools, and seamlessly tagging in other departments as needed. And because such programs are based in the cloud, they can create close teams from people who have never met, like an engineer in Mumbai and a graphic designer in Manhattan.

People-Centered Programs

Project management software has changed the collaboration game, but one thing leading project managers have pointed to throughout this process is that, at the end of the day, project management is about people, not tasks, and this is what sets collaborative platforms apart from the rest. Anyone can complete tasks on a checklist in isolation, without the input and innovation that come from the intermingling of specialties and experiences, but that approach leads to sub-par outcomes. On the other hand, when team members feel united in their work, regardless of location, they become excited about sharing insights and brainstorming better pathways.

If it was only about technology, there would be no need to describe the world as flat. After all, technology, sans human “touch” isn’t concerned with barriers. No, a flat world allows for actual human connection, a sense that we’re all actively exchanging ideas and relationships, and that’s the power of project management. It creates community from the ether, bringing everyone into the same digital room and enabling connection beyond the cold touch of e-commerce.