Will Your Team Succeed?

Reasons Teams Fail (In Business & School)  Poor communication  Personal styles and paces that clash  Free riders who don’t contribute fair share  Focus on product, ignore the process  Leadership issues  Poor quality product  Tendency to give up when faced with obstacles

Solutions to Poor Communication  Establish comm links early - , phone lists, weekly meetings  Accept feedback  Written, clear assignment instructions - Gantt chart, members re-state assignment in own words  Meeting Agendas  Status reports w/feedback  Ask questions for clarification

Solutions to Personal Clashes  Respect each other’s position  Make conflict professional not personal  Treat each other professionals  Try compromising to meet the same goal  When required, seek an arbitrator (e.g., instructor)  Have fun

Solutions to Free Riders  Establish clear team rules early (expectations, removal process)  Address inactivity immediately  Document warnings (both oral and written)  Team removal

How to Focus on Process (Chapter 4 of SPM)  Good, clear, detailed project plan  Have agenda available early  Use good research tools (library, Internet, etc.)  Emphasize quality, not quantity  Use a Gantt chart  Schedule aggressively (p. 100 in SPM)  Status reports  Ask questions

Solutions to Leadership Issues  Create leadership questionnaire carefully  Establish leadership roles that work for this particular team  Create meaningful guidelines for leaders in team charter  Talk to leader about problems or potential problems, not other team members

Insure Quality  Research (library, Internet, company)  Use your imagination in preparing documentation (use graphics)  SPELL CHECK - GRAMMAR CHECK  Would you present the document to your manager who is considering you for promotion?  ASK QUESTIONS  Work as a Team not a Group

Don’t Give Up  Seek professors’ advice  Develop a team spirit, name & logo  Don’t get ‘senioritis’

Effective Team Members in Projects  High Quality Technical Skills – members need to solve technical problems without outside assistance  Political Sensitivity – Leaders and team members should have an understanding of the organization’s politics  Strong Problem Orientation - effective team members need to be problem oriented not discipline oriented.

Effective Team Members in Projects  Strong Goal Orientation – Focus should be on results not activity. (no clock watchers)  High Self Esteem – Never surprise the boss (Team members willing to admit problems/errors)  Multiple roles – team members willing to perform multiple types of tasks