Forming a world-class team all starts with leadership. These types of successful teams rarely form naturally. Instead, they are built over time through thoughtful management. To attract, retain, and cultivate a world-class project team, IT leaders should focus on the following.

1. Understand your objectives

Your first step should be to understand what services are needed, the level of service you want to provide, and the skills your team will need to have, regardless of the size of the team that will support these objectives. Before diving into what already exists, identify every business tool needed for each department and the organization as a whole.

From there you can better analyze what applications are currently being utilized, if they are serving the needs of the organization, or if new resources or out-sourcing may be needed to meet these objectives.

Once the list of all business requirements and corresponding applications have been identified, you’ll want to evaluate how those resources will be managed. In-house or remote service will be the starting point to evaluate what resources are needed. 

2. Identify and select qualified participants 

As with all teams, you need to understand the role each person will play from the start. Create a detailed job description of the skills needed to execute and manage the environment. Keep in mind, skill is not the only thing you need. In addition, build a weighted system of what you are looking for from the participants.

Additional considerations include experience, how participants present themselves and communicate management capabilities, how they prepared for the meeting, and other character traits as you determine are needed. 

Recommended reading: The Beginner’s Guide to Capacity Planning

3. Determine the team size 

Team size relates to defining the workload, response time to execute, and budget. Keep in the mind, the number of team members will directly impact the budget and this constraint needs to be factored in.

If you can’t afford the cost then one of the other constraints needs to change, either scope or time. Finding the correct balance will allow you to understand the team size.  

4. Let the team manage themselves

The best teams are the teams that take full responsibility as a single entity. Therefore, team members should work together to volunteer and decide as a team who is best to complete a task. This level of self-management by the team will lead to greater involvement and greater commitment.

The interaction will also create a dynamic that makes each team member feel a responsibility to each other rather than a manager dictating who should do what. A manager’s responsibility is to define the business objective and priorities, not define who and how the work should be done. 

5. Focus on effective team collaboration 

Empower the team to be accountable for their actions and treat individual failure as a team failure. If success is measured by the team’s results instead of individually, it will force the team to work together to help each other.

Regardless of how strong or weak a team member is, creating this level of accountability will ultimately result in the team interacting with each other and all taking equal responsibility for the successes or failures of the project.

In order to achieve this level of productivity, it’s important that management treat the team as one entity, and failures or success are never attributed to a single person. Taking that a step further, it is even better if management doesn’t know who was specifically responsible for the failure other than the team as a whole.

6. Inspire your team

Teams are best inspired by management recognizing their achievements. Teams should be given the opportunity to present their level of progress and effort at a frequent cadence.

The opportunity to do this on a consistent basis will allow the team to demonstrate what they have accomplished and show off what they capable of. This level of recognition is one of the greatest rewards a team can have and will inspire them to work together to do better and achieve even greater results.

7. Reward your team

Reward the team, not individuals. Rewarding individuals can create a dynamic where team members compete with each other, and that will ultimately break down the unity that you should be trying to create. Team members should also be encouraged to recognize each other – in some cases, peer recognition can be more rewarding than feedback from management.

Above all, you must encourage your team members to keep their primary focus on the project and its objectives. Especially in data-driven environments, it is vital to build a sense of inclusiveness by establishing a common purpose and shared goal that ties everyone together. World-class project teams aren’t made overnight, but it’s well worth putting in the time and effort to build one. 

About Kevin Torf

Kevin Torf, co-founder and managing partner of T2 Tech Group, has been a renowned innovator and thought leader in the technology industry for over 35 years, specializing in large-scale IT strategic planning, project design, and implementation. Kevin brings decades of experience in complex application deployment, IT architecture, electrical engineering and data center construction, infrastructure, and consolidation, particularly within the healthcare space.

The post How to Build a World-Class IT Project Team appeared first on PM Column.

Fostering a culture of innovation requires open, transparent communication. Information must be shared upward, downward and laterally. Unfortunately, most organizations tend to filter the information that flows upward. A psychologically safe environment allows more of the “bad” news to be shared upward, but a culture of fear increases the probability that the information needed will not be communicated upward. Instead, the tendency in this environment is to engage in cover-ups, finger-pointing and avoidance, resulting in top management being unaware and sometimes blindsided. (SHRM.org) 

One great example of this is the 1936 Olympics. Held in Nazi-controlled Berlin, a University of Washington rowing team came in above their counterparts to take home the gold—not because of strength, but rather, because they communicated far better and included every individual on the boat. As each oar dipped in the water, each man kept in sync with the other; enabling a consistently faster speed. The American team beat the German and Italian teams for a well-deserved victory, while celebrating the individual strengths of each man who rowed alongside them. 

Discussing the feat in his book, “The Boys in the Boat,” Daniel James Brown wrote, “Crew is not about power or aggression. It’s about being smooth through the water.” In his novel, Brown explained that victory came from having a team not only rowing in the same direction, but arms, hearts and brains focused on the same end goal: Winning. 

Here are three tried and true project manager tips for great communication that will improve not only your team’s dynamics, but their power to innovate as well: 

1. There’s a fine line between overcommunicating and exclusion.

In fact, excluding some members from communications runs the risk of creating conflicts and interpersonal issues. Avoid offending any team member—and creating potential escalation points—by including everyone in communications from the very beginning.

2. Never assume.

Deciding what people should and should not know can create conflict. By being inclusive with communication, you mitigate the risk of someone feeling left out or not feeling privy to the information. By being upfront and asking, “would you like updates,” or “let me know how you prefer me to include you in these communications,” you can help communication be more polished and sincere. 

3. Transparency at every step.

From the shortest turnarounds to longer-lead projects, transparency should take a front seat for team success. Ensuring all members are “in the know” about each step or phase can ensure better accountability and outcomes. From the beginning to the very end, more voices can lead to better risk mitigation and success. 

When project managers lead clients through transformation in their systems and environments, they utilize a core set of competencies, key learnings and best practices to ensure success; none are more important than transparency.  As you pick up your oar, remember it’s not about strength or speed. Laser-sharp communication and coordination make all the difference. 

About Kevin Torf

Kevin Torf, co-founder and managing partner of T2 Tech Group, has been a renowned innovator and thought leader in the technology industry for over 35 years, specializing in large-scale IT strategic planning, project design, and implementation. Kevin brings decades of experience in complex application deployment, IT architecture, electrical engineering and data center construction, infrastructure, and consolidation, particularly within the healthcare space.

The post The Case for Transparency in Communication appeared first on PM Column.