As I was doing Fall cleanup of my room, I felt ecstatic when I found one of my scribbled notes on an old journal record on the guidelines on team management. It was one of the preparations I had done for a PMO round table on team management. The guidelines were the recommendations of Jerry Wellman (2011). While the concepts were straight forward here, I decided to put this here with some additional thoughts and share it for the community. All the eight habits are recommendations from Wellman (2011) and although these are recommendations for project teams, I feel that it applies to any type of strategic and executional team.
- Shared Vision
- Establish Clear Roles - This is not to indicate titles but roles with broader responsibilities
- Develop the Objectives together to foster buy-in - Teams work together better if they co-author the working agreements
- Set Expectations
- Translate overall vision into specific objectives - Discuss in clear unambiguous terms how the vision is mapped into strategic objectives (product, program, portfolio, etc.)
- Discuss commitments - availability, updates, process checks - As people commit to work, ask them to think about other elements that will endanger their commitment.
- Integrated Plan
- Decide on deliverables for the project - What, when, who, how, why? - While we discuss deliverables within in the project context, explore alternative thinking on these same thoughts for backlog refinement and phased approaches to rolling wave planning.
- How do you measure success? - Ensure that we agree on what matters to the team's health! Measure what matters rather than what can be measured.
- Measure Performance
- Synchronous and asynchronous focus on status - With remote teams, don't ask for meetings at hours that make it difficult for team members in other time zones to meet. Use both synchronous and asynchronous means to validate success. Promote unambiguous written communication.
- Act as each other's eyes - Don't just see what you want to see - Yes, although is a cliche that it takes a whole village to build a village, it truly a fact!
- Allow for Uncertainty
- Be flexible - Identify risks and prepare for them - What more can I say here that I have not already said!
- Discuss risks and treatment plans identify triggers in advance - Identify triggers that can make the risks materialize! Have a plan to monitor risks!
- Manage Change
- Identify slips proactively and have a plan to manage change - There are supposed to change management protocols and governance. Use an audit-based governance mechanism to promote expedited approvals.
- Monitor change with client and internal teams - Remember change occurs everywhere all the time. So, be an agent of change from both the external and internal environments!
- Continually Influence
- Think outside the box - clients are reasonable and understanding - Don't complain about unreasonable clients. Are you ready to listen to their "unreasonable vendors"?
- Think laterally to influence - Influence is all about leadership bringing behavioral changes to others - external and internal to the delivery team.
- Regularly Over-Communicate
- Understand various means to communicate and use all channels effectively - Be comfortable with writing/speaking on all the channels of communication
- Even if it is common sense, communicate. - Let others be the judge of the information they receive!
Thoughts not in bold and italics but after the hyphen in every element are my extension of ideas! Happy to hear your thoughts.
References
Wellman, J. (2011). Eight habits of successful project teams. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan
