International Technology Training - Europe vs.North America
Over the last 2 years I have logged over 150,000 miles of travel in 6 countries training hundreds of people in over 20 client organizations across industries as diverse as energy, finance, and agriculture and I have noticed some distinct differences between European audiences and North American audiences. There are always exceptions to the rule but for the most part, European technology implementations tend to have the following characteristics:
- Team members have more formal education
- Business processes are more complex
- Team members have higher expectations for project support functions like training and technical support
- Training is more highly valued
- Software integrations and interfaces are more complex
- Projects take longer to complete and contain more phases to achieve completion
Overall I would say that European technology projects and training are more sophisticated than in North America but that is because they have to be. Does this translate into better business performance? Not necessarily because I believe that European projects tend to overly complicate processes and technology and this costs them dearly in ROI.
On the North American side of the pond projects tend to have these characteristics: The opposite of the European list of course. The reason I suspect is that North America still (temporarily) has a less complex regulatory environment, education is less valued over practical experience, and implementations are limited in complexity (except for government projects). Unfortunately North American projects don't reap the benefits of these less complex environments because the education, training, project expectations etc.are not as high as the Europeans.The best project practice from my perspective is to replicate the education, training, and performance expectations of Europeans while valuing simplicity and practical application like a North American.
Are your experiences any different?
