PM 503 Communications in Managing Project Organizations
CLASS No. 1:  Lesson and Learning Objectives
Thomas A. Fawthrop

Session I:  Understand Organizational Theory and distinguish between strategic planning and business planning as it relates to a project.

A.  Introduction to Organization and Organizational Theory:

The purpose of today’s introduction to organizational theory is discuss the systematic study of organizations by scholars.  Concepts are obtained from living ongoing organizations.  It helps people understand, diagnose, and respond to organizational needs and problems.

Organizations are social entities that are goal directed, deliberately structured activity systems with a permeable boundary.

1.  Social Entities:  Organizations are composed of people and groups of people.  People interact with each other to perform essential roles and responsibilities.  The importance of human resources is the key stone of this course.

2.  Goal Directed:  Organizations exist for a purpose.  An organization and members are trying to accomplish a mission and achieve goals. 

3.  Structured Activities:  A structured activity is a simple way of saying organizations perform work activities.

4.  Permeable Boundary:  Organizations have boundaries.  Boundaries determine what is in and out of the organization.  This concept is rapidly changing because of global competition and joint ventures.

Organizations as Systems:

Closed Systems would not depend on its environment:  it would be autonomous, enclosed and sealed off from the outside world.  

Open Systems must inter act with the environment to survive; it both consumes resources and exports resources to the environment.  It must continuously change and adapt to the environment to survive.  Open systems usually have to be complex to survive.  Each subsystem has to interact and compliment each other to support to the total system to compete in the environment.  Subsystems:

1.  Boundary Spanning:  Handles input and outputs and changes in the environment-Marketing
2.  Production:  Produces outputs and services-Products and Manufacturing:  Chocolates and Hardware.  Services:  Law and Teaching
3.  Maintenance:  Smooth Operations and Upkeep-Human Resources, Janitorial Staff and Food Services.
4.  Adaptation:  Responsible for Organizational Change-Technology, Marketing, and Research
5.  Management:  Directing and Coordinating other subsystems.  CEO, CFO, and PM

B.  Long Range (Strategic) Planning and the Team Process to Implement Strategies

Chaos Theory maintains that we live in world full of randomness and uncertainty.  A world of surprises, rapid change, and confusion.  Manager can not measure, predict, or control in the traditional way.  The drama unfolds outside of the organization.  Today’s organizations must respond completely to the unpredictable within the bounds of the organization’s mission and principles.

Organizational Theory: is the way one can see and analyze organizations more accurately.  Scientific Management was pioneered by Frederick Taylor claimed that decisions about organization and job design should be based on precise, scientific procedures after careful study of individual situations.  Administrative principles focused more one the total organization and grew from the insights or practitioners.  Scientific management and administrative principles were closed systems approach that did not anticipate the chaos facing companies in the 90’s.

Why Study Organizational Theory?  Most study organizational theory belong to one of two groups:  organizational managers or potential managers.

Summary:  One important idea is that organizations are systems.  They are open systems that must adjust to the environment to survive.  New science of chaos theory.  Focus on the organization not the individual.  Organization theory consists of multiple perspectives.  Concepts of supervision and motivation of employees discussed under organizational behavior.

EXAMINATION:  What is the definition of an organization?

What are the five sub-systems in organizations?

Define the chaos theory.

C.  Global Competition:

To be completed.

What is a Project?  (Frame pp. 2-7)

We use the term project frequently in our daily vocabulary.  Four characteristics distinguish projects from undertakings.

•	Goal Oriented.  It is the goals that drive the project, and all planning and implementation efforts are undertaken so as to achieve them.  The fact that project s are goal oriented carries with it enormous implications for their management.  It suggests that identification of relevant goals and a hierarchy within the goals.  Progress can be made on the goals and that the goals are ultimately attainable.  

A solid grasped of Management By Objective (MBO) can make the PM’s life easier.  At its heart MBO is concern with two things:  establishing clear goals and making certain they are obtainable.  The need for clear goals can not be overstated.  The best way to state a goal is to verify it.  This can be done by building measurements in the statement of objectives.

However, a clear goal is not enough.  It must be achievable.  One common mistake is that people get bogged down in negotiating the goal and have little time implementing the goal.  The second mistake is that management dictates the goals without input from the project team.  Management imposing their will create other concerns.

•	Coordinated Undertaking of Interrelated Activities.  Projects are inherently complex.  Some tasks are required to be completed prior to other tasks or may run parallel.  Tasks out of sync with each other may jeopardize projects.  The system’s approach is important in managing work effectively in a complex world.

•	Limited Duration.  Projects are temporary.  They have reasonably well defined beginnings and ends.  From the customer’s perspective the deliverable does not have much value unless they can use it.  Project responsibilities extend beyond the delivery date to maintain customer satisfaction.

•	Uniqueness.  Projects are non recurring, a one of a kind undertaking.  Basic elements may be the same for similar projects, one element will be different and critical to the success of your project.  What you can expect is uncertainty and risk.

TAKE A BREAK

Session II  To understand the structure of a project as it develops in a project life cycle.

A.  Utilize Relationships in a Functional Organization:

DRAW ON THE BOARD:

Functions of  Executive Management:	Functions of Project Management:

•	Planning	Planning
•	Organizing	Organizing
•	Staffing
•	Policy-Making
•	Directing	Directing
•	Monitoring	Monitoring
•	Motivating	Motivating
•	Controlling	Controlling
•	Communicating	Communicating
•	Problem Solving	Problem Solving

What is Project Management and How Can It Help You?

SHOW:  News article $40M over State of Washington

The basic concept is to get the project done and on time, within budget, and according to the specifications.  

Dealing with Time Constraints:  Project professionals establish deadlines and work with schedules.  Software programs and a 318 pencil can create timetables.

Money Constraints:  First estimates are made as to what the project tasks will cost.  Money buys resources and it's the job of the PM to monitor that money for the benefit of the owner, customer and team.

Specifications:  The most difficult to manage.  The problem with specifications is that they are notoriously difficult to establish and monitor.  The specifications must be geared to satisfy the customer’s needs.  

Advantages:  (Implementation of Project Management)

The matrix organization has many advantages that far outweigh the disadvantages of complexity.  Among the universally accepted advantages are:

1.	Project Objectives Clear:  Project objectives are posted throughout the project office, but also balanced with the objectives of the functional organization.
2.	Project Integration:  There is a clear and workable mechanism for achieving project integration of sub-systems and work packages across functional departments.  Coordination across functional lines can easily be achieved.
3.	Efficient Use of Resources:  Maximum efficient utilization can be made of scarce resources.  It is the most effective use of manpower since labor can be part time and shared.  Thus matrix is less expensive.
4.	Information Flow:  Allows the use of horizontal and vertical communication flow.  Horizontal flow allows for project and functional units to communicate. Vertical flow provides for detailed project information to flow from project to project and various management levels.
5.	Retention of Disciplinary Teams:  Functional specialists are maintained and not terminated when the project has been completed.  As a result, specialists create a synergy that can be transferred to the functional units.
6.	High Morale:  

Disadvantages:

Finish Research

Summarize:  The project manager brings together everything!

B.  Management Goals and External Environment

The purpose of this discussion is to develop a framework for assessing environments and how organizations can respond to them.  

Organizational environment is defined as all elements that exist outside the boundary of the organization and have the potential to effect all or part of the organization.  An organizational domain is the chosen environmental field of interest.  

The task environment includes sectors with which the organization interacts directly and have a direct impact on the organization’s ability to achieve goals.

Show:  An Organizational Environment.

Discuss briefly environmental uncertainty.  Environmental uncertainty means that decision makers do not have sufficient information about environmental factors, and have a difficult time predicting external changes.  This difficulty increases risk, difficult to compute costs, and probabilities associated with decision alternatives.

The traditional way of coping with environmental uncertainty was to establish buffer departments.  The buffer role is to absorb uncertainty from the environment.  The buffer departments would surround the production departments.  The newer approach is to drop the buffers and expose the technical or production departments to the uncertainty environment.  Opening up the organization makes it more fluid and adaptable.

Boundary expanding roles link and coordinate an organization with key elements in the external environment. (1) concern with the expansion of information to detect and bring organizational information about changes in the environment (2) sent to the environment information that presents the organization in a favorable light.

Integration is the quality of collaboration between departments.  You, as a PM, are integrators.

Institutional Imitation: An emerging view, called institutional perspective, argues that high uncertainty, organizations mimic or imitate other organizations in the same institutional environment.  The institutional environment includes other similar organizations in the industry that deal with similar customers, suppliers and regulatory agencies.

Show:  Uncertainty chart.  Daft pg. 92.

With increasing environmental uncertainty, planning and forecasting become necessary.  Planning does not substitute for boundary spanning and in some cases may hinder boundary spanning.  Four Management Implications arise:  (Age of Uncertainty: Handy)

1.	Decentralization:  Delegate decision making power and responsibility to employees located in diverse locations.
2.	Creative Thinking:  Involve more employees in the decision making process, thereby increasing the flow of creative thoughts.
3.	Climate Open to Change:  Encourage risk taking and be open to change.
4.	Higher Levels of Responsibility:  Horizontal transfers allow employees to gain a wider view of the organization.

Briefly discuss scarcity of materials.

Summary:  Two Themes-(1) the amount of uncertainty and change in an organization domain influences the amount of information required to maintain leadership with your domain; and (2) pertain to scarcity of material and financial resources.  The more dependence on resources the more the importance of links to other organizations or control entry into the domain.  If dependence is low on external resources,  the organization can maintain autonomy and does not need establish links or control domain.

Struggle for Existence:  

Conclusion:  The external environment has an overwhelming impact on management uncertainty and organization functioning.  Organizations are open social systems involved with several external environment elements.  Most organizational decisions can be traced to stimuli in the external environment.

Finally, Organizations can learn to adapt to the environment and organizations can change and control the environment.  If required, organizations can find new niches when the environment changes.

EXAMINATION:  Define organization environment.

What is environmental uncertainty?

How organizations become involved in inter-organizational relationships.  Give two examples from two different domains.

C.  Organizational Growth and Life Cycle

Eighty-five percent of all business that make it past the first year still fail with five years because they cannot make the transition from the entrepreneurial stage.  The transitions become more difficult as organization progress through the life cycle.  A useful way of thinking about organizational growth and life cycle and change are provided by the concept of a life cycle that suggests that organizations are born, grow older, and eventually die.  Stages of development follow a natural progression.

Show:  Organizational Life Cycle   (Daft  pg. 175)

Entrepreneurial Stage:  The organization is born, the emphasis is on creating a product and surviving in the marketplace.  Founders devote their energies to the technical activities of production and marketing.  Control is based on the owner’s personal supervision.  Organization is informal and non-bureaucratic.  Growth is from a creative new product or service.  Crisis:  Need for Leadership.  As the organization grows the larger number of employees cause problems.  Management issues arise.  Entrepreneurs need to adjust the structure of the organization to accommodate continued growth.

Collective Stage:  If the leadership crisis is resolved,  strong leadership is obtained, and organization begins to develop clear goals and direction.  Members feel a part of the collective.  Communication is still informal with formal communication on the horizon.  control is establish along with a hierarchy of authority, job assignments and the beginnings of a division of labor appear.  Crisis:  Need to Delegate.  If new leadership has been successful, the lower level employees gradually find themselves restricted by top down leadership.  Top leadership wants to make certain that all parts of the organization are coordinated and pulling together.

Formalization Stage:  The form stage involves the installation and use of rules, procedures, and control systems.  Communication is less frequent and more formal.  Specialists and other staff technicians are added.  Top management becomes concern with issues such as strategy and planning.  Product teams or other decentralized units must be formed to improve coordination.  When effective these new linkages and control allow organizational growth.  Crisis:  Too Much Red Tape.  Organizations seem bureaucratized.  Programs begin to struggle and strangle management.  

Elaboration Stage:  The solution to the red tape crisis is a new sense of collaboration and teamwork.  Managers start developing skills to resolve problems and working together.  Bureaucracy may have reached its limit.  Social control and self-discipline reduce the need for additional formal controls.  Formal systems are simplified and replaced by manager teams and task forces.  To achieve collaboration, teams are formed across functions and departments of the company.  Crisis:  Need for Revitalization.  After the organization reaches maturity, it enters periods of temporary decline.  Streamlining occurs.  Top management is often replaced.

Summary:  Growing organizations move through stages of a life cycle and each stage is associated with specific characteristics of structure, control systems, goals and innovations.  The life cycle is a powerful concept used for understanding problems and how project managers can respond in a positive way to move the organization to the next stage.

Organizational Decline and Downsizing:  The definition of organizational decline as a condition in which a substantial absolute decrease in an organization’s resource occurs over a period of time.  Organizational decline is often associated with environmental decline in the sense that  organizational domain experiences either a reduction in or a reduction shrinkage in consumer demand.  Three factors are considered to cause organization decline.  Specifically:

1.	Organizational Atrophy occurs when organizations grow older, become inefficient and overly bureaucratic.   Warning signals:  Excessive staff personnel, cumbersome administrative procedures, lack of effective communications and coordination, and outdated organization structure.

2.	Vulnerability reflects an organization’s strategic inability to prosper in its environment. this often happens to small organizations that are not yet fully established or unable to define the correct strategy to fit the environment.  The result is a decline in domain.

3.	Environmental Decline refers to reduced energy and resources to support the organization.  

SHOW:  Model of Declining Stages    (Daft pg. 180)

Conclusion:  The material covered above contains several important ideas about organizations.  Bureaucracy is a logical form of organization that lets firms use resources efficiently.  However, in many companies and government, bureaucracy has come under attack with attempts to decentralize authority, flatten organizational structure, reduce rules and create small company mind set to compete in the global market.  Organizations evolve through distinctive life cycle stages as they grow and mature.  Organizational structure, internal systems, and management issues are different for each stage of development.  The short comings of large organizations are an advantage to the project manager who can create intra relationships to survive in a rapidly changing environment.

EXAMINATION:  Apply the life cycle to the organization you are familiar.  What stage is the organization in now?  How does the organization handle or pass through its life cycles crises?    

D.  Introduction to Project Management Integration: Creating a productive project by clarifying goals, identifying interface requirements and communicating critical control milestones.

The many different ways of showing the project life cycle.  The most common is divided into four broad phases:  Planning, Organizing, Implementation and Termination.

Show:  Project Life Cycle

•	Planning:  The project plan is the road map, it tells us how to get from one point to another.  Planning cared out through the project duration.  
REMEMBER:  If you do not have a PLAN you are just WALKING in the woods.  Typically some form of pre-planning has occurred including feasibility studies, business cases, and competition analyses.  All this information placed a part in the selection of the project.  REMEMBER:  Projects arise out of needs.  Know the need for both your and your teams success.

Product:  Project Plan reviewed and approved by the client and management.
REMEMBER:  Project plans are nothing but good guesses, bad plans are bad guesses.  The real world things change and the team must adjust to those variances.  We will discuss change of scope later.  Comment on measurements.

•	Implementation:  In a sense, implementation lies at the heart of a project, this phase implements the project plan and produces a product for the client’s needs.

•	Control:  As the project progresses,  the project manager continuously monitors progress.  The review work to date and look at the requirements to keep the project on track.  Discrepancies between planned and actual are called variances.  Based on the type and range of variances the PM can adjust and implement corrects.  
Control establishes an opportunity for feedback to the powers that be.

EXAMPLES:  PMBOK

•	Evaluation:  The PM is constantly evaluating the project.  The difference between control and evaluation are:

Show:  Mid Point Evaluation Chart:  (Frame pg. 14)

•	Control entails continuos monitoring of project progress.  Evaluation takes stock periodically.
•	Control focuses on details.  Evaluation on the big picture.
•	Control activities are the responsibilities of the PM.  Evaluations are typically carried out by individuals or groups not directing working on the project.

The fundamental role of evaluation at the end of the project is to offer lessons learned.  An opportunity to document and learn from both successes and mistakes.

•	Termination:  The biggest problem with termination is that the excitement is usually over and staff are looking for other interesting work.  Yet dozens of annoying problems arise during close out and loose ends are everywhere.  The issue of  post commission and/or maintenance phase is important but to be avoided at this time.

B.  Structure and Characteristics of  Project Teams  (Frame pp. 83-90)

Project teams are basic work units of projects because of their central role that teams play in projects, it is worthwhile spending some time examining them.

A team is a group of individuals who work together to attain a goal.  For them to work together, their individual efforts must be coordinated.  Project teams come in a great variety of shapes and sizes.  Some are large, some are small.  With project teams, however, team members are often borrowed and may have only the briefest exposure to the project effort.  Clearly, one important task of project managers is to develop the sense of team identification among their staff whether or not the team members recognize this.  Project teams have structure--that is , there is established rules governing the relationships of team members with each other, with the project manager, with the client, and with the project or service being developed.  

Team efficiency can be defined as the ratio of output to input.  In reality is the ration between potential team performance and actual team performance.  We can say that a project team is inefficient because its basic structure assures inefficiency or the their is friction causing it from operating smoothly.  Major structural sources of team inefficiency in projects are:

Matrix Based Friction is caused from the lack of staff continuity.  The second is the PM’s lack of control of project staff and materials resources.  Without direct control, it takes more time to acquire need human and material resources.  Project politics may enter the picture.

Poor Communications does cause team inefficiencies.  Information is the life blood of projects and communicating effectively to the relevant parties is vital to project success.

1.	End Rather Than Means
2.	Information Atherosclerosis
3.	Garbled Messages

Poor Integration occurs when projects are not viewed as a system.  Projects are composed of many interrelated pieces.  For the system to work, somehow the pieces have to be brought together and fitted into their proper places.  This process is call project management integration.

C.  Building Team Cohesiveness and Understanding Team Dynamics
•	Inclusion
•	Control
•	Affection

Stages of Team Development and the Project Manager's Role in Each:

The ordinary team is a complicated creature.  Members must work T out personal differences, find strengths on which to build, and balance commitments to the project against the demands of their everyday jobs.

Dealing with internal group needs that arise from these pressures is as important as the group's task of solving problems, improving processes, or completing daily work.  Teams often underestimate the need for team development.  When a team works together well, members can concentrate on their primary goal of solving problems or improving processes.  In contrast, a team that fails to build relationships among its members will waste time on struggles for control and endless discussions that lead nowhere.

The more you know about what to expect as your team progresses, the better equipped you will be to handle challenges as they emerge.  With a strong foundation in place, you will be better able to recognize and avoid many disruptions, and better able as a group I p to work through those that cannot be avoided.  In Chapter 7 we will be looking at what to do when the team runs into trouble, but it is far better to prevent problems than have to manage them later. (An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!) In this chapter we will explore how to help prevent problems before they happen.

I. Undercurrents in Team Dynamics

If all teams had to do was have meetings, gather data, plan improvements, make changes, write reports, and so on, progress would be very swift.  But when people form into teams, something always seems to get in the way of efficient progress.

The problem is that there are hidden concerns that, like undercurrents, pull team members away from their obvious tasks.  When they walk through the door into a meeting, team members are beset by conflicting emotions: excitement and anxiety about being on the team, loyalty to their divisions or departments, nervous anticipation about the project's success.

If left unattended these undercurrents can inhibit a (your chance of becoming an effective team.  Every group must therefore spend time on activities not directly related to a task, activities that build understanding and support in the group.  You need to resolve issues that fall into what one author, William Schutz, calls the 'interpersonal underworld."

These are issues not often spoken about, but common to us all, and they fall into three categories.

1.	Personal identity in the team
it is natural for team members to wonder how they will fit into the team.  The most common worries are those associated with:

Membership, Inclusion: "Do I feel like an insider or outsider?  Do I belong?  Do I want to belong?  What can I CIO to fit in?"
Influence, Control, Mutual Trust: "Who’s calling the shots here?  Who will have the most influence?  Will I have influence?  Will I be listened to?  Will I be able to contribute?  Will I be allowed to contribute?"
Getting Along, Mutual Loyalty: "How will I get along with other team members?  Will we be able to develop any cooperative spirit?"

2.	Relationships among team members

With few exceptions, team members want the team to succeed, to make improvements, and to work cooperatively.  They extend personal concerns to the team: "What kind of relationships will characterize this team?  Will members make and keep commitments?  How will members of different ranks interact?  Will we be friendly and informal or will it be strictly business?  Will we be open or guarded in what we say?  Will we be able to work together, or will we argue and disagree all the time?  Will people like or dislike me?  Will I like or dislike them?"

3.	Identity with the organization

Team members usually identify strongly with their departments or divisions, and they will need to know how membership in the team will affect those roles and responsibilities: "Will my loyalty to the team conflict with loyalty to my coworkers?  Will my responsibilities as a team member conflict with my everyday duties?" Usually it is the team's work that suffers if the two compete.

Just as team members must reach outside the group to maintain ties with their departments, so must the team as a whole build relationships throughout the organization.  Political astuteness is crucial.  Finding influential people to champion the team and its project can make a big difference in the support your team receives from the organization.  A team's relationship with its manager or sponsor is one avenue for creating such support within the organization.

II. Stages of Team Growth

As the team matures, members gradually learn to cope with the emotional and group pressures they face.  As a result, the team goes through fairly predictable stages.

Stage 1: Forming

When a team is forming, members cautiously explore the boundaries of acceptable group behavior.  Like hesitant swimmers, they stand by the pool, dabbling their toes in the water.  This is a stage of transition from individual to member status, and of testing the leader's guidance both formally and informally.

Forming includes these feelings...

•	Excitement, anticipation, and optimism
•	Pride in being chosen for the team
•	Initial, tentative attachment to the team
•	Suspicion, fear, and anxiety about the job ahead

...	and these behaviors.

•	Attempts to define the task and decide how it will be accomplished 
•	Attempts to determine acceptable team behavior and how to deal with team problems
•	Decisions on what information is needed
•	Lofty, abstract discussions of concepts and issues; or, for some members, impatience with these discussions
•	Discussion of symptoms or problems not relevant to the task; difficulty in identifying relevant problems
•	Complaints about the organization and barriers to the task

Because there is so much going on to distract members' attention in the beginning, progress on work or team goals is slow.  This is perfectly normal.

Stage 2. Storming

Storming is probably the most difficult stage for the team.  It is as if team members jump in the water, and, thinking they are about to drown, start thrashing about.  They begin to realize that the task is different and more difficult than they imagined, and become testy, anxious, or overzealous.

The team is impatient about the lack of progress, but still too inexperienced to know much about decision making or the scientific approach, members argue about just what actions the team should take.  They try to rely solely on their personal and professional experience, resisting any need for collaborating with other team members.

Storming includes these feelings...

•	Resistance to tasks and methods of work different from What each individual member is comfortable using

•	Sharp fluctuations in attitude about the team's chance of success

...	and these behaviors.

•	Arguing among members even when they agree on the real issue * Defensiveness and competition; factions and "choosing sides"

•	Questioning the wisdom of those who selected this project and appointed the other members of the team

•	Establishing unrealistic goals; concern about excessive work

•	Creation of a perceived "pecking order"; creating disunity, increased tension, an jealousy

Again, these many pressures mean team members have little energy to spend on progressing towards the team's goal.  But they are beginning to understand one another.

Stage 3. Norming

During this stage, members reconcile competing loyalties and responsibilities.  They accept the team, team ground rules (or "normal"), their roles in the team, and the individuality of fellow members.  Emotional conflict is reduced as previously competitive relationships become more cooperative.  In other words, as team members realize they are not going to drown, they stop thrashing about and start helping each other stay afloat.

Norming includes these feelings...
•	A sense of team cohesion, a common spirit and goals Acceptance of team membership
•	Relief that it seems everything is going to work out
... and these behaviors.

•	An attempt to achieve harmony by avoiding conflict

•	More friendliness, confiding in each other, and sharing of personal problems; discussing the team's dynamics

•	A new ability to express criticism constructively

•	Establishing and maintaining team ground rules and boundaries (the "norms")

As team members begin to work out their differences, they now have more time and energy to spend on their work.  Thus they are able to start making significant progress.

The pattern is different for each team, Team members' attitudes depend on both the speed of progress and the resistance or encouragement they receive from their manager or sponsor and their departments. ;

The best way to deal with this cycle is to understand and accept it with a "this too shall pass" attitude.  Changes in attitude, just like growth stages, are normal.  The team must cultivate patience.  Eventually, everyone will better understand how the work unfolds and will be able to set a more realistic pace.

Teams can also take a more active approach to dealing with the stages and cycles they experience by learning when and how to avoid or work through group problems.  The rest of this chapter describes approaches for improving the group's ability to solve and prevent problems.

Stage 4: Performing and Excelling

Leading a Team Through Performing:

In the performing stage, to build openness to change the leader should:

•	Update the team’s methods and procedures to support cooperation

•	Help the team understand how to manage change

•	Represent, and advocate for, the team with other groups and individuals

•	Monitor work progress and celebrate achievements

By this stage, the team has settled its relationships and expectations. They begin performing-diagnosing and solving problems, and choosing and implementing changes.  At last, team members have discovered and accepted each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and learned what their roles are.  Now they can swim in concert.

Performing includes these feelings...

•	Members having insights into personal and group processes, and better understanding of each other’s strengths and weaknesses

•	Satisfaction at the team’s progress

•	Close attachment to the team

... and these behaviors.

•	Constructive self change

•	Ability to prevent or work through group problems

The team is now an effective, cohesive unit.  You can tell when the team has reached this stage because you start getting a lot of work done.  The duration and intensity of these stages vary from team to team.  Sometimes Stage 4, Performing, is achieved in a meeting or two; other times it may take months. Use the descriptions here to compare your team with the normal pattern for maturing groups.  Understanding these stages of growth will keep you from overreacting to normal problems and setting unrealistic expectations that only add to frustration.  Don't panic.  With patience and effort this assembly of independent individuals will grow into a team.

4.  Evaluating:  See Class 3: Human Behavior 101

5.  Mourning and Rewarding (Frame pg. 103-104)
 
Since most project professionals lack the carrots and sticks needed to catch people’s attention, here are some creative methods:

Letters of Recommendation:  PM can write letters of recommendation on the performance of their team members.  Letters to team member’s supervisor’s and their personnel file are always received well.

Public Recognition:  Superlative workers should be publicly recognized for their work and efforts.  This can be done during a project status meeting, weekly report, and annual employee recognition program.

Job Assignments:  Good work should be rewarded with better and challenging job assignments.  

Flexible Work Time:  Good project workers who may need some adjustments in their work hours may be rewarded with some measure of flexibility.  

Job related perquisites.  If possible, use perks for a reward system.

New Equipment:  New and updated equipment is especially a motivated approach for technical people.

Recommendation for Bonus or Cash Awards:  A number of companies have established cash awards for their best performers.  Project professionals can use these awards as an incentive.

Chartering the Team:

Chartering a team may best be described as the ounce of prevention that is worth a pound of cure.  Simply stated, chartering is the act of guiding a team through the itself- its purpose, scope, goals, behaviors, roles, responsibilities, and other elements that give a team the clarity of purpose essential for high-
quality performance.

The term "charter" is borrowed from the British sovereign system, where the king or queen granted, or chartered, certain rights or privileges on an individual.  These privileges were often in the form of property and the right to own it, farm it, and govern it in exchange for a percentage of the profits from the land or a tax.

Today, the concept of chartering a team in an organization has a similar meaning.  The organization confers certain authorities and resources to the team and team members.  This authority has a defined boundary and scope of work.  In return for this authority, the team is responsible for generating certain results.  The definition of the purpose, scope, goals, behaviors, and roles and relationships of the team is the chartering process; the written description of these definitions is the project team charter.

In the project delivery process, chartering is one of three components of the planning phase (the other two are development of the workplan and endorsement of the project).  Chartering occurs after the general parameters of the project have been defined but before detailed development of the workplan.  During the chartering process, the team will begin to address several important matters that will serve as input into the workplan, including project purpose, mission, and vision; measures of success; roles and responsibilities; and operating guidelines needed to help ensure effective communication and decision making during subsequent project planning and execution activities.  By engaging team members in this work, the project manager is helping to build a well aligned, focused, high-performance project team.

The project manager and team members must be involved in the chartering process, but others may also be included.  For example, the chartering could be sequenced to have the client attend the initial session, where project parameters are presented and the charter is established.  Then, the team could have a separate session to work through the details of the charter on its own, which would be followed by a final session, where the client returns for a presentation and endorsement of the charter by all stakeholders.

The Benefits of Chartering
The primary benefits of chartering are threefold:

1.  Increases the probability that the team will be successful and will achieve high-quality performance

2.  Empowers team members, maximizing their effectiveness and influence

3.  Monitors team performance so that members can diagnose problems and take corrective actions

Chartering to Achieve High Quality Performance

Teams commonly go astray or fail to perform as originally hoped.  When the problems are analyzed, they are often related to a number of common issues: lack of a clear goal lack of initial agreement regarding the purpose of the team, individual agendas overriding team goals, interpersonal conflicts, lack of resources, or unclear expectations.  When an effort is made to identify the sources of these problems, it is often the case that these issues were never clarified at the beginning of the project, and the team started the project with the seeds of its poor performance or dysfunctionality already

Chartering ensures that team members share the same vision for the project, which greatly increases the probability that the team will experience both success and high-quality performance.  Chartering is the basis for creating team behaviors that are stronger than individual behaviors.  Chartering establishes the operating
guidelines that govern team and individual behaviors.  Chartering sets the stage for success.

Chartering for Empowerment

Empowerment is derived from the root word "power." Traditionally, power in organizations implies formal authority and control.  To have power is to have the formal authority to commit resources, to delegate tasks, and to control events.
However, in a team-oriented environment, power has a different meaning.  It is the ability to influence others or events and to create a situation in which others choose to behave in a certain way or make certain decisions.  Individuals with power may have little or no formal authority in the organization.  Yet, through their personal influence, logical persuasion, competence, strength of personality, or the respect they are given by others, they can influence behaviors and outcomes.  These individuals are empowered.

Teams that are properly chartered are empowered teams.  They have well-defined roles, responsibilities, boundaries, and pathways through the organization.  The process by which they can freely operate is clarified through the charter.  Similarly, the process by which they can bring their recommendations, decisions, or results to the organization is well defined.  Although they may not have control over the formal and final decision-making process, they do have the ability to influence outcomes.  Thus, chartered teams are empowered teams.  The members of these teams know what they may decide, what they may recommend, and how both the decision and recommendation processes are implemented.  Through this awareness, the effectiveness and influence of the team are maximized.

According to Stephen Covey (1992), in any work setting the staff are empowered when they have been given a clear understanding of the following:
•	Desired results
•	Parameters within which the results are to be accomplished
•	Resources available to help achieve the desired results
•	Expected standards of performance
•	Consequences associated with various levels of performance

By this definition, chartering is a means of empowering team members, both in
individually and collectively.  Chartering defines the overall project purpose as well as the expected contributions from each member.  Performance measures are established; methods for managing work processes are clarified; and operating guidelines are set, indicating desired standards of conduct.

Chartering to Monitor Performance

Effective chartering can be so powerful that it goes beyond its core goal of defining the vision, purpose, mission, behavior, roles, and relationships of the team and its members.  The most effective high-performance teams have a sound and well-developed charter that is so strong that it enables other important activities to occur.  First, the charter contains a baseline against which the team can assess its performance on an ongoing basis.  Thus, high performance teams know when they are not achieving at their desired level.  

Second, since the charter describes the behaviors and activities required for successful performance, teams recognize when they are faltering and can implement the self-correcting mechanisms that enable them to resolve their problems and return to high-quality performance.  The charter provides the foundation essential for monitoring performance, diagnosing problems, and evaluating and implementing solutions.

Elements of a Team Charter

The contents of a charter will vary based on the nature of the team, the nature of the work to be performed, the complexity and length of the work to be performed, and other factors internal and external to the firm.  However, certain elements of a charter are essential for any team to have a successful chartering process.  Other, additional charter elements are included, based on the conditions under which the team is functioning.

Essential Charter Elements

Following is a list of the essential elements of a charter with a definition and brief description of each.

Vision. The vision is a statement of the larger purpose of the project.  The vision statement answers the question, Why does this project exist?  Preferably, it will be framed in terms of the future state that exists as a result of the project.  For example, the vision of a project might be enhanced access to public transportation for all citizens in our community.  If the project vision is clearly defined, then the chartering can move directly to defining the purpose.

Purpose.  The purpose for a team answers the questions: Why does this team exist?  Why was it formed?  What is it expected to do?  The purpose should be clearly stated in a single sentence or short paragraph.  The purpose is typically derived from the project definition as it appears in the contract and is closely linked to the project vision.

Membership.  Membership is not just providing expertise when requested or participating in one or several meetings.  Membership carries with it defined responsibilities and a degree of commitment to the team and to the other team members.  Membership must be clear: Individuals must know when they are on a team and what the scope of their membership is in terms of roles, responsibilities, and length of commitment.

Mission.  The mission is commonly an extension of the team's purpose.  It expands on the purpose, often with a broadly measurable result.  For example, a team may be established with the purpose of consulting on a long-term master planning process for a municipal water authority.  The team may subsequently develop a more specific mission of conducting a preliminary assessment of the existing master plan by a specified date.

Organizational Linkage.  The organizational linkage is a description of the formal link between the team and the firm, which answers the questions: To whom does the team report?  Is the team part of a formal structure?  How does the team relate to that structure?  How is it linked for purposes of resources, communication, authority, and approval?

Boundaries.  Describing the boundaries is a critical element of the charter and an area often left unclear.  The boundaries define the scope of the project team's formal authority or what it may do without permission.  The boundaries also define the area of influence or what it may do with permission.  The boundaries describe shared responsibilities or areas in which team members are expected to initiate action to support others.  The boundaries also define the limits of the project team's authority; for example, decisions it may not make, resources it may not expend, commitments it may not exceed.  The management of the project team and the firm jointly define the boundaries.
	
Team and Individual Responsibilities. A team has a defined scope of primary responsibility. These responsibilities are held by the entire team, and each team member is equally responsible for their attainment. In addition to these team responsibilities, each team member has individual responsibilities. Overall team responsibilities are typically reviewed and measured by individuals who can represent the client and the firm's management. Individual team member responsibilities are typically reviewed and measured internally by the project manager and other team members. The criteria described in the next section are the means by which the achievement of the team and individual responsibilities are measured.

Measures of Success. Every team should be provided with the greatest opportunity to experience success. Success, however, must not be subjective or unclear.  Success must be defined in terms of specific results that are measurable against agreed-upon criteria. Measures of success may be established in terms of quantity, quality, time, cost, or a combination of these criteria. The greater the clarity of the criteria, the greater the probability that the team members, individually and collectively, will achieve them.

Operating Guidelines.  The operating guidelines describe how the team will govern itself guidelines are created to answer questions such as how the team will make decisions; how it will communicate internally and externally (see Virtual Teaming on the next page); how it will resolve conflict; how it will manage change.  By creating operating guidelines prior to the implementation of detailed tasks, many potential problems can be avoided.  Many of these operating guidelines will become the basis for certain workplan elements, for example, the instructions and the communications plan.

Additional Charter Elements

In addition to the essential elements described above, a charter may contain a number of additional elements. Depending on the scope and length of the team's mission, the nature of the team's work, and the team’s relationship to the firm, these elements may or may not be essential; however, they should be considered and used if they are appropriate for the project team and will contribute to the project's successful implementation. Following is a short description of each of these additional elements.

Organizational Priorities. Since any project is only one of many endeavors through which the firm is attempting to realize its overall mission and vision, a declaration of just what these larger corporate aims are may provide a useful context for the project team. This can be accomplished, for example, through an understanding of the strategic implications and opportunities that will result from the success of the project. The same is true of the client: Knowledge of where
the project fits within the larger scheme of the client's organization can be of immense value to the team.

Critical Success Factors.  Project-specific critical success factors include the performance factors most crucial to successful completion of the project.  In other words, what are the vital aspects of the project that the team absolutely must not fail at with respect to client relations, team performance, project planning, and project execution.  Most teams identify between three and seven critical success factors and then develop performance measures that can be used to determine the performance of each factor.

Shared Responsibilities.  In addition to team members identifying their individual responsibilities (see Essential Charter Elements, page 86), they should also identify the areas in which their own work is interdependent with that of other persons, within and outside the team.  In the lexicon of quality improvement, all those whom the individual must depend on are called suppliers, and those who, in turn, depend on the individual are customers.  However these relationships are configured, it is important to elicit among all the team members a sense of shared purpose.  A shared purpose gives individual team members a vested interest in the success of other team members and therefore encourages collaboration.

Core Values.  Project teams may want to use the firm's core values to help steer the development of guiding principles and operating guidelines.  Examples of these core values include the following:

•	Honesty, integrity, and trust
•	Responsive client focus
•	Emphasis on people
•	Continuous improvement
•	Quest for innovation
•	Community commitment

Guiding Principles.  Guiding principles are statements derived from commonly held team values, describing appropriate and inappropriate behaviors.  Some examples follow:

•	Respect for each other is critical to the team's success.
•	Customer needs come first.
•	No actions will be taken that will increase our profit at the expense of another party.

Rules of Interpersonal Conduct.  Building on the guiding principles, the rules of interpersonal conduct establish specific rules for team members’ behaviors in project-related activities.

Protocol for Resolving Interpersonal Conflict.  
Again, building on guiding principles and on operating guidelines for decision making, project managers can establish a protocol for resolving interpersonal conflict.  This protocol usually includes a general acknowledgment that conflicts are probable during a project, a set of procedures for classifying and treating disagreements, and identification of the parties who will take primary responsibility for resolving various types of conflict.

The Chartering Process
The essential and additional charter elements described above can be categorized into a five-step process that can be followed to develop the charter.  These steps and the associated chartering elements follow:

1.  Define the team.
		Vision
		Purpose
		Boundaries
		Organizational linkage

2.  Clarify the team purpose.
	Membership
	Mission
	Measures of success
	Organizational priorities
	Critical success factors

3.  Define responsibilities.

	Team and individual responsibilities
	Shared responsibilities

4.  Develop team operating guidelines.

5.  Develop interpersonal behavior guidelines.
	Core values
	Guiding principles
	Rules of interpersonal conduct
	Protocol for resolving interpersonal conflict

Once the essential and additional charter elements have been prepared, the charter must be endorsed by the stakeholders.  Endorsement means both the approval of the charter and the workplan and the ongoing commitment to support them. Once the charter has been endorsed, it should be shared with all stakeholders. This contributes to a shared project understanding and an open, communicative relationship.