Intranet Journal
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Not all project teams are made the same. New teams come and go and get reorganized almost every other month in today's hyper paced environment. One thing remains the same, though, from the time the first team was ever formed until today. It is people who make things happen, it is the people in the team who matter, and it is the people on which you must focus your efforts.
I recently had the pleasure of forming and leading a new Web Site Team for the Women's Network within my organization. The following are some of my tips for success based on my approach to and lessons learned from this experience.
Keep it manageable
If you have any control over the situation, strive to make your team a manageable size for the task at hand. Too many cooks spoil the broth and too few give the chef cardiac arrest as she tries to do it all herself. If you have no control, as is often the case, you simply need to focus on the other aspects of getting the team up and running, which I talk about below.
Understand each other
Just as you would want to understand the functional requirements of a customer before you build an application, you want to understand the members of your team and their perspective, interests, and talents before you embark on this journey together. Even if the team you are leading is mandated and its membership was determined by "the powers that be", it is still crucial to understand each other as individuals before you get to the task at hand. Taking the time to learn each other's personality, work style, motives, and talents will go a long way toward directing your efforts appropriately and understanding why things are happening the way they are at any given point in time.
Setting the ground rules
The sooner you can set and agree upon ground rules for the mode of operation of your team, the better. Leave no stone unturned in this area. I do not mean that you have to be rigid, procedure and process happy, or adopt an attitude of form over function. I do mean that you need to be clear on how the team will operate both within its confines and with others.
The best way I have found to set up ground rules is to create a straw man and let the team provide their own input on it. Provide a suggestion and give your team members full permission to add, remove, and comment on it. Members may be hesitant to do so (especially if they perceive you as an authority figure), but assure them that their input is important. After all, no one wants to be dictated rules they must follow. Plus, people take more ownership in and tend to follow processes and rules they had a hand in creating.
Finalize the rules based on consensus. Remember, however, that you are in charge and are responsible for ensuring that the rules are reasonable and will enable you to accomplish the task at hand. (After all a suggested ground rule of 3-hour workdays and free beer might be fabulous, but probably not conducive to accomplishing your objective.) Therefore, as the leader, you still have the last say regarding the ground rules.
Bottom Line: make sure the ground rules are something everyone can live with, are practical, and strike the right balance between form, function, and flexibility.
Dividing up the work
Share the load. That is what a team is all about. When it comes to creating a project plan, it is not only important to get the job done but it is also important to make people as happy as possible with their role. Wherever possible, try not only to capitalize on your team members' individual proven talents, but also try to expand their roles to include some of their development interests. Some people need variety and although they may be fabulous programmers, they might also want an opportunity to interface with customers. So, rather than assign 100% of their time to banging out code, you might want to involve them in customer requirements definition meetings and presentations.
From personal experience I know how important it is to have the opportunity to spread my wings and not languish in familiar boredom.
Keep in mind that as people expand their comfort zones; their work might not always be of expert quality. After all, they are learning something new. Curb your need for perfection and speed at all costs and give people the opportunity to try, fail, try again, and succeed on their own.
Another key point in dividing up the work is to keep workloads reasonable and realistic. I am still aghast at the pace, workload, and expectations that exist for all of us in today's times. Since societal norms are just a bit outside my circle of control, I can only recommend to you that you carefully consider a person's work/life balance and workload capacity before you start doling out assignments. Keep in mind that next to no one will set boundaries and tell you no even if they are already overloaded, so be realistic both to yourself, your team, and the project as you plan and assign work.