Develop Project Team

00:00 Hello and welcome.

00:02 This module focuses on the develop project team process and the PMBOK guide. Slow difficulty, it's a lot of the stuff that you probably do already, or if you don't do it yourself, you've been part of it.

00:16 And the memorization and exam importance are both rated as medium.

00:22 The particular domain task that this process helps us understand better is executing Task two, which says manage task execution based on the project management plan by leading and developing the project team in order to achieve project deliverables.

00:44 So that's a nice summary of what this process is all about, and its key themes are that it is the responsibility of the project manager to take a group of talented individuals and turn them into a high performing team and improve performance on the project.

01:04 So in the exam, assume that that is your default position, that you are the sort of project manager who takes full responsibility for the development of individuals and then the turning those individuals into a high performing team.

01:18 That's our goal.

01:21 Let's start with the inputs.

01:24 The first input that we are definitely going to want is our human resource management plan. Remember, this was developed during the planned human resource management process.

01:36 It was the single output from that process.

01:39 We need that here as an input because it provides guidance on how we're going to develop our team. It's all in the human resource management plan.

01:48 We'll also want our individual project staff assignments, which is an output from the Acquire Project team process, because this gives us the exact assignment of all of those people working on our project and tells us what roles they have, what their responsibilities are.

02:06 And how are they going to complete their work on the project? Well, also want our resource calendars again.

02:12 Resource calendars are an output from a aquire project team.

02:16 These are the calendars which show us when our personnel are available and when they're not. So the default resource calendar is simply the working week Monday to Friday, 8:30 to 5pm or whatever it may be.

02:29 Obviously, we can also then put in public holidays, vacation days and then perhaps for staff that are part time.

02:37 We can put and when they are available and when they aren't available to work on our project, obviously we need to know all of this information if we're going to develop those individuals into a high performing team.

02:51 The particular tools and techniques that were going to use include.

02:56 Our interpersonal skills.

02:59 Pay particular attention to this technique, because a lot of project managers think that project's success relies on their ability to put together a hard and fast project scope to develop some great cost estimates, to do a wonderful budget and put together a fantastic project schedule.

03:22 But all of those things are what we call hard skills, interpersonal skills, on the other hand, are what we call soft skills.

03:29 And the research consistently tells us.

03:33 That the greatest predictor of project success is not the hard skills, but instead the ability of the project manager to demonstrate strong interpersonal skills.

03:44 So we'll have a closer look at these particular interpersonal skills shortly, but essentially they your ability.

03:52 To interact with other people on a genuine and sincere level.

03:57 Another tool and technique we may find useful to develop individuals and teams is, of course, training.

04:04 During the course of our project, we may choose to put people on training courses, either to allow them to gain individual competency in a particular technical area or training for team building, which can also be done specifically as a particular technique.

04:21 And team building activities should not be seen as a one off activity done every other month or every six months or annually.

04:31 Team building activities are undertaken constantly.

04:34 They refer to the stories you tell about why the team is together.

04:38 They refer to the customs that you build things like celebrating birthdays.

04:43 They refer to the expectations around when you're going to work, how you're going to work, how hard you're going to work.

04:50 And yes, of course, they also refer to those offsite things, such as going on an outing together or going to a movie together, or perhaps a rope climbing course together. They're all team building activities.

05:03 But for the purposes of the exam, just know that it's not a one off thing, but a constant effort to build that team into a high performing team.

05:13 Ground rules are another very effective tool and technique to use for the development of a high performing team.

05:20 Ground rules refer to getting the team to specify what rules are expected and accepted behavior to be part of that team.

05:30 They can cover such things as dress code, hours of work, tolerance of working beyond those tolerance of working longer hours. The ground rules around how you talk to each other, the rules around conflict.

05:46 So set those ground rules early and get the team to help set them.

05:51 You'll get better rules, and you'll also get great buy-in from the people that the ground rules most affect.

06:00 Another great tool and technique is co-location, co-location means putting people within seeing distance of each other.

06:09 Great teams are based on great relationships between individuals.

06:14 Individuals can't build great relationships if they can't see each other.

06:19 So wherever and whenever possible, even if dealing with a virtual team bring people together as often as possible and co-locate them, you'll always get a much greater chance of building a high performing team with co-location. Recognition and rewards.

06:39 Now we're going to show you a range of theories around how to appropriately reward people. And you may be surprised that quite often money isn't the biggest motivator or best way to recognize or reward people for great performance. So pay particular attention to some of the theories I'm going to show you.

06:58 You will be asked about them in the exam.

07:01 You may also wish to use personal assessment tools.

07:05 These are standardized ways of giving feedback to people about their performance and also talking with them about areas they may wish to improve on in the future. You're probably very familiar with this tool and technique in your current job, where maybe every three, six or 12 months you go through some sort of performance appraisal and you may be familiar with some of those tools as well.

07:30 So let's take a closer look at the key interpersonal skills that a competent project manager needs to be able to demonstrate in order to facilitate and influence the development of high performing teams.

07:43 The first one is leadership.

07:46 You must be able to demonstrate exceptional leadership now.

07:51 Leadership is situational.

07:53 The type of leadership required in a highly complex project going and new directions will be different from the type of leadership required in a simple project that you've done many times before.

08:05 The type of leadership you'll need to exhibit for a whole lot of highly technical people will be different from the type of leadership you need to exhibit for a project based on social skills, for example.

08:18 But throughout your career as a project manager, you should develop your leadership skills and certainly for the purposes of the exam, you should assume that you have a high level of leadership skills and can demonstrate them in a wide variety of situations.

08:35 Another interpersonal skill you will need is the ability to build teams.

08:40 Now, this isn't just sitting back and somehow letting team development happen accidentally. This is your decision to commit to the proactive development of team building.

08:51 This starts with selection of the people who are going to be on your teams and carries on through to building them with team building activities and training. What about your ability to motivate people? Do you understand what motivates people and gets them to work and to work harder? The ability to motivate people is a key interpersonal skill.

09:16 The research tells us again and again that a project manager's communication skills are a key metric of project success.

09:25 So work on your communication skills.

09:29 Develop a wide variety of communication skills so that you can talk and influence a wide variety of stakeholders.

09:38 Don't assume that everybody communicates in the same way you communicate.

09:43 Influencing influencing is a key interpersonal skill, and it means your ability to get people to see your point of view and hopefully support your point of view.

09:55 And this is particularly important for stakeholder expectation management, where our goal is to get stakeholders to support our project or at least not oppose it.

10:08 What about your decision making ability? Can you make decisions based on command or consensus coin toss? What are some of the other decision making techniques as a project manager? Sometimes you'll take advice from a whole range of experts but have to make the final decision.

10:27 And as such, a key interpersonal skill is decision making.

10:32 What about demonstrating political and cultural awareness? Again, a key interpersonal skill? Do you have empathy and understanding of different points of view politically and culturally? Negotiation skills are a key interpersonal skill you're going to have to use negotiation skills both in getting the staff you want from functional managers, but also with procurement negotiations.

11:00 The ability to negotiate successfully will help determine whether your project will be successful and negotiation isn't simply a process of saying This is what I want, give it to me.

11:13 It's about having a starting point in your negotiation and an intended end point with negotiation and understanding how you'll move from one to the other with another party who has a start point and an endpoint as well.

11:27 Trust is a key interpersonal skill.

11:30 Do you trust people? Remember times, perhaps in your career where you felt you haven't been trusted by your manager and how that made you feel, we know that the best project managers exhibit trust because they know they've got the best people on the job and those people don't need micromanaging.

11:50 They are good at what they do, and they should be left to do what they do.

11:53 So trust people, do you have skills and conflict management? Can you go through the steps of arbitration and mediation? And litigation, if necessary.

12:08 Can you resolve conflict openly and finally through compromise and consensus? What about coaching? Have you got the ability to coach people who need to gain experience by having a mentor? Perhaps.

12:25 So these are live and interpersonal skills are all key soft skills that a project manager must be able to demonstrate in order to build a high performing team.

12:39 Specifically, in relation to leadership style, there are many models to explain leadership. Here's a simple one.

12:47 Figure out what your natural style of leadership is.

12:50 Are you a directive type of leader who likes to tell people what to do and expect them to do what you tell them to do? This is a very good style of leadership if you're in the military.

13:02 Beyond that, it's not so good.

13:04 Are you a coaching style of leader who brings people along with you and provides advice and a mentoring situation? Are you a facilitating type of leader who brings out the best of people and gets them to work together? Or are you a supportive type of leader who just sits in the background knowing you've done a good job and trust people to do the job they were hired to do? Because at different points in a project, if you're doing your job properly, you'll go through each of these phases in the beginning of a project when people are wondering what to do.

13:38 Sometimes it's better to be more autocratic and be a directive type of leader.

13:44 To tell people this is what's going on in this project, but then if you're successful in your individual and team development activities, people will go through these stages and you will go from being a directive leader to a coaching leader as they gain more capability and become more of a high performing team.

14:04 And then towards the end of the project, you'll become a facilitating leader as they take more of a lead themselves and become self-organizing.

14:13 And finally, if you've done your job correctly at the end of the project, your team of individuals is now a high performing team and you are in the background being a supportive leader.

14:23 So keep that model in mind for the exam questions.

14:30 With project management and the position of project manager comes power.

14:36 The power to influence people and for the purposes of the exam, you need to know the following five forms of power and which ones are the best and which ones are the worst.

14:48 The first form of power is reward the ability because of your position to give rewards to people either monetary rewards or recognition in the form of letters.

15:01 Rewards are a great form of power.

15:04 Some of the best forms of power to use are based on the ability to reward people.

15:10 Sometimes you'll have power because you're perceived to be an expert in a particular field and people will look up to you because of that, and you'll be able to exercise power because of your perceived expertise, legitimate power is the power that you're given because of your job title.

15:28 I am the project manager.

15:29 Therefore you will do what I say.

15:31 I have legitimate power.

15:34 Referent power is another good form of power.

15:38 It's the type of power that people give to you because you're genuinely a nice person and they have a good relationship and they'll listen to you and take instruction because of referent power.

15:50 Punishment is seen as the worst form of power you can exercise, and this is the power to punish people.

15:58 To take them off the job, to demote them, to withhold promotion.

16:04 Although it sometimes seems that punishment is an effective form of power in the short term, in the long term it's not beneficial at all.

16:13 It always has unforeseen consequences.

16:16 And if you use punishment on one team member, the rest of the team members may become fearful.

16:22 So don't use punishment if at all possible.

16:25 It is seen as the worst form of power.

16:30 So just going over those again, remember that reward an expert.

16:36 These are seen the most to most effective forms of power, according to the Bot guide.

16:42 So if a question of the exam asks you about the most effective forms of power, it'll either be reward or expert.

16:50 Legitimate, as we've discussed, is based on your job title or your business card referent based on the personal power because you're a nice person.

17:00 But punishment, also known as coercive forms of power, is the ability to punish an employee, and it is seen as the worst form of power.

17:11 The least effective form.

17:13 Now, let's look at some of the theories you need to know about motivating people in a bit more depth. Now we're only going to go into them and dip that you need to know to answer questions in the exam, if any one of them particularly interest you.

17:27 I strongly encourage you to go on and do further reading.

17:30 Let's start with Maslow's hierarchy of needs now.

17:34 Back in the nineteen fifties.

17:35 Abraham Maslow developed a theory to explain how human beings could become fully self-actualized spiritually.

17:44 Well, the human resource world has taken this model and applied it to mean a self-actualized employee.

17:51 So the message is still the same, even though it's a little bit diluted from what Maslow originally intended and what Maslow said.

17:59 If we want people to become fully self-actualized in the workplace is fully engaged employees.

18:07 They've got this pyramid of needs to go through, and they always need to fulfill the lower order needs first.

18:15 And I cannot fulfill the higher needs until the lower ones are fulfilled.

18:19 So you can't be a fully self-actualized employee unless your esteem needs are met in the workplace.

18:26 You can't meet your esteem needs in the workplace unless you feel accepted in the workplace and you can't feel accepted in the workplace if your security needs aren't met.

18:36 If you feel like you're being bullied or not part of the team and you can't leave your security needs met if your physiological needs aren't being met.

18:45 So if you've got people who can't pay their mortgage or can't pay their groceries or have a gambling habit, those are lower order needs and you'll never get them to be self-actualized because the current need will always be the strongest motivator. So focus on getting people through those lower order needs in order to have them become fully engaged and self-actualized employees. Mcgregor gave us Theory X and Theory Y, and what McGregor said was that managers exist on a spectrum between Theory X and Theory Y.

19:23 Managers who see employee from a Theory X lens think that employees need constant supervision, that they don't really want to work.

19:31 They can't be trusted and they're selfish and they need micromanaging.

19:36 I'm sure you've come across at least one Theory X manager in your career to date.

19:41 On the other hand, at the other end of the spectrum, we have theory why managers and theory, why managers see people as naturally motivated to do good work, need little external motivation and a trustworthy and self-organizing. Of course, it's better to be a theory y style of manager.

20:03 Here's a little tip to help you remember them.

20:06 Theory Y little smiley face created by the Y theory x a little unhappy face created by the X a little exam tip there.

20:18 After Theory X and Theory Y.

20:21 Ouchi gave us theory, Z, to explain the way managers should see employees and theories, ID says that you should focus on increasing employee or loyalty to the company by looking after them from cradle to the grave, by providing a job for life, by providing all of those benefits that they expect health insurance, subsidized housing and education.

20:45 All of these things.

20:47 There are some countries around the world with theories there to still actively promoted widely.

20:53 There are also some organizations that take aspects of theory Z and provide subsidized childcare, housing benefits, extra health care benefits.

21:04 That's what Theory Z is.

21:08 Fiedler's contingency theory says that a leader's effectiveness is contingent on two sets of factors, whether they are task orientated or relationship orientated in their leadership style and whether the environment is stressful or calm.

21:26 And what contingency theory says is that a task orientated leader is more effective and stressful situations, so a task orientated leader will tell people, do this, do that.

21:39 And that's more effective in stressful situations.

21:43 But in a calm situation, you want a relationship orientated leader, somebody who understands people and builds long term relationships.

21:53 So keep those two things in mind for the exam.

21:57 Hertzberg came out with his motivation and hygiene theory to explain what motivates people to work.

22:05 Now he was actually allowed access to a lot of factories back in the early part of the 20th century and got to adjust a whole lot of different working conditions to see what made people work and what didn't.

22:17 And he came up with motivation and hygiene factors.

22:22 Now, hygiene factors don't motivate people, but their absence will make staff unsatisfied and satisfied.

22:30 Hygiene factors are things like minimum conditions of safe employment, good lighting, Standard company policies, good working conditions.

22:39 These are hygiene factors.

22:41 They are expected as the minimum conditions of employment.

22:45 They won't motivate people on their own, but the absence of them will motivate people.

22:52 Motivating factors will motivate people, but only once hygiene factors are actually in place, and motivation factors include things like giving people a sense of achievement and recognition for what they've done, giving them extra work of a higher level, giving them extra responsibility, giving them a promotion or extra training.

23:13 These are all motivating factors.

23:16 So remember, hygiene factors don't motivate, but their absence will demotivate motivation.

23:23 Factors will motivate, but only if hygiene factors are in place first.

23:29 Vroom's expectancy theory, Vroom said that the expectation of receiving a reward for certain accomplishment will motivate people to work harder, but only if the accomplishment is actually perceived to be achievable. If it's perceived to be unachievable, it won't make people work harder.

23:51 Mcclellan's human motivation achievement or three needs theory looks at what actually motivates people to do better work, particularly white collar workers, and McClellan did some research and found that it's not money that is the primary motivator to get people to work harder. The first one is achievement that sense that they've done something and recognition of it, something as simple as a letter of recognition.

24:23 Or public recognition during a meeting, and congratulations to somebody for doing work.

24:28 This makes people feel good inside and will motivate them to do it again.

24:34 Power. Giving people power and autonomy and responsibility motivates them to do better work.

24:44 A sense of affiliation, a sense of being part of a team rather than an outsider.

24:51 So these three things achievement, power and affiliation will motivate white collar workers or professional workers more than simply offering them more money.

25:05 Now, pay particular attention to this model, the Tuckmannn five stage model of team development. There's generally at least one question the exam about it what Tuchmann came up with was a way to describe the stages that a team goes through on the way to becoming a high performing team.

25:25 Now it's your job as a project manager to take people through these stages as quickly as possible.

25:33 However, please don't assume that you'll get every team to high performing level. So the first stage that people go through when they first meet each other, they come together as a project team and there's some excitement in the air about being part of that team is the forming stage.

25:51 People see each other for the first time, they wonder if people will be friend or foe.

25:56 They're excited about the opportunities and there's a general good feeling in the ear.

26:01 But the next stage that a team will go through is storming as people lobby and vie for political power, try and figure out who's in the alpha position and who's in the omega position.

26:13 Storming activities can take the form of aggression, bullying, withholding information, the forming of little cliques or even passive aggressive behavior, such as gossiping about people.

26:27 So watch out for storming behaviors.

26:30 If a team gets through storming behaviors and many teams get stuck there, they'll go onto the norming stage.

26:38 And this is the stage where ground wall rules are established and the team decides the expected and accepted rules of interacting in that team.

26:48 They're beginning to work as a team if they can get through that norming stage. They'll reach the high performing stage that we desire. Now, the original Tuckmannn model stopped here and was a four stage model of forming, storming norming and performing.

27:06 But then in terms of recognizing that people leave organizations and projects, a fifth stage was added the adjourning stage and particularly with projects, we need to realize that we're always saying goodbye to people in our team who may be with us for short time or part time work.

27:25 Now, the way that you say goodbye to team members, leaving affects the morale of people who are staying.

27:32 So make sure you treat leaving people with respect and recognize their efforts. So the Tuckmann five stage model of team development says that a team will go through forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning stages, but again, as I said, don't expect this to be a straight linear progression.

27:55 In fact, in my experience, certainly in my career, I can say that I've been part of a high performing team on only two occasions.

28:03 I've certainly been part of teams that have been stuck at either storming or norming as well. As a project manager, you may help a team go through forming and storing behaviors and get them to a norming stage.

28:17 But then a new member will join or a team member will leave, and you'll go back to forming and storming stages.

28:24 So holding a team at the high performing stage takes real, constant effort.

28:33 We mentioned that decision making was one of the key interpersonal skills that a project manager must have to help build this project team.

28:43 Here's a six step decision making model to help you understand the best ways to make decisions.

28:49 First up, define the problem.

28:53 Next, generate alternative solutions to that problem, so you can think laterally and creatively about all the different ways to solve it.

29:03 Think about what those ideas would be if they were put into action, what the real consequences of doing those potential solutions will be.

29:12 Use some solution action Planning to formulate possible consequences of putting those solutions into place and understanding all the consequences of those particular decisions.

29:25 Once you've done this, you'll be able to get an evaluation of each of the possible solutions and try to figure out which ones have the best outcomes and then evaluate the outcomes.

29:36 And with all of this information, you'll be able to make great decisions.

29:41 So remember that as a decision making process for the exam, some other ways to make decisions.

29:48 We can command decisions, you will do what I say.

29:52 We can consult with people to make decisions and get them on board to help us make decisions.

29:59 We can choose to reach consensus with a group of people in order to make decisions. And if we've exhausted all of our options for making a decision, whether it's the six state model or command consultation and consensus, and we still have no way to make a decision.

30:18 A simple coin flip.

30:19 Maybe what we turn to to help us make a decision.

30:24 Often there's questions in the exam about these decision making techniques.

30:30 Remember, and just to emphasize this co-location rules when it comes to developing that high performing team and remember, that's our goal, if possible and whenever possible, always put people within sight of each other so they can see each other and make eye contact. Human beings are very social creatures.

30:52 We'd like to see each other.

30:55 It helps us form good relationships.

30:58 But the increasing use of virtual teams challenges this and even the use of technology such as video conferencing isn't as good as actually having people meet face to face.

31:09 The perfect scenario is having your team work together all the time. If it's a virtual team, you may choose to bring them together whenever you can. You may have a war room set aside for your project, which is a room where people on your project come together to work on the project. And it's a great example of co-location.

31:34 The outputs from the developed project team process include team performance assessments, and this is where you assess the individuals and the team itself and give some feedback on how well the team is performing. Are they functioning as a high performing team and exceeding client expectations with the delivery of the project? Or is the team dynamic and team culture holding the project back? And one of the contributing factors to project failure? Remember, it's your interpersonal skills that will play the biggest part and building this high performing team.

32:12 You may also want to update specific enterprise environmental factors that are part of your wider organization.

32:20 These'll be the things like your human resource and employment policies for the wider organization.

32:26 You may want to give feedback and update them to make them better for better team development in the future.

32:34 So in summary, the developed project team process has been focused upon creating a high performing team from a group of individuals. And depending on the particular theory we choose to use appropriately, rewarding and recognizing teams and individuals to get them to work harder and smarter and faster. Thank you very much.

33:00 This has been an introduction and overview of the develop project team process from the PMBOK guide.