Building Project Team Relationships

Hal Macomber just posted a great article on the Reforming Project Management online Magazine entitled Ten New Rules for Project Mangers. One of item on his list caught my eye:

6. Build relationships intentionally.
 Project teams come together as strangers. To do great work…innovation, learning, and collaboration…all take people who like and care for each other. Don't leave that to chance. Start your projects by building relationships among team members.

Here are ten tips for developing relationships among team members.

1. 80% of your results will come from 20% of your effort. This is known as the Praeto principle. Try and stay focused on that important 20% of your work that will lead you to 80% of your results.
2. Nothing will change until you act. If, while standing in the middle of the road, you see a truck coming at you and you fail to get off the road you will get run over. This is known as the prominent outcome. How often do we see project issues coming at us yet fail to do anything? You must take action; it is easy to predict what will happen if you don’t.
3. Create solutions, not winners/losers. Don’t worry about winning or losing when you are trying to negotiate. Instead, focus on creating solutions that work for everyone. Winning and losing is old baggage from our adversarial relationships.
4. Agree on the problem. If one person sees the problem as X, and the other person sees it as Y, then naturally they aren’t going to agree on a solution. It is critical that you talk to each other enough to agree on the problem, and then you are likely to be able to find a solution.
5. Allow people closest to the problem to resolve the issue. Quality decisions come from those closest to the issue. Quality goes down as issues move away from the project level and issues tend to grow in cost and time.
6. Keep perspective. Too often we see our job as putting out fires. Everyday there is the problem-of-the-day or moment to contend with. Over time, we begin to lose perspective. Remember that 90+% of the project is running along fine; it’s only a small part that has problems.
7. Celebrate successes. It is important to celebrate your successes along the way and to have fun. It will help diffuse the stress level and open up communication within the project team. After all, we’re just people who’ve come together to build a project.
8. Build on common ground. When creating project objectives, focus on those things that you all have in common: quality, safety, being on time and on budget. All of these things make for a successful project and are common goals for everyone. Keep focused on those things you have in common, NOT on your differences.
9. Make conflict constructive NOT destructive. Conflict need not be destructive, destroying relationships and communication. Conflict can be constructive, spurring discussions and pointing out areas in need of work, helping the project to improve. It’s all a matter of attitude and approach.
10. Always put fairness on the negotiating table. Start every negotiation or issue resolution session by first putting fairness on the table. Always ask, “What is a fair way to resolve this issue?” You will never be too far apart.

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