Twelve Characteristics of Ineffective Teams – Part 2
Posted by Brad Egeland
In the finale of this two-part series well examine the final six team characteristics that I believe indicate that a team is performing ineffectively. My hope is that we can all gain insight from this list and work to correction these situations if we see them in our own teams. And please feel free to comment and share your own thoughts on ineffective team behavior or characteristics.
Conformity and mind protection. Insecurity permeates people for fear of being different or ostracized. People do not speak or share information unless it reinforces behavior or thoughts. If openness and creativity is not cultivated on the team, then productivity may be sacrificed in the long run.
Low tolerance for diversity. The pressure to conform is so intense that anyone different in thinking or work style is ostracized or not taken seriously. Whistle-blowers and creative types, for instance, may be viewed with suspicion. Under such circumstances no opportunity is available to capitalize on people’s strengths and address their weaknesses.
Insufficient resources. Whether it’s people, equipment, supplies, facilities, time, or money, insufficient resources make teams ineffective. The situation can also lead to conflicts, dissention, even revolts. If resources are not distributed in an objective, meaningful manner, then differences can magnify into severe conflicts. Members of the team can quickly become polarized.
Lack of management support. If team members perceive—whether justifiably or not—that management is not supportive of the project, then motivation can plummet. People will feel that the work is not valuable to the organization. When this happens, it may take an act of God – or at least executive management – to right the ship.
Handling Interpersonal Relationships on the Project Team
Posted by Brad Egeland
Friction exists in almost any interaction between human beings. There may be misunderstandings, conflicts, personality clashes, or petty jealousies. Project managers must be prepared to deal with all of these. In fact, if you dislike having to deal with the behavioral problems that arise on project teams, you should ask yourself whether you really want to manage projects at all. It’s a given that this will be part of the project manager’s responsibilities, just as it really is with any management role. Like it or not, the behavioral problems come with the job, and failure to deal with them may sink a project.
Many personality clashes are the result of a lack of good interpersonal skills. People have never been taught how to sit down and work out differences with others, so when the inevitable conflict happens, it just blows up. The best way to minimize the impact of such problems is to provide training for all team members (including yourself) in interpersonal skills. This area has been sorely neglected in many organizations because there seems to be no bottom-line impact. It is hard to prove that there will be a $10 return on a $1 training investment.
Because of their inability to quantify the benefits, companies don’t do the training. Yet if they have capital resources that don’t work well, they will spend whatever is necessary to correct the problem. Interestingly, a company’s human resources are the only ones that are renewable almost indefinitely, but companies fail to take steps to keep them functioning effectively. As a project manager, you owe it to yourself to manage this aspect of the job.
Team Collaboration and Project Management for Virtual Teams
Posted by Dana Larson
An increasing trend in modern offices is the idea of a virtual office. Working remotely as a team is gaining popularity because of the many benefits it can provide businesses, including reduced overhead costs, less environmental impact and happier employees.
But when it comes to getting work done in a virtual office, you will have to find the right processes and solutions for keeping your team connected and working together. You’ll also have a few new business challenges ahead of you, but the end result can be well worth it.
Here are a few items to keep in mind when moving to a virtual office. Read more »
June 2010 PM Survey Results – Managing the Project
Posted by Brad Egeland
My apologies for breaking this survey into two parts – I don’t think I’ll do that again. The responses to parts 1 and 2 were uneven, but it didn’t seem to affect the overall findings. There were still enough responses to each to make the numbers meaningful. For the purpose of this analysis, I’m going to combine everything as if it were one complete survey.
Characteristics of a good PM
The first question dealt with the survey responders’ concept of the #1 characteristic of a good project manager. Not surprising to me at least, 52% responded that the project manager needs to be a Good Communicator. In fact, Good Communicator far outdistanced everything else. Experienced Leader garnered 22% of the responses. Wise Decision-Maker came in third at 12%. 11% of the responders selected Organized Professional and 3% wrote in Integrity as being the top characteristic for a good project manager.
Primary causes of project failure
According to our PM Tips readers, the biggest cause of project failures from their experience has been Poor Communication – as selected by 40% of the survey responders. 26% selected Poor Requirements/Planning as the top contributor to project failures. 15% selected Poor Project Leadership. 11% indicated that Lack of Senior Management Support was the top contributor to project failures. 6% attributed project failures to Untracked Issues/Risks. And finally, 2% wrote in that Poor Project Governance and/or Role Defintion was the top contributor.
Conducting lessons learned sessions
We all know that lessons learned sessions can be valuable for all participants going forward – whether the project was a success or not. But do we actually conduct these sessions? Yes and no.
The numbers were high at both ends of the spectrum. 57% of survey responders either Never (19%) conduct them or conduct them less than 10% of the time (38%). Conversely, 34% said that they conduct post-project lessons learned sessions more than 50% of the time.
Making Good Project Decisions
Posted by Brad Egeland
Decision-making is an ongoing task on every project engagement. Key decisions have to be made throughout by everyone including the project manager, the project team members, the customer, executive management, and usually other stakeholders. They may be as simple as when to hold a meeting or as difficult as making a go- no-go decision on a phase of the project or the entire project.
What we often lack when making some key decisions is the right information at the right time. We all know that making what seems to be the right decision based on information that ends up being inaccurate or out of date can be fatal to the project.
What if you could only make decisions on when to cross the street based on a snapshot taken five minutes ago? Would this help? Would you have any confidence in whether or not you should cross the street? After all, it could be a life or death decision.
Well, that’s often how organizations are continually making business and technology decisions. Many decisions we make on projects are based on what we knew two days ago or two weeks ago or what someone told us last Thursday. Ideally, information would be flowing to all key personnel constantly and we would be making key business, project, and technology decisions based on what we just learned – not what we knew last week. What if you could make sense of what you learn as fast as you learn it and put that into play?
There is no magic wand to wave to make this all happen. However, since the project manager is the key focal point for all communication on the project, there are some things – or at least some actions – that can be put into place that will help ensure that the right information is getting to the right people as quickly as possible. And that, in turn, should help ensure that the project decisions that are made are based on the most relevant and accurate information possible.
These are:
Develop and distribute a communication plan
The key to getting all of this communication off on the right foot is to publish a communication plan for the project at the outset. Produce this document shortly after kickoff and let it document and set the tone for all communication that will flow on the project. This document will correctly set expectations of how, when, where and through who communication will happen. For more information on the project communication plan, please read an earlier article of mine on the topic here. You can also download a copy of one of my actual project communication plans to use as a template. Go to www.bradegeland.com and navigate to the Templates & Downloads page to access the sample plan.
