8. Project Team
An experienced, committed, and properly resourced project team will make the difference between project success and failure.
This module covers:
1. The composition, organization, roles, and responsibilities of a high-performing project team
2. How to create a high-performing project team
3. A case story to illustrate the factors affecting an effective team
4. A project team effectiveness assessment approach
The Critical Success Factors Of A High-Performing Project Team
The concepts below are based in part on Google’s work on building high-performing teams.
1. Psychological Safety. The most impactful factor affecting the performance of a team is Psychological Safety, namely building a team where everyone feels respected and safe in expressing their opinions and ideas even if they are contrary to the prevailing opinions
2. Dependability. Through team training and one-on-one coaching, foster an environment where team members can depend on each other to deliver on their tasks and action items on time and with the required quality.
3. Clear organization, roles, and responsibilities. For the team to function effectively, it has to be organized with clear functional and cross-functional teams, clearly defined responsibilities, and clear reporting and issue resolution processes.
4. Meaningful work assignment. The project manager and team leads should assign their team members with work and responsibilities that interest and excite them. E.g. if a person likes to work alone on coding or testing work, do not assign to her / him responsibilities that involve public relations work.
5. Impactful project mission. The project manager, with help from the Accountable Executive and other senior leaders, should communicate the mission and importance of the project to the organization as a whole. The project manager should find ways to communicate this even if the project is of a more mundane nature.
6. Work-life balance. The project manager and team leaders should take deliberate care to ensure that the project team is not unduly overloaded, despite the demands of the project workload and timeline.
In this module you will learn how to:
a. Structure and organize the project team in a manner that will enable them to function as a high-performing team
b. Create a culture of Psychological Safety
c. Foster dependability and trust among team members
d. Clearly define roles, responsibilities, reporting structures, and issues / risk management processes
e. Assign work that is meaningful to each individual team member
f. Promote the purpose and impact of the project for the organization as a whole
g. Manage the work-life balance of the team in a way that will not overload and over-stress them
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