Cross Training

Mike Griffiths is an experienced project manager, author and consultant who works for PMI as a subject matter expert. Before joining PMI, Mike consulted and managed innovation and technology projects throughout Europe, North and South America for 30+ years. He was co-lead for the PMBOK Guide—Seventh Edition, lead for the Agile Practice Guide, and contributor to the PMI-ACP and PMP exam content outlines. Outside of PMI, Mike maintains the websites www.LeadingAnswers.com about leading teams and www.PMillustrated.com, which teaches project management for visual learners.

  Agile   Estimating   Talent Management  

A big part of project management is working to grow a high performing team and then caring for that team so it stays healthy and productive. Agile concepts around empowered teams and team decision-making support these goals, so there should be no surprise that agile project management aligns well with team development best practices.

However, it never hurts to better understand some of the things that can go wrong on teams so that we can quickly take action and hopefully resolve issues before they become full-blown team problems. Patrick Lencioni’s book The 5 Dysfunction of a Team lists the following common problems that build on from each other to undermine trust--and eventually performance:

• An absence of trust--an unwillingness to be vulnerable and honest within the group.
• Fear of conflict--teams that lack trust cannot engage in unfiltered debate. Instead they resort to veiled discussions and guarded comments.
• Lack of commitment--without passionate debate, team members rarely--if ever--buy in and commit to decisions, though they may feign agreement during meetings.
• Avoidance of accountability--due to lack of commitment and buy-in, most people will hesitate to call their peers on actions and behaviors that seem counterproductive to the good of the team.
• Inattention to results--failure to hold one another accountable leads to putting…

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