Clearing Morale Killers from the Project Path

Kenneth has 14 years of healthcare experience in government and private industry. Over eight years of experience managing healthcare IT projects, operations, contracts, and personnel. His work experience includes project management, contracts and procurements, data analysis, claims adjudication, business writing, and business process modeling. Kenneth was certified in 2006 as a Project Management Professional.

  Communications Management   Risk Management   Talent Management  

In the PMBOK human resource knowledge area, one of the objectives of developing a project management team is to “improve feelings of trust and agreement among team members in order to raise morale, lower conflict, and increase team work.” (4th Edition PMBOK, page 230). In many ways, the morale of the project team represents the energy that they bring to the project work. When the morale of a team drops, the work stagnates and the project starts to lean toward failure. When the people working on the project stay healthy and motivated, the energy stays high and the work gets done in a timely manner.

The nature of short projects with small project teams make them easier to manage in regards to keeping the morale and energy of the project team from dipping. The milestones are closer together and progress toward the goal of the project is easily measurable on a weekly (or even daily) basis. Personality conflicts, which often lead to low morale, can be managed closely with a small team. Issues can be corrected quickly to keep the project on track. A project manager can maintain a “hands-on” approach throughout the project and keep conflicts or other personnel problems from negatively affecting the project.

It is more difficult to manage the morale of a large project team working on a complex, multi-year project. There are thorns and brambles that …

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