Keep Your Project Strong During Execution: Harnessing the Power of Your Project Team
By Peter Taylor, international keynote speaker, author of “The Lazy Project Manager.”
This is the second part in a three-part blog series on the journey of a successful project. Read the first part on building a great project foundation here.
The Lazy Project Manager’s Theory of Projects is: “All projects are thick at one end, much, much thinner in the middle, and then thick again at the far end.”
During this middle period, a project manager oversees work with as light a touch as possible. The planning was done at the front-end of the project, there is great alignment and a common visibility of purpose, and now it is all about execution and control through a brilliant team of people working in harmony.
In my personal experience, there are several specific approaches to resource management during this period of the project that work well. Firstly, ensuring that the project is conducted in a fun and enjoyable manner to help boost employee retention and long-term satisfaction. Secondly, building an amazing team energy to support investment in the project. And, finally, being prepared to deal with problems as and when they occur, but in a controlled and productive manner.
Two critical areas when building teams for future project success are achieved by resource management that focuses on open and collaborative communication and trust between all parties through:
- Gaining Real Team Engagement
- Drawing on the Power of the Masses
Real Team Engagement
This is not cooperation, that is different, and something we have been doing for ever. This is about real collaboration, which is about shared objectives and outcomes. This is about trust. Check out John Spencer’s video “Cooperation vs Collaboration” for an excellent understanding of the difference:
The first blog in this series spoke to the value of all team members understanding and believing in the “visibility of purpose,” and this is really an extension of that foundation.
All team members need to feel valued, safe in sharing their ideas and concerns, and respectful of each other’s opinions. The project and resource managers will have put in place, at the start phase of the project, mechanisms for team engagement and development in order to get the right resources on the team. Plus, it has to be recognised that teams are often very dynamic during projects, with team members coming and going as their skills are required. This has to be understood and managed.
All of which leads to a truly engaged and operating at the high end of the ‘performing’ stage (in Tuckman’s model), project team.
The Power of the Masses
The second key in strengthening the middle section of your projects is harnessing the power of the collective without the barriers of traditional centralised governance and control (a tough change for many I do understand).
One way to do this Is to harvest the power of the “Hive Mind” – this is the term for a group mind, group ego, mind coalescence, or gestalt intelligence in science fiction and is a plot device in which multiple minds, or consciousnesses, are linked into a single, collective consciousness or intelligence.
By harnessing the collective power, thoughts, experience, knowledge, and wisdom of the many, rather than the few, then better decisions can be made. And by utilizing today’s innovative resource management solutions for intuitive understanding of project needs, such as intelligent recommendations or weighting algorithms, these more-inclusive decision-making processes can be faster than traditional “meet/discuss/agree/act” physical meetings of the past.
The power of this can be found in a study by researchers at Unanimous AI and Oxford University where a human swarm (large group) was used to predict the outcome of all English Premier League games. Results showed that individuals achieved a 55% accuracy, but when they were acting as a collective, accuracy rose to 72%.
Power is with the many, it seems, and this is precisely what good project managers and resource managers will want from their teams, keeping all channels of communication open, encouraging all team members to contribute and become part of the project community, and refining their teams through using the best resources from the start.
Team performance management is a passion of mine, along with the associated team building, project teaming, team performance measurement, and re-teaming.
I have always lent heavily on the “people” side of projects – change, transformation, and leadership, believing that such focus is at the true heart of success. Keeping the right people engaged is crucial to the challenge of project success.
Your Next Step in Project Success
A successful middle portion of your project journey leads to the critical “end of project” period – a time of great learning and opportunity.
You can also hear more about this by watching my recent webinar with Kantata, “A Look at the Current Impact of the Talent War on PMOs.”