Module 2 Paper

Michael K. Schwartz

OGL 321: Project Leadership

09 July 2022
 Enhancing My Knowledge

Prior to reading our Decision-making book, I believed that communication was the

number one key to a project’s success or failure. This was based on previous classes and life

experiences. Another factor I believed was almost as important was choosing the right people for

the project team. Now, I’m second guessing those beliefs and thinking that decision making is

just as important or slightly more important. A line that stuck with me from chapter one was

“The success of a project thus turns on the decisions that are made, not the knowledge and not

the absence of risk” (Buede and Powell, 2009, p. 9). This says to me, that you can have all the

meetings you want and great team communication, but if you make poor decisions, no amount of

communicating is going to make up for those poor choices. Likewise, having the right team

members is a huge factor in success, but if you don’t make good decisions and don’t use them

properly, their knowledge or skills may not have the desired impact on the project.

I further learned how in-depth of a process decision making should be when planning a

project. I understood that making good decisions is important to having a successful project, but

I had no idea that a planned process for decision-making needed to exist. This is needed because

of the complexity of the decisions that are required for a project (Buede and Powell, 2009, p. 12).

There are budgets, timelines, resources, team members, stakeholders and many more factors that

should be considered when making these decisions. Not all decisions are complex and require a

planned process. There will be some easy decisions that will need to be made such as the

decisions the book labels as “No Brainers” or “Small Consequences”.

“Everyone speaks roughly the same amount” (Madsen, 2021). This is what Madsen

believes is one of the keys to a team’s performance. This doesn’t mean that everyone gets an

allotted amount of time to speak at meetings. It means that if everyone is actively engaged and
talking to each other throughout the day, there is an increased likelihood that the team performs

well together. This is something that I will remember moving forward and promote as much as

possible.

Assertions

At first, I thought that the Decision-making book was being a little ridiculous with the

amount of importance given to a planned process for making decisions. As I read more and more

of the first chapter, I changed my thinking because of the many factors that go into some of the

decisions. My only concern with a planned process for decision making is that you might not

always have time to complete these processes before you start a project. For projects that require

a quick turn-around, it might be beneficial to create a condensed version of the process.

I agree with all five of the tips that Guevin (2009) lists in his blog. Effectively managing

a team’s workload can be the reason that a project succeeds or fails. These 5 tips include;

delegate tasks clearly and efficiently, breaking things down, encouraging collaboration, work

when you work best and don’t forget about the team in teamwork (Guevin, 2022). The one I

found the most interesting was the 4th tip; work when you work best. I think that’s an amazing

idea, but its not always possible. My last ship had us be there by 630am every morning. I’m

pretty confident that 630 wasn’t the peak performance time for a lot of the sailors.

The second blog I chose, What makes a high performing team, discusses the role of the

project manager. It asks if you’re the superhero with all the answers or do you encourage your

team to come up with ideas (Madsen, 2021). The blog reminds us that we don’t need to be the

superhero and to release some of the control we have on the teams. I agree with this and practice

it as much as possible when leading a project. I’ll let my team know the five Ws (who, what,
when, where and why) of the project and then let them attack it how they think will be best. I

help guide them along the way, but let them work together to get the tasks done. I found, that

they like this approach best as long as I continue to communicate with them on their progress.

Simulation Connections

After completing my three simulation attempts, I felt pretty good that I was able to

increase my final score by over 50 points. But I came back down to earth after reading chapter

one of our Decision-making book. Buede and Powell (2009) tell us that projects fail because they

miss meeting the budget, finish later than expected or they fail to meet the client’s specifications.

So, even though I scored higher and delivered a level three product, my project failed because I

went slightly over budget and produced it one week late. In some situations, being slightly over

the budget might not be a big deal. A large organization like Amazon, wouldn’t be affected by

slightly going over budget. Especially if you produce a better-quality product than what was

expected. On the other hand, a small startup company may be on a strict budget and can’t afford

to go a dollar over the project budget.

One of the items we had to configure in the simulation was how to use our personnel. It

gave us the options to choose how many team members we used, the members amount of

knowledge and if we wanted to use any outsourcing. I almost always chose to maximize my

outsourcing because it gave me more money to use for personnel. The problem that I ran into

was that my team was often confused until I added more meetings. These meetings helped

everyone get on the same page. My team wasn’t communicating enough which coincides with

tips 3 and 5 of the 5 tips for effective workload management blog. Tip 3 is “Encourage

collaboration”. My team wasn’t collaborating or communicating enough with all the project

stakeholders. This left them confused and stressed. I was doing exactly what tip 5 tells us not to
do, which is “Don’t forget about the team in teamwork”. In subsequent simulations, I’ll make

sure to schedule enough meetings to allow the team time to collaborate like they should be.

The second blog also reinforces the need for face-to-face communication. The simulation

provided a great example of what could happen if you don’t schedule enough meetings. The

quality of communication tends to be higher when people interact face-to-face (Madsen, 2021).

This means that even if we “don’t have time” for meetings, we need to find the time for them. To

ensure we have time for meetings, we may need to request longer time to complete the project.

This will provide the team with the time needed to promote quality communication throughout

the project.

Personal Experiences

While I was stationed on my last ship, I didn’t always take advantage of all of my team

members like tip 3 from the 5 tips blog encourages us to do. Sometimes it can be easier to assign

tasks to the ones that you know will get the job done. By using the same people over and over

again, you don’t give others a chance. This can make them feel isolated and not part of the team.

When it was slow (which was almost never), I would give other members a chance to lead

projects. I realize now that I should be doing this more often and not only when the workload is

minimal.

My instructor team at work is currently having issues with one member that is acting as

an individual. He talks like he cares about the team, but his actions say other otherwise. When

this person is in the office, it seems like the overall mood of the team becomes gloomy. They

don’t trust him and would rather not include him on any projects. This person will be in our

office for at least another year and a half. So, like the Madsen blog states to do, I started to
become an advocate for trust and respect (2021). I brought him in my office last Thursday and

opened up to him and tried to build some trust with him. He also opened up and seemed to

appreciate the time I took to try to work with him. If it works, I can then continue to mentor him

on becoming a better team member. A team member that the rest of the team can count on and

trust.

In the future, I plan to use a decision-making process that is similar to the one in our book

(Buede and Powell, 2009, Figure 1-4). I will start with the already created process and then will

make adjustments that align with what I think is important. Having an established decision-

making process will help me foresee potential issues with projects before they start.
 References

Buede, D, & Powell, R. (2009). Decision-Making: The Key to Project Success. Management

Concepts, Inc.

Guevin, M. (2022) 5 tips for effective workload management. Nutcache.

https://www.nutcache.com/blog/5-tips-for-effective-workload-management/

Madsen, S. (2021, November 16). What makes a high performing team? Susanne Madsen Intl.

https://www.susannemadsen.co.uk/blog/what-makes-a-high-performing-team