Case Study: Motivate

One of the more difficult challenges is to motivate team members to want to complete a project successfully. As mentioned earlier, two previous attempts to change the policies and procedures infrastructure failed because team members from the business units feared relinquishing the independence of their organization.

To motivate team members, the project manager allowed each one to develop a portion of the work breakdown structure for which they would be responsible for executing, completing, and providing status. They were allowed to identify the dependencies among tasks as well as provide time estimates. Of course, the project manager ensured that they understood that their output must fall within the parameters in the project charter.

By allowing team members to generate their own work breakdown structure (a generic one to follow had been provided), the project manager engendered a feeling among team members that the project was at least to some degree their project and that they willfully participated. In other words, the project manager took ownership and led by influence rather than by command.

Another important approach for motivating was to meet with each team member personally . One-on-one sessions were held to learn more about interests, cares, and concerns related to the project. The project manager knew that during these sessions, plans could be developed that would satisfy many of their needs and help overcome shortcomings.

Of course, the project manager had to deal with some difficult people, particularly individuals from the one business unit that had historically resisted any attempt to cooperate on previous projects. The project manager, therefore, made every attempt to build bridges, not walls, between himself and members from the "uncooperative" business unit. Some of the approaches that worked successfully to overcome resistance included assigning tasks requiring each member of the different business units to work together, holding meetings at the uncooperative business unit location, profiling the work of its members on the project, and having team members speak frequently at these sessions. The idea was to encourage more involvement, physical and psychological, to the point that the project became meaningful to everyone on the project.