How to get our project teams to perform similarly?

Dear Pang

Thank you for participating in this review and for your feedback.

Once in the performing stage, do you get high performance from your teams despite the care you took in the previous stages? (with particular reference: "establishes the structure of a project, which includes framework, rules, procedures, roles, and responsibilities"
Are the decisions you make at the storming stage mutually consensual?
Want to talk a little more about your experience in this matter?

My understanding of daily meetings is, I think, a little different from yours.
For me, these meetings are for members to report on what they will do on that day.

Dear Thomas

It must have been a fantastic experience working with virtual teams and how to build relationships with people with a different culture.

Thank you for sharing that the focus is not on performance but on trust.

Wrote: "India cost was 10% of that if Germany, still ok after adding overhead" is related to performance or salary of Indians?

Luis, yes, and with nobody I include executives management.

Once the crisis was solved by this PM using the power he had been given, they wanted the power back.

The team members were tired of being pushed and preferred the way of working that led to the crisis in the 1st place.

Maybe other means would have been successful too, like getting together the team, setting priorities and instilling trust. It was easier and quicker to get a firefighter and give him all the power he asked for.

In situations when people feel fearful and helpless, we often ask for strongmen who claim to relieve us, willing to suffer and sacrifice.

Dear Thomas
Thank you for sharing with us this situation.

I am thinking here with my buttons:
- What happened to this Project Manager?

Dear Adrian
Thank you for participating in this reflection and for your opinion.

Does your solution line up (high performance teams) or line down (medium performance teams)?

Whether or not the team members are outsourced or not does play an important role.

If the team members are not outsourced/not hired just for the project then they are accountable to their line manager and not to the PM. For these team members working on the project is just a temporary work assignment and the PM is just a colleague or peer. PMs can just track and report the work and nothing more.

If the team members are outsourced and are temporary hired just to work on that specific project then the PM has more control as he can either terminate the contract or request the termination of the contract for the outsourced team member.

Dear George
Thanks for your comment

I agree that when the topic becomes too long we risk relevant information if it gets lost

Gave me an idea for an article to post on a possible blog that will create
Thanks for the sugestion

Regarding the theme, properly said:
"If it is your team, then it doesn't matter if it is outsourced or not as the accountability link is all that is required for one to have a quotient influence over the members of the team"

Will I, as leader of this outsourced team, get them to perform?

Here is the doubt and at the same time the challenge.

Adrian,

Although there are always variant implementations of project structures, the “chartered project” philosophy is purposed to create an environment wherein the PM has been granted “executive control” of a project, with the PM being accountable to a committee (e.g. a steering committee). It is analogous to an executive of a corporation who is accountable to the board of directors. I understand that is not your experience; however that doesn’t negate the fact that what I’m describing is the principled construct of the profession. All the variants of accountability structures are legitimate, and we, as project managers, either accept them or not (for an engagement).

Specific to your statement: In my experience, under a chartered project, the internal resources are “loaned to the project,” and functional ties are broken with their direct manager for the duration of the project. Anything short of this, create political issues that are intolerable for successful outcomes. Hence, a project manager will state this as a risk and will mandate compliance – of course, with the backing of executive management.

It goes as far as this: If a resource doesn’t perform to the statute of the charter then it will follow them from a human resources perspective. The resources go into the project recognizing this fact, and thus the accountability structure that I mentioned is intact.

Again, my experience does not negate yours, and they are both understood and valid. However, one approach more closely follows the principles of the profession, which is what we are normally trying to communicate in forums like this – while not ignoring the reality of variant implementations. So, let’s state them both, but not state them from a terminology perspective as absolutes.

Dear Adrian
Interesting your perspective

Does greater or less control over team members mean it has implications for their performance?

Thank you very much George I do understand perfectly what you are saying and I agree that things should in principle be as you say. It makes perfect sense for me what you are saying.

However in many if not in most cases the reality in project management is completely different from the theory. I think people should adapt to the reality and should not focus too much on the theory, especially when the theory does not apply to them.

Many companies have project management internships, graduate project manager and junior project manager positions that can be filled by recent college graduates with absolutely no work experience in any domain.

These graduate PMs in a short period of time end up "managing" projects working with project teams composed of people that are more senior than them.

Would you grant executive control over a project to a fresh college graduate with very little work experience when you have more experienced functional managers and lead technical experts with real leadership experience and also subject mater expertise? Probably not.

The theory in project management can only apply when project managers are being appointed from among people with many years of experience in the relevant domain of the project. There are many cases like these and then theory does apply to them but for many other cases it simply doesn't.