Creating More Effective Project Teams

Forming better project teams that are aligned with the organization's goals begins with proper team management during the team creation process. Most teams experience so much upheaval and stress during the formation stages because of a lack of training or coaching during the development stages. Project managers should be able to guide teams through the various stages of team development. It is the project manager's role to recognize that each stage is distinct and to devise a strategy to move the team to the next stage quickly and with minimal or no stress. With the help of the help of the four stage model of team formation, project managers can learn team development stages and their demands, hence proper management.

There are four stages in team creation process; forming, storming, norming and performing. The forming stage is when a team meets and begins working as a unit for the first time. Details into how project managers have to manage these teams in order to improve performance, goals attainment and objectives have been discussed below;

Forming stage

This stage is encompassed with stress as it is the stage when teams are come together. At this stage everyone is wary of one another more so if they are not familiar with each other or the manager is new (Miller, 2003). It becomes worse if the project manager appointed is not the favorable one. During the first meeting, the environment is nervous one, and it is at this juncture a good project manager should ease the tension of the team. The manager should also keep an eye on the team as it is the stage where cliques develop. Any cliques at this stage are counter-productive and therefore it is the responsibility of the manager to keep an eye on the behaviors of potential cliques (Miller, 2003). To give the best start to a team, project managers should do the following:

Outline specific duties the team has to undertake (West, 2012).

Specify roles for each person in the team’s tasks

Outline the reason for the formation of the team and specific reasons for inclusion of each member.

As a manager explain to the team how you operate openly and the specific strengths and weaknesses (West, 2012).

The manager should lay out his expectations for each individual in the team and that of the team.

Ensure that the rules and regulations are available to be adhered to and that each team member had an in input into their formulation (Miller, 2003).

Discuss about reward and recognition and how the team should celebrate their milestones or achievements.

Formulate the method the team is to use to make decisions and,

Finally formulate a way to give feedback about the performance of each individual

Storming stage

This stage is the most challenging of all. Project managers who worked quite well in the forming stage may feel a little relaxed at this stage (Miller, 2003). However, this stage is a must in every team development. This is the stage that tests the quality of coaching skills by leaders.

Storming happens when the roles, goals and rules become unclear to the members of a team. This happens whether the roles, rules and goals were clear in the forming stages because each individual member has a different interpretation of them in reality This results in confusion and different behaviors like interdependency and mutual trust are no more resulting in conflicts.

The manager’s coaching skills should be utilized here to calm the situation. It is his responsibility to ensure that the team and individuals are ready to be coached in order to come to an agreement on the roles, goals and rules of the team (Miller, 2003). The manager should go over the agreements set in the forming stage and ensure that understanding is uniform across all (West, 2012). The earlier this is done in the storming phase, the better. When the ‘storm’ is avoided, a good manager should ensure that new members in the team are guided through the goals, rules and roles of the team to avoid misunderstandings that may result to others storms (West, 2012).

Norming stage

Just like any other real life storm, once it has passed calm sets in. The team rules, goals and roles are now understood clearly (Miller, 2003). The relationships are stronger and built upon mutual trust. This is because they now value each other’s individual differences. There is interdependency among each other because they have learnt of each other’s strengths and weaknesses. The team members become accountable for their actions. Transparency is handling team tasks is a common feature.

The project leader at this stage should spend more time with the team to guide them and support their roles and capabilities to ensure that everything remains as it is (Miller, 2003). He should ensure that they continue to learn and recognize the goals of the organization (West, 2012).

Performing stage

Here, the team members concentrate on achieving team goals. There is determination to do this because there are rewards upon completion of the project. Here, the manager is non-directive and will focus on strategy to move the team forwards (Miller, 2003). The main role of the managers in this phase is to facilitate communication and reward success (West, 2012).

Conclusion

Managing teams start by capitalizing on the management skills during the team formation phases. The forming stage is crucial as manager has to lay out the foundation for the team. Team goals, roles and rules should be communicated deeply in the formation stage so that the storming stage is easy to coach.

References

Miller, D. L. (2003).The stages of group development: a retrospective study of dynamic team processes. Canadian journal of administrative sciences/ revue canadienne des sciences de I’ administration, 20(2), 121-134.

West, J. (2012). Building a High-Performing Project Team. Field Guide to Project Management, 239-254.