Creating a Team

You can t approach creating a team the way you would baking a cake or completing a paint-by-the- numbers picture. As you will be dealing with multiple individuals, you ll discover their personalities, their ambitions, and their motivations. Being a project manager is as much about being a leader as it is managing tasks , deadlines, and resources.

You will, through experience, learn how to recognize the leaders within the team. You ll have to look for the members who are willing to go the extra mile, who do what it takes to do a job right, and who are willing to help others excel. These attributes signal the type of members you want on your team. The easiest way to create teams with this type of worker? Set the example yourself.

Imagine yourself as a team member on your project. How would you like the project manager to act? Or call upon your own experience: what have previous project managers taught you by their actions? By setting the example of how your team should work, you re following ageless advice: leading by doing.

Defining Project Manager Power

Project managers have responsibility. And with that responsibility comes power. When it comes to the project team you are seen as someone with some degree of power. Get used to it, but don t let it go to your head. While the project manager must have a degree of power to get the project work done, the extent of your power is also likely relevant to the organizational structure you re working in. For example, recall that a functional organization gives the power to the functional manager and the project manager may be known as just a project coordinator .

A project manager does, however, wield a certain amount of power in most organizations. The project team can see this power, correctly or incorrectly, based on their relationship with you. Their perception of your power ”and how you use your project management powers ”will influence the project team and how they accomplish their project work. The five types of project manager powers are

• Expert The project manager s authority comes from having experience with the technology the project focuses on.

• Reward/penalty The project manager has the authority to give something of value to team members, or to withhold something of value.

• Formal The project manager has been assigned by senior management and is in charge of the project. This is also known as positional power.

• Coercive The project manager has the authority to discipline the project team members. This is also known as penalty power. When the team is afraid of the project manager, it s coercive.

• Referent The project team personally knows the project manager. Referent can also mean the project manager refers to the person who assigned him the position; for example, The CEO assigned me to this position so we ll do it this way. This power can also mean the project team wants to work on the project, or with the project manager, due to the high priority status and impact of the project.

Hello! My Name Is

If your team works together on a regular basis, then chances are the team has already established camaraderie. The spirit of teamwork is not something that can be born overnight ”or even in a matter of days. Camaraderie is created from experiences of the teammates. A successful installation of software, or even a failed one, creates a sense of unity among the team.

It s mandatory on just about any project that team members work together. Here s where things get tricky. Among those team members, you ve got ambition , jealousies, secret agendas , uncertainties, and anxiety pooling in and seeping through the workers of your project. One of your first goals will be to establish some order in the team and change the members focus to the end result of the project. Figure 6-3 illustrates the detrimental effect personal ambitions have on the success of a project.

Figure 6-3: Personal ambitions must be put aside for the success of the project.

By motivating your team to focus on the project deliverables, you can, like a magician, misdirect their attention from their own agendas to the project s success. You can spark the creation of a true team by demonstrating how the members are all in this together. How can you do this? How can you motivate your team and change the focus from self-centric to project-centric? Here are some methods :

• Show the team members what s in it for them. Remember the WIIFM principle ” What s In It For Me. Show your team members what they personally have to reap from the project. You may do this by telling them about monetary bonuses they ll receive. Maybe your team will get extra vacation days or promotions. At the very least, they ll be rewarded with adding this project to their list of accomplishments. Who knows? You ll have to find some way for this project to be personal for each team member.

• Show the team what this project means to the company. By demonstrating the impact that this implementation has for the entire company, you can position the importance of the success (or failure) of the project squarely on the team s shoulders. This method gives the team a sense of ownership and a sense of responsibility.

• Show the team why this is exciting. IT project managers sometime lose the sense of excitement wrapped up in technology. Show your team why this project is cool, exciting, and fun, and the implementation will hardly be like work. Remember, IT pros typically love technology ”so let them have some fun! It is okay to have a good time and enjoy your work.

• Show the team members their importance. Teams need to know that their work is valued and appreciated. You can t fake this stuff. Develop a sense of caring, a sense of pride , and tell your team members when they do a good job. Don t let them feel like they are as valued as the slave labor used to build the Egyptian pyramids . Let them own the technology, use the technology, and be proud of their work.

Where Do You Live?

In today s world, it s typical of a single project to span the globe. No doubt it s difficult for team members to feel like they are part of the same team when they re in London and their counterpart is in Phoenix. Ideally, collocated teams communicate better, work together better, and have a sense of ownership. Reality, however, proves that noncollocated teams exist in many organizations, and the project manager must take extra measures to ensure the project succeeds, regardless of the geographical boundaries. When dealing with noncollocated teams, your team will likely be built around subteams. A subteam is simply a squadron of team members unique to one task within the project or within each geographical area.

For example, as depicted in Figure 6-4, a company is implementing Oracle servers throughout its enterprise. The company has 12 locations throughout the world. Some of the same tasks that need to be accomplished in Madison, Wisconsin, will also need to be performed in Paris, France.

Figure 6-4: Subteams are crucial to large implementations .

Rather than having one team consisting of six members fly around the globe, the project manager implements 12 subteams. In this example, each subteam has six members. Of the six members, one is the team leader for that location. All of the team leaders report to the project manager, the 73rd member of the team. The team members in each location report to their immediate team leader. Implementation of the Oracle servers at each location will follow a standard procedure for the installation and configuration. The path to success should be the same at each location regardless of geography.

Certainly not all projects will map out this smoothly. Some sites may not have the technical know-how of others, and travel will be required. In other instances, some sites will require more configuration than others, or an increase in security, and other variances. The lesson to be learned is that when teams are dispersed, a chain of command must be established to create uniformity and smooth implementation. The phrase out of sight, out of mind often proves true when dealing with dispersed project teams.

Finally, when working with multiple subteams, communication is paramount. Team leaders and the project manager should have regularly scheduled meetings either in person or through teleconferences or videoconferences. In addition, team leaders should have the ability to contact other team members around the globe.

In some instances, team members from different teams will need to work together as well. For example, the communication between two servers has to be configured. The teammates responsible for this step of the configuration will need to coordinate their configurations and installation with the teammates who have identical responsibilities in other locations.

Building Relationships

When an individual joins your team, you and the individual have a relationship: project manager to team member. Immediately the team member knows his role in the project as a team member, and you know your role in relation to the team member as the project manager.

What may not be known, however, is the relationships between team members. You may need to give some introduction of each team member and explain why that person is on the team and what responsibilities that person has. Don t let your team members just figure things out for themselves . In a large project, it would be ideal to have a directory of the team members, their contact information, and their arsenal of talents made available to the whole team.

On all projects, your team will have to work together very quickly. It s not a bad idea to bring the team together in some type of activity away from the workplace. Examples of team building exercises:

• A bowling excursion

• A hike and overnight stay in the wilds

• A weekend resort meeting to learn about each other and discuss the project

• A trip to your local pool hall for an impromptu round of team pool

Team Building Exercises Work

Don t discount out-of-the-office team-building exercises. Professional team building exercises are available around the globe:

• Rhythm Journey (www.africanpercussion.com) Led by Paulo Mattioli, these team-building programs help teams find and thrive on their synergy.

• Project Adventure, Inc. (www.adventureinbusiness.com) This company creates exciting staff development programs specifically for your organization.

• Outdoor Adventure River Specialists (www.oars.com) Get out of the conference room and onto the river where you will become a team.

• ETD Alliance (www.etdalliance.com) This web site provides more information on experiential training and development. An excellent starting point for locating team-building activities for your company.