OGL 320 / Module 7 Paper

Joellen Leichner

Module 7 - Paper

In my husband's office, he has a poster with a quote that he found in Nebraska and had it

framed. It shows the Nebraska football team in a huddle on the field and the bottom states;

Teamwork: The fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results." The author of the

poster quote is unknown. Sometimes when I pause while doing homework, I think about the

lesson behind that saying. Even as a project manager, we are not an island. We need our

stakeholders, leadership, peers, team members, and a network of people to complete the project.

As I worked through each module, I went from being completely overwhelmed with all of the

steps and tasks and duties, to this point of feeling that even though I have so much yet to learn,

there are processes in place, strategies to follow, and in following these formats, successes to

realize. Probably the best advice I have gotten about project management was to do your due

diligence at the beginning of the project and that you have to have to try to be proactive and not

reactive, while also being flexible to change. That is a big order.

As I look back on the last six-plus weeks, there has been so much information to absorb,

but ironically, I feel a little less overwhelmed and feel that this whole process will become more

transparent with each project management class I take. Initially, in module one, we surveyed our

project management skills. After taking this survey, I was somewhat encouraged. But then

realized that doing the job of a project manager, one must possess such a wide array of skills and

techniques in your toolbelt, in addition to possessing an extensive network of colleagues across

the institution, not to mention a managing a staff of people whose thought process, skill set, and

work ethics could be totally different. Here are a few of the things that I feel are the important

principles and practices of effectively managing projects after completing this course.

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As I mentioned, it is so important to do your due diligence at the beginning of the project.

It's essential that we adhere to, without omitting steps, the four-phase process of defining &

organizing the project, planning, managing project execution, and closing down the project.

Each phase of the project has essential steps that are a critical step towards a successful project.

You cannot skip any of these steps during the planning stage because you'll pay for it in the end.

Additionally, make sure to have a final closeout meeting as a learning and teaching opportunity

for everyone involved in the project, whether it was a success or a failure. Initially, I thought

that was kind of strange. But I now better understand why it is done and realize its significance

in the process. Because it allows everyone to learn what worked, what failed, and how they

could make changes to the process in the future. A close out meeting allows staff to mentally

come to the close of the project, and work through what it means to move on.

One of the tasks that I didn't think about as a project manager's job in the planning stage

is assembling the right team. Selecting the right team members and creating a team charter are

vital elements for completing the work on time and on budget. In selecting the right staff, a

project manager has the opportunity to build a cohesive team. In this stage, there was a lot more

that goes into assessing staff for your team than meets the eye. In the beginning, you will

evaluate their skill level and the requirements of the project to make sure it is a good fit. Skill

level assessments include technical, interpersonal, problem-solving, and organizational. Until I

read this chapter and watched the videos, I would have likely chosen a team based on technical

and problem-solving skills alone, thinking that those would be my strongest members. After

reading through our materials, I now understand why, in the video, "Building High Performing

Teams," he stated that he would rather hire those with "a positive attitude and minimum skills."

Being teachable is one of the skills many of the managers at work look for in a candidate. An

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arrogant or poor attitude is difficult to turn around and often has a domino effect in the

department if not appropriately handled. This would also include their ability and to work

alongside co-workers with minimal disagreements. You will always have conflicts within a

team, but they can derail the team cohesion and hurt productivity when they become more

extensive.

Probably one of the most overlooked skills in building a team is a team member's

organizational skills. Will those on your team be able to discuss, present, work alongside, and

seek out others enterprise-wide efficiently and appropriately? Do they have a network of

colleagues in place to help the team get challenging tasks completed while working

collaboratively across multiple departments? Again, not a skill that came front and center to me

as I thought about team building. I continued to go back to the technical and problem-solving

skills. But after sitting in meetings at work and watching different presentations and

communication styles, I can tell you that this makes a difference. You can distinguish those who

have mastered their skills and craft; and those who have not quite gotten there yet. In speaking

to people, it's visible and audible when listening to those who are not used to speaking above or

below their current position.

Another issue that project managers must deal with once the team is formed is team

retention, attrition, and morale. Probably because I have not managed a team before, I gave little

thought to these factors. I just thought people come and go, and it is part of working with a

group. But as I thought about it, the old saying that, "people don't leave jobs, they leave

managers," came to mind. And, I have to say, even in my own career, this has proven to be true.

As a project manager, it is your responsibility to nurture a positive morale and engaging

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environment while also expecting quality and productivity to remain high. For me, this is where

the five stages of team development, and the leadership styles for each stage was helpful.

Realizing that each stage of team development should be managed with a different style

of leadership was something I wasn’t familiar with, but that really made sense. As someone who

has not managed other staff before, this is an area of concern for me as I hopefully move into

project management. I understand that personalities will collide at times, and you can't or don't

want to work with people occasionally, but this is an area that I feel is important to get right. I

want people who work with and for me to love what they do, want to be there, and work openly

and collaboratively. But I also know that for that to happen, you have to work at the people part

of the position almost as hard as you do on the project itself. So, the leadership styles for each

stage of the team-building process is one of the biggest takeaways for me personally. I know

that there will likely be bumps along the way, and I will have missteps, but having a guide to

assist me will make me feel more confident about my decisions where the staff is involved.

Team morale is something that is important to me. I know I have had jobs where I dreaded

going to work. I want people to have pride in where they work and what they do, and I will

strive to be the manager that everyone wants to work for.

Another critical aspect of building a team, and arguably the most vital part of the project,

is the team charter. The team charter will outline the project with everything from the project

description, stakeholders, project team, and outline of each team members specific tasks, project

objective, scope, assumptions, constraints, the procurement plan, work breakdown structure,

WBS dictionary, resource matrix, milestones, task dependencies, and the critical path. And it

outlines all of the roles and responsibilities for those tasks. When the team understands their

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roles and responsibilities and that of others, there are no misunderstandings. They take

ownership of those responsibilities or choose not to remain on the project team and move on.

The Charter is such a detailed document but probably the most enjoyable for me to create

during this class. As we were doing our assignment and added each piece to the project each

week, it helped me to see the project more fully and how each step is built on the last. It just

systematically organized and laid out the project clearly and concisely for me that made

complete sense. So, the Charter, to me, was a best practice. In our reading "10 project

management lessons from the Titanic disaster," the need for a Charter became even more

apparent as many passengers would not have perished had the roles and responsibilities been

adhered to, and communication would have been clear.

As I thought back to the Project Charter, another area that will be foreign to me as a

manager will be conflict resolution. I want to be perceived as a manager who is honest,

transparent, and fair. It can be tough to have those hard conversations with employees, but if you

take advantage of the Charter, those you manage know what is expected, and most time, there

isn’t major conflict. But I also understand that every project will have conflict at one time or

another. This is another area in which the guidelines learned in this course will help me. I want

to make sure to have a plan for the Charter, building my team, and resolving conflict, because

turnover is expensive, disrupts productivity and causes damage to team morale. In reviewing the

five techniques to resolving conflict, I can tell you I have only worked with one manager who

thoroughly understood how to do this well. It is something that few leaders are good at, but that

all of them have to handle on an ongoing basis. When working to resolve conflict, I think that I

would likely use the collaborate or problem-solve technique or the compromise or reconcile

technique. I feel that this allows everyone to feel as though they have been heard, have been

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given the opportunity to offer suggestions or solutions. When you come to an agreement

together after reviewing the options available, the employee has more buy-in for the solution

chosen. You avert offending or angering them, which causes animosity among the team. I have

spoken to several managers who say that their number one issue during a project is often

conflicts among staff and how to handle the conflict in a fair-minded and impartial way so that

you don't show bias for either side.

Although I learned a lot from the modules following, I think I really related to the earlier

parts of this class during the planning stages. It was something that I enjoyed and felt that I was

good at it. I also think that I currently do some of these practices in my daily work, but not in an

organized and systematic way such as this. And, I feel that I can now take a more educated,

organized, and detailed approach to projects. I like some of the tools we used in the class for the

project and will try to incorporate those into the small projects that I do to gain a little more

experience and comfort in using them. Although I work mostly autonomously, working closely

with others across the institution has become increasingly essential and proven beneficial for me

in securing what I need or figuring out who to reach out to when an issue arises. I definitely feel

that I will be able to use these skills in future classes. I wish I had done a Charter for one of my

group projects in a previous class! It turned out to be a bit of a disaster, with two of us doing

most of the work, and misunderstandings and arguments at the end between two of the members.

Even a basic Charter may have been able to mitigate some of the hostility.

As far as areas in which I feel I excel, as I mentioned earlier, I think I am good at a

project's planning stages. I enjoyed constructing the project in this course with all of the

different pieces. Although I can be flexible, a project that needs many changes and is subject to

scope creep is one that I would likely lose interest in quickly. So, I guess the areas that I need to

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work on would be to be more flexible. I generally like to stick to the schedule, complete

deliverables, and be on time. I'm not too fond of many changes to timelines because another

department couldn't complete their portion of the work on time. Areas for increased growth

through learning would be assessing risk and accepting some risk, and better understanding

slack, float, variables, and reserve. Projects are going to run into timeline issues and go off

course. I feel that a better breadth of knowledge in these areas through learning skills and

techniques to mitigate that situation will be invaluable to me throughout my career. To become

a successful project manager, you should have a solid handle on that skillset. I think I will likely

learn more in future project management classes.

My main growth areas of knowledge in this class were, ironically, two of the areas that I

marked as “not as necessary” on the initial survey. They were choosing the right staff, which I

now realize that whether the staff is temporary or long-term, the choice of team members is a key

part of team cohesion, productivity, and success of the project. And secondly, that outlining

what, why, who, how, and when through the use of a Charter, is as important as the actual work.

In the past, I would review the project and come up with an approach in my head concerning

what needed to happen prior to starting. Now, I completely support the need for the Charter

outlining those things for everyone and not just myself. Overall, I feel that I have learned a great

deal from this class. Whether I decide to move into the project management degree or not, I

have already learned skills that I can apply to what I do currently and I can contribute more

skillfully to the organization while more fully understanding leaderships decisions.