#311 from Innovative Leader Volume 6, Number 12          December 1997

A Roadmap for Leading a Project Team
by Richard W. Harris

Mr. Harris is a management consultant, trainer and speaker who specializes in team building and leadership development.  He can be reached, in Morristown, NJ, by phone at (973) 539-3354 or by email at rharris@center.tsa.net

You already know about “group think:” team members over-using their strengths, avoiding tasks that don’t fit their personality preferences, and running over teammates or others who don’t fit the group style. And you probably take steps to avoid this productivity-killer whenever possible. On those rare occasions when you have the luxury of picking exactly the team members you want for a new project, you try to mix and match their styles and capabilities. You know this gives your team the best chance to stay flexible and avoid getting stuck in costly ruts.

But even the most carefully selected teams become blind-sided, and it’s rare that you have complete freedom to pick and choose members. More often, the group is already in place and they’re already starting down the road—taking the same route they took on the last four projects. Looking ahead, you know where you’ll have to push and prod to get them to try a different way or to keep them out of the ditch.

Each team has its own preferred way to do the job, which means that they’ll spend too much time on some aspects of the project and short-change others. The good news is that these patterns are predictable. A personality profile of your team will tell you, ahead of time, where they’re likely to expend too much or too little effort. But even without a specific profile, there’s a roadmap you can use to give your team the best chance of success: building on strengths and avoiding potential breakdowns.

Personalities and Roles

The basis of the roadmap is Carl Jung’s theory of personality. That—and years of observations of actual teams—tell us there are two basic things that people do when they carry out a project: gather information and make decisions. And there are two ways that individuals can perform each of these tasks. They can gather information either by focusing on specifics and facts or by looking at frameworks and concepts. The “specifics and facts” approach relies on the five senses to look at the detailed reality of current and past experience. The “frameworks and concepts” style involves creating a big-picture view, often in the form of an innovative model that shows possibilities for the future.

There are also two fundamentally different approaches people can use for making decisions. They can seek to be as objective as possible, using analysis and logic, together with absolute criteria whenever possible, to find the right solution. The other way to make decisions is be as subjective as possible, taking into account one’s own values and viewpoint as well as the positions and feelings of every other person involved. This approach emphasizes buy-in and relationships and seeks the most harmonious solution.

According to Jung, each of us performs all four of these functions, but we each have a hierarchical order of preference among the four. An individual may prefer creating frameworks and concepts the most, making analytical, logical decisions the next most, finding solutions that create buy-in and build relationships third, and looking at specifics and facts the least.

The same is true of teams. Given the mix of individual preferences in the group, each team will have its own hierarchical order of preference among the four functions. This means that each team will have some problem-solving techniques that it likes and others that it avoids.

As independent-minded individuals, we would like to think that individuals with differing preferences could influence fellow teammates to prevent a “group-think” emphasis on one or two of the functions. But experience shows that the team takes on a life of its own. According to a study by Sandra Krebs Hirsh, the average team will spend about 28 minutes of every hour doing its favorite thing and will devote only 4 minutes to its least preferred function. 

Teams that like analysis and logic may come up with excellent, well-reasoned solutions, but if their least preferred function is buy-in and relationships, the product may end up being totally unacceptable. You’ve probably seen teams that create innovative concepts and frameworks, only to find their view can’t be supported by the specifics of the current budget. Or, you may have experienced teams that get so involved in looking at the details of what worked or didn’t in the past that they miss out on viable new possibilities for the future. The fact is, all of these approaches are important. The trick is to get teams to fire on all four cylinders. Personality and team theory, plus actual experience, tell us it won’t happen unless you, as leader, take specific steps.

Interactions and Reflection

You’ll need to know how to tap your team’s energy source.  There are two places people can go to get energized to perform the project functions. One place is outside, in interactions with other people. The other place is inside, to an inner world of reflection and contemplation. Everyone gets energized from both places, but we each have a preference for one over the other. Again, it’s the same with teams. Some prefer meetings and discussions and spend lots of time interacting in oral communication. Other groups tend to like written communication. They like reading, writing, and quiet time for thinking.

Many teams, especially in marketing, sales, and public relations, generate a lot of energy through meetings and discussions, with plenty of give-and-take interactions. Other teams, particularly in information systems, finance, and engineering, like to communicate via e-mail and documents. They spend a lot of time in front of a computer screen or studying reports. To get a team to avoid being blindsided and come up with a top-quality result, you’ll need to make sure they’re not only using all four project functions, but that they’re carrying out those functions using both interactive time and reflective time. When you put it all together, you have a framework for project success.

This framework translates into a roadmap you can use for every project. Although it doesn’t describe the details of how to accomplish each task, it provides a checklist of outputs: the towns and cities you’ll want to travel through. While every project will not require every output, and there are deliverables that aren’t listed, this route plan will enable you to see whether any major areas have been neglected. It also gives an overall sequence for your team’s activities.

Project Roadmap

Specifics

Interactive time. Discussions about details, past and present.

            •  Interviews with customers and stakeholders with detailed questionnaires
            •  “Hands-on” experience (e.g., prototypes, test-drives, lab experiments
            •  Brainstorming lists of facts relevant to a specific problem statement            
            •  Discussions of past history and experiences

Reflective time.  Documentation and study of data.

            •  Lists of specific customer and stakeholder needs and requirements
            •  Detailed charts showing current work flows, processes and job functions
            •  Chronological history recording events to date
            •  Measurements, benchmarks and other quantitative information
            •  Factual descriptions of current and past products and services
            •  Examination of current methods and procedures

Frameworks and concepts

Interactive time.  Discussion about future possibilities and the big picture.

            •  Visioning techniques, such as creating collages, to generate views of the future
            •  “Blue-sky” sessions to stimulate and eliminate barriers to creativity
            •  Discussing data to find patterns and trends
            •  Grouping lists of facts into categories using affinity diagramming or other methods
            •  Free-association brainstorming, where one idea leads to another

Reflective time.  Documentation and study of innovative ideas.

            •  Model that uses symbols to show, in just a page or two, how all of the component                 concepts link together
            •  Documentation of assumptions, especially unspoken or basic assumptions about the                 problem being addressed
            •  Statement of vision, mission, or other succinct description of future direction
            •  Document comparing and contrasting different aspects or dimensions of the subject

3.  Analysis and logic.

a.  Interactive time.  Challenging discussion and debate to find the right solution.

            •  Debate the pros and cons of alternative solutions
            •  Oral presentations advocating competing strategies and action plans
            •  Interview with expert in the field
            •  Attendance at conferences where experts present and debate their latest findings
            •  Challenging questions and lively rebuttals

b.  Reflective time.  Well-reasoned documentation explaining why a given solution is correct.

            •  Written analysis of alternative solutions and the logic behind the selected answer
            •  Documented results and strategic planning process, risk analysis procedure,                 re-engineering methodology, or other leading-edge problem-solving technique
            •  Statements and publications by experts
            •  Research report relying on state-of-the-art sources
            •  Report describing an objective decision-making process which will be applied equally                and fairly to everyone

Buy-in and relationships.

Interactive time.  Open discussion to make sure the solution includes contributions by customers, stakeholders and team members.

            •  Interviews with customers and stakeholders to get their ideas for possible solutions
            •  Invitation to customers and other stakeholders to participate in team deliberations and                planning sessions
            •  Application of active listening, conflict resolution, check-ins, and other group dynamics                techniques to ensure all team members have been heard
            •  Open meetings, “brown-bag” sessions, “town-hall” meetings, and other interactive                 forums to solicit maximum participation in the decision-making process

Reflective time.  Documentation of the solution’s impact on everyone involved.

            •  Document showing how the solution meets the requirements of customers and key                stakeholders
            •  Written statements of support from key individuals
            •  Statement of how the solution furthers the basic values of the organization
            •  Description of the solution showing how it is flexible enough to accommodate the        differing situations of specific users and customers
            •  Communication, sales, marketing, or public relations plan
            •  Report describing a subjective decision process in which everyone’s individual                 situation will be taken into account

You’ll probably find that the team is already successful in developing several of the items listed above, most likely because they’re in their “team personality” comfort zone. They may need your direction, coaching, and support to produce several of the other deliverables—most likely the ones that are like using a manual transmission when automatic is what you’re accustomed to.

Keep your eyes and ears open for the tell-tale signs of team avoidance that come from working in a non-preferred function. “We ran out of time and didn’t get to that last part.” “That task isn’t really necessary; we have everything we need already.” “We’ve tried it ten times, and we keep getting bogged down and not getting anywhere.” “This one team member keeps harping on that task like a broken record—when will he catch on that the rest of us just don’t care?” That’s when your guidance is needed most.

If you can get a team personality profile, it will further indicate exactly what to expect in terms of strengths and potential breakdowns. Remember, too, that your own personality preferences may tell you that some of these items are less important than others. But if you and your team stay on track, the result will be worth it. You'll have a product or service that’s practical, innovative, makes sense, and benefits customers, employees, and stakeholders. You’ll have a project team that’s energized, productive, successful, and eager and ready for the next project.