{"id":21389,"date":"2018-10-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/global2020prd.wpengine.com\/insights\/project-management-skills-upgrade-mastering-matrix-virtual-and-digital-ways-of-working\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T12:55:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T12:55:27","slug":"project-management-skills-upgrade-mastering-matrix-virtual-and-digital-ways-of-working","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/project-management-skills-upgrade-mastering-matrix-virtual-and-digital-ways-of-working\/","title":{"rendered":"Project Management in the matrix"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Projects have long been how we get things done in complex organizations. But as the rate of change and the complexity of our organizations increase we need to make sure that our project management skills and way of working are fit for today\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/matrix-management-guide\/\">matrix management challenges<\/a> and ready for the future.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Projects are increasingly \u201chorizontal\u201d cutting across the traditional vertical silos of function and geography. Project managers today need to be adept at navigating matrix management and leading remote and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/a-practical-guide-to-cross-functional-team-working\/\">cross-functional project teams<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Many projects are already incorporating elements of digital transformation. The project manager of the future will be leading faster paced, multiple projects with much higher levels of technology integrated into the way we work<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Traditional project management training tends to focus on planning and organising tools and to assume a relatively simple people management environment. Navigating organizational complexity and getting the best out of people are becoming increasingly challenging for project managers. The so called \u201csoft skills\u201d are becoming the most difficult ones to develop and exercise.<\/p>\n<h2>What is different about project management in the matrix?<\/h2>\n<p>In major projects the norm is now<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>matrixed project team members with multiple bosses and from multiple functions, business units and geographies<\/li>\n<li>multiple team membership, with many project team members also working on other projects at the same time<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/virtual-team\/\">virtual collaboration<\/a>, with most collaborative effort done through technology such as conference calls rather than face-to-face with significant implications for engagement, trust and speed of response<\/li>\n<li>complex stakeholder environments more and more time been given to managing these relationships and exercising influence without authority<\/li>\n<li>increasing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/accountability-without-control-the-key-to-matrix-success\/\">accountability without control<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/influence-without-authority\/\"> influence without control<\/a> and transparency of delivery of results, whilst at the same time reducing control over the resources needed to achieve them<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In our work as specialists in inspiring and enabling people to succeed in increasingly connected virtual, matrix and digital organizations we have experienced these challenges in many organisations and the secret of success lies in upgrading and project teams to navigate this increasingly complex organizational environment.<\/p>\n<p>You can see more about how we do this in our definitive guide to matrix management.\u00a0 If you need to get started in building the skills now, please contact us direct.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Projects have long been how we get things done in complex organizations. But as the rate of change and the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":21363,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-21389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","type-blog","training-agile-and-digital","training-matrix-management","training-virtual-teams"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.6 (Yoast SEO v27.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Project Management in the matrix - Global Integration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Projects have long been how we get things done in complex organizations. But as the rate of change and the complexity of our organizations increase we\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/project-management-skills-upgrade-mastering-matrix-virtual-and-digital-ways-of-working\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Project Management in the matrix\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Projects have long been how we get things done in complex organizations. But as the rate of change and the complexity of our organizations increase we\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/project-management-skills-upgrade-mastering-matrix-virtual-and-digital-ways-of-working\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Global Integration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-10-10T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-13T12:55:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/rsz_shutterstock_300567446.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"392\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevan Hall\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevan Hall\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/project-management-skills-upgrade-mastering-matrix-virtual-and-digital-ways-of-working\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/project-management-skills-upgrade-mastering-matrix-virtual-and-digital-ways-of-working\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevan Hall\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3ad6577af9c33612e410fbcdc3ff2a9a\"},\"headline\":\"Project Management in the matrix\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-10-10T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-13T12:55:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/project-management-skills-upgrade-mastering-matrix-virtual-and-digital-ways-of-working\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":373,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/project-management-skills-upgrade-mastering-matrix-virtual-and-digital-ways-of-working\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/rsz_shutterstock_300567446.webp\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/project-management-skills-upgrade-mastering-matrix-virtual-and-digital-ways-of-working\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/project-management-skills-upgrade-mastering-matrix-virtual-and-digital-ways-of-working\\\/\",\"name\":\"Project Management in the matrix - Global Integration\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/project-management-skills-upgrade-mastering-matrix-virtual-and-digital-ways-of-working\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/project-management-skills-upgrade-mastering-matrix-virtual-and-digital-ways-of-working\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/rsz_shutterstock_300567446.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-10-10T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-13T12:55:27+00:00\",\"description\":\"Projects have long been how we get things done in complex organizations. 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