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Yes, a cross-functional team of experts CAN work.  A great example of this is a symphonic orchestra.  There are brass, woodwinds, strings, percussion…  Each is a master of their instrument and has unique knowledge that the other members of the orchestra don’t.  Clearly this is a cross-functional team – made up of experts – with large amounts of informational diversity, yet the work beautifully together.   As project managers, there are lessons we can learn from the orchestra example.   

But first, let’s talk about disagreements.  They will happen, hardly anyone doubts that.  A cross-functional team will have conflicts, and these conflicts have been shown to be harmful to the end result of the project (discussed in the blog: ” How hard is it to herd a group of cats, cows, sheep, goats, dogs and llamas?”

CONFLICT WITHIN THE TEAM

Conflict in a project team with high informational diversity is nearly inevitable.  I, myself have been in LARGE emotionally-charged, life-altering, conflicts about technical items with mechanical engineers, and aerodynamicists and others.   The sources of conflict will vary according to the type of project your managing and the life cycle stage the project is in.  Conflict will happen. 

DEALING WITH CONFLICT WITHIN THE TEAM

There are two schools of thought about team conflict.  One is called the “Traditional view.”  It was developed in the 19^th century, was prevalent through the 1940s and still exists today.   I see it sometimes various companies. 

The guidelines of the traditional view are:

• Conflict is bad
• Always has a negative effect on projects
• Performance declines as conflict increases
• Conflict must be avoided

In the traditional view, the manager is responsible to free the project of any source of conflict, by reducing, suppressing or eliminating it.  

The second and more modern view of team conflict is:

• Conflict is natural and inevitable
• It may have either a positive or negative effect
• Project Managers should focus on managing conflict rather than eliminating it

MANAGING TEAM CONFLICT

Now comes the hard part.  It’s your job as the Project Manager to also manage any conflict that may arise.  Remember, you have a group of people that have high informational diversity, often can’t communicate with each other very well and you’re attempting to produce the product of the project.   How do you handle it?

• Encourage Functional Conflict!
• Ask tough questions
• Invite members with different views to speak
• Appoint a “Advocatus Diaboli” (Devil’s Advocate)
• Consider alternatives

Again, there have been lots of studies dealing with the value of the “interactionist view” of dealing with conflict

• “Engaging conflicts about tasks yield better decisions” (Schwenk and Valacich 1994)
• “Explicit task disagreements help group members better identify project issues” (Putnam 1994)
• “Disagreements within groups encouraged group members to develop new ideas and approaches” (Baron 1991)

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In the last blog, I talked about “informational diversity. within teams”  What is this?   It’s a type of diversity stemming from differences in individuals’ knowledge and experience related background.  These differences have been proven to increased task conflict.  Many studies show this. Below are a few:

Increased conflict!

• Job-related attributes which require capturing experiences and skills germane to cognitive tasks have strong relationships with task conflict (Pelled, et al., 1999)
• Team members with different expertise and educational backgrounds often possess divergent preferences and interpretations of tasks which, in turn, are likely to manifest as conflict (Bunderson and Sutcliffe, 2002).

• Research in organizational behavior has demonstrated that differences in educational background lead to an increase in task-related conflict in work teams (Jehn, et al., 1997).

In other words, as informational diversity within a group increases, task conflict is likely to increase. Members in a more informational diverse team are more likely to hear views that diverge from their own, so task conflict becomes more pronounced.

Why do this crazy thing?

It’s done on purpose.  The organization decided the best way to solve a problem was to have experts from various fields all work as a project team to solve a problem.  However, they just created a project environment proven to create conflict at nearly every level. 

Reasons for creating cross-functional team include: a rapid pace for a new product development, meeting highly competitive market demand, resizing and restructuring or new technologies, and more.  To accomplish a difficult task requiring multiple skills – a cross functional team is required.  

How well does this work?

Typically – not very well.  In one large study, researchers found that 75% of cross functional teams weren’t functional (Cross-Functional Dysfunctional Behnam Tabrizi).  They either did not have clear goals, or when they had them, they did not meet them.  The returns expected by management were unable to be obtained.  

• “Innovatiness is actually lower with cross-functional teams (Ancona and Caldwell, 1992)
• Cross-functional teams often prove ineffective at capitalizing on the benefits of their informational diversity (Stasser and Titus, 1985, 1987)
• Difficulty motivating members to work together effectively (Dumaine, 1994)
• When groups benefit from informational diversity –  members report the experience frustrating and dissatisfying (Baron, 1990); Amason and Schweiger (1994)

Guess who is the project manager?  YOU ARE, You’re going to have to pull this team together and accomplish some complex thing that’s never been done before.  – It’s “Deliciously complex.”

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By that, I mean an Aerospace project

What does a project manager on an Aerospace project do?  They manage perhaps some of the most technically diverse and highly complex projects on earth.  This is accomplished through defined Project Management practices and a unique type of project team comprised of a group with very high “informational diversity.”

Informational diversity?  That means that each member of the team has widely different backgrounds, experiences, education, and understandings. They are so diverse; they often don’t agree or even understand each other.  It’s not that they don’t want to understand – it’s that each is speaking a different technical language.  For instance, a theoretical physicist may not be able to communicate a concept or concern to an engineer.  And the engineer may not be able to communicate well with the physicist.  A great many academic studies have been conducted on the difficulties and successes of managing a team with high informational diversity. 

Such a team may be composed of physicists, engineers, mathematicians, aerodynamicists, material scientists, ceramic experts, chemists, computer designers, computer-language designers – and many, many more.  In addition, your project may be purchasing advanced systems, both hardware and software - some of which are still experimental - from other teams that have their own degree of informational diversity.

This creates a condition I call “delicious complexity.”  It’s also wonderfully exciting and permanently mind-warping. 

How could you ever hope to manage this type of project team?   First, you don’t start as the project manager – that would be cruel and unusual.  I personally worked as a “wet-behind the ears” engineer developing avionics, software, and crew interactions for years before becoming a PM.  There is typically a well-defined (yet flexible) project management structure in place that everyone is exposed to in every aerospace environment.   The program and project handbook I used to use has a great many similarities to the PMBOK© guide and can be downloaded free here http://go.nasa.gov/1QPkK8Z

Eventually, the PM will become conversant in nearly every technical field there is.  Physics, mathematics, aerodynamics, materials, metal alloys, ceramics, polymers, composites.  Not an expert, but conversant.  The PM’s principal skill remains Project Management or “having their hand on the tiller.”  And without doubt, the most important of Project Management skills of all, are communicating, directing and building a team of proud humans to accomplish a goal.  That’s where the real complexity comes in. 

Boiled down, the PM job is simple: COMMUNICATE WITH ALL TEAM MEMBERS, ALL THE TIME. 

One difference in the PMBOK® guide from the referenced manual above, is the absolute requirement for scheduled project reviews, by other professional project managers as well as a “standing review committee” – experts brought in from outside the organization for a fresh and independent look at the project’s progress.  These in themselves can become a “significant emotional event.”

During these reviews, each project manager must present 6 types of information for assessment.  (More on what these “magic six” project assessment criteria are in a future blog.)

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