Operating within the realities of organizational life

Finding and working with capable people

Structuring project teams and building cohesiveness

Realities of Organizational Life

Divorce of responsibility and authority – project managers have little or no direct control over the people and things that make the difference between project success and failure.

Nurturing authority – if project managers want people to take them seriously and do their binding, they have to create and nature a base of authority.

Full project environment – project managers have to deal with the environment external as well as internal to the organization.

Finding and

Working with

Capable People

Rules for Working Smart

Do things right the first time – reworking defective parts is far more expensive than producing them correctly in the first place.

Set realistic goals – with realistic planning and goal setting, there is less need to have people work overtime.

Get technically competent people – there are dramatic variations in people’s abilities to carry out different kind of tasks.

Project Manager Responsibilities

Developing Staff – project management know-how is conveyed informally, managers learn to carry out projects by working on them and learning from experienced project managers.

Serving as management-staff intermediary – project managers are situated between higher levels of management above them and the lower level staff below.

Conveying lessons learned – project managers are great storehouses of practical project knowledge.

The team leader’s management style can take one of three forms: autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire.

1. The autocratic style of management is where all the decisions are taken from the top of the hierarchy; the employees have little or no influence on the decision making process and the flow of information is often slow because staff members are not involved discussions.

Information flow with Autoctatic Style

2. The democratic style of management is characterized by high level of involvement from every member of the organization. It is very encouraging for the staff as they are given more responsibility and participate in the day-to-day running of the company. It can also be a high motivational factor as the employees are striving to achieve more when exposed to that sort of environment. Information flow with Democratic

Style

3. The Laissez-faire style of management style is the French word for basically do as it pleases you. The management has no or little influence on the running of the company. The risk of conflicts between team members can be very high and the flow of communication can be nonexistent as there is no one to delegate commands to. Information flow with Laisses-

faire Style

Structuring Project Teams and Building

Cohesiveness

Characteristics of Project Teams

A team is a collection of individuals who work together to attain a goal.

Project teams come in a great variety of shapes and sizes: small/large; solve routine/complex problems; aren dynamic/stable.

They work on a piece of project, and when they are done they move on to other project, so they may not recognize that they are part of a team.

Project teams have structure: there are rules governing the relationship of team members with each other, with the project manager, with the client, and with the product being developed.

Team efficiency

Efficiency – is defined as the ratio of output to input.

Team efficiency – a fraction of potential team performance that is actually achived.

Sources of team inefficiency

Matrix-Based Frictions – projects are dependent on temporarily borrowed staff (lact of staff continuity, project manager’s lack of direct control over project staff and material resources).

Poor communication – information is the lifeblood of project

Poor intergration – projects are systems compesed of many interrelated pieces.

Structuring teams Isomorphic Team Structure – involves a team structure that imitates the physical structure of the end product.

Report

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4

(a) Structure of deliverable

Project Manager

Team: Member A

Team: Member B

Team: Member C

Team: Member D

(b) Structure of the Project Team

Speciality Team Structure – a matrix-style structure in which employees apply their strengths where appropriate. As a result, team members are responsible for coordinating their activities to achieve an objective while the team leader is simply a resource and has less control.

Specialist B

Specialist C

Specialist A

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4

PROJECT MANAGER

Speciality Team Structure

Structuring teams – cont’ed.

Ergoless Team Structure – encourages high levels of interacitity and communicatons among project members. They are in touch with each other and make decisions though consensus. There is no obvious leader.

TeamMember A

Team Member C

Team Member B

Chapter 2Chapter 1 Chapter 3 Chapter 4

Egoless Team Structure

Surgical team structure – is when one person (the ‘surgeon’) works on the actual project while others support him/her (the ‘nurses’).

Chief Writer

Chapters: 1,2,3,4

Assistant

Specialist A

Specialist B

Specialist C

Editor

Project Administra

tor

Chapter 1,2,3,4

Demands on project staff time coming from other

projectsSurgial Team Approach

Team Culture Organizational culture is a mixture of the values and beliefs of the people in an organization.

It is that which is central, distinctive and enduring about an organization.

To improve team culture, the team should be made ‘tangible’.

This can be done through such activities as creating a team name and kicking off meetings with fun, team-building activities.

This provides team members with an opportunity to get to know one another and creates a team identity.

Letters of commendations Public recognition for good work Job assignments Flexible work time Job-related perquisites New equipment Recommendation for cash awards and bonuses

Be supportive Be clear Learn something about the team members

Celebrate special occasions Be assessible

Projects are carried out through teams. An important function of a project manager is to create a team structure where no discernible structure exists.

Project manager should select a structure that contributes to team efficiency.

Team members must be encouraged to identify with the team, develope team spirit, and do whatever is necessary to make the project succeed.