While processes provide the structure to projects, adequately skilled and motivated people supply the means for success. Traditionally, project managers have found it easier to understand and produce tangible results by focusing on processes and tools. The human component often must be “dealt with.” But project managers who place a greater value on involving the project team in project planning and control (PP&C) of their projects will be more effective.
Incorporating team development in PP&C can enhance commitment to a project while creating understanding, energy and ownership around the project deliverables.
All for One
After selecting individuals that have a personal stake in the project, the project manager should focus on obtaining the right skills for the project and the necessary levels of resources to deliver on time. While specific team training may be warranted for some projects, teambuilding involves tailoring PP&C to take advantage of the “soft” aspects of human resource management.
Direct Team Involvement in Planning. People are more likely to commit to and support a plan that they were instrumental in developing. Team members become more informed about what the plan entails and more willing to commit to things they understand. Notwithstanding the ownership team members feel, they often have the best insight into the issues needed to develop an effective plan. Because of the complexity in today's projects, it's unrealistic to expect any one person—whether it is the project manager or the sponsor—to have sufficient insight into all of the variables that feed into the project plan.
By involving staff in planning and control, a skilled project manager can mold a group of individuals into a committed team.
Clarity About Roles and Responsibilities. Lack of clarity about roles can lead to disastrous consequences. Tasks may be neglected because no one accepted responsibility. Multiple groups may expend time and money on a given task, only to realize that another group already has been working on that deliverable. Lack of role definition also can lead to ineffectiveness as the team waits for “someone” to give the go-ahead because no one knows who has authority to make decisions.
Team Motivation. Project managers often have sought to motivate by paying well for the stress the team must endure. But paying “above the going rate” has not proven to be a long-term motivator. In fact, excessive compensation will become a maintenance or hygiene factor over time and lose its motivational influence, according to Frederick Herzberg's motivation and hygiene theory (see sidebar, “Working Hard or Hardly Working?”). Incentives for success often prove a better motivational strategy.
For example, attention to team motivation contributed to the success of a software application at a large global energy services company headquartered in the southeastern United States. The company began a financial application project at the same time the marketplace was dealing with Y2K, so Cobol programmers were at a premium. Since the project involved a four-phase release, it was important to retain the same skilled programmers throughout the initiative. However, during the project's first phase, programmers were lured away by other firms offering higher pay.
Rather than buying into the wage war, the project manager structured an incentive program that expanded training opportunities. Training was valued more than money by the programmers, since the education helped assure them longer-term marketable skills. Dollars that would have been spent on a higher labor rate were diverted to training, the company kept the majority of its programmers and the firm spent less money than if it had to raise salaries to exorbitant levels.
Team Communication Needs. One sure way to shortchange the team's development is to ignore real communication needs. A project with a poor team communication plan is doomed to suffer inefficiencies as team members do not get the word on changes, upcoming work, schedule slippages or other communications affecting their roles in the project. When project managers assume that because team members are involved with the project there is no need for additional communication, team problems are guaranteed.
Teams are more likely to remain highly motivated if they know in advance that the inevitable conflicts that arise will be dealt with in an open and cooperative manner.
The organization's PP&C approach must address how team member communication needs are identified, planned for and then delivered throughout the project's life cycle. Factors such as significant changes in project staffing through different project phases, the level of interaction between team members or the complexities added in a virtual team environment are just some of the considerations that affect decisions.
Conflict Management. Conflict that is allowed to go unmanaged can quickly “un-build” your team. The project manager must be able to recognize unhealthy conflict, identify the source and select the best resolution method.
Teams are more likely to remain highly motivated if they know in advance that the inevitable conflicts that arise will be dealt with in an open and cooperative manner. Setting expectations up front around conflict resolution provides every team member with a roadmap for tackling conflicts.
Associated Risks. As with all other aspects of project planning, team development has its associated risks. The organization's PP&C approach should help ensure that team development risks are identified, quantified and then have an appropriate level of response put in place to deal with the risk. For example, if a project pulls resources from two groups with a history of failed cooperation or outright animosity between them, the project plan must include some strategy to get these two groups to work together effectively. If the risk analysis were to show that there is significant probability that the work groups will not be able to overcome their past conflicts, then the project plan had better find some way to address the situation—maybe even by identifying other resources. A good PP&C process will focus consciously on the risk imposed by the team development plan and create risk responses as warranted.
WORKING HARD OR HARDLY WORKING?
By treating the team with respect, project managers can minimize dissatisfaction. According to Frederick Herzberg, a workplace must provide both a welcoming environment (hygiene factors) and processes that are conducive to growth (motivational aspects).
Hygiene factors, which may contribute to dissatisfaction, include:
The company, its policies and its administration
Supervision while on the job
Working conditions
Interpersonal relationships
Salary
Status
Security.
Motivation aspects, which serve to satisfy staff, are:
Achievement
Recognition
Growth/Advancement
Job interest.
How does your workplace encourage performance?
Development Metrics
“If you do not know where you are, you can't have control,” according to James P. Lewis in Project Planning, Scheduling, and Control (McGraw-Hill, 2001). Metrics are just as important for activities around team development as for schedule progress. Even though team development may not suit itself to other known metrics such as earned value, a project manager still is responsible for determining where a team development plan stands.
The project manager can develop a monitoring mechanism to compare the project's progress and the team's growth. The project team cannot claim it has addressed all of the aspects of PP&C until it has a set of metrics that allows it to monitor the team's overall health.
Even though project managers ultimately use control documents and monitor progress, they can't really determine qualitative metrics without involving the team. Although team members may not be directly involved in tracking milestones, project managers must gain feedback from members about the effectiveness of the development efforts to be able to make adjustments during execution. PM
Julia Cunningham, PMP, is a project manager in design and construction for Battelle at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Wash., USA. She holds a B.S. in nuclear engineering from the University of Florida.
Ryan Griffin is a quality engineer with Scott Health and Safety in Monroe, N.C., USA. He holds a B.S. in industrial technology from Western Carolina University.
Keith Martin, PMP, is a senior project manager with Branch Bank & Trust Co., Wilson, N.C., USA. He has 12 years experience managing projects and programs for strategic implementations and information management projects.
David J. Violette, PMP, is a project manager with Duke Energy Corp., Charlotte, N.C., USA. He has worked in various project roles for more than 15 years, extensively in change management and human performance.
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