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The Good, Er, Old Days
David Schmaltz is a project manager in Takoma Park, Maryland.
In the first installment of his new series, editorial board member David Schmaltz lays the groundwork for “discovering project community,” and discusses how the concept differs from traditional team approaches, including the pitfalls of over-responsibility and an “us-versus-them” mentality.
I’ve been working around projects so long that I remember when the standard unit of project operations was still the team! Oh, we thought we were mature, but we were prehistoric compared to how we approach projects today.
Back then, when a project was proposed, we’d actually muster a “team!” (Can you believe it?) We were naive, but we just didn’t know any better. We’d assemble a few specialists to determine what needed doing and by whom, then assign specific responsibilities to individuals. We told ourselves that these assignments created “accountability,” and we actually believed this enabled success. We called this process “work breakdown” without ever noticing the irony imbedded in that curious phrase.
Then we lavished attention on those mustered into this “team.” We engaged in exercises called “team building,” so the conscripts could develop an identity separate from the rest of the organization and be personally committed to the mission they were expected to accomplish. We could tell …
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