Managing Teams

Session 6
1. Effective Team Characteristics
2. Why Join Teams?
3. Team Development
4. Keys to Managing People
5. Managing Project Teams
6. Project Team Conflict
7. Project Team Pitfalls
1. Effective Team Characteristics
2. Why Join Teams?
3. Team Development
4. Keys to Managing People
5. Managing Project Teams
6. Project Team Conflict
7. Project Team Pitfalls
A team
is a group of individuals who cooperate and work together to achieve a given set of
objectives or goals (Horodyski, 1995).
Teamwork
is close cooperation between cross-trained employees who are familiar with a wide
range of jobs in their organization
Team-building
is high interaction among group members to increase trust and openness
 –1
–Project Team Size
–2
–Common Characteristics

Effective Team Characteristics

Too small and too large…
Project teams of 5 to 12 members work best
There are problems you encounter as size
increases
1. It gets more difficult to
interact with and influence
the group

2. Individuals get less

satisfaction from their
involvement in the team

3. People end up with less

commitment to the team
goals

4. It requires more centralized

decision making

5. There is lesser feeling as

being part of team
Assigning more programmers to a project running behind schedule will make it even later,
due to the time required for the new programmers to learn about the project, as well as
the increased communication overhead.
- Fred Brooks
Balance is the key
Belbin
Characteristics of high performance team
Goals are clearly defined and matched with measurable
outcomes
Accurate effective 2-way communication
Co-responsibility and participative leadership
Effective problem solving and decision making
Team identity and cohesiveness
Diversity and balance
Cooperation and collaboration
They share a common identity
1. Effective Team Characteristics

2. Why Join Teams?

3. Team Development
4. Keys to Managing People
5. Managing Project Teams
6. Project Team Conflict
7. Project Team Pitfalls
1. Individual reasons

2. Security

3. Status

4. Self-esteem

5. Affiliation

6. Power

7. Goal achievement
Why do teams work well for organizations?
1. Effective Team Characteristics
2. Why Join Teams?

3. Team Development
4. Keys to Managing People
5. Managing Project Teams
6. Project Team Conflict
7. Project Team Pitfalls
 Project team

Project teams usually come together for a project and

then disband. What challenges does this create?
Tuckman (1960s) published five stage model of team
development
Tuckman (1960s) published five stage model of team
development
• A project manager needs to devote initial
attention to helping the group evolve quickly
to the (performing phase).

• This model provides a framework for the

group to understand its own development.

• It stresses the importance of the norming

phase which contributes to the level of
productivity.

Implications for teams

Punctuated Equilibrium Model
•(1988) Gersick found that there are natural
transition points during the life of teams in
which the group is receptive to change and
that such a moment naturally occurs at the
scheduled midpoint of a project
•By imposing a series of deadlines, with
milestones, it is possible to create multiple
transition points for natural group
development

Punctuated Equilibrium Model

Training
Team building activities include physical challenges and
psychological preference indicator tools
What is your suitability to Project Work?
1. Effective Team Characteristics
2. Why Join Teams?
3. Team Development

4. Keys to Managing People

5. Managing Project Teams
6. Project Team Conflict
7. Project Team Pitfalls
• Psychologists and management theorists have devoted much
research and thought to the field of managing people at work.
Important areas related to project management include
(1)Motivation, (2)Influence and power, and (3) Effectiveness
• Intrinsic motivation causes people to • Extrinsic motivation causes people
participate in an activity for their to do something for a reward or to
own enjoyment avoid a penalty
• eg. read, gardening… • eg. homework
 Motivation Theorists
– Maslow’s hierarch of needs
– Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene
– McClelland’s acquired-needs
– McGregor’s X and Y
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
http://talkingtails.wordpress.com/2007/07/23/maslow-greek-philosophy-indian-mysticism/
• In the late 1960s Frederick
Herzberg wrote about worker
motivation.
• He distinguished between
motivation factors and hygiene
factors.

motivation factors hygiene factors

Help motivate workers cause dissatisfaction if
directly absent but do not
eg. achievement, motivate,
recognition, work, eg. Money, working
responsibility conditions,

Hertzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory

Hertzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory
• In the 1960’s Douglas
McGregor popularized the
human relations approach
• Theory X: workers dislike and
avoid work
• Theory Y: work is as natural as
play or rest
• Theory Z: emphasizing trust,
quality, collective decision
making, and cultural values

McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y

McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y
(1961) David McClelland
proposed an individual’s
specific needs are
acquired or learned over
time and shaped by life
experiences.
Categories:
–achievement
–affiliation
–power

McClelland’s Acquired-Needs Theory

1. Effective Team Characteristics
2. Why Join Teams?
3. Team Development
4. Keys to Managing People

5. Managing Project Teams

6. Project Team Conflict
7. Project Team Pitfalls
Project managers must lead their teams in performing
various project activities
After assessing team performance and related information, the
project manager must decide:
–if changes should be requested to the project
–if corrective or preventive actions should be recommended
–if updates are needed to the project management plan or
organizational process assets
Tools and techniques available to assist in managing project teams
include:
observation and conversation
project performance appraisals
conflict management
issue logs
Don’t waste time
 Effective Use
of Meetings

Co-location of
team members

Creation of project
team name

Team rituals

Establishing a Team Identity

Look to each other for communication
1. Effective Team Characteristics
2. Why Join Teams?
3. Team Development
4. Keys to Managing People
5. Managing Project Teams

6. Project Team Conflict

7. Project Team Pitfalls
Managing Conflict in 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
alternative
Managing Conflict in the Project Team
• Managing Dysfunctional
Conflict
– mediate the conflict
– arbitrate the conflict
– control the conflict
– accept the conflict
– eliminate the conflict
1. Effective Team Characteristics
2. Why Join Teams?
3. Team Development
4. Keys to Managing People
5. Managing Project Teams
6. Project Team Conflict

7. Project Team Pitfalls

Figure 11.5 Conflict Intensity over the Project Life Cycle
(Gray & Larson, 2006, p363)
 Bureaucratic
Groupthink
Bypass Syndrome

Team Spirit Becomes

Going Native
Team Infatuation