Bad Attitudes

  Communications Management   ProjectsAtWork  

If your project has adversaries, participants who are hostile or reluctant to contribute, it can damage team cohesion and threaten the outcome. You must confront the problem early on, taking steps to win them over to allies, minimize their negative impact, or remove them from the effort entirely.

Project contributors tend to be either allies or adversaries. During project initiation, you’ll need to identify all potential team members who are adversaries and either convert them to allies or determine how to proceed — either by doing without them or by finding a way to deal with the effects of their behavior on your project.

If someone on your project team clearly does not support your project, consider whether their participation is essential. Investigate alternatives, such as using different contributors with similar skills and talents, or other methods for completing project work that could be delegated to others on your project team. On some projects it may even be possible to do without one or more of the contributors who may be initially assigned to your project entirely. If you have a good alternative, adopt it, and drop any unnecessary staff members who seem likely to impede your progress.

If there are no good options other than working with someone who seems hostile to your project, investigate the reasons they are not supportive. Some people are …

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