Project Management Software

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Good Decisions Demand Trustworthy Data

7 May 2012 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

Is your project data trustworthy? If you answered “no” or “I’m not sure”, you aren’t alone.

I’ve observed this to be a pretty universal conundrum. What’s more, it compels us to ask the question, “If some of the data associated with project-based work is questionable, is there a way to improve its overall trustworthiness for decision-making?”

I believe there is.

There’s been a lot of dialog recently about the impact of social media on the project management process. And, for the most part, we seem to fall into one of two camps. We’re either advocates of embracing social media or we are opposed to it. I fall into the former camp. I’m a big fan of embracing the social media metaphor.

The key to whether or not we have trustworthy information to make decisions depends upon how accurately we can capture project information at the source—individual contributors on a project team. Like most of you, I’ve spent my fair share of time going from cube to cube asking, begging, and cajoling for a status update. I’ve also watched team members fumble around looking at notes, whiteboards and scraps of paper to pull that information together. Each time I was frustrated at how inaccurate I knew my report was going to be before I even started.

Most team members don’t really get the project management process. They look at project managers as one more hindrance to actually getting things done. Of course, this isn’t correct, project managers are facilitators and help get the work done, right?

I’m convinced that engaging the team in the project management process is crucial to collecting accurate and timely project information that can be trusted to inform decisions. What’s more, I think the social media metaphor can help us do it.

Why is it that the same folks who chafe at updating their project status in PM tools will spend hours at home “updating status” on Facebook and other social media? I think the answer is pretty straightforward:

Social Media Provides Value to the User

If the only value updating status in your project management software provides is giving you (the project manager) accurate information to push up, it’s not enough value for most team members to contribute. In my opinion, social media provides value at a couple of different levels that we can and should be implementing into the project management process:

Social media is about collaboration: Post an update, get a response. Make another update, start a conversation. That isn’t happening in most project management software. Tasks get pushed down. There’s little if any dialog. There’s no request for comment. The obligation is on the team member to finish his or her task in the time allotted and that’s pretty much it. Not a very collaborative way to collaborate on projects, tasks and issues is it? Incorporating the social media metaphor into the PM process allows team members, project managers and others to collaborate about work in a way that feels natural to the Facebook generation. If the metaphor works and is accepted by the workforce as meaningful, does it really make sense to fight it? Embrace it. Leverage it.
Social media is about recognition: One of the things I’ve noticed over the last few years is the recognition component of social media. When people post an accomplishment, their friends and followers within their network seem to come out of the woodwork to congratulate and praise it. Applying the public nature of the social media metaphor to the PM process allows team members and other colleagues to make comment and acknowledge the accomplishments of their coworkers. Additionally, when everyone’s accomplishments (or lack thereof) are visible to managers and their peers, people tend to perform at a higher level. It’s more difficult to sit back and pretend to be busy working. Whether or not you are is visible to everyone on the team.
Social media isn’t very complicated: I must admit, I did have a younger colleague show me how to use Facebook initially. It took her about two minutes to completely explain how it worked. I didn’t need to attend a multi-day training program to figure it out. When was the last time you were able to start using a project management tool with that level of ramp up? I know, what project management tools do is a lot more complicated than Facebook. I get it. However, they don’t need to be that complex for the individual on a project team.

The real linchpin to whether or not we have trustworthy data to make decisions is the individual contributor on a project team. I think it’s past time we started looking at him or her, and how we can best engage them in the process, to make sure that the information we rely on to make smart decisions is timely and trustworthy. Let’s give them some value so they’ll become willing participants in the process.

What are you doing to engage the team? Does your software help you do it?

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Managing Projects in the Cloud Simply Makes Sense

27 April 2012 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

Salesforce has done a great job of carrying the torch for SaaS solutions. In fact, I can’t think of anyone I know that uses an on-premises CRM software anymore. With the global nature of many projects and project teams today, working in the cloud makes collaboration much less problematic. With that in mind, I thought I’d give you a few of my opinions as to why I’m a fan of SaaS in general and the idea of project management “in the could” in particular:

It’s relatively easy and inexpensive to enter: Not too long ago I spoke with the PMO director of a very large international organization in the middle of an implementation of SaaS project management software. He expressed frustration at a previous three-year-long unsuccessful installation of a legacy project management software that claimed to offer business process expertise. The inherent complexity of many legacy solutions make implementation and adoption lengthy and difficult. His consternation is shared by many who don’t have the time or resources to accommodate an expensive, multi-year implementation process.
Pay-as-you-go vs. pay-through-the-nose: Because SaaS software is typically subscription based, organizations can pay for the software when they use it, and access it via the Internet, rather than going through the expensive process of installing software on individual machines or purchasing expensive and costly-to-maintain servers to keep their systems up and running.
Cloud-based project management solutions make real-time collaboration possible: Although all SaaS products aren’t created equal, taking project data from the desktop and putting it in a centralized location gives project managers and teams access to all the data relevant to their projects. Although some SaaS vendors do this better than others, this is the first step to real-time collaboration.
SaaS software empowers everyone—it isn’t only for the enterprise: There will always be mega-organizations who insist on spending millions of dollars on legacy applications, but SaaS allows organizations with much smaller budgets to take advantage of the latest (and in my opinion, some of the best) project management technology available. In fact, most SaaS solutions, by their very nature, are committed to a robust schedule of continual update and improvement. It’s part of the culture.

This isn’t an all-inclusive list, but for organizations that want affordable access to the latest technology, SaaS project management software is a terrific option. Is your project management solution in the cloud?

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Project Management’s Holy Grail

6 March 2012 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

Forget everything you thought you knew about the Arthur legend. The search for the Holy Grail has nothing to do with Indiana Jones or the Crusades. When talking about collaborative work management, we’re really talking about managing capacity.

Whenever the topic of capacity planning comes up among my project management friends, there seems to be two pretty standard comments:

“Capacity planning is a critical part of our work management process and makes us more efficient and competitive.”
Or, “We see the value of better capacity planning and are working toward a more formalized method for actually measuring capacity.”

Project management software companies have been trying to figure out the best way to capacity plan since they started making project management software. Everyone takes a different approach, some of them seem to work—while others don’t. In my opinion, there are a couple of critical components to any attempt to accurately plan for capacity. Although they might sound simple, depending on your organization, it might be easier said than done:

Filtering requests is critical: If you provide shared services within your organization like the IT, Marketing, HR or Finance departments, you receive inbound requests from throughout the organization everyday. When those requests come in via email, text message, phone conversations or a hallway chat, it can be difficult to make sure nothing gets missed, the requests that deliver the most value get addressed first and everything gets handled in a timely manner. Organizations that have formalized the project request process with an inbound request queue find managing capacity a lot easier. They have a better handle on which projects get attention now and which projects need to take a back seat. This helps them better allocate their resources on the work that provides the most value to their organizations.
We’ve got to start looking at projects within the context of other work: In a perfect world, your project team works on your projects and nothing else. Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world. What’s more, by some estimates, project teams spend upwards of 50 percent of their day working on tasks that are unrelated to any active project. That’s not to say the work doesn’t provide value, but the idea of a project team working on only projects is a pipe dream in most organizations. When project leaders have visibility into all the work being undertaken by project teams, they’ll be better able to project plan, manage capacity and successfully complete projects.
Make it easy for the team to engage in the work—or they won’t: The problem with most solutions designed manage projects, teams and capacity is that they are complicated and cumbersome to use. I’m a big fan of the social media metaphor for this reason. It’s familiar, it’s easy and it encourages dialog, which is critical to understanding what’s happening within the team today, what the workload looks like tomorrow and how that’s going to impact your capacity plan.

This is where the right tools can really make a difference and add value. When project leaders and decision makers have visibility into what’s really going on with their project teams and can get out of theoretical capacity planning, they can make informed decisions about their capacity—and maybe even find the Holy Grail.

What are you doing to understand and manage the capacity of your project team?

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Social Project Management Isn’t Facebook or Twitter

28 February 2012 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

I’m a big believer in applying the social media metaphor to the project management process, but I don’t believe that implies that I suggest we incorporate Facebook or Twitter. I believe the social collaboration that takes place within project teams needs to happen inside the firewall and should leverage social media practices within the team, but not where it might include individual team members’ larger network of friends.

Over the weekend I read an interesting article citing a Pew Internet & American Life Project survey that suggests that the number of Facebook users de-friending people within their network is on the rise. Up to 63 percent in 2011 from 56 percent who responded to a similar survey in 2009.

The study cites a number of reasons, reputation management being one of them.

Having become a de facto spokesperson for my company, I entered the social media landscape from a professional perspective and have since included a number of my friends and colleagues who have found me online. Some of whom have been great to interact with via Facebook, while others—not so great. Some I have had to de-friend because I want to maintain a public image that is consistent with those things that I value as important, and secondly, because I have two rules regarding my social media persona:

I don’t want to say or do anything that would embarrass the company that I work for
I don’t want to say or do anything that would embarrass my mom

I feel like those are pretty good rules for social engagement for me, you may have different rules (or maybe even none at all). I work within the bounds of what feels comfortable for me.

Although I am a firm believer in the social media metaphor as an incredibly powerful vehicle to encourage collaboration, I’m not comfortable with allowing that conversation to take place publicly via Facebook, Twitter, or whatever. I prefer to leverage social tools within the project management software I use, enabling those social media-like conversations to take place among my network at work—my team.

I imagine that there are some who would suggest that restricting the network or the context of the conversation defeats the purpose of a social media platform. It might. However I’m convinced that the benefits of doing so positively impact the ability of the team to perform without the added distractions associated with traditional social media as exemplified by the Pew survey. That being said, I don’t suggest we restrict social media use in general. In fact, there are a number of networking, learning and best practice sharing that takes place outside the firewall that I believe is critical to becoming better project leaders and team members. I just don’t think that’s the best place for conversations about the tasks and issues associated with current projects.

I’d welcome the opportunity to hear what the rest of you have to think about this. Am I missing something?

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Does Social Media Work for Project Communication?

16 February 2012 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

If you’re talking about incorporating something like Twitter, Jabber or Facebook into the project communication mix, the short answer is no. Let me explain.

Of course this is only my opinion, but Twitter et al have the same challenges as email for project collaboration, they lack context. By that I mean, you have to follow the whole thread from beginning to end to understand what anyone is talking about. Have you ever been invited into an email string that has been going on for a while? It’s difficult to wrap your head around the context of the conversation (I’ll come back to this).

I’m a very big fan of the social media metaphor within the project and work management environment—I just don’t think disparate conversation threads add to the conversation. I think they contribute extra noise.

Social media does a couple of things very well. In fact, in collaborative work environments, we can learn a lot from social media:

It encourages natural and regular conversations: Collecting feedback and status is an important part of a team member’s interaction with the project management process. I doubt that there would be much argument with the fact that most project management solutions (whether they be spreadsheets, white boards or project management software) don’t do a very good job of encouraging communication among the team. I can’t count the amount of time I’ve spent in previous lives going from cube to cube asking, nay begging, for the team to update their project status so I could report on progress up the chain. However many of those same people will go home, login to Facebook “updating status” with their network of friends and tweet or check-in from their smart phone—wherever they are.
Social media isn’t really very complicated: I think my introduction to Facebook took less than five minutes and Twitter was even less than that. It certainly didn’t require two or three days of intensive training to learn how to collaborate with my personal network of family and friends. Project management software could learn a thing or two in that regard. Most team members aren’t project managers and shouldn’t be required to become such to update their task status. I have colleagues who have spent countless hours interviewing project teams who tell me that the most common feeling among team members is, “Tell me what I need to do, make it easy to report on progress and then get out of the way and let me do my job.” Does that sound familiar?
Are you paying attention to me? Social media like Facebook feeds the need of many people to get a little recognition for what they do. Let’s face it, most people are proud of what they do and appreciate a little recognition for a job well done, for accomplishing a particularly difficult challenge and sometimes for just showing up. I read recently that the worst thing a manager can do to an employee is ignore them. It’s worse than even chewing them out. People crave recognition (some more than others). Almost every time I post a personal status on Facebook, one of my friends will make a comment—sometimes they’re even sincere.

Why does this matter?

Project leaders and other managers that work in collaborative environments need to facilitate conversations around tasks, issues and work. Leveraging the social media metaphor to channel social media-like conversations around work is a very powerful way to encourage teams to interact. This is particularly true of distributed teams. Creating an environment where the conversations can be focused on the task, or tasks, at hand can help people accomplish more and ultimately help organizations be more profitable.

The benefits of keeping it simple should be pretty obvious. The social media metaphor is easy to learn, easy to use and very intuitive, particularly for all the millennials in the workforce now. We should be working to make it easy for teams to participate in the project and work management process. That is, if we really want them to participate in the process.

The real benefit of making it easy to collaborate and update status is that business leaders will have accurate and timely information to make decisions. They’ll have context and color around status updates—giving them the real story. I know people who are always 75 percent complete regardless of what they really are. Those types of status updates don’t really do anyone any good. We need real information, filled with context, to understand the real story.

The social media metaphor is a great approach. We just need to make sure that we implement it correctly and invest in the right tools.

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Do You Have the Right Perspective?

14 February 2012 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

Most successful project managers I know are able to think in terms of the details. I believe the ability to identify and coordinate the dozens, if not hundreds, of individual details associated with tasks and issues is a strength most of us probably wish we had more of. That being said, I think it’s easy for those required to spend the lion’s share of their time in the minutia of things to sometimes loose sight of the big picture.

For example, a painter I know once told me that he routinely needs to step back and look at his paintings from a distance in order to keep the right perspective. He told me it’s easy for an artist to become so focused on the intricate details that they forget the rest of the painting. To avoid doing this, he makes himself step back, walk around the easel and look a the painting every few minutes.

In regards to projects, I think it’s important to step back everyone once in a while and look at the big picture. Here are a few suggestions that might help:

Keep the business goals and objectives of the project front and center: It’s sometimes easy to forget that projects are supposed to provide value. Keep them posted on the team white board, or someplace where the team will regularly see them. I know one project managerd that has created templates in their project management software with the goal of each individual project embedded into every task, issue and project page to remind the team why the project is important. This keeps everyone focused on the big picture, while working on the details.
As needed, meet with the project team to make sure everyone is still focused on the goal: We may not like it, but project teams are constantly bombarded with work that is unrelated to the project at hand. These distractions make it difficult for team members to stay focused on the project goal. Meeting with the team on a regular basis allows managers to help resolve impediments and keep the team focused. Often, the regular reminder of the project objective is all it takes to keep everyone on target.
Step back and look at the big picture: Software tools can help automate the management of many of the minutia associate with a project, so managers have time to step back and see the big picture. It’s important to look at project progress from a broader perspective. Make sure your project management tools help free you from working head down, buried in the weeds that keep you from seeing the forest from the trees.

What are you doing to keep everyone focused on the big picture?

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Keeping the Wheels Turning

30 January 2012 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

As a young man I worked in my fathers industrial supply business. I worked in the warehouse and drove the delivery truck. We sold fasteners of all kinds, nuts, bolts, screws, cotter pins and other industrial supplies. I learned about screw pin anchor shackles, concrete anchors, structural bolts, machine tools and other industrial/construction-related tools and equipment. Visiting industrial sites all over Utah, Idaho and Wyoming, I also learned about how they were used and their value to equipment and machinery.

The linchpin has always been an interesting fastener to me. It’s small, not particularly strong; but when used to keep the wheel of a piece of machinery (or even a small go-cart) on an axle, it’s indispensable. Without the linchpin, the wheel will eventually spin right off the axle—resulting in a catastrophic failure.

The same is true with project teams. There is a linchpin, and the success or failure of any project rests on that linchpin’s ability to perform. It’s not the project manager. Nor is it the project sponsor or the particular methodology the team uses to get work done. It’s not even the project management software or other tools employed by the team to facilitate collaboration, report on progress or manage project deliverables.

Unfortunately, from a project management software perspective, the linchpin is often ignored. It’s probably because he or she isn’t involved in the purchase decision, has no budget, has no purchase decision authority and it’s felt that the needs of project managers and stakeholders are more important—at least they often have budget and the ability to purchase products.

In reality, it’s the individual contributors on a project team that keep the wheels rolling, and regardless of your methodology or software tools, in my opinion, ignoring the linchpin is one of the reasons so many projects fail. If everyone on your project team can identify with the following four statements, you’re well on your way:

I’m empowered to do what I do best—When people have the opportunity to do what they do best, we get their best work, they’re motivated and engaged—which helps them perform at a higher level. Project leaders who empower their teams to do what they do best consistently complete successful projects.
I have the tools to do my work right—This may or may not include your project management tool, but if the team doesn’t have the right tools, their productivity drops. Have you ever wondered why the same team members who won’t (or don’t) update project status in their PM software, will spend a couple hours at home updating personal status on Facebook or Twitter? I have. I believe it’s because the software solutions used in most organizations use software designed to provide value to project managers and stakeholders—not individual team members. And, if the only value the team sees in a new solution is a better way for management to “watch what’s going on”, it’s not the right tool for the team. If everyone on the team (including individual contributors) can see value, project managers and other business leaders will be able to seamlessly capture all the accurate and timely project information they need to make informed decisions.
I’m recognized for my contributions—Most people are proud of what they do and want to feel like they are making meaningful contributions to objectives that lead to value. I’m not talking about insincere “atta-boys” but I am talking about being aware and recognizing superior performance and consistent effort. Of course there may be members of the team who refuse to step up. In those instances, I think it’s important to evaluate whether or not the problem is of our creation or that particular team member just might not be right for the team. As a team member, you might be an incredibly talented and brilliant individual, but if you are unwilling to contribute your best efforts for the benefit of the team, are difficult to work with or otherwise a consistently low performer, you might not be right for the team.
I know what’s expected of me—For team members to perform at their best, they shouldn’t have to makes guesses about priorities. If they can’t reliably answer the questions, “What should I be doing now?” and “What should I do next?” it’s difficult to get their best efforts. It doesn’t make sense to expect team members to “figure it out for themselves.” That’s not to say that team members need to be directed or hand-held every step of the way either, but it does mean that everyone needs to completely understand the objectives of every project, understand their own individual role and contribution to the team and have all the information they need to keep them working toward the objective. Ambiguity in this regard is a real productivity killer.

Like most things, it isn’t really that complicated. Individual contributors on the team are every bit as critical as the linchpin is to the wheel and axle. When your methods and solutions consider the needs of everyone on the team, you’ll foster and environment where a free-flow of timely and accurate project information is available for informing smart project decisions; and your projects will be more successful.

What are you doing to keep the wheels turning?

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Productivity Suffers When Teams Can’t Effectively Collaborate

15 December 2011 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

Not long ago I read an interesting article published by the Canadian Industrial Equipment News about a recent study completed by ESI International, a project management learning company. The point of the study was to find out if organizations are successful in facilitating team collaboration.

The findings suggest that although the majority of organizations value a highly collaborative work environment, less than one out of three organizations actually have a framework in place to facilitate it. Wishing your teams would collaborate more effectively isn’t going to do the trick. Here are a few of the key take-aways from the report identified by the CIEN:

The majority of organizations, in fact, do not work collaboratively, despite the value that they realize would come from better teamwork
Rigid work structures exist within companies that keep people from working together
Organizations are not investing in the right mix of skills training needed to improve collaboration on projects and initiatives

Another part of the survey called out by CIEN that I thought was particularly interesting was, “While 65.5 percent of respondents believe that their organization’s project performance would improve if their teams worked more collaboratively, only 27.8 percent actually do.”

I would like to say that this is a Canadian problem, but I don’t think so. I think there are many organizations in the U.S. and around the world that give lip-service to creating an effective collaborative environment, but don’t do anything about it. In fairness, I think it’s more that they don’t understand what to do than that they don’t want to do it.

I believe that creating an environment where teams can effectively collaborate requires attention to two very important factors:

The tools they use
The organization’s leadership approach

It seems like everyday there are new collaboration tools available. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that no matter how long the list, it would leave many solutions unmentioned. Although I am biased, I would like to suggest a few (there are many others we could also talk about that just won’t fit in a blog post) key elements that should be part of any potential project management or collaboration tool you might be considering:

Collaborating needs to feel natural: This is why I’m such an advocate of implementing a more social media-like approach to project management software. If the PM tool or collaboration tool your using is clunky and cumbersome to use, nobody will. We know that a social media-like approach works, maybe it’s time we stop fighting it and start leveraging the metaphor to create a more collaborative project environment.
It needs to be easy to use: If collaborating in the software is a pain, it just won’t happen (see #1). What’s more, the valuable information project leaders need to make decisions and manage the process need to be captured at the team member level. If we make collaborating easy, it will be easier to capture that information.
It needs to take place in real time (in the cloud): Let’s face it, many organizations are working with distributed teams spread throughout the world. For real collaboration to take place in real time it needs to take place in the cloud. A SaaS product allows people to log in and collaborate regardless of what time it is anywhere in the world. In my opinion, any PM or collaboration solution that limits individual users to the software installed on their desktops and doesn’t share information over some kind of universally accessible network just doesn’t facilitate collaboration. I think the SaaS model does this the best. It shouldn’t matter if you are at your desk, in the office, on the road or anywhere in the world—software in the cloud enables real-time collaboration to happen.
It needs to be available and accessible to the world: I know it’s problematic for software vendors to produce their product in every potential language spoken by project teams around the world, but at the very least it should accommodate the major languages of the world: English, German, French, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, etc. I know of a number of organizations with teams in the U.S., China, Mexico and Europe comprised of team members who don’t all speak English. I don’t know of any software provider that does this flawlessly yet, but I think being multilingual is an important part of collaborating for many teams.

In addition to the tools we use, the approach we take with the team can hinder or help create a collaborative environment. My team is very collaborative. It starts with how we plan our projects (we do it together) and how we interact regarding them. I’m a big believer in allowing individual team members to make decisions about how they’re going to tackle their contributions to initiatives and encourage a lot of discussion and interaction among the team.

I’ll admit, this is sometimes messy when we all have divergent opinions about a particular approach, but once we come to terms and agree, the sense of personal ownership felt by everyone on the team ensures that a greater number of projects end successfully. Encouraging the negotiations that usually happen anyway gives everyone a sense of ownership. And, if your PM or collaboration tool makes it possible to capture those conversations and negotiations seamlessly within the tool, then you’re really on to something.

If this survey accurately represents the state of collaboration in most organizations, we need to get to work making it easier for our teams to collaborate. What are you doing to facilitate collaboration among your project team members?

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Projects and Procrastination

3 November 2011 - POSTED by Tyson Steele

One of my favorite hobbies is to build custom longboards in unique shapes and designs. Once, a friend requested a board from me in the shape of a flying-V guitar.

Having built plenty of boards before, I figured I could just whip something up when the time called for it. Despite having months in advance, I put the project off, starting just a few days before the deadline.

The board was cut and sanded successfully, but the final design process was a disaster. With only spray paint bottles, stencils, masking tape, and very little time left, I stayed up all night painting, pushing the drying times to their limits. When my friend came to pick it up, the paint started to bubble and peel.

I was going to have to spend hours stripping the paint away in order to repaint it. I had no choice but to push the deadline back.

In project management, I think it is easy for team members, managers, and executives alike to get comfortable with “the way things have always been done.” For whatever reason, individuals may feel that because they have mastered their job, no adjustments need to be made to their previous project management processes. They may think that because they have successfully executed projects in the past, any future project should be smooth sailing. Once this type of thinking sets in, it is easy to procrastinate.

I think almost everyone does this, some more than others. However, it is a problem when projects are procrastinated to the point where time, cost, and quality standards are compromised. It becomes a major problem when procrastination is a habit in every project a person does, when a deadline is always pushed to the very end.

Project management software can certainly help keep project teams and their tasks on schedule, but if a project has been delayed for too long, the level of tooling doesn’t matter. Like the drying times for a painted surface, some projects just can’t be rushed.

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Does Your Team Work Like a Well-Oiled Machine?

25 October 2011 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

Over the weekend I spent several hundred miles on my motorcycle tooling around Utah. It’s easy to take for granted that the motorcycle is going to function properly, but sometimes when I’m out in the middle of nowhere I have to ask myself, “Is there anything you forgot to check before you left?” Not that I expect anything to go wrong, but even being as few as 30 miles away from the next town could be a problem on some of the lightly-traveled roads I like to ride.

Regardless of the type of work we do, keeping the team working well together is sometimes challenging when project teams are composed of team members with various experience and skill levels. Here are a couple of suggestions that might keep your team working like a well-oiled machine:

Technology can help keep the team together: I always carry a cell phone when I’m out on a ride so I can call for help if there ever is an emergency. Project teams can leverage technology in the same way to work together regardless of where they work in the world. The Internet has made it possible for project leaders in Europe to manage teams in China or South America, and executives in Cincinnati to have access to real project information to make informed decisions.
Because you don’t always get to pick your team, you need to make the most out of the team you’ve got: Most of the time project leaders don’t get to pick their team—nor does the team get to pick their project leader. Building a good working relationship with everyone on the team is important. Earlier this month, I went on a big group ride with 400 or 500 people I didn’t know. Despite the fact that most of us had never met before, we had to trust that nobody would do anything really dumb on the road. What’s more, there were a number of people I got to know and really had a good time.
It’s not fair to expect any team member to do all the heavy lifting: When I ride with someone, it’s usually my brother-in-law Paul. Although he’s been riding a lot longer than I have, it wouldn’t be fair if I left all the ride planning up to him for every ride. The same is true for project teams, the same team members shouldn’t be expected to do all the heavy lifting for the team. When everyone works together and carries their share of the burdens associated with a project, the project is more likely to be successful and the team is more likely to pull together as they all work to overcome challenges and help with the heavy lifting.
Stronger and more capable team members should mentor and help less experienced team members improve their skills: I’m a firm believer in always learning and improving skills, at work and in everything else I do. When Paul and I ride together, once we’ve returned home, we usually talk about the ride. We talk about how we could have made it a better, safer ride. Our goal is to make sure we’re safe and have a good time. Similarly, how we treat less experienced members of the team and potential learning experiences can positively or negatively impact how they perceive their role on the team. I will always be grateful to the more senior people who took an interest in me during the early years of my career and taught me the things that didn’t appear in the HR manual or company training.

Successful teams don’t just happen. Neither do productive working relationships. As project leaders, it’s important for us to remember that we need to build an environment where healthy collaboration and communication can thrive. We need to us the technology and interpersonal skills at our disposal to foster a good team environment—which is no less important than the project management software we use, the work management methodology we employ or the details of our project plan.

What do you do to keep your team working like a well-oiled machine?

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