Lessons Learned - Team Planning

Lessons Learned

What you would attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?

Project Management LESSONS LEARNED
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Team Planning LL

Lessons Learned

Project Points
Our Monthly Publication for Clients,
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Lessons Learned are snips of knowledge
regarding mistakes in project development,
management, control and/or finance. They
are put forward for the benefit of Project
Executive Group subscribers.

Establishing a multifunctional team facilitates communication and coordination, and
promotes strong loyalty to the project. Such a team owns the project, focuses on customer
needs, and makes quality decisions which represent all disciplines equally. These benefits
are true at both the program and the individual project level.
A multi-functional team structure is a must in times of high uncertainty and frequent
changes, when immediate reaction and great flexibility are required.
The leadership of a large project that suffers from high uncertainty will be overburdened
and never have enough time. To reduce information overload and to move the decision
point closer to information sources, project leadership should create a decentralized
organization by dividing the project into small autonomous and independent units.
Assign people for the duration of the project. Team member continuity is vital for better
accountability and stronger commitment. Since team knowledge lies in the shared
viewpoints and experience that team members develop over an extended period, greater
continuity means better decision making and faster projects.
Building a successful team begins with the selection of its members.
A project team should first concentrate on getting to know each other and deciding on how
best to function as a team. (Teambuilding is essential here!)
Today, project teams are composed of people from different functions within the same
organization as well as those from different organizations.
Once you accept a stereotype, prejudice shapes what you see and how you act.
Initial opinions of the individuals entering the project are important in shaping its final
outcome. These initial opinions can force the project into a spiral of increasing or
decreasing trust.
If possible, don't select team members who start the project distrusting you. Build trust
incrementally by making statements of intent that express your desire to trust the other
party, followed by actions that support and comply with these statements.
Trusting relationships are conducive to full and open exchange of information within the
team. In contrast when project parties distrust each other they withhold relevant
information and distort intentions, thus adding uncertainty to the project.
Trust helps resolve conflicts before they arise. In trusting relationships, the parties can
devote their energies to making the project a winner instead of wasting their energies on
fighting each other.
Trust reduces the cost of planning and monitoring transactions between organizations.
Project success depends on successful teamwork.
It is easy to find successful solutions even to difficult problems in real teamwork, where
team members feel they are dependent on each other and hold themselves mutually
accountable for results.
Each party had a better chance of achieving its own objectives by collaborating with the
others.
A creative crisis can be very helpful in achieving fundamental changes in behavior and
attitude. Overcoming barriers to performance tends to create a team.
A competent leader knows how to make an opportunity out of a problem.
Chances are that the party that develops "whole project thinking" while working in a formal
collaborative system will maintain the same outlook even when the formal system is no
longer a constraint.
People working in multi-organizational teams tend to be involved in a broader range of
issues. They become attuned to the entire range of project activities.
Having members with diverse professional orientations and different organizational
interests and cultures can only have negative implications, and this is the reason why
projects and conflicts are always bound to be synonymous. True? No! Definitely false. In a
collaborative environment these differences may provide the crucial positive edge that
leads to innovative solutions.
Before you start solving a problem, first examine whether or not you can redefine it.
Whenever it is possible to "rewrite the story," you should expect considerable gains.
You are not expected to eliminate risk. You are expected to take the right ones.
An autonomous, aligned, mutually accountable, and enthusiastic team, in
which diversity is cherished and mutual trust is deep, can conquer worlds.
You cannot manufacture extraordinary team performance merely by designing the right
structure., selecting the right people, providing the right vision and reward, and facilitating
the right work processes. All these are very helpful, but to achieve peak team performance
you must develop rich, intimate, and emotional relationships between skilled people who
trust one another and who enjoy spending time with one another.
Working relationships seem to work best when they are more family-like and less formal.
Understanding, trust, and cooperation develop when closeness is high, communication is
informal and frequent, interpersonal context is rich, and the scope for collaboration is
unlimited.
Don't overlook the intangibles, such as team culture, language, and ritual. They help create
team identify, establish a sense of order, build team spirit, release tension, and cope with
time pressure and uncertainty.
Don't ignore space and neighborhood management. Teams must spend a lot of time
together, especially at the beginning. The chances are considerably better that geographic
proximity allows people to come to appreciate and even like each other.
If possible, select people with a sense of humor and the ability to smile. Attempt to ensure
that the team is serious about its work, but not overly so. Humor helps the team maintain
its sanity and cope with the continuous stress of project life — "laughter is the best
medicine." In successful teams, fun both sustains and is sustained by team achievements.
Teamwork helps resolve small conflicts before they escalate and enables swift response
when problems arise.
Successful leaders know that often the only way to achieve ambitious project objectives is
by challenging some of the bureaucratic rules.
Competent project leaders view the project as boundary-less. To cope better with changes
they bring outsiders (customers, contractors, suppliers) into the project. This fosters
outsiders' commitment to the project and facilitates their responsiveness to change.
Synergy is the result of complementary team skills coupled with strong and meaningful
interpersonal relationships. Such a team is more insightful and intelligent than the sum of
its individuals, and has great potential for continued collaboration learning.
Commitment to each other, coupled with commitment to the project, gives a powerful
meaning to a team.
Team members' different interpretations of the same new information may lead them to
determine different project objectives.
An undetected split in team alignment may disrupt teamwork and eventually block all
progress.
Project teams should examine periodically team alignment on project objectives.
It is the project manager's responsibility to ensure that the team is employing the right
work approach and, if necessary, to serve as their coach.
Real leaders feel committed to their team and project, even when they are about to move
to another project. They thus choose to immediately address problems that they can easily
overlook or leave for the next project manager.
A competent leader doesn't adhere blindly to the original plan; rather, based on continuous
monitoring and diagnosis of the situation, he or she adapts it — sometimes radically — to fit
the situation.
Team energy and enthusiasm cannot be mandated from on high. High levels of team
energy and enthusiasm are derived from, and sustained by, the creation of challenging
opportunities, and by expecting and enabling team members to work at the peak of their
capabilities.
Ensure that team members are constantly aware of the meaningfulness of their effort.
Explain why and for whom the project is carried out, and emphasize its significant
contribution to the company or to society.
Dedicated teamwork does not require the ultimate sublimation of the of the individual. On
the contrary, as a leader you should empower team members to be constantly at their
peak by giving them the necessary discretion and autonomy to make things happen.
Power is an expandable pie. Sharing power and responsibility results in more committed
and accountable team members. Project leaders who delegate power gain more power in
return.
If you are having fun, you aren't working. Right? No! That is absolutely wrong. Look
for the many natural opportunities to celebrate team
accomplishments and hard effort. Use these events to give team members the high
visibility and special recognition they have earned.
Genuine leaders manage by personal example. They understand the power of their most
inconsequential actions and are not afraid to be water-carriers for their people.
Inspirational leaders have a transforming effect on themselves and their followers. They
raise both to higher levels of human conduct. Through their planning, implementation, and
showing the way, leaders help team members change their conception of expanding tasks
and get them to believe they "should, and can, do it."
Successful projects are managed by excellent teams that are led by real leaders.
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