The project that I participated in that is the basis for my
post-mortem analysis entailed a group project for an asynchronous online class
that I took. The team members and roles
were assigned randomly by our course instructor and included a project manager
to help run the project and participate in the other duties of the team. None of us had worked together before and we
all lived across different time zones, represented different backgrounds and
very different personality types. To
summarize the story, our team failed to establish any effective communication throughout
the project. We jumped past the “forming”
stage of small group team development, into the “storming” phase, and never
left (Tuckman, 1965). At the end of the
course, we had a project to deliver, but I would not at all call the project a
success.
I think there were two major factors that contributed to the
project failure. The first problem,
which I think allowed for the development of the other problems, was that we
had no established leader. Greer (2010)
addresses this in the post-mortem project analysis by asking, “Did we have the
right people assigned to all the project roles?” (p. 42). Since the instructor randomly assigned the
roles, I would say the answer was definitely not. The initial assigned PM backed out of the
leadership role the second week and the individual who replaced him was self appointed
and not respected by several members of the team. The lack of a clearly defined leader created
communication issues and personality conflicts amongst the team. Instead of acting as a team, a few members
branched off and did their own work, which didn’t meld with the rest of the
team project when needed. Buhl (n.d.),
stresses that a good leader needs to “focus on issues, not personalities.” Additionally, we didn’t get the help we
needed from the course instructor to assist in managing or mediating our team
issues. This could have been because we
didn’t seek the help appropriately. Buhl
(n.d.) also points out that if all the leaders efforts to formulate a
successful team fail, that it is imperative to know to how involve a superior.
The second major issue was the lack of effective
communication amongst our team. I think
if we had established a means to regularly and clearly communicate throughout
the project, a lot of misunderstandings and negative feelings would have been
avoided. I have learned of the
importance of the project manager establishing a formal communication plan during
the planning phase of a project (Project Management Institute, 2013). I think if our project manager had worked at
the start to “define the preferred communication
style, frequency and format” for the members, we would have been much more
successful (PMI, 2013, p. 9).
It is interesting to do a post-mortem analysis on a project
and analyze what could have turned the project around. I was so frustrated during the project and so
thankful when it was over that I never took time to reflect on how we could
have potentially made it successful. I
will continue to wonder if we could have made it work, had we had some of the
different circumstances I described above.
If nothing else, it allows me to approach my future projects with a
better understanding of how to have a positive impact on my team.
References:
Buhl, L. (n.d.). How to survive a bad team leader. Retrieved from http://managerlink.monster.com/training-leadership/articles/870-how-to-survive-a-bad-team-leader
Greer, M. (2010). The
project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects!
(Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.
The Project Management Institute. (2013). Communication:
The message is clear [White paper]. Newtown Square, PA: Author. Retrieved from http://www.pmi.org/~/media/PDF/Knowledge%20Center/Communications_whitepaper_v2.ashx
Tuckman, B.W. (1965).
Developmental sequence in small groups.
Psychological Bulletin, 63(6),
384-399.
“Your situation won’t get better; left unaddressed, it usually gets worse” (Heathfield, n.d.). I wonder if you are anyone in your group addressed the issues you faced during the project or did everyone just go their own way. I don’t believe that addressing an issue always guarantees a resolution, but I do believe that unaddressed issues causes frustration and ultimately gets worse.
ReplyDeleteReference:
Heathfield, S.(n.d.). How to deal with difficult people at work. Retrieved from web http://humanresources.about.com/od/workrelationships/a/difficultpeople.htm
Hi Keisha,
DeleteThanks for your comment. We did try and address the issues, but definitely too late in the game. Reflecting back, I see we should stopped and tried to address things by the second week. Unfortunately, we waited until the storming escalated and by that point it was too hard to get everyone back on a collaborative page and tuned into a common goal. My biggest take away was to not leave these issues unaddressed, even if I am not the PM, like you said, they will just get worse.
Cara,
ReplyDeleteI have a fear of group projects because I have heard too many stories like yours. I have only had to do one in an online classroom setting, and I was fortunate to be in a group who assumed their responsibilities and those who ran into difficulties were helped by others in the group.
We still had our difficult moments, but each week it seemed that there was someone who was willing to take on a bit more of the missing pieces for that week to have a successful end of the project.
As Keisha pointed out, there is good advice in the article about dealing with difficult people (Heathfield, n.d.), however time is not on our side in class projects to complete over 6 or 7 weeks. Especially when you are learning the material at the some time you are constructing the project and working with people you will never see face to face.
My mother was a professional fund raiser, who ran year after year of successful United Way campaigns as the campaign manager. That was before the term Project Manager existed, but I learned a lot from watching her and volunteering with her since elementary school through college.
She had excellent communication skills and was excellent at delegating tasks. However, she committed long hours to her success, but when you love what you do you look forward to your job. She worked with large corporations, politicians, and the media, and helped homeless people find a place to stay for the night, and that might be in one day.
I remember sitting in on meetings with my mother and her boss while they were planning out scheduling and tasks to reach their goals. They had huge mailing lists since a lot of communication then was done by mail. The established an executive committee where business leaders in the community would learn how to run a campaign with their employees, and their connections in the community.
It is amazing what you can accomplish when you have enough time, and plan well. This is not always the case in an 8 week class.
Some of the skills I learned from spending a lot of time with my mother was that you make everyone feel that they are valued. Find good in everyone, even those who make your life difficult, and show your appreciation and gratitude for everyone you are in contact with. She was the master at this, and I believe that lead to her huge success year after year.
Reference
Heathfield, S.(n.d.). How to deal with difficult people at work. Retrieved from web http://humanresources.about.com/od/workrelationships/a/difficultpeople.htm
Cara,
ReplyDeleteOh the agony! I was in a very similar situation and you really struck a cord with me when you remarked that you were so frustrated with how it was going that you never stopped to think about how it could have been successful.
Along with what you described, my team also struggled with fulfilling a class assignment when none of us really had a clear understanding of what the end result should look like. It reminds me of the blind men and the elephant—do you know that fable? (Here’s the poem that tells the story: http://www.constitution.org/col/blind_men.htm.) We all had different ideas of what we needed to do and what success looked like.
If our project manager would have taken the time during our project kickoff to help our group clearly define our approach and deliverables, we would have saved ourselves a lot of frustration.
Stacie
Hi Stacie,
DeleteThanks for your comment. I love that fable and haven't read it in years! You are correct, that is exactly what we were like on the project, with no collaborative effort we floundered. We did try to address the issues, but in such a short time frame, we waited too long. Our group had stormed for long enough that as a team, we were never able to gel and get the project done productively. I learned a lot from this project for my future as both a PM and a team member. Specifically, I need to be more proactive in how my team come's together. We are each responsible for a successful team, not just the leader.