Project Management - Teamwork’s Bad Rap

Do you hate your project team?

There was a time in the corporate world when working well on a project team was considered basic to success.

Now we are told that, though most workers recognize that project teams are important, less than one quarter of the survey respondents prefer to work on a team. What happened?

Some of the possible reasons why project teams have acquired a bad rap are:

• It Can Be Messy Before It Gets Good. It takes work to accommodate team members’ differences in personality, culture, work styles, experience, and personal and professional goals. To progress through the natural stages of team development takes time and requires a thoughtful approach.
  
  
• Increased Pressure. Membership on a team may add to your work responsibilities.
  
  
• Difficult People. You may be asked to work with people you would prefer to avoid.
  
  
• Team Conflict. Some level of disagreement or conflict is inevitable when project teams face complex challenges and high visibility.
  
  
• Poor Communication and Interpersonal Skills. Current reliance on social networking and email has reduced many workers’ ability to interact collaboratively and effectively face-to-face.

And yet project teams are necessary for most companies to achieve their goals. In today’s reality, few people can be successful working in a vacuum. Different points of view voiced by a variety of team members can significantly enrich the decision making and problem solving required for a project team to thrive. It is the responsibility of project team leaders to create the clear goals, roles, environment, and processes necessary for their teams to succeed.