EXECUTING STAGE (HUMAN RESOURCE) : DEVELOP PROJECT TEAM

After acquiring the project team, the next thing is to improve their working environment, the interaction between them and technical competencies. This process called Develop Project Team helps to enhance project performance through project team motivation, improved skills, improved knowledge, improved trust and agreement, improved communication, improved working environment, raised working morale, lowered conflict, reduced rates in staff turnover, increased productivity etc.  

As a project manager, you need to know how:

• To identify, build, maintain, lead, motivate and inspire the project team
• To develop the effective project team
• To create a teamwork environment
• To manage conflicts in a constructive way
• To recognize and reward good performances
• To provide support when needed
• To encourage collaboration in solving problems and making decisions
• To get managerial and stakeholders support for acquiring resources needed to develop project team

This process can be referred to:

• Human resource management plan that explains how the project team will be developed either by training, capacity building, rewards or disciplinary actions
• Project staff assignments that provide the list of the team members, roles, responsibilities, schedules etc
• Resource calendars that provide time periods for each team member to participate in the project activities

The Develop Project Team process can be done by:

• Improving soft skills (Interpersonal skills) such as communication skills, emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, negotiation, influence, team building and group facilitation. These are valuable assets to reduce tension, increase corporation and acknowledge their concerns
• Providing training either formal or informal to improve skills and competencies of the project team. The training can be in form of online, classroom, on-job, computer-based, mentoring or coaching, performed by in-house or external trainers
• Establishing ground rules that will be followed by the project team to decrease misunderstandings and increase productivity
• Placing all of the most active project team members in the same physical location to enhance teamwork. In other words, it is called colocation
• Recognizing and rewarding the desirable behaviours so that the project team members will feel valued and motivated, considering their cultural differences
• Using personnel assessment tools like attitudinal surveys, assessment, structured interviews, ability tests and so forth in order to improve understanding, trust, communication and facilitation among project team members
• Performing team building activities in order to improve interpersonal relationships between project team members so that they can work together effectively. Kindly note that it is normal for the project team to pass through five stages of development in order:
• Forming whereby the project team members meet for the first time and learn about the project, their roles and responsibilities. They become independent and not open to each other.
• Storming whereby the project team members start to open to differing their ideas. If they are not collaborative, they will create conflict.
• Norming whereby the project team members begin to adjust their behaviours, learn to trust each other and work together as a team
• Performing whereby the project team members become interdependent, they are organized and therefore they work smoothly and effectively.
• Adjourning whereby the project team members are released from the project after completion of the project activities.

The duration of each stage will depend on the size of the team, team leadership and team dynamics. 

The output of the process is called Team Performance Assessments that indicate the effectiveness of the project team through tasks and results-oriented outcomes.

References:

PMI (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide 5^th Ed.) USA, Project Management Institute

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