Retired course

This course has been retired and is no longer supported.

About this lesson

Learn the characteristics of a project core team and understand the stages of a  team building lifecycle.

Exercise files

Download this lesson’s related exercise files.

Team Building Exercise.docx
41.9 KB Team Building Exercise Solution.docx
41.9 KB

Quick reference

Project Team Building

The Project Core Team is the cross-functional team responsible for planning and executing the project activities.  Project team building is a process that the Project Core Team normally goes through to improve team coordination and decision making. 

When to use

Project team building is most important for large projects with a cross-functional set of project activities.  Team building should be done once the project core team is formed and may need to be repeated if the core team membership changes.  Very small projects may only have one or two people who are involved in conducting project activities.  In that case, team building is often irrelevant.

Instructions

A Project Core Team is assigned to plan and manage the project.  This team will often have conflict due to different functional and personal priorities and concerns.  Team building helps this team resolve the conflict in a positive manner and keep the project on track to achieve its objectives.  The Core Team members must represent the needs and standards of their function within the project activities, but they must also represent the needs of the project within their function.  They also will typically act as the supervisors for all project activities performed in their function, whether they are doing the work themselves or others are doing it.  This is a challenging leadership position requiring good communication skills, negotiating skills, and functional skills.  For that reason, Core Teams often need to address team building issues.

  1. Forming – whenever a project Core Team is first organized, or a change is made to the membership, the members must be introduced and get acquainted with each other.
  2. Storming – this often occurs whenever the project plan is being developed or changed as the needs and capabilities of different departments must be balanced.  The GRPI method is an excellent tool to use at this time.
  3. Norming – effective use of GRPI will lead to project “norms” which are the resolution to the areas of conflict.
  4. Performing – project Core Teams who have been together for several projects can reach this stage because they have established “norms” for the entire project lifecycle.   

Hints & tips

  • Core Team members should be good communicators and willing to negotiate.  Stubborn individuals or hard line negotiators make poor Core Team members.
  • Core Team members must be technically savvy within their department.  They need to have the respect of their department and are able to identify issues and negotiate compromises for their department.
  • Core Teams often have conflict.  Expect it.  But work to resolve it using GRPI – don’t ignore it.
  • If the Core Team membership changes during the project, plan a short team building session to accelerate through the forming and storming stages and get to the norming stage with the new individual.
  • All members of the Core Team should be held accountable for overall project success.
  • Project Team:  “A set of individuals who support the Project Manager in performing the work of the project to achieve its objectives.”  PMBOK® Guide

This definition is taken from the Glossary of the Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017.

Login to download
  • 00:04 Hi I'm Ray Sheen.
  • 00:06 It's time now to discuss the heart of projects, and that's doing them.
  • 00:10 We'll start with the project team and the elements of project team building.
  • 00:14 We've talked about the project core team in other lessons,
  • 00:18 it's time to really explore the concept of project teams a little bit more.
  • 00:23 The project management body of knowledge, the PMBK guide,
  • 00:26 defines a project team as a set of individuals who support the project
  • 00:30 manager in performing the work of the project to achieve its objectives.
  • 00:35 A project is normally managed by a team of individuals who represent
  • 00:38 all of the functions with a major role in project execution.
  • 00:42 While there is a project manager, he or she is leaving the Core Team members
  • 00:47 who are the leaders of the project from each of its functions.
  • 00:51 A project team member may have a big role in one phase or another but
  • 00:54 that does not automatically put them on the Core Team.
  • 00:57 Their effort is important, but Core Team members are with the project from start
  • 01:01 to finish, and they are leaving their functional participation in the project.
  • 01:06 Also, the Core Team including the Project Manager share the responsibility for
  • 01:11 project success.
  • 01:13 You may recall that we saw a similar diagram in an earlier lesson.
  • 01:17 This one is for a development project team.
  • 01:19 There's a cross functional Core Team that is managing the project.
  • 01:23 They're making decisions on project planning and execution
  • 01:26 because they share the responsibility and ownership for the project's success.
  • 01:30 The team is led by a project leader,
  • 01:33 in some cases this role is a separate stand alone position.
  • 01:37 In some cases, the leader is wearing two hats, they are both
  • 01:40 one of the functional core team members and they're the overall project leader.
  • 01:45 We contrast this with the role of the other project core team members,
  • 01:49 these individuals are leading any and
  • 01:51 all project team members from their function that they represent.
  • 01:55 In some cases, they can be a very large team of subject matter experts,
  • 01:59 in other cases, that may not be anyone at all.
  • 02:02 This leadership role requires both strong functional skills and leadership skills.
  • 02:06 Within the project,
  • 02:07 they own the completion of the deliverables assigned to their function.
  • 02:11 The extended team members are added to a project as needed.
  • 02:15 They may be with the project for the entire duration or only a few days.
  • 02:20 Normally, they're working with the core team member
  • 02:23 to complete the functional deliverables for the project.
  • 02:26 These teams are normally unique to the project.
  • 02:29 Every project has its own team.
  • 02:31 Some team members may have worked together on other projects.
  • 02:34 But often, that is not the case.
  • 02:36 So team building is very helpful for this team.
  • 02:39 Like all teams, they start at the forming stage.
  • 02:43 The goal is to have a positive working relationship at this point.
  • 02:46 And in this phase, the team is being introduced to the project and
  • 02:49 to each other is a recognition of what each person brings to the table.
  • 02:54 However, as soon as the project gets going, after and
  • 02:57 even in the planning phase the project team will start storming.
  • 03:00 That means that they are working to resolve power and control issues.
  • 03:05 When planning how to tasks will be executed,
  • 03:07 there often becomes tough battles.
  • 03:09 It's critical at this point that the issues are identified so
  • 03:11 that they can be addressed.
  • 03:13 This includes issues with the project plan and issues with each other or
  • 03:17 each other's functions.
  • 03:19 Ignoring the issues, does not make them go away.
  • 03:22 So the team addresses the issues.
  • 03:24 This is known as the norming stage.
  • 03:26 The team manages the conflict and
  • 03:28 establishes what they will do on this project.
  • 03:32 They resolve weaknesses, resolve control issues, and
  • 03:35 incorporate best practices that will be used on this project.
  • 03:38 Finally, the team gets to a high performing stage.
  • 03:41 The team is now functioning effectively.
  • 03:43 They are achieving project objectives.
  • 03:45 The team is making team decisions that are supported by all team members.
  • 03:50 And there is open communication and trust.
  • 03:52 An interesting perspective is that many project teams
  • 03:55 never get to the performing level or at least they don't stay there.
  • 03:59 As the project unfolds, team members change, and
  • 04:02 the team drops back to the forming or storming stage.
  • 04:05 As the project move from one stage to another, power control issues arise again,
  • 04:10 but this time o different tasks with deliverables.
  • 04:14 So let's look at a technique to help us with this team building and
  • 04:18 conflict resolution.
  • 04:19 This is known as GRPI.
  • 04:21 Within GRPI the G stands for goals, the project purpose, mission, or objectives.
  • 04:26 The R stands for roles, that means defining who does what,
  • 04:30 who is leading on each task, and who is supporting on each task.
  • 04:34 The P stands for
  • 04:35 processes, which is the details on what is to be done on each task.
  • 04:40 It also includes how the project team will work together, the procedures,
  • 04:43 measurements and expected operating rules.
  • 04:46 And finally, the I in GRPI is interpersonal relationships.
  • 04:49 This is the team members working on the processes with each other.
  • 04:53 They are interacting, making decisions, resolving issues together.
  • 04:58 Using this four step process will help to build the team while planning the project.
  • 05:03 Identify the goals.
  • 05:04 Bring the team together.
  • 05:06 Decide what to do.
  • 05:07 And then work together to do it.
  • 05:09 This is also a great rubric to help with conflict resolution.
  • 05:13 When conflict arises, it manifests itself at the interpersonal level.
  • 05:17 But often it is because of a breakdown at one of the other levels.
  • 05:21 I work back up to GRPI.
  • 05:23 Do we have problems with how we're managing the project?
  • 05:25 Is there an issue on roles and responsibilities?
  • 05:28 Do we disagree on what the project should be achieving?
  • 05:31 Fix the real problem and then rebuild down through GRPI.
  • 05:35 A team is more than just a group of people.
  • 05:39 They're actively working together to achieve a common goal.
  • 05:42 Team building activities will accelerate your team's performance.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.

PMI, PMP, CAPM and PMBOK are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

Gift this course