Team building and project management

This article reports on a survey about team building that was distributed to 88 companies, and to which there were 1667 respondents from 134 different project teams. Most of the questions were designed to determine if Robert P. Hagen's six key elements of successful team-building plans were present in the organization. These key elements related to mutual respect and consideration among team members, clear individual responsibility, good communications, group and individual goals, rewards for teamwork and team-building, and team loyalty. The survey indicated that, in the overall view of the respondents, companies are doing poorly at team building. Effective rewards systems are absent, team and individual feedback mechanisms are lacking, and most companies provide little or no project management training for their personnel. The effort to reach and maintain a world-class level of team building will require increased awareness, commitment and training from all the people involved.