How to create a successful project team

1. Project Management How to create a successful project team John Potter Plymouth Business School University of Plymouth

2. The differences between a team and a group • It’s all about performance • Urgency and skill • The kick-off and basic rules of engagement • Quick wins and continually challenge • Time and positive feedback.

3. The effective team • Goals, direction and leadership • Roles, responsibilities and skills • Climate and interpersonal skills • Methods and operating procedures • All integrated through effective communication

4. The Discipline of Teams • Common commitment and purpose • Performance goals • Complementary skills • Mutual accountability • Teams that: • Recommend • Make or do things • Run things. The Discipline of Teams Jon R Katzenback and Douglas K Smith Harvard Business Review July 2005 (revisited from 1993) The Wisdom of Teams Jon R Katzenback and Douglas K Smith Harvard Business School Press 1993

5. Understanding team roles • The plant • The Resource Investigator • The co-0rdinator • The Shaper • The Monitor Evaluator • The Teamworker • The Implementor • The Completer • The Specialist Team Roles at Work Meredith Belbin Butterworth Heinemann 1993

6. Team building blocks • Balanced roles • Clear objectives and agreed goals • Openness and confrontation issues • Support and Trust • Co-operation and conflict issues • Sound procedures • Appropriate leadership • Regular review • Individual development • Sound inter-group relations • Good communications Team Roles at Work Meredith Belbin Butterworth Heinemann 1993

7. Developing the team • Forming • Storming • Norming • Performing And • Reforming • Adjourning • Mourning

8. Building team performance • Establish a sense of urgency, demanding performance standards and direction • Select members for skill and skill potential, not personality • Pay particular attention to the initial meetings – first impressions count a great deal in terms of future success • Set clear rules of behaviour • Work towards some quick wins and indicators of success • Challenge the group regularly with new information and facts • Spend lots of time together

9. Commonsense findings about teams • A demanding performance challenge tends to create a team •  The disciplined application of “team basics” is often overlooked. •  Team performance opportunities exist in all parts of the organization •  Teams at the top are the most difficult •  Most organizations intrinsically prefer individual accountability over group accountability The Discipline of Teams Jon R Katzenback and Douglas K Smith Harvard Business Review July 2005 (revisited from 1993) The Wisdom of Teams Jon R Katzenback and Douglas K Smith Harvard Business School Press 1993

10. Uncommonsense findings about teams • Organizations with strong performance standards seem to spawn more “real teams” than organizations that promote teams per se • High performance teams are extremely rare • Hierarchy and teams go together almost as well as teams and performance • Effective teams naturally integrate performance and learning • Teams are the primary unit of performance for increasing numbers of organizations The Discipline of Teams Jon R Katzenback and Douglas K Smith Harvard Business Review July 2005 (revisited from 1993) The Wisdom of Teams Jon R Katzenback and Douglas K Smith Harvard Business School Press 1993

11. Barriers to effective teamworking • Individual members whose loyalty rests elsewhere. •  Where goals are not clarified or understood. •  Where the aims of the team are seen to be in conflict with other teams to which the members belong. • Members treat each other with suspicion and distrust. •  Ideas and contributions are devalued and “rubbished” by other members. • Members are allowed to switch off and opt out. •  Cliques form for their own protection.

12. Handling a Dysfunctional team Status and Ego Inattention To Results Avoidance of Accountability Low Standards Ambiguity Lack of Commitment Fear of conflict Artificial Harmony Invulnerability Absence of Trust The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Patrick LencioniJossey-Bass 2002 Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team Patrick LencioniJossey-Bass 2005

13. References Belbin, M. (1981) Management Teams why they Succeed or Fail. Butterworth-Heinemann: Oxford Belbin, M. (1993) Team Roles at Work. Butterworth-Heinemann: Oxford Lencioni, P (2002) The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco. Lencioni, P (2005) Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco. Katzenback, J.R, & Smith, D.K (2005) The Discipline of Teams. Harvard Business Review. Katzenback, J.R, & Smith, D.K (1993) The Wisdom of Teams . Harvard Business School Press: Boston.

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