CHAPTER ELEVEN

Managing
Project Teams

McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Copyright © 2011 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All
rights reserved.
Where We Are Now

11–2
 Learning Objectives (1 of 2)

1. Identify key characteristics of a high-

performance project team
2. Distinguish the different stages of team
development
3. Understand the impact situational factors
have on project team development
4. Identify strategies for developing a high-
performance project team

© McGraw-Hill Education. 11-3

 Learning Objectives (2 of 2)

5. Distinguish functional conflict from

dysfunctional conflict and describe
strategies for encouraging functional
conflict and discouraging dysfunctional
conflict
6. Understand the challenges of managing
virtual project teams
7. Recognize the different pitfalls that can
occur in a project team

© McGraw-Hill Education. 11-4

 Key Terms

Brainstorming
Dysfunctional conflict
Functional conflict
Groupthink
Nominal group technique (NG
Positive synergy
Project kickoff meeting
Project vision
Team building
Team rituals
Virtual project team
Belbin Tuchman Gersick
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–5
 Chapter Outline

11.1The Five-Stage Team Development

Model
11.2Situational Factors Affecting Team
Development
11.3Building High-Performance Project
Teams
11.4Managing Virtual Project Teams
11.5Project Team Pitfalls

© McGraw-Hill Education. 11-6

 High-Performing Teams

• Synergy
– 1 + 1 + 1 =10 (positive synergy)
– 1 + 1 + 1 =2 (negative synergy)

‘The difference in productivity between

an average team and a turned-on, high
performing team is not 10%, 20% OR
30%, BUT 100%, 200% even 500%’

Tom Peters, Management Consultant and well known writer

Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–7
 Characteristics of High-performing Teams

• Share a sense of common purpose

• Make effective use of individual talents and
expertise
• Have balanced and shared roles
• Maintain a problem solving focus
• Accept differences of opinion and expression
• Encourage risk taking and creativity
• Set high personal performance standards
• Identify with the team
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–8
 Conditions Favoring Development of
High Performance Project Teams

• Ten or fewer team • Members report only to

members the project manager
• Voluntary team • All relevant functional
membership areas are represented on
• Continuous service on the the team
team • The project has a
• Full-time assignment to compelling objective
the team • Members are in speaking
• An organization culture of distance of each other
cooperation and trust
11–9
The Five-Stage Team Development Model

FIGURE 11.1

McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–10
 The Punctuated Equilibrium Model
of Group Development

FIGURE 11.2

Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–11
 Creating a High-Performance Project Team

FIGURE 11.3

Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–12
 Building High-Performance Project Teams
• Recruiting Project Members
– Factors affecting recruiting
• Importance of the project
• Management structure used to complete the project
– How to recruit?
• Ask for volunteers
– Who to recruit?
• Problem-solving ability
• Availability
• Technological expertise
• Credibility
• Political connections
• Ambition, initiative, and energy

Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–13
 Project Team Meetings

Managing
Establishing
Subsequent
Ground Rules
Meetings

Conducting
Relationship Planning
Decisions Project Decisions
Meetings

Managing
Tracking
Change
Decisions
Decisions

Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–14
Norms of High-Performance Teams

• Confidentiality is maintained; no information is shared

outside the team unless all agree to it.
• It is acceptable to be in trouble, but it is not acceptable
to surprise others. Tell others immediately when
deadlines or milestones will not be reached.
• There is zero tolerance for bulling a way through a
problem or an issue.
• Agree to disagree, but when a decision has been made,
regardless of personal feelings, move forward.
• Respect outsiders, and do not flaunt one’s position on
the project team.
• Hard work does not get in the way of having fun.

© McGraw-Hill Education. 11-15

 Establishing a Team Identity

Effective Use
of Meetings

Co-location of
team members

Creation of project
team name

Get the team to do

something together Team rituals

Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–16
Requirements for an Effective Shared Vision

FIGURE 11.4

11–17
 Managing Project Reward Systems

• Group Rewards
–Who gets what as an individual reward?
–How to make the reward have lasting significance?
–How to recognize individual performance?
• Letters of commendation
• Public recognition for outstanding work
• Desirable job assignments
• Increased personal flexibility

Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–18
 Orchestrating the Decision-Making Process

Problem Identification

Generating Alternatives

Reaching a Decision

Follow-up

Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–19
 Managing Conflict within the Project Team
• Encouraging Functional Conflict
– Encourage dissent by asking tough questions
– Bring in people with different points of view
– Designate someone to be a devil’s advocate
– Ask the team to consider an unthinkable alternative
• Managing Dysfunctional Conflict
– Mediate the conflict
– Arbitrate the conflict
– Control the conflict
– Accept the conflict
– Eliminate the conflict

Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–20
 Sources of Conflict over the Project Life Cycle

FIGURE 11.5

Copyright © 2018 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 11–21
 Conflict Intensity Over the Project Life Cycle

FIGURE 11.5

Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–22
 Rejuvenating the Project Team
• Informal Techniques
– Institute new rituals
– Take an off-site break as a team from the project
– View an inspiration message or movie
– Have the project sponsor give a pep talk
• Formal Techniques
– Hold a team building session facilitated by an outsider
to clarify ownership issues affecting performance
– Engage in an outside activity that provides an intense
common experience to promote social development of
the team

Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–23
 Managing Virtual Project Teams

• Challenges:
–Developing trust
• Exchange of social information
• Set clear roles for each team member
–Developing effective patterns of communication.
• Include face-to-face if at all possible
• Keep team members informed on how the overall project
is going
• Don’t let team members vanish
• Establish a code of conduct to avoid delays
• Establish clear norms and protocols for surfacing
assumptions and conflicts
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–24
 24-Hour
Global Clock

FIGURE 11.6

Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–25
 Project Team Pitfalls

Bureaucratic
Groupthink
Bypass Syndrome

Team Spirit Becomes

Going Native
Team Infatuation

Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–26
 Belbin
Plant
Resource Investigator
Coordinator
Shaper
Monitor Evaluator
Team worker
Implementer
Completer
Specialist

Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–27
 Belbin – Initial Observations

 that the behaviours of team members are

organised in a limited number of team roles
which are independent of the members’
technical expertise or formal status
 that managers tend to consistently adopt one
or two of these team roles
 that these preferred team roles are linked to
personality characteristics
 that the effectiveness of the team depends
upon the combination of team roles adopted by
the team members.

Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–28
 Belbin’s recipe for success

• Based on his observations of successful teams over

the years, Belbin offers a recipe for an effective team
which is a combination of the following qualities:
• The right person in the chair
– This means that the person who is carrying out the functions
of chairing the group meetings has the appropriate personality
and skills, i.e. they are trusted by the other members and
know how to control the discussion without dominating it.
• One strong plant in the group
– By a strong plant, Belbin means someone who is both creative
and clever and who has the right types of creativity and
interests for the task in hand.
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–29
 Belbin’s recipe for success (Cont’d)

• Fair spread in mental abilities

–The good news for us lesser mortals is that a group
composed completely of very clever people often if
not invariably fails as a team (what Belbin
christened the Apollo syndrome). Such a group
spends so much time analysing and criticising each
other’s ideas that they do not achieve much. What
is needed is a spread of abilities, including the
clever plant and competent chair.
• Wide team-role coverage
–This increases the range of the team and can also
mean that there is no unnecessary friction in which
different members ‘compete’ for the same role.
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–30
 Belbin’s recipe for success (Cont’d)

• Good match between attributes and

responsibilities
–This is where members are given roles and
jobs which fit their abilities and personal
characteristics.
• Adjustment to realisation of imbalance
–Like the group of shapers, this is where the
group can recognise any gaps in its make-
up and can adopt strategies to make good
these problems.
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–31
 That’s all for
now

For the
seminar,
study the
Belbin roles
to see which
fits you best

Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–32
 Belbin
(i) Try to work out which of the 8 Belbin roles is described by the brief summaries 1–8
below.
1. Puts the group's ideas into practice in a systematic way. Carries  out the group's
plans methodically and efficiently.
2. Keeps the group working together towards its objectives. Makes the best use of
each team member's strengths, and recognizes the team's weaknesses.
3. Has a vision of the group's goals, and drives the group towards them. Tries to
shape the group's discussions and activities in order to achieve its objectives.
4. Produces novel ideas. Suggests new and creative approaches to problems and
issues which the group is addressing.
5. Brings in ideas and resources from outside the group. Makes and maintains
external contacts, and uses these to further the work of the group.
6. Analyses and evaluates ideas from the group. Makes sure that group decisions
are realistic and balanced.
7. Builds team spirit and makes sure the group works well together. Improves
communication within the group and supports individual group members.
8. Makes sure that the group's work is properly completed and that deadlines are
met. Pays attention to detail and gives the group a sense of urgency.
Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–33
 Belbin

(ii) Then try to decide which of Belbin's roles best describes the way you
behave in a group. You might like to ask someone who knows you well
what they think.

Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–34
 Answer to Belbin roles
• Belbin's team roles
• The descriptions correspond to the team roles as follows. (The numbers are just for the purposes
of this activity. Belbin did not number the roles – he just referred to them by their names.)
• 1. Implementer
• 2. Coordinator
• 3. Shaper
• 4. Plant
• 5. Resource Investigator
• 6. Monitor–Evaluator
• 7. Team Worker
• 8. Completer–Finisher
Questions
1. Was it easy for you to identify your preferred team role?
2. If you asked a friend or colleague, did they agree with the role you picked out for yourself?

When thinking about the balance of roles in a group, the sorts of questions you might consider
include:
3. Is the group missing an important role? If so, how will you cope with that?
4. Have you got too many leaders – or no leader at all? If so, will this cause problems?

Copyright © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill/Irwin 11–35