Principles of Teamwork and Project Management

Respect - listen, recognize, acknowledge, accept, defer when appropriate, professional courtesy. Treat others as you would have then treat you.

I'm sure there are many more which we could come up with, but I wanted to highlight key differences I've seen between true teams and groups of individuals, and didn't want to get too much "into the weeds" of specific types of teams.

If there's one principle (no pun intended) I embrace, it's K.I.S.S. , especially when it comes to defining principles :-)

Kiron

Luis,

Important topic, thank you for posting it. Here are a some of the quotes/principles that I have written related to teamwork.

- Faith in one's team accelerates results and breaks down barriers to success. Motivational speech has value, but the words often drift away before activities even begin. Whereas continuously presenting a belief in one’s team renders increased accountability and accomplishment, as the team will constantly strive to fulfill the words spoken over them.

- Rationed knowledge starves realization. Knowledge is the accelerant that, when applied to a flame, produces the energy one needs to succeed. However, when knowledge is quenched, the flame lacks the energy to propel one forward and success becomes out of reach.

- Isolation of extremes reveals knowledge and enables solutions. To reveal solutions, one must first isolate the extremes that polarize knowledge and then execute due diligence on the facts that remain. Otherwise, misinformation will prevail.

- Collaboration is easily defined and spoken to, but will be elusive if one does not practice it themselves. One cannot simply speak collaboration into existence, as it can only be properly communicated to others through the modeling of the practice itself.

- Reaching true consensus requires the absence of assumptions and the adoption of one's ability to be wrong. Surrendering to one’s self and others that you can be wrong creates an environment that yields consensus and successful outcomes. Whereas consensus made among those who are never wrong is "future discord" masked as an agreement.

- That which you are willing to do in the trenches for your team, establishes a care fund that pays dividends in perpetuity. When the team doesn't appear to be responding to your directives, check your location as you may be on a hilltop where one’s voice is distant and obscure. Therefore, place yourself in the midst of the team and provide personal value to their objectives and then watch what happens when you speak.

If you are interested, there is more detail on each of these, plus a lot of other quotes on different subjects in an article I wrote back in 2018 called “Strategic Lessons Learned From a Battle-Hardened Project Manager."

Dear Peter:
Thanks for your comment

Do you consider it possible to "collaborative effort to achieve a common objective" without accepting, respecting and valuing others? (Your opinions, ways of being, ways of thinking)

What is the principle?

Respect: - admiration for, acknowledgement of, someone due to their abilities, qualities, or achievements

Mutual respect is necessary to achieve honest effort and collaboration. Lack of respect leads to personal agendas, hidden actions, animosity and general conflict - no common objectives.

The underlying principle is to draw out alternate options, recognize and adopt most effective course of action (not necessarily the leaders preferred action or action dictated by one person's experience).

Dear Peter
Thanks for your comment

So we already have 3 Principles underlying teamwork:
- Respect
- Union / Collaboration
- Empathy

I propose for reflection two more Principles:

- Tolerance
- Synergy

What do you think about these 5 Principles?

I am not convinced these are "principles". These may be characteristics preferred to enhance probability of success. I am also not convinced that with all these in place that the team will actually achieve the objective. A team has to have a common goal and a drive to achieve that common goal. Should a team be rowing a boat with all team members skilled on the application of oars but no specific agreed destination will they actually get anywhere or randomly and contently thrash about.
- common goal
- motivation
- structure
- leadership

Dear Peter:
Thanks for your comment
What does it mean for you to create synergy?

For you, one of the principles of teamwork is leadership (correct me if I'm wrong)
Want to better explain your point of view?