MOTIVATE THE PROJECT TEAM

Although it is important to ensure that your project team has the right set of skills to enable it to deliver the project on time, it is often not this that lets it down. Instead it is a lack of motivation to use the skills that it has that is the issue. Generally it is better to have someone who is highly motivated with average skills than someone who has brilliant skills but doesn't really care. Although there are always exceptions to this rule, you as project manager need to think in broad terms about the people in the project. Most of them will conform to this general categorization method. Highly motivated is when they will be the most effective. There are two ways that work well when motivating teams and their members : 1) motivating the team by incentives; 2) motivating the team by delegation.

Motivating the team by incentives

This is perhaps the most obvious way to motivate your project team and in some respects it is still one of the best ways of motivating the team. Incentives can take many forms, for example movie tickets or cash, and they can be given in public or in private. They can also be very immediate in their impact since they can be given immediately something good has happened .

Incentive giving can be driven by a formal scheme or by an ad hoc scheme. Normally a formal scheme will set out objectives that need to be met in order to receive a specific reward. These incentive schemes are sometimes termed ˜performance management' or ˜bonus schemes'. Many organizations however only operate these schemes for their more senior managers and as a result a separate scheme is required within a project.

Often the best schemes achieve the motivation of team members by spontaneous thanks for completing a task successfully. This is the ad hoc-based approach. Some project managers are wary of this approach because they fear alienating members of the team who do not receive rewards. But you should not let this fear stop you from adopting an ad hoc approach. Providing there is some discussion and the reward is not substantial then any difficulties arising are likely to be small.

Deciding on the incentives to be given to the project team can prove to be a fun activity. It is always enjoyable to think about ways of making others happy and excited. One of the most effective types of reward is the use of project merchandise. This helps to create a project identity and reminds receivers that they got the reward for working on a specific project. It also helps to build team spirit. It makes the team member feel part of a group, the group that's delivering the project.

Developing a project merchandise list can be turned into a team-building exercise. This is achieved by using a four-step approach:

• Step 1

  Gather together the work package managers and any other key project team members. Explain to them that the purpose of the meeting is to have some fun but the result will help the project deliver more successfully. You should describe to the participants the idea of the ad hoc incentive scheme and tell them that you want them to come up with a list of ad hoc rewards.

• Step 2

  Run a brainstorm session using the technique described previously. Encourage those present to draw up a list of ideas for project merchandise. As before, give everyone their own pad of paper. Let them write down ideas for up to 10 minutes before pinning the lists up on the wall. Give permission to those present to let their imagination run wild. Tell them that you will be disappointed if there is not the odd helicopter and private jet alongside the more down-to-earth pens and keyrings.

• Step 3

  After the meeting, develop the list of ideas and subsequently produce a first-draft merchandise list. Remove from this list items that are clearly unrealistic , for example the helicopter.

• Step 4

  Create a final list with pricing against each item. A typical list might be similar to the one shown in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1: Merchandise cost table

Item	Unit cost	Number of units	Total cost
Plastic pens	& pound ;0.10	3	0.30
Metal pens	1.00	5	5.00
Business card holder	3.00	10	30.00
T-shirt	10.00	15	150.00
Jacket	40.00	12	480.00
Total			665.30

Once the list has been completed and the price of each item worked out, a project incentive scheme budget needs to be developed. The budget should simply set out an estimate of the quantity of each item required and the total overall cost. Once you have the budget prepared you should seek to get it approved. Getting approval for it however can often prove to be difficult. Often organizations don't understand the benefit of spending funds on project merchandise. People within the organization view spending on merchandise as frivolous and a waste of precious funds. This view must be expected and you should have robust arguments ready. There are two obvious benefits.

The first benefit is a sense of belonging . People like to belong to something. They particularly like this when there are other people involved. For project team members it is very motivating to be sitting in a canteen (or similar) and see someone they don't know wearing a project T-shirt (or using a project pen). It confirms to them that people value the work they are involved in and that others want to be part of it.

The second benefit is publicity for the project. Publicity is like oxygen to an advanced project: it needs it to survive. This may seem melodramatic but in most cases it stands up to analysis. Advanced projects normally involve undertaking work that affects people's lives. For example, imagine building a new road without any discussion with the residents whose life will be affected. Or imagine designing a new air traffic control system without involving the air traffic controllers. The people affected need to be identified and informed. Unfortunately, it will not be possible to identify easily all those affected and so publicity is required. The publicity helps to reduce the risk that people affected by the project's outcome don't know of the project. Publicity helps to ensure that as many people as possible are reached.

If these arguments fail, you might consider trying to put through a smaller amount for the project budget. Try to build the budget up as the project progresses. This approach can work well since the amounts involved will often be dwarfed by the main project budget. This makes those in charge of the budget less likely to question the budget line item.

Motivating the team by delegation

Despite the obvious motivational aspects of incentives they are not sufficient to ensure that the project team is inspired. Building a team needs to go beyond mugs and pens to be inspirational. It needs you to empower people so that they feel they are adding value and not simply doing what they are told. To achieve this you must put in place a clearly defined delegation structure.

Delegation can be defined as the ability to let go without losing control. If achieved successfully, team members will feel valued and trusted. However, delegating authority and responsibility can prove to be a difficult task if you are an inexperienced project manager. To be successful, delegation requires you to have faith and belief in your project team. If you want to be successful it is a skill that you need to learn. It is not possible for you to know what all of the people in the project are doing. You must delegate authority to act or you will drown in a sea of tasks over which you will quickly lose control and perspective.

It is worth remembering that you have already started the delegation process with the creation of the work packages and so you should already have some experience of what to expect from your team. If the experience is good so far then go quickly and if not then go slowly with delegation.

The work packages have boundaries that outline what a work package manager can and cannot do. This initial delegation needs to be continued and it should be cascaded throughout the project. You should ask the work package managers to follow your lead and split their authority and control into manageable groups of work. The work package managers should then be encouraged to delegate authority for these groups of work to their team members. To encourage consistency in approach across the project it is useful for all the work package managers to use a standard in-house form. If the organization does not have such a form then one similar to the one in Figure 4.2 should be created and used.

Figure 4.2: Team member task agreement form

The form itself does not guarantee successful delegation of a task or a group of tasks. This is achieved through the skill of the work package manager in the delegation process. It is likely that all of the work package managers will believe that they are expert at delegating tasks. However, it is unlikely that they will all be at the same standard and so it is helpful to provide a short refresher course for them. Holding a short course, perhaps one hour in duration, will ensure that the work package managers have the opportunity to remind one another of best practice. The course will also ensure that a consistent approach will be used across the project.

Your organization may already have an in-house delegation teaching course that you could consider using. However, you should remember that, although these are normally well written and in some cases effective, they are probably not useful for the audience intended by you. These courses tend to be one or two days in duration and they are often aimed at junior people in the organization. The objective of your course is to remind the participants about good delegation practices, not to teach them it. If a short course exists that will achieve this then you should consider it. However, often it will be simpler and quicker for you to set up a course yourself.

The course should take the form of a discussion meeting and from the outset you should be careful to explain that the purpose of the course is to gain from one another's experience about delegation. You should be vocal in expressing that the purpose is not to teach delegation methods but instead to gain knowledge from managers who are already experienced in delegation. At the meeting you should make a short presentation on delegation and how to achieve it effectively. The presentation should be followed by a discussion amongst the work package managers. There are four key thoughts that you should ensure are discussed by the meeting participants:

• Thought one

  The first action the work package manager should take is to set up a meeting to delegate authority for a task formally . At the meeting the work package manager should produce the delegation form and should discuss it in detail with the team member. Initially the discussion should centre on the content and purpose of the form rather than the content of the task to be delegated. Work package managers should remember that the form is probably a new concept to many of the team members and as such it is worth while spending time reviewing its contents. Ideally prior to the meeting the work package manager should tell the team member that he or she wants to hold a delegation meeting and should give the team member some idea of what he or she wants to discuss. This gives the team member time to think about the task and about the delegation process prior to the meeting. Once the work package manager is confident the team member understands the form, the manager should discuss the task to be delegated.

• Thought two

  Before the meeting the work package manager should set aside time to consider the ability of the team member to whom the task or task group is being delegated. Although some of the skills will be task-specific many of them will be part of a general skill set. When considering the skills required, the work package manager should remember that the objective is to identify where the team member's skills are weak and therefore where it is likely that support will be needed. By doing this the work package manager will be reducing the risk in the work package.

• Thought three

  Once the form is complete the work package manager and the team member should set it aside for a few days before meeting again to review the completed form. Both the team member and the work package manager should be clear at this second meeting about their expectations surrounding the task and its likely outcome. It is important that the team member leaves the meeting feeling supported in his or her work. The work package manager should avoid the team member feeling criticized.

• Thought four

  Many work package managers will view filling out any form with suspicion. They often don't understand the benefits. They believe that it is the start of a paperwork mountain that they will have to climb and that that mountain will slow everything down. It is important that you deal effectively with this issue. The reasons for using a form are:

  • Forms provide a simple reminder to the experienced work package manager and a useful tool to the inexperienced work package manager. They help to ensure that all of the key points are discussed with the team member.

  • Forms provide a record that can be returned to periodically to ensure that tasks delegated are being completed effectively.

  • Forms ensure that a consistent approach is used for delegation of tasks within the project. This provides two benefits. Firstly, a team member's perception is enhanced because he or she sees a consistent and professional approach. This is particularly important with more junior team members. Secondly, it reduces the learning curve should there be a change in work package manager or team member since they will already be familiar with the format of the form.

At the end of the meeting the work package manager and the team member should have agreed the delegated tasks and the parameters accompanying those tasks. They should also have agreed any support they need to ensure that they can undertake their work successfully.

Where possible the forms should be stored in a central computer system that allows easy access from any computer. This enables people working on other tasks to view the delegation sheet and understand more clearly who is doing what. This can be particularly powerful when used in conjunction with the project organization chart.