13.7. Key Terms
Key Terms
- A Sense of Purpose: Individually, and as a whole, a team needs an overarching sense of purpose and meaning. This sense of purpose should go beyond each individual’s project duties.
- Adjourning: Once the project is completed, the team should collect lessons learned and transition to other projects or roles. The project manager should provide recognition of the work done by the team and help them transition to their next project (provide recommendations, etc.).
- Assigning the Right Tasks to the Right People: People aren’t commodities. They aren’t interchangeable, like a router or a hand saw. They are good at specific things. HR Specialists are trained to find the right people for teams and align them with the right team tasks.
- Consistency and Follow: Through the team, morale falls off when inconsistency is tolerated or when numerous initiatives are started and then abandoned.
- Encouraging Individual Achievement: Most people have long-term aspirations, and sometimes even formalized professional development plans. As a team leader, you should be on the lookout for ways to nudge team members toward these goals. It’s not your job to ensure that they fully achieve their personal goals, but you should try to allow for at least a little forward movement.
- Forming: The group is brought together for the first time. The team is orienting themselves to the task at hand. At this stage, there may be little agreement on how to approach the project and team members may struggle with understanding the purpose of the project. The project manager needs to provide guidance and direction during this stage.
- Mentorship: Team members need to be able to talk things over with more experienced people. Encourage your team to seek out mentors. They don’t necessarily have to be part of the project.
- Norming: At this stage, the team will have developed a consensus regarding roles, processes and approaches to the work ahead. The project manager should participate by working as a facilitator for the group.
- Performing: At this point, the group has a clear vision and purpose and is focused on meeting performance goals, project milestones and other benchmarks. The project manager should be able to delegate more and more responsibility to the team, with less supervision
- Sailboat Rules Communication: No one takes offence for clear direction—On a sailboat, once the sail goes up, you need to be ready to take direction from the captain, who is responsible for the welfare of all on board, and not take offence if he seems critical or unfriendly.
- Storming: Team members are trying to figure out their roles in the group. Conflict and power struggles are common, but so is a clearer vision for the group. During this time of intergroup conflict, the project manager needs to provide support and coaching.
