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Project Team Building is a process that the Project Core Team normally goes through to improve team coordination and decision making.

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Quick reference

Team Building

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 done initially when the project team is first formed, normally during the planning stage.  However, it must also be practiced whenever a Project Core Team changes or the project goes through a major change to its goals and/or approach.  This can happen at any time during the life of the project.

Instructions

Project team building is most important for large projects with a cross-functional set of project activities.  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. A very small project may only have one or two people who are involved in conducting project activities.  In that case, team building is often irrelevant.

Steps for Project Team Building

  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.     

GRPI

GRPI provides a framework for team building that is very helpful when conflict arises or when team members change.   When doing team building, the GRPI framework if followed in the sequence: G R P I.  When doing conflict resolution within the team the framework is used in the opposite direction: I P R G.

  • Goals – Clarify the goals of the project team and ensure that all teams member agree and are aligned.
  • Roles – Clarify the primary role of each team member and discuss the handoffs between team members
  • Processes – Clarify what is to be done on the project and how it is to be done.  This includes task descriptions and the timing of deliverables.  It also includes team processes such as team meetings and team decision-making.
  • Interpersonal Relationships – Foster the development of close working relationships.

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.
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  • 00:04 Hi, this is Ray Sheen.
  • 00:05 We've looked at the roles of the project team.
  • 00:08 Now let's consider how to get this team organized and on a good path for success.
  • 00:13 >> Let's lay some foundations first.
  • 00:15 The Project Management Body of Knowledge, the PMBOK guide defines a project team as.
  • 00:19 A set of individuals who support the project manager in performing the work of
  • 00:23 the project to achieve its objectives.
  • 00:26 A project is normally managed by a team of individuals who represent all
  • 00:30 the functions with a major role in a project execution.
  • 00:34 While there is a project manager, he or she is often leading the core team
  • 00:38 members, who are the leaders of the project, from each of the functions.
  • 00:43 Other project team members especially subject matter experts may have a big
  • 00:47 role in one phase or another.
  • 00:49 But that does not automatically put them on the core team.
  • 00:53 Their effort is important but core team members are with the project from start to
  • 00:58 finish and they are leading their functional participation on the project.
  • 01:02 Also the core team including the project manager share responsibility for
  • 01:08 project success.
  • 01:09 The teams are normally unique to the project, every project has its own team.
  • 01:13 Some team members may have worked together on other projects but
  • 01:17 often that's not the case.
  • 01:19 So team building is very helpful for getting the team performance up to speed.
  • 01:23 Like all teams, they're at the forming stage.
  • 01:26 That is a get acquainted time.
  • 01:28 The goal is to have a positive working relationship at this point.
  • 01:32 And in this phase, the team is being introduced to the project and
  • 01:35 to each other, a recognition of why each person belongs at the table.
  • 01:40 If these individuals have worked together before, this phase may be very,
  • 01:43 very quick.
  • 01:45 However, as soon as the project gets going,
  • 01:48 often, even in the planning phase, the project team will start storming.
  • 01:52 That means that they're working to resolve power and control issues on the project.
  • 01:57 When planning or executing tasks, there often becomes turf battles.
  • 02:01 It's critical at this point that the issues are identified so
  • 02:04 that they can be addressed.
  • 02:05 This includes issues with the project plan and issues with each other or
  • 02:09 each other's functions.
  • 02:11 Ignoring the issues does not make them go away.
  • 02:14 So the team addresses the issues, that is known as the norming stage.
  • 02:19 The team manages the conflict and
  • 02:21 establishes what they will do at least on this project.
  • 02:25 They resolve weaknesses in the plan, they resolve control issues and
  • 02:28 they incorporate best practices that will be used in the project.
  • 02:33 Finally the team gets to the high performing stage,
  • 02:36 the team is now functioning effectively.
  • 02:38 They are achieving project objectives, the team is making good team decisions that
  • 02:42 are supported by all team members, and there is open communication and trust.
  • 02:48 An interesting perspective is that many project teams never get to the performing
  • 02:52 level or at least they don't stay at that level.
  • 02:56 As the project unfolds, team members change and
  • 02:59 the team drops back down to forming and storming.
  • 03:02 As the project moves from one phase to another,
  • 03:05 the power control issues arise again.
  • 03:08 But this time on different tasks and different deliverables, again,
  • 03:11 dropping them back down to storming.
  • 03:14 So let's look at a technique to help us with team building and
  • 03:17 conflict resolution.
  • 03:19 This is known as GRPI.
  • 03:21 And GRPI, the G stands for goals, the project purpose missions or objectives.
  • 03:27 The R stands for roles, that means defining who does what, and
  • 03:30 who is leading on each of the tasks, who is supporting on each of the tasks.
  • 03:36 The P stands for processes,
  • 03:37 which is the details of what has to be done on each task.
  • 03:41 It also includes how the project team will measure performance and
  • 03:44 some of the expected operating rules.
  • 03:47 Finally the I in GRPI is for interpersonal relationships.
  • 03:51 This is the team members working both the process and with each other.
  • 03:55 They're interacting, making decisions, resolving issues together.
  • 03:59 Using this four step process in order will help to build the team while planning
  • 04:04 the project.
  • 04:05 Identify the goals, bring the team together, decide what's to be done, and
  • 04:09 then work together to do it.
  • 04:11 This is also a great rubric to use with conflict resolution.
  • 04:15 When conflict arise, it manifests itself at the interpersonal level.
  • 04:20 But often it's becurs or breakdowns in one of the other levels.
  • 04:24 I work back up the GRPI.
  • 04:26 Do we have a problem with how we're managing the details of the project work?
  • 04:30 Is there an issue on roles or responsibilities?
  • 04:33 Do we disagree on what the project should be achieving?
  • 04:36 Fix the real problem and then rebuild down through the GRPI.
  • 04:40 >> A team is more than just a group of people.
  • 04:43 They're actively working together to achieve a goal.
  • 04:45 Team building activities will accelerate team performance.

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