About This Book

Volume 3: Managing the Project Team

Teams outperform individuals or a group of individuals in an organization, especially when high performance requires multiple skills, judgments, and experiences. As a result, the terms “team” and “teamwork” are frequently heard and are acknowledged as important by everyone. Most people believe that they understand the advantages of teams and how teams work. Organizations emphasize the importance of teamwork and team building. Yet people can work in the same department for many years, serve on task forces and committees, meet in management groups regularly, and still not be a part of a team.

For a team to function effectively, team members must be flexible, supportive, and committed to meeting team goals. There are countless books on this topic but very few that focus on managing teams in a project environment.

I initially believed that my experience, plus the existing body of research knowledge, would provide me with most of the information for this book. I was wrong. I expected to find the answers in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge but could not find sufficient depth on the dynamics of project teams or managing the project team. In order to develop practical ideas and concepts about building and developing effective project teams, I spoke to hundreds of people in several organizations. As expected, I found a lot of common sense in what makes project teams perform. However, I also kept running into “uncommon sense” that made a difference in project team performance.

Tough global competition has created an acute need for culturally diverse, fast, flexible, and competitive operations. Cultural diversity is a fact of life in managing joint ventures and international projects. It influences team dynamics and techniques for building, developing and inspiring project teams for high performance. Through this book, I have tried to highlight for the readers the important findings on this topic. I present some practical guidelines to manage project teams effectively by outlining the team dynamics and cultural diversity and then cover the steps of building, developing, empowering and inspiring teams to turn ordinary people and performance into extraordinary people and performance.

Projects, by their nature, are composed of unique, uncertain and nonrepetitive sets of activities; hence they initiate and involve change. Changes in a project environment are inevitable and may happen at any time during the project life cycle. However, these being hard to anticipate, they often cause considerable stress to the project manager and project team members. Change can be managed more effectively and efficiently through teamwork because it encourages people to collaborate and work interdependently. This discourages the tendency to resist changes and challenges team members to find innovative solutions and creative approaches. Teams are critical to managing the major changes in skills, values, and behaviors essential to a high performing organization.

Today, most projects require a diverse mix of individuals who must be integrated into an effective unit—a project team. It's important to understand the difference between a group and a team and how their dynamics impact the overall performance. It's easy to gather a number of individuals together in a group. However, it requires special skills, attitude and commitment to shape those individuals into an effective team.

Project teams are very similar to sport teams in terms of human dynamics. Like team coaches, project managers should understand team dynamics and foster human synergy by effective team building. They must recognize the critical significance of the effective project team and the role of team building activities in facilitating project management performance.

The working relationship among members of the project team can affect not only their productivity but also team performance in relation to other stakeholders. Therefore, team building is essential for managing a project and developing effective project teams is one of the prime responsibilities of the project manager. Team building involves a whole spectrum of management skills required to identify, commit and integrate a group into a multidisciplinary, highly cohesive project team. While belonging to a really successful project team is very satisfactory, it is also rewarding for the project manager to use his or her qualities and skills to create such a team.

The success of project teams depends upon the ability of their team leaders in effectively managing and influencing the diverse mix of personnel. Because of the multidisciplinary, interdependent nature of project teams, project managers must learn team building skills in order to integrate the efforts of all project participants. They must understand the dynamics and the process of team development. They must create an environment where all team members are personally and professionally satisfied, are involved and have mutual trust. They must be able to create a clear compelling vision toward which team members work together with unity of purpose. They must build commitment for the vision through motivating, communicating effectively, and encouraging genuine participation in decisionmaking.

Management of both domestic and international projects requires effective planning, organizing, and controlling. However, management of international projects poses additional team building challenges especially in terms of communication, negotiation and human relations as a result of diverse cultural backgrounds of the project participants. Consequently, project managers must develop skills for operating in a multicultural environment and foster synergy within their project teams.

This book focuses on practical ideas that can help project managers to identify, build, maintain, motivate, inspire, and lead project teams to produce high team performance and meet project objectives. It deals with the challenges of managing change and various issues associated with team building in the project environment. The drivers and barriers to high team performance are identified along with some suggestions and remedial actions to minimize the negative impact of barriers. This book also covers the development of effective project teams through motivation, effective decision-making and problem solving. The concept of empowerment and Self-Managed Project Teams (SMPTs) are described along with practical guidelines for creating, maintaining and leading SMPTs to enhance project success. Some practical concepts and ideas to inspire teams for continuous high performance by using open communication, managing conflicts in a constructive manner, building trust, managing the team morale, and providing effective team leadership, are presented in this book. It is organized around important issues and guidelines for managing project teams that project managers must learn and practice to manage projects effectively in the 21st century.

Topics have been organized in such a way that readers can easily find their particular areas of interest. No previous knowledge of team management and organizational behavior is required, but a keen interest in project management will be useful to thoroughly understand and apply the concepts presented. Each chapter deals with important aspects of managing teams in a project environment and outlines practical guidelines to help apply those techniques successfully. The concepts and ideas are illustrated by figures and the main points are highlighted by bullets.

Who Should Read This Book? Projects are accomplished by people with a diverse mix of skills, expertise, and cultural backgrounds, who must be integrated into an effective project team. The survival and growth of business organizations in the 21st century will depend upon their abilities to manage projects successfully. Effective teamwork is the key to successful project management.

Because it emphasizes the importance of team building in meeting project objectives and deals with skills and techniques for managing the project team and inspiring high team performance, this book should help anyone, from project management academics and practitioners to a novice in the field. It will help project management professionals learn the human skills needed to create a team environment that effectively integrates the efforts of all stakeholders and achieves human synergy. It will help top management, project managers, project team members, major project stakeholders, and all other project participants (functional managers, support personnel, etc.) increase their effectiveness in meeting project objectives by working together. Project management educators and academics can use this book to develop a short course, seminar, or training workshop on team building and managing the project team to achieve high performance.

The ideas presented here apply to projects in any industry, such as conventional construction, utilities, transportation, defense, manufacturing, petrochemical, service industries, systems development, computer and communications, pharmaceutical, education, research and development, high-tech, financial, hospitality, and the arts.

Learning Objectives After reading this book and relevant reference materials, the readers should have an understanding of:

• Managing organizational changes and changes to the project process through teamwork

• The difference between a group and a team and characteristics of an integrated project team

• Stages of team development

• Team dynamics involving team context, team structure, team processes and team effectiveness

• Challenges of managing culturally diverse project teams; critical dimensions of culture

• Process, benefits and outcomes of team building

• Drivers and barriers to effective team building and how to eliminate or minimize barriers

• Organizing the project team by setting project goals and creating a conducive organizational climate

• Assembling the project team by selecting the right team members, clarifying roles and responsibilities and obtaining their commitment by using skill and responsibility matrix

• Managing communication challenges in a team environment by creating openness, managing conflicts through effective communication, and building effective team communications

• Developing a strong team for success by coordinating team efforts and using power and authority wisely

• Pros and cons of team decision-making, four decision styles in a team environment, and guidelines for effective team decision-making

• Importance of trust, motivation and team leadership in inspiring high team performance

• How to manage team morale throughout the project life cycle

• Empowerment, building empowered teams with their benefits and problems during transition

• Creating and maintaining Self-Motivated Project Teams (SMPTs).

Through this book, I would like to share with the readers my ideas and experiences about managing projects characterized by dignity, purpose, vision and competitive advantage. I hope you will enjoy reading this book and use it for years to come as a reference for managing projects successfully through managing project teams effectively.