Organize Your Project Team with Care

When you’re considering your project team organization, it’s crucial to think carefully about the people you’re dealing with. Organize your project team with care and consideration. There are lots of different people in this world, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to structuring your team. You need to evaluate each person individually and adjust your team’s project strategy accordingly.

Careful planning and the collaboration of a project team will help set the conditions for a successful project. Creating a project team allows you to structure the necessary project tasks that are realistic for that person’s motivation and skillset. Understanding how the project team will work together to accomplish the goals of the project is an important aspect to consider.

Forming the Team is the Critical Step

Forming is the critical step in bringing the team together. It often happens quickly to develop a new project or solve an urgent problem. You are working with team members of all kinds, across different time zones to get the work done.

Think of forming a team as a new group of people coming together to play a pick-up game of soccer or basketball. Although you may not know each other well or have practiced before, you all bring a lot of knowledge and skills to the table. So, together, you have a broad understanding of the rules, and what position each player is going to play.

If you all decide to be on the same team, make sure everyone understands their role and position on the team. This can be achieved by setting out clear ground rules and establishing open communication channels. Most projects see new team members joining throughout the duration of the project. As a project manager, think about how the team’s needs will be different as the project organizational chart expands.

Why Forming a New Project Team is Important

Forming a new team is important because this is how projects work. A project according to the PMI definition, is “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique project service or result.” More and more of us are forming temporary mission-focused or project-focused teams, and this is the way we must work these days. So, therefore, projects have by nature influence organizations culture and working dynamics.

With the pace of change accelerating, it’s more important than ever for organizations to get comfortable operating in a flexible approach. One way to do this is by supporting mission-focused or project-focused teams. These teams are smaller, more nimble collections of individuals who collaborate to accomplish a specific goal or project.

Create Amazing Projects Together

Consider for a moment what it takes to create a project from concept to completion. I have been fortunate enough to lead many different types of projects and teams throughout my career. Teams consisting of project managers, engineers, architects, subject matter experts, artists, scientists, construction experts, and military professionals often teaming up in a variety of changing configurations. Rarely working with the same group twice.

They work, collaborate, and coordinated together to create amazing projects and outcomes. A mission focused team may be quite different from a project focused team. Both teams form together for a specific purpose and a temporary endeavour, but the end results will be different.

However, there are also a lot of similarities. You may be working on something new that you have not done before. The people are different which creates a new team dynamic. The roles and responsibilities will need to be defined for all new members. All of which are not necessarily easy changes to adapt to.

So, it’s important to ensure that everyone understands what is about to happen as the team forms and builds together. This is especially tangible considering the complexity and uniqueness of projects in today’s environment. Opening channels of communication and enabling the team to coordinate together will help them ease into the project environment.

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

I first saw this phrase “You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know” hanging on the wall at my father-in-law’s farm. It was a humble and profound way of understanding my own limitations. Ultimately, I began to use this phrase when bringing new teams together for the first time.

As the project leader it’s a great way to show the team you are human, and you don’t know everything. I find the phrase helps ease expectations from new members on the team and allows a safe space for questions and ideas to come forward. This is helpful process in general as it allows the team to grow and learn together.

When the project team is growing and learning together, they naturally create the conditions to be curious. Curious about each-other and curious about the nature of the problem or project you are trying to solve. This natural curiosity will uncover new ideas, cement the team’s ability to work together and allow you to move toward solving greater problems for betterment of society.

Conclusion

Organize your project team with care

When you’re thinking about the people you’ll have on your team, it’s key to consider things carefully. You want to make sure that they are a good fit. They also need to be able to work well in a collaborative environment and consider their deadlines before they commit.

Organizations can stay relevant by supporting flexible project teams

Organizations need to keep up with change to stay relevant by supporting more flexible project teams. This is important because these teams are specifically oriented towards a specific goal or project to complete tasks more quickly. This is something that any company would find valuable.

Facilitating a dialogue between team members is essential

Facilitating a dialogue between team members is essential to help them feel comfortable on the project. When team members feel comfortable on the project and have a better understanding of each other’s roles, they can be more expressive and creative in solving problems.

You don’t know what you don’t know

You don’t know what you don’t know. Create a culture of understanding and openness.  Creating a safe place to express your ideas and questions will increase your project team’s performance. This is a great way to organize your project team with care. The team will respond positively to your leadership and the culture of openness.