Introduction to Project

Management-ENGG 684
Project Team Development

Dr. Mohammad Moazzami, P.Eng., PMP

Department of Civil Engineering
Schulich School of Engineering

Fall 2019
 AGENDA

• Understanding Teams
• Develop Project Team
• Stages of Teamwork
• Basic Team Processes

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 Understanding Teams

• A team is a special type of group.

• “Group” is a more inclusive term than “team”.
• Groups range in size from two to thousands.
• Teams have a narrower range of sizes (typically 4 to 20).
• One common distinction between the groups and
teams relates to their application:
• Teams usually are part of larger organizations.
• Team members have specialized knowledge and skills.
• Members of a team directly interact with each other.

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 Develop Project Team

• Develop Project Team improves the competencies and

interaction of team members to enhance project performance.
• Objectives:
• To Improve skills of team members in order to increase
their ability to complete project activities
• To Improve feelings of trust and cohesiveness among team
members in order to raise productivity through greater
teamwork

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 Team Success

• A successful team:
• Completes its task: performance
• Maintains good social relations: willingness to work
together in the next task
• Promotes individuals: personal and professional
development
• Requirements for team success:
• Clear goals and direction
• Good leadership
• Suitable tasks
• Availability of necessary resources
• Supportive organization
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 Stages of Teamwork

• Forming (orientation): members getting to know one

another
• Storming (conflict): disagreement about roles and
procedures
• Norming (structure): establishment of rules and social
relationships
• Performing (work): focus on completing the task
• Adjourning (Dissolution): completion of task and end
of the teamwork

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 Team Charter

The team charter is a document that establishes the

team values, agreements, and operating guidelines for
the team.
• The team charter may include but is not limited to:
• Team values,
• Communication guidelines,
• Decision-making criteria and process,
• Conflict resolution process
• Meeting guidelines, and
• Team agreements.

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 Basic Team Processes

• Motivation: Increasing team motivation depends on:

• Tasks:
• interesting
• involving
• challenging
• Evaluation and rewards:
• team success
• individual success
• Goals:
• Clear goals and direction
• Commitment:
• The more people value membership in the team, the more
motivated they are to perform.

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 Basic Team Processes

• Mixed-Motive Situations: include both cooperation

and competition in a team environment.
• Cooperation:
• Necessary for teams to operate effectively and smoothly
• The focus is on the team success
• Being to cooperative in a team may result in unhealthy
agreements or poor decisions

• Competition:
• For cultural, personal, and organizational reasons
• The focus is on winning, personal success, and individualism
• Can create negative effects on team , even when team is
successful.

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 Basic Team Processes

• Communication: A process by which a person or

team sends some type of information to another
person or team.
• The three basic parts of a communication:
• Sender:
• Credibility
• Attractiveness
• Receiver:
• Level of intelligence
• Self-esteem
• Language skills
• Message:
• Level of sophistication and emotion
10 • Should be understood by the receiver
 Basic Team Processes

• Supportive Communication Climate:

• Open
• Inclusive
• Rewarding
• Allows diverse ideas
• Members are comfortable to express both agreement and disagreement
• Focus on the message

• Negative Communication Climate:

• Defensive behaviour
• Closed
• Blaming
• Discouraging
• Punishing

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 Basic Team Processes

• Communication Skills
• Asking questions
• Open-ended questions encourage discussion
• Ask advantages and disadvantages of an idea instead of agree or disagree
• Leaders should try to ask question of the entire team whenever possible
• Active listening:
• To provide feedback to the sender
• To clarify the communication
• Try to focus on listening rather than evaluating a communication
• Giving constructive feedback:
• We need feedback to improve our performance
• Avoid giving feedback in an emotional situation
• Try to be accurate
• Try not to be judgemental
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 Basic Team Processes

• Conflicts are a natural part of a team process.

• Is the process by which people perceive that others’ actions
have negative impact on their interests.
• Sources of conflicts:
• Healthy:
• Focus on task issues
• Legitimate differences of opinion about the task
• Differences in values and perspectives
• Different expectations about the impact of decisions
• Unhealthy:
• Competition over power, rewards, and resources
• Conflict between individual and team goals
• Personal issues from the past
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 Basic Team Processes

• Benefits of conflicts:
• Provides multiple perspectives
• Team members can view issues differently
• Encourages the team to explore new approaches and ideas
• Negative effects of conflict:
• Creating strong negative emotions and stress
• Preventing effective communication
• Diverting attention from tasks and goals
• Can damage social relations
• Can destroy team cohesion

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 Basic Team Processes

• Conflict Resolution Approaches

High Confrontation Collaboration

Assertiveness

Compromise

Avoidance Accommodation
Low

Low Cooperativeness High

Source: Marvin Dunnette
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 Basic Team Processes

• Conflict/Dispute Resolution Strategies in a Project

Method Time Cost Binding Nature

Negotiation Very Fast Minimal Non-binding

Mediation Fast Low: Mediator’s Non-binding

compensation, if any.

Arbitration Faster than Litigation Filing fee Maybe nonbinding or

binding according to
contract

Litigation May take years Expensive Binding

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 Basic Team Processes

• Leadership is a process in which an individual influences the

progress of team members to achieve a goal.
• Principles of Leadership (Jergeas, 2018):
• Be technically proficient
• Take responsibility for your actions
• Make sound and timely decisions
• Know your people and look out for their well-being
• Keep your workers informed
• Develop a sense of responsibility in your workers
• Ensure that tasks are understood, supervised and accomplished
• Train as a team
• Use the full capabilities of your organization

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 Basic Team Processes

• Situational Leadership (4 styles of leadership):

• Shifting authority
• Responsible team
Delegating • Self-managing team

Level of Readiness
• Supportive context
• Facilitating team process
Supporting • Supply of resources

• Expert coaching
Coaching • Developing team skills
• Encourage effective performance

• Clear direction
Directing • Engaging tasks
• Motivating to accomplish

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 References

• Jack R. Meredith; Samuel J. Mantel Jr. (2011). Project

Management: A Managerial Approach.
• Jergeas, G (2018). Advanced Project Management.
• Levi, D. (2007). Group Dynamics for Teams.
• Project Management Institute, Inc., A Guide to the
Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®
Guide) Sixth Edition, Published 2017.

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 Last Slide of ENGG 684, December 5th, 2019

Thank you,
Mohammad Moazzami
mmoazzam@ucalgary.ca
LinkedIn

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