Managers often are challenged with the responsibility of combining the talents of separate teams to achieve departmental goals. Understanding team members’ strengths and weaknesses, as well as the skills necessary to accomplish various work functions are elementary steps to bringing together separate teams for a common goal.
The manager responsible for bringing together separate teams may not carry the official title of project manager. Nevertheless, the fact that teamwork and goals are part of the equation makes it prudent to follow best practices, such as principles of project management.
One of the first principles of project management is defining what a successful project looks like. A successful project is one that fulfills certain requirements, such as budget considerations, timeliness and a wise use of available resources. Bringing together separate teams considers resources that each team contributes and the tangible, as well as intangible costs associated with obtaining the team resources and talents.
All of the teams responsible for working together on this common goal must be well-informed, which means a communication path is absolutely necessary. Communication -- whether in writing or through face-to-face meetings -- is a fundamentally sound principle of project management that ensures everyone has a clear understanding of expectations and outcomes. Two-way communication and candid feedback is best, particularly when different teams and different players are involved.
Conducting a needs assessment requires evaluating workers’ skills to determine both individual employee strengths and collective team strengths. Additionally, an assessment of project or organizational goals is necessary to see if your team has the level of mastery needed to actually complete the project or reach the organization’s goal. Availability of resources is part of the evaluation process. The successful completion of a project involves timeliness and although the manager may have all the resources and talent needed to fulfill the projects demands, they’re essentially worthless if the team members aren’t available or otherwise cannot meet deadlines.
One of the final principles of project management is collaboration. Absent collaboration, even the most talented and resourceful teams cannot function. A collaborative work environment is tantamount to project success, as is the teams’ consensus that they are indeed qualified to participate in team and group endeavors.
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