Does Your Team Spend More Time Fighting Than Working?

 

Situation: You need to get people working together a bit better.

Recently, I interviewed Gina Abudi on one of her chapters in Project Pain Reliever entitled, "My team spends more time arguing than working". I asked her a few questions about how you get people to recognize the problem.  Then we dropped in a condensed version of the solution from the book. 

Dave:  In your experience, how do project managers find themselves in this situation?  What triggers the realization that they need help?

Gina:  Usually project managers find themselves in this situation when the problem becomes obvious to nearly everyone within the project team or working with the team in some way. It’s apparent that help is needed when project begins to go downhill: milestones are missed, stakeholders are unhappy, quality is poor, etc. Arguing is a fact of life and every team has arguments. What matters is how the project manager gets the team past this stage and to a point where they are working together effectively. 

Dave:  How do you help them connect what they perceive as their problem to the solution you outline in your Project Pain Reliever chapter?

Gina:  I find that helping project managers understand how teams work is essential. I ask them about their team and the relationships team members have with each other. I ask them question such as:

·       How did you first “kick off” the project team?

·       How did you help your team get to know each other?

·       What did you do when you team first began having issues?

·       How much do you know about your team members?

The project manager begins to understand that her limited knowledge about the team and her lack of “the right management at the right time” has an impact on how the team works together.

Dave:  What skills will they need to resolve this project problem?

Gina:  They must be able to work with team members individually and as a group to help them transition from stage 1 of team development through to stage 3/4. They need to set aside time for the team to become familiar and comfortable with each other. This requires skills in:

·       Team leadership

·       Communication

·       Problem solving

·       Influencing others

Any project manager must have strong team leadership skills to be effective in their role. Those that are not interested in their team and getting them team to a point where they are working effectively will be unable to be effective in their role.

Dave:  How do you motivate them to action?

Gina: The project failing is usually a good motivator. Often, also, the desire to be “liked” and for others to want to work with you is a motivator. If you are not a good leader (project manager) - it is unlikely that people (team members) will want to work with you. I find that by helping them to understand the benefits of spending time up front in team building and enabling the team to get to know each other, it is time well spent that will overall reduce arguments and improve project success. 

So how do you bring everyone together?

(excerpt from Project Pain Reliever)

Understand the stages of team development

First, step back and consider the five stages of team development. The first four stages were known as “Tuckman’s Stages.” The stages were developed by Bruce Tuckman and published in 1965. In 1977, Tuckman and Mary Ann Jensen, added a fifth stage, “Adjourning.” Let’s discuss the first four stages, which is what you need to understand in order to get your team working well together:

• Stage 1, Forming. The team first meets each other in this stage.
• Stage 2, Storming. Team members begin to work together and compete with each other for status and acceptance of their ideas.
• Stage 3, Norming. The team begins to work effectively as a team, no longer focused on their own goals, but rather on developing a way to work together effectively and efficiently.
• Stage 4, Performing. The team is functioning at a very high level and focused on reaching the goals of the group as a whole.

By understanding how teams work together and move through these four stages to reach high performance, you will be better equipped to get your team working together. Remember that some teams never make it to Stage 4, high performing, and stay at Stage 3, norming. Additionally, changes on the team could move a team that is performing in the “norming” stage back to “storming.” The project manager will need to be aware of changes that move a team back, and help them move forward as quickly as possible. Understanding the stages of team development enables you to be more effective as a project manager.

Teams may move back and forth between stages as changes occur that affect how the team works; for example, new members join, someone leaves, the project scope changes, a team member develops personal prob- lems, or other reasons occur. A team may move from norming back to storming, performing back to storming, norming back to forming, etc. In many cases, the team can get back to where they were fairly quickly. As the project manager, it is your responsibility to understand how teams function, and where you are needed to step in and assist them to keep moving in the right direction.

Resolve your team problem

Take these steps to resolve your problem of the team not working well together.

1. Step back so the team can begin to build relationships with each other.

You may already have individual relationships with some of the team members based on working together on past projects. If you do, use what you know about the team members to understand what is going on within the team. Use those relation- ships to call on team members to understand what is happening.

This team needs to spend some time getting to know each other and learning about each other so they are comfortable working together. It is possible that, prior to the project starting, the team did not have the opportunity to meet and get to know each other. This should be done now, but not in an hour or two; the more dif- ficulty that exists with the team working together, the more time needs to be spent in team building. Consider an entire day for a team that is working together poorly: You need to do some serious team building and issue resolution. This is important and needs to be fit into your schedule. You and the entire project team need to be together to start to build relationships and work together. Think about:

• Have any team members worked together before? If so, get them together and ask them what they found helpful when they first worked together?
• Are some members trying to reach out to the others? If so, get them in- volved in getting the team to work well together. They may have some good ideas!
• What are the personalities of the various team members? Are they shy and quite? Outgoing and loud? This may help you understand some of the is- sues you are facing.
• What are your options for getting the team together face-to-face for a couple of hours for a team building event? If not possible, when the team is virtual, think about your options for getting them together virtually through Web conferencing or other means. Ideally, you may have access to a virtual platform; if not, use a conference call, but definitely get everyone together. Some possibilities to consider are:
  • Breakfast or lunch get-together (if the team members are all in one location)
  • An “after hours” get-together (if the team members are all in one location)
  • A virtual get-together where the team is still able to see each other via cameras on their computers
  • A conference call get-together Even if the team is getting together via a conference call, a teambuilding event is possible. Some possibilities to consider include:
    • Presentations by team members about themselves: backgrounds, past projects, hobbies and interests, etc.
    • Use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
    • Various team building exercises. There are many team-building exercise books available, along with lots of information about team building exercises on the Internet.

Think about who you may want to bring from outside the project team to direct the team building. Maybe the project sponsor or a client could run a session? Maybe a neutral party, like a team-building consultant could help facilitate team building exercises?

Prior to the team meeting, ask the team to bring to the meeting their concerns about the project. What are the issues they are facing on the project, or otherwise, that is making it difficult for them to work together well? Do not short change the team building event as it will help strengthen the team, but also include discussion around team issues as they must be resolved to ensure success on the project. Make sure that problems and issues are brought to the forefront so they can be addressed and resolved. Prior to the get-together, make sure the team is aware that one discus- sion will be focused on the fact that the team is not working well together, and you want ideas from them as to how to improve the team as a whole. That way, team members can prepare to bring their best, positive ideas forward and make the most of their time together.

2. Come prepared on the day of the team meeting.

You have seen how the team is not working well together. In addition to team build- ing exercises, devote sufficient time to listing all of the team issues (no names nec- essary) that are having a negative effect on the project and focus discussion on the resolution of those issues. If others brought issues to your attention outside of the project, bring them up. However, this is not the time to point fingers or blame. As the project manager, it is up to you to keep frustrations at a minimum and keep the group moving in the right direction. This isn’t easy. You may find bringing in a facili- tator will help greatly here.

If problems are related to the scope of the project, disagreement around the proj- ect goals, etc., you may want to bring in your project sponsor to assist. It is important that the team works well together, so do not be afraid to call on others to help you get the team back on track. If issues are around individuals not pulling their weight and completing their tasks, or not showing up for team meetings, get the issue out on the table.

Make sure you have someone available to capture information to share after the meeting (note taker).

Once all issues are voiced, and the team has agreed those are the issues, the meet- ing should focus on discussions around why the issues are taking place and what can be done to resolve or move past them. -At this point, ask the team: What would help to get everyone to the meetings on time? What would help to ensure you can complete tasks in a timely manner? Be sure to capture all information. You may need help from others. For example, if you find out that some team members can- not complete their tasks on time because their immediate supervisor pulls them to work on other projects; that is an issue that will need to be addressed with someone other than the team member. Your sponsor can help here.

The key is to be sure that all issues are on the table. A plan must be developed to address each issue, with another plan to address issues that arise going forward, before they grow into larger conflicts that are detrimental to the project.

3. Follow up after the team get-together.

Gather the notes from the get-together and share them with everyone very soon after the meeting. You want their input on the notes, so ask for team members’ re- sponses and acknowledgement of acceptance of the get-together notes:

• Is anything missing from the list of issues? Is anything missing from the steps to resolve them? Is anything missing from how to monitor progress and address issues going forward?
• If issues need to be addressed by others outside the project team, or by the sponsor or other stakeholders, be sure to get a timeline from them for resolution on the issue.

The goal is to have everyone buy in to what happened at the meeting and the agreed-upon output from the get-together. At the next team meeting, reserve some time on the agenda to see how things are going after the team building session. Ask the team if there are other issues that have come up that should be discussed. Likely you will find the team more apt to speak up, or to tell you about issues they ad- dressed already and which are now resolved.

Teams that have spent some time up front getting to know each other are much more likely to be able to handle issues that arise in a timely manner.