05 Aug Project Teams: how to create a winning team, the stages of development, and the role of the leader
Who does not know the famous motto of the Three Musketeers “All for one, one for all“? This is at the heart of a high-performing Project Team.
In fact, teamwork is not just about the performance of tasks by individuals. The success and achievement of a common goal and work project is won through cohesion, fellowship, and the way team members interact with each other to deal with difficulties, to constructively express their opinions, and to resolve situations and problems that may arise during the work.
How to create the project team? What are the development stages and requirements of the members of this type of Team? How to manage the project and what are the characteristics that a good leader must have? These are the issues we will address below.
How to create the project team?
The very first step in creating a successful Team consists of the planned organization for identifying team members, approving as well as hiring them, and finally developing the team.
First, the project must have been decided in detail, with clear and well-defined objectives. The activities to be carried out should be easy for everyone to understand. Each step should correspond to a task, so that the plan of action will be as organized as possible. It is therefore advisable to identify the individual roles in the project, the various responsibilities and relationships, and to create a staff development plan through an organizational chart. This will give everyone the opportunity to also be visually clear about their position and the most suitable employees to whom they can turn in case of need.
All this must be drafted with a document that is accessible to the whole team and can be consulted at all times and places. In this documentation it will also be necessary to include the budget, time and resource limits essential for staff recruitment.
The choice of staff is another very delicate and important moment; one must carefully evaluate the experience of the various candidates, necessary skills, technical abilities, and personal characteristics, because these also affect the success of the project. Employees of the same company from various different sectors as well as external components and/or suggested by the human resources department may be considered.
Once the various candidates have been selected, further targeted selection will be made with cognitive interviews, evaluating all the necessary characteristics. When all project documentation has been prepared and team members have been chosen, the next steps of managing the created project team can begin.
The project manager and his carefully formed team are the strength, power and energy that can bring to life a “machine” capable of achieving the goal in the best possible way. That is why the choice of people to work with is vital.
Do you want more information about how to create a winning team? Read more about Team Coaching HERE
Stages of development:
Do you think that once the project team is formed thoroughly everything will run smoothly? The choice of personnel was only a first part. According to the theory formulated by Bruce Tuckman in 1965, during the life cycle of a project the relevant team goes through 5 stages:
- Forming
- Storming
- Norming
- Performing
- Adjourning
Tuckman believes that these stages are necessary for the development of the project team, for its growth and evolution, for finding solutions, planning work, facing daily problems and challenges, and then achieving the desired results.
Here we analyze each stage.
1. Forming:
This first phase represents the first meeting of the project team members. In reality it will still only be a group of people and not a real team. Each group participant begins to get to know each other and form a first impression of the others. They will exchange information about their background, skills, previous experience, areas of origin and personal traits. They will share their own opinions about the project and the significant contribution they can make to the team, as well as the role each can play within ‘the work to be done.
In this phase it is the Project Manager and Group Leader who has a key role, because he must be able to explain the project, answer related doubts or questions that will arise, and manage communication among all group members. He or she must also make the objectives of the project clear and precise, assign roles and activities to be performed by each of them. Involvement, support, motivation, helpfulness, and transparency on the part of the project manager are key in this meeting.
These are fundamental elements that must never fail throughout the project.
2. Storming:
In the second stage, after the various introductions, the team gets together for the first time. There begins to be an exchange of ideas about how and what something should be done. Often the technique of brainstorming is used, which consists precisely in the formulation of many thoughts, opinions in a free and spontaneous way.
This is where the first conflicts may arise, as everyone tends to let his or her own idea prevail and to try to prove that he or she is better than the others, pointing out his or her own skills, as everyone is in competition with the other.
This confrontation, however, should not be eliminated, but it needs to be handled with skill and sensitivity. It can bring out problems that should not be underestimated and help to avoid future conflicts from the ‘beginning. Right from the start the project manager, who is the point of reference for the team, must try to de-escalate internal conflicts, listen and make all points of view heard, in a calm and constructive way. He or she must intervene early so that these early disagreements are not carried throughout the project; he or she must calm the most aggressive and engage the most assertive. When team members learn to cooperate peacefully, positively and constructively and become more independent, the storming phase ends and the Group leader will be able to delegate some decision-making processes safely.
It may happen that some misunderstandings are not resolved even after identifying the root causes, so it will be up to the project manager to decide whether to demand a decisive “alignment” or even replace someone.
3. Norming:
At this stage, one can definitely speak of a Team, that is, a cohesive group that respects the opinions of others and values each other’s ideas, where no one prevails over the others and where harmony and the correct team spirit reign to work in the best way possible.
Everyone is clear about the common goal to be achieved together through rules of behavior and cooperation. Members know exactly what they should do, how they should share information and knowledge, and how to solve any problems. The role here of the Group leader is one of support and presence; he or she must foster the group’s autonomous work, mutual trust, normal development of internal relationships, and keep the Team’s motivation high.
4. Performing:
Team members at this stage are able to work effectively as a group without the constant supervision of the project manager.
They have achieved a high awareness of what is the goal to be achieved with determination, productivity is high and successful.
The Team is now very close-knit, capable of working independently, resolving misunderstandings in a calm and expeditious manner, sharing all decisions and moments of difficulty with the other members, but without involving the Project Manager, who will continue to monitor the progress of the project, rewarding the team for achieving even small milestones, by the means he deems most appropriate. Some of these could be, for example, playful team-building activities or even incentive trips.
This will help make each person feel like a key part of the group and will increase their motivation and enthusiasm to achieve the final goal. Not always and not everyone reaches this stage, where the team’s best performance is recorded. Some regress, some remain in the previous, norming stage.
5. Adjourning:
The project is coming to a close and we are reaching the last stage, that of Adjourning.
The well-established Project Team is finalizing the work and completing the last closing activities to be done. Indi will come to the end of the team work.
At this stage, concentration is utmost and everyone is bent on finishing in the best possible way and achieving the set goal. One can already catch a glimpse of the new projects to which one is assigned. This stage is very important for the awareness of the goals achieved, the difficult moments overcome. Everyone must know how to treasure the positive experience they have had, must be able to avoid repeating any mistakes they have made, and be aware of the notions and new skills they have learned, thanks also to the contribution of their teammates, without whom it would not have been possible to achieve the result that at the ‘beginning seemed so difficult to achieve.
Requirements for an effective and productive Project Team:
We summarize below the characteristics that a Project Team must have in order to achieve success- transparent communication from all members,
- frequent meetings, with everyone’s participation and enthusiasm;
- peaceful sharing of information, tools and opinions;
- clarity of the tasks to be performed and everyone’s roles; and
- determination, commitment and precision in achieving the common goal;
- organization, timely delivery of work;
- group problem solving
- positive attitudes
- high mutual support and trust
- high motivation
- Competent and helpful project manager, able to handle any situation