Socially Acceptable Terms of Team Engagement

Michelle Stronach has over 20 years of experience in the project management field, with experience creating successful PMOs and implementing project, portfolio management and IT governance frameworks. Michelle truly appreciates the value of feedback and welcomes comments on her articles. https://twitter.com/mlstronach

  Communications Management   Governance   Knowledge Management   Lessons Learned   Talent Management  

Let’s make it absolutely clear: Team behavior has a profound effect on the success of the project. If not managed, it will lead to project failure. If the team is not performing, then neither is the project. We all know that newly formed teams go through the process of forming, storming, norming and performing. In a world were agility is needed and communication channels are plentiful, how do we get to the performing stage fast without compromising the value of the transition or being distracted?

It is important that members go through the process of getting to know each other and establishing a group culture. Groups give us a sense of belonging in the world, and in order to increase self-image we as individuals aim to enhance the status of the group to which we belong. We want our team members to identify with the group, but in projects we must first create the group’s identity.

Social Identity Theory
The social identity theory developed by Henri Tajfel and John Turner in 1979 talks about the mental process individuals take to categorize people in order to identify with them and then compare to other groups. The theory states that social behavior that varies within the group based on individual characteristics and relationships (and between groups) is influenced by social categorization. Concentrating on the “in-group” behavior aspects of …

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