Resourcing Teams for Innovation

Building good innovation teams requires some insight into the behavior profiles of the potential resources, so that a balance of forces is created. A lack of balance could be a detriment to your desired success. ...

... "Some people are very action oriented and driven, and their opposite is more of a planner and conceptualizer. Putting these two types of people together can help create great ideas and plans and get them to market quickly. " ...

Via InnovationTools: Innovation Teams

Org Controls

Decentralized and flat organization model distributes controls into the customer-focused workforce. Hierarchy and team roles are minimized while responsibility and accountability to the customer are emphasized. ...

... "Control rests with the front lines, where it adds the most value. It works. Still, customers visiting FAVI are often astounded at what they perceive to be a total lack of control. " ...

Via Idea Hub at American Express OPEN Forum: Design a Flat Organization

Global Teams Interact through Reaction

Fun exercise builds collaboration and innovation across globally distributed teams ... a nice ice-breaker if you are starting up a global project. ...


IDEO Global Chain Reaction from IDEO Labs on Vimeo.

Teamwork: A Lesson from the Super Bowl

Watching the Super Bowl last night brought to mind a valuable lesson in teamwork.

However, the lesson didn't come from the game itself. It came from a simple statement made prior to the game in a recorded intro spot about teamwork.

During the overlapping voiceovers touting the value of teamwork, a simple definition was announced:

Teamwork... A cooperative effort by members of a group to achieve a common goal.

Now this is a fairly straightforward definition, and on the surface doesn't seem profound by any means. One might even say it's common sense. If that's the case, then why doesn't it feel that way on many project teams?

A project team includes the core members, key stakeholders, and anyone in an organization who's involvement or cooperation is needed to achieve a goal. The problem right off the bat is that most teams struggle with agreeing on what the goal is. If they do reach agreement on the goal, the next challenge is to make it a cooperative effort to achieve it.

If every project manager posted the above definition of teamwork on their wall and shared it with the project team and stakeholders during the project kickoff, perhaps it could serve as inspiration toward further dialogue.... and launch a true "cooperative effort toward a common goal."

Engagement is the answer to many a team's struggles, and this view of a team seems to embody the concept.

Perhaps this definition is pretty profound after all.

Interactive Surfaces for Teams

Continuing along the idea generation train of thought ... Check out this interactive brainstorming surface. ...

Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round

Zen ideas for individual or team techniques for having a great day. Share 'em. And, sing that song. ...

... "And so I changed the moment, and in doing so changed my day ... " ...

Via zen habits: Make Today Your Best Day Ever

PMO Organize for Transformation

The program management office is seen as an organizational model for transformation. In this situation, four operating teams are under the leadership of the PMO - delivery, process, visibility, and communications. This office will provide oversight of the various project teams deployed to achieve the transformation. ...

... "Higher Education Ministry has set up the programme management office (PMO) in line with its recent launch of the National Higher Education Strategic Plan ... " ...

Via The Malaysia Star: Transformation

Leaderless Teams and Nature: Meet the BioTeam

Leaderless teams are a concept that organizations such as Toyota have had great success with. Yet organizations still can't shake the old hierarchical concepts.

Enter Ken Thompson. Thompson has made a career out of studying nature with the purpose of learning how geese, penguins, ants, bees, dolphins, and other creatures communicate and accomplish their significant "projects" in the form of leaderless teams.

For instance, when geese change formation, it's often because the leader no longer knows where to go, so another goose needs to take over. Collectively, they know how to reach their destination. It's the same with migrating penguins. Each contributor is responsible for communicating key messages, taking over when needed, and acting in what they feel is in the best interest of the group.

This certainly has implications on the role of the project manager. I'm not saying the PM role isn't required, but the role could certainly be reframed or rethought in this context. It would be quite an interesting study.

The link below contains a 15 minute video interview with Thompson, where he explains the BioTeam approach. Also, visit his website at http://www.bioteams.com/. There are some fascinating articles there that offer new perspectives on team dynamics, virtual teaming, and virtual networks. For more on the leaderless approach, also check out the book, The Starfish and the Spider, by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom, which I blogged about last year on PMThink.

Meet the BioTeams Blogger PodTech.net: Technology and Entertainment Video Network

IT Org Model Seeks to Integrate Distributed Teams

Government reorganizes IT leadership in order to increase performance on key projects and initiatives. ...

... "The idea is for the governor's respected Chief Information Officer Michael Locatis to forge better collaboration and expertise-sharing among information technology teams now scattered across 20 agencies ... " ...

Via GovExec: Reorganizing for IT Project Success

Project Team Motivators: Pay 4 Performance Bonus

Looking for ways to motivate your team through financial compensation? Performane bonus may do the trick, according to research results. ...

... "However, if the same money was applied to pay-for-performance bonuses, the analysis suggests a performance increase of better than 15 percent. Indeed, the results suggest that providing a strong pay-for-performance link for bonuses rather than raises had the greatest potential benefit ... " ...

Via Cornell Hotel School: Compensation Study: Performance Impact

Real Time Communications: Twitter

New internet communication service, Twitter, morphs as users create unintended consequences. Running a global, virtual project. Need real-time info and asynchronous updates. Check it out. ...

... "What was once initially designed to answer the question: what are you doing?, has turned into a free-form communications service where people are having burts of shorthand conversations ... " ...

Via Logic+Emotion: Twitter Love + Hate

Team Kickoffs: Breaking the Ice

Whether conducting a project kickoff, a seminar, or a training session, it's always fun to start with an ice breaker. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. I've seen ice breakers that were nothing more than a funny video, but served to loosen things up (nowadays that's pretty easy with YouTube, such as this one we posted on PMThink).

I've also seen ice breakers that served to get people moving around and networking, such as having each person use pictures (and no words) on a piece of folded flip chart paper to describe themselves, and then having people pair off for a minute at a time and interpret each other's pictures.

If you're looking for ideas, here's a nice list to help get you started. I think my favorite link is the last one.

Ice Breakers

Project Controller: The Project Manager's Best Friend

Halleluyah! Finally, there's an article saying what I've been saying for years. With projects becoming more and more complex, and leadership and stakeholder management requiring more attention than project managers have time for, there's a need for another role to manage the "control" aspects of the project.

This article by Robert Wourms on Projects@Work details how organizations such as State Farm have had success doing just that. Bring on the Project Controller. As a member of the leadership team for PMI's new standards for program management and portfolio management, I witnessed first hand how valuable this role was, as it freed the program manager up to actually lead the program.

The article shows how the project controller's role can include tasks such as:

1) Educating the team on processes
2) Facilitating Planning and Control sessions
3) Developing the project schedule
4) Controlling progress
5) Tracking and analyzing costs
6) Managing Issues, Risks, and Changes
7) Documenting and delivering status information

So what's left for the project manager to do? Plenty. Supporting this, the article offers a valuable table outlining the role of the project manager vs. the program controller. Read on...

http://www.projectsatwork.com/content/Articles/221443.cfm

Learning from experience

We've discussed the value of sharing lessons learned before. Here is another good example of a team that took the time and trouble to write up their experiences from real life. Earthquake monitoring is, by its nature, a very distributed activity and a project to support the service involves a very widely distributed set of stake holders.
Lessons learned from the NEES Cyberenvironment project

This paper really points up several critical aspects. Everyone will find something of value. For me, the section on the criticality of effective communication contains some quotable nuggets. For instance "We recommend, in fact, that on the very first day of the project, the project team should make a "mockup" - in as simple a form as a set of presentation slides - available to the user community". The effective use of prototypes as a communication tool across the stakeholder community is described well.