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project management > building and developing a project team > Flashcards

building and developing a project team Flashcards

1
Q

what is a team?

A

small number of mutually-accountable people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, common performance goals, and a common approach

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2
Q

what are some key properties of teams?

A
  • team personnel typically change over time, although some members will serve throughout the life of the project, i.e. teams are dynamic: they evolve
  • project teams can be either internally based (from a single organisation) or internally/externally based (across several organisations)
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3
Q

what does building a team entail?

A
  • is a two way process: you need to manage your team but they also need to want to be managed, i.e. both parties must actually want to do their jobs
  • your approach should suit your skills, attitude, and abilities
  • no single method works best, while the method of one will likely not work for others
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4
Q

what are some constraints in team building?

A
  • making a profit/delivering the project will override the motivation, enthusiasm and development of the team, i.e. accountant and project management mentality will always win the day
  • lack of development and loss of enthusiasm leads to malaise, which in turn leads to people leaving the team/organization
  • high staff turnover is a good indicator of (poor) team and organizational performance
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5
Q

what are the conditions for building a good team?

A
  • team must have a clear idea of its mission
  • avoid employing contractors / consultants
  • do your own business development
  • keep accountants and their mentality in their place
  • seek an intelligent client who is as keen to build relationships as you are
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6
Q

why is it recommended to avoid hiring contractors or consultants?

A

developing their skills instead of yours

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7
Q

why should you do your own business development?

A
  • lose control over the type of work you do
  • lose sight of the team mission
  • cannot think long-term strategy as you are too busy surviving
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8
Q

why is it recommended to keep accountants in their place?

A

too motivated by the finances, can lose focus on the actual team mission

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9
Q

what behaviours should you exhibit when working as part of a team?

A
  • allow your team to engage with you and find out ‘what makes them tick
  • be consistent with team members
  • give good and bad feedback to nurture development
  • create a culture that makes them think the team is theirs
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10
Q

how should you prepare to build a team

A
  • avoid conflict by understanding the role of the owner/sponsor
  • clarify objectives
  • develop a good work process
  • form the team when there is a good chance the project will go ahead
  • sponsors need to get involved rather than abdicating responsibility to the contractor as this helps to avoid an ‘us and them’ attitude
  • critical to identify people with the ‘right’ skill sets for the team: skills can be personal or technical
  • need continuity (learner) to avoid repeating previous mistakes
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11
Q

what is the 7 stage team development?

A
  1. understanding they key characteristics of a team
  2. identify key resources
  3. know competencies of team members
  4. understand personalities of team members
  5. negotiate with HR
  6. development and growth
  7. what influences team dynamics?
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12
Q

from the 7 stage team development model, what are the key characteristics of a team?

A
  • clear sense of mission
  • celebrate success
  • common goals/co-operative focus
  • empowered and cohesive
  • structured (clear boundaries between roles)
  • high spirit and energy (enthusiasm)
  • interdependency
  • open communication
  • diversified
  • results-oriented
  • trust
  • highly skilled/competent
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13
Q

from the 7 stage team development model, what key resources must we identify?

A
  • should not be left to the HR department
  • project manager should actively find people to lessen the risk of having problem employees dumped on the project
  • PM needs to build a strong team based on people’s: problem-solving ability, availability, technological expertise, credibility, political connections, ambition, initiative, and energy
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14
Q

from the 7 stage team development model, why must we understand the competencies of the members?

A
  • increase chances of choosing a team that has the potential to succeed
  • competencies are based on the individual and their capability rather than on the job and its associated tasks
  • key resources are able to build and maintain interpersonal relationships and communicate effectively and are able to respond flexibly
  • decision makers can reduce the risk of selecting the wrong resource by identifying the areas of competence for the actual job or role descriptions
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15
Q

from the 7 stage team development model, why must we understand the personalities of the members?

A

indicate how individuals react with people and so can help to avoid conflicts

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16
Q

from the 7 stage team development model, why must we negotiate with HR?

A

understanding business challenges facing senior management makes it possible to negotiate for resources that will provide the best fit, it is important to solve senior management’s problems as well as your own

17
Q

from the 7 stage team development model, how can we develop and grow the team?

A
  • aligning individual goals to help achieve a common goal
  • managers should not assume that the goals of team individuals will match those of the organization
  • growth can be evolutionary (develops over time) or revolutionary (at least one major transformation based on changing the plan, sense of urgency to finish, new customer constraints etc.)
18
Q

from the 7 stage team development model, what influences team dynamics?

A

there are environmental and behavioural factors
* environmental = team composition, team demographics, temporal orientation
* behavioural = mental toughness, cohesion, motivation

19
Q

what is the difference between evolutionary and revolutionary growth?

A
  • evolutionary = slowly develops over time, less risky
  • revolutionary = happens quickly following a major transformation in the plan, higher risk
20
Q

what is the 5-stage development model?

A
  1. forming
  2. storming
  3. norming
  4. performing
  5. adjourning
21
Q

what happens during ‘forming’

A
  • team members come together
  • there is a sense of anticipation and commitment, motivation is high
  • must be done quickly as projects are subject to time constraints
  • will probably be done at several stages in project life cycle as team might change from one stage to next
22
Q

what happens during ‘storming’

A
  • as team begins to work together they find they have differences about best way of achieving project’s objectives and/or differences about its overall aims
  • people have different approaches to working on projects that can cause argument and conflict in the team; this can cause team motivation and effectiveness to fall
23
Q

what happens during ‘norming’

A
  • team members begin to reach agreement on issues through negotiation, compromise, and finding areas of commonality
  • team begins to develop a sense of identity and a set of norms/values
  • team effectiveness and motivation begin to increase towards the plateau
24
Q

what happens during ‘performing’

A
  • team works together effectively for duration of project
  • manager must maintain plateau of performance to prevent complacency and a fall in performance
25
Q

what happens during ‘adjourning’

A
  • team reaches end of task at which point members make a concerted effort to complete the task or team performance falls as members realize the team will soon disband
  • manager must ensure the former happens
26
Q

what are some challenges and problems wth building and developing teams?

A
  • lack of perceived team identity
  • ineffective cohesion
  • misaligned learning styles
  • misunderstanding of success
  • lack of mental toughness
  • lack of motivation
27
Q

why is it so important for team identity?

A

identity is critical to team formation as without it the people remain a collection of random individuals

28
Q

how can we improve motivation?

A
  • purpose - believe in the importance of our work
  • proactivity - emphasise achievement of results
  • profit sharing - share reward for completing problems
  • progression - projects are opportunities to learn new skills
  • professional recognition - increases self-achievement and self-esteem
29
Q

why can conflict also be positive?

A

healthy tension can improve performance and innovation

30
Q

how can we manage conflict?

A
  • mediate = negotiate
  • arbitrate = impose
  • control = smooth over differences
  • accept = live with it
  • eliminate = remove members
31
Q

what should effective team leaders do?

A
  • share information
  • trust others
  • be patient
  • know when to intervene to help the team (and to manage conflict)
  • look for means to exploit the capabilities of team members
  • with a view to improving their performance, create a supportive climate that encourages the improvement of performance
  • influence members to change their behaviour by encouraging them to continually improve their performance
  • empower team members to make decisions
32
Q

what is the ‘reality’ of team-building?

A
  • rather than building our own teams from scratch, team members are often simply ‘thrown together’
  • time pressures
  • lack of people with relevant/required skills on the market
  • people are needed on other (more important/higher priority) projects
  • lack of employee development opportunities by organisations/team leaders
  • ‘getting the job done’ is more important than developing the team
  • unwillingness of employers to pay right money/offer right incentives
  • people typically move jobs far more regularly now than at any other time in history and so it is difficult to form a cohesive team – it is often difficult to remove dissenters from the team

project management (5 decks)

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