Teachable Moments: Teamwork

Harold Kerzner, Ph.D., is the Senior Executive Director for Project Management for the International Institute for Learning (IIL). He has a MS and Ph.D. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from the University of Illinois and an MBA from Utah State University.

 

Teachable moments are formed when you have done something--regardless of the outcome--and learned from the experience. Learning makes us better at what we do and provides a great opportunity to develop others and sharpen skills. We’ve compiled our best Teachable Moments from our community members for you to learn from and share with other project managers.

Faculty members who teach project management courses are always challenged with coming up with ways to stimulate students and get them to perform as a team. Several years ago, I learned that students can be quite competitive--and that competitiveness can be quite effective when used as a form of motivation.

One typical method is to assign case studies to the students, break them into teams and have each team compete to come up with the best solution.

Several years ago, I came up with a different approach to stimulate in-class teamwork. I prepared a statement of work for a project. The SOW had some “holes” in it, forcing assumptions to be made. I broke the class into teams and each team was given two weeks to price out the SOW and submit a sealed bid for the project. At the next class, each team would have to stand up in front of the class and defend their position.

I told the students that in preparing their defense, they must first justify their assumptions. If all of their assumptions …

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