Twelve Characteristics of Ineffective Teams – Part 2

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.

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Twelve Characteristics of Ineffective Teams – Part 1

In Part 1 of this two-part series well examine the first six of twelve team characteristics that I believe seem to point toward ineffectiveness.  By no means is this an end-all list, but it’s a decent start and will hopefully help us all see warning lights early enough on in our projects to make the necessary changes to fix the situation before it’s too late.

No processes for gaining consensus or resolving conflicts. Team conflicts and overt and covert discussions are ongoing occurrences, making cooperation difficult, even impossible. When this happens it appears that the project manager has lost all control of the team and that indeed may be the case.  Getting back on track become more difficult the longer this persists.

Team members who lack commitment to the goal. No one has an emotional attachment to the goal.  And without that goal focus there is no real drive for the team – no ownership of tasks and pride in successful outcomes.  Soon, no one really cares.

Lack of camaraderie. The team members do not feel that they are part of a team. Instead, everyone acts in his or her own interests.  This is a bad direction for a team to head as it can lead to rogue actions and behavior, dissention, conflict, and even straying from completing one’s tasks.

Lack of openness and trust. Everyone is guarded, protective of his or her own interests. Openness and truthfulness are perceived as yielding to someone, giving a competitive advantage, or exposing vulnerabilities. When this happens, idea sharing is at a minimum and that is never good if you want to be part of a successful, cohesive team on a successful project.

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Onboarding with Success

When you’re asked to jump on a new project how do you go about doing that to ensure your best chance for success? That may often depend on why you’re being asked to take over the project … and it can be for any one of the following reasons:

• Previous project manager failed to manage the team and project effectively
• Previous project manager lost the customer’s confidence
• Previous project manager lacked the expertise to lead the project based on new direction
• An emergency necessitated an early departure for the project manager
• Co-management became a necessity due to changes on the project Read more »

Communicating Project Scope

The post is made possible by the great people at Seavus, creators of online Project Management tools such as ProjectOffice.net, Project Viewer, and Project Planner.  Please visit their site for more information.

The Scope Document

Once the project scope is defined, it must be documented to ensure that everyone assigned to the project will address the right tasks and work toward the same project goals. A formal scope document is essential to keeping a project on track. The order that these scope items are covered and the amount of space devoted to each in this document will depend on the type and size of the project and the number of scope items that need to be covered. On small projects, needs, goals, objectives, and missions will often be the same thing – easily described in a few statements. Distinguishing between these things is not that important, but establishing a flow from less measurable statements of need to more measurable ones truly is important. Read more »

Knowing When to Start Billing

In this article, I am again looking at it more from the perspective of the IT Consultant rather than purely a project management situation. Ultimately, the two are often one in the same, but in this instance the IT Consultant/Project Manager is running the entire show themselves in an independent role and working through the perplexing situation of when to start billing, what to give away for free, and how much leeway to give the customer/client.

One thing you must understand when dealing with new clients is when it is proper to start the clock – when you should start charging the client for your problem-solving services. Both during the interview and afterward, new consultants are tempted to rush in and do their best to solve every problem that the client presents them with – long before they’ve gotten any real commitment from the client to pay them for these efforts. Although providing such free assistance may make the client very happy, it by no means ensures that the client will subsequently pay you for more work. In fact, quite often the opposite is true. As one consultant I discussed this with stated that giving away free advice usually leads to giving away more free advice. It’s hard to break that cycle with some clients.

Clients are human

This isn’t because clients are exploiters. It is just normal human instinct to see what we can get for free and only pay for what we absolutely have to. But because clients will gladly allow you to do work for them for free that they can’t bring themselves to pay for, successful consultants must pull off a delicate balancing act. They must suggest to clients that they can solve their problems, without actually solving these problems until the clients agree to pay for it.

Which is not to say that you won’t do some work for free. Almost all successful consultants accept that they have to give some work away for free periodically to clinch a deal with a client. Most consultants give clients a free initial consultation lasting anywhere from one to three hours and many invest more unpaid hours drawing up formal proposals for potential clients.

Set consultation limits

But successful consultants also know that they must set clear limits on how much unpaid time they will devote to the client. One consultant I’ve worked with explains it like this…”Generally, I don’t bill for the first meeting with a prospective client. But I don’t give any real advice in that initial meeting either. Once we’ve gotten past the first meeting and agreed to the terms of the contract, then all the work that I perform related to that client is billable.”

Another colleague of gives potential clients one or two hours of free time in which he explains his services and shows them how he might be able to help them. Then he explains that for any concrete and in-depth analysis, they’ll have to pay.

Though experienced consultants emphasize the need to set strict limits on the amount of free time they spend on any client, new consultants often fear that they can’t get away with this kind of behavior because of their lack of experience. They tend to think that giving away a free sample of their work might be a more effective way of landing a new client. But experienced consultants will likely agree that this is almost always a mistake. If you don’t act as if your time is valuable when confronting clients, then why should they? I guarantee you that they won’t place a higher value on your time than you do.

Set client expectations

It is important to make it clear that you expect to bill for your solutions. It is equally important to let the client know when the billing clock will start ticking. Many consultants state that their potential clients tend to stretch out that first meeting and start to ask for advice during that initial consultation. An easy way around this is to follow a strict policy that the first hour is free. After that, all time is at the normal billing rate. This does dictate that the rate be discussed and established as early as possible so you need to feel comfortable about that very early on. Establishing policies such as the one free hour stance lets the client know up front that you will not allow yourself to be taken advantage of.