The project manager went to work in a way few project managers do. All efforts were turned to the project team members, identifying their individual challenges, and understanding current group dynamics. . The first step was to interview each team member to obtain their unique perspective on the project, their role, their task assignments, and their challenges in completing their task assignments. This process resulted in a thorough understanding of individual and collective challenges facing the project team. These one on one interviews, with a neutral project manager, allowed team members to air issues and concerns candidly. The interviews also clearly established the role of the project manager to each team member as one of supporter and champion. Through this process, a long list of individual, interpersonal, departmental, and organizational problems were revealed.

The next step in the project manager's process was to organize and then prioritize the issues in the following table:

	Individual		Interpersonal		Departmental		Organizational
Issue	Name	Mitigation Plan	Name	Mitigation Plan	Name	Mitigation Plan	Name	Mitigation Plan
1.
2.
3.
4.

In every case the project manager determined the path by which the issue would be addressed and, or brought to the attention of the next level of authority for resolution. As the project manager worked through the list a pattern of unresolved issues developed that when summarized revealed the primary challenges negatively impacting the team, group dynamics and the success of the project. These can be summarized as follows:

• The Finance & Administration Director was unable or unwilling to provide the leadership, decision-making and conflict resolution support required by the Finance & Administration department to this finance-dependent project.
• The staff level project sponsor had a history of unilateral decision-making, dictating to and directing staff far outside of his/her authority, based upon an assumption that length of service and system familiarity equaled automatic authority.
• The project team and sponsors lacked the experience and expertise to develop the new software system beyond the current level of process maturity.

With the key unresolved project team issues identified, the project manager was able to develop several alternative approaches to addressing each challenge. At this point, the project manager was better prepared to approach city leadership, the Mayor and City Administrator, explain the challenges, detail the effect upon project schedule and benefits, and begin to explore solutions.

Previous < > Next: Mapping Project Team Dynamics to Organizational Dynamics

Copyright © 2004 Meg Charter. All Rights Reserved.