Chapter 10 ideas

1.  Building a project team can be a daunting task in itself.  Two challenges present themselves with every project team from becoming a high performing one, and they are:  Learning to solve complex problems together and they must learn to work together even though they are temporarily fixed.  If the team can learn to work together then they will produce effective decisions and improve their own efficiency.  There are multiple factors assigned to your project that have responsibilities to solve them.  Determining the goals and success criteria for the project, making tradeoffs between the equilibrium, and designing a product or service all require a solution.  Each task of the project requires a group of individuals to reach a conclusion. 

2.  There is a framework for constructing a high-performance team.  It is when the team reaches a point of an unexpected challenge where they will reveal their strength or their limitations.  Any team can be highly productive until this horizon is encountered.  A positive team environment consists of certain attributes.  These are Listening skills, meeting management, team identity, and ground rules.  The other side on the team arch needs continuous learning, conflict management, decision modes, and problem analysis.  The glue that binds both of these sides together is effective leadership. 

3. Leadership responsibilities are an important role of project management.  Attending to the overall health of the team is vital.  Since this is accomplished intangibly, the project manager needs to monitor and improve the building blocks of team performance along the way.  Doing helps to create a more highly performing team.  While the team members focus on the near term problems it is the job of the team leader to stay focused on the final outcomes of the project and its goals.  Team members are sensitive to human emotions and feelings, attending to these tendencies that potentially would affect motivation and performance results in a level of respect above normal expectation from the project manger.  Plans require execution so demanding and exhibiting accountability is an important factor of leadership.  It is important to the team that the efforts of some are not diminished by the nonperformance of others.  Most importantly I believe a leader must be energetic.  People do absorb the energy a leader portrays to the group, it is a great motivating and uplifting trait.

4.  Setting some ground rules will state the expectations about team behavior and values.  There needs to be an understanding among team members what is expected of them.  Through this measure the team can formulate its own culture.  An effective team needs a structure in place and this framework will provide that.  The values stated will support the accepted attitudes and the behaviors stated will ensure a level of respect.