10 Steps to Create Winning Teams

ABSTRACT: In any business, Prosperity and Success is the
result of Teamwork and Synergy. Often we come across a set
of brilliant individuals and wish that we could make them
work together for the greater good of the whole
organization. Here are the ingredients of the gel that
brings self centered Individuals together to form Winning
Teams.

TITLE: The Top 10 Steps to Create Winning Teams
Out of Ordinary, Self-centered Individuals
AUTHOR: Naseem Mariam, Project Management Coach
WORD COUNT: 1258 words
URL: http://www.123projectmanagement.com
MAIL: team01-articles@sendfree.com

Conditions of use: This article may be freely published as
long as (1) the article is not altered in any way, (2) the
author information at the end of the article remains intact.
If you use it, please notify naseemm@pm4all.com

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In any business, prosperity and success is the result of
teamwork and synergy. Often we come across a set of
brilliant individuals and wish that we could make them work
together for the greater good of the whole organization.

Here are the ingredients of the gel that brings self
centered individuals together to form winning
teams.

Foster harmony & trust (belong)

For individuals to work as a team, there should be an
environment of trust and harmony. Individuals should feel
that they would be treated with fairness and care. They must
trust each other and their manager to make decisions that
will benefit them. A good manager is able to bring diverse
individuals together and within a few days get them working
together with mutual respect, trust and love.

For a few ideas as to how to achieve this, read "Project
Serenity - How to gain happiness and peace". In this book
Michelle is a manager who diffuses trust and peace among her
team members.

Identify common purpose (bond)

Team members and Management should have clarity on the
common purpose of the project and the reason why the
individuals are being brought together. Here we should not
stop with identifying the goal of the project. We should
arrive at the importance of the project to the business
goals of the organization.

What is the purpose of this individual project? What effect
does success/failure have for the customer, for our
organization, for the individuals in the team?

How does this project fit into the big picture of the
mission, vision of the organization?

Plan, monitor & track the activities (plan)

Each project has certain activities that must be finished
within a schedule. These should be planned well. Discuss
with the team the estimated effort for each activity and
ensure that the person who is assigned the activity is
committed to completing it as well within the schedule. Risk
Management with preventive and contingency Action Items
should be taken care of.

As a manager you should think of the performance management
of each individual and throw in some buffer when the going
is complex. Communicate the plan to your Management and to
the customer and get the buy-in from all the stakeholders.
Well begun is half done.

The other half is the tough part: monitor and track the
activities of the project, re-plan and re-schedule whenever
necessary. When schedule pressure tries to squeeze the sense
and fun out of the team's lives, be sure to be around with a
helping hand and lots of understanding care and sympathy.

Tempers may flare and bad decisions may be made on the
pressure of the moment. Be always aware and alert to what is
going on. Stimulate the corrective action through group
discussions, mentoring and counseling.

Assign clear responsibilities (roles)

A clear definitions of what is expected of each individual
in the team. What are the roles that this team needs to have
and who will perform the various functions of each role.
This has to be clear and well defined. Once this is done
each one knows what he should contribute towards the success
of the team.

Delegate decision-making (delegate)

With the plan and roles clear, the team just has to get on
with the act. During the course of the project there will be
multiple places where they have to take decisions on how to
proceed, how to handle unexpected contingencies. Give them
the freedom to make decisions about the technical and
customer-service related aspects of the project.

They should feel free to consult or discuss things with
you but as a manager the best help you can give them is to
ask appropriate questions and lead them to arrive at the
answer and solution themselves. Encourage them to make team
decisions and then keep them.

Improve the individuals (self)

Throughout school and college days we have been thought to
be aggressive and plan for our advancement and progress as
individuals. The industry expects us to work in teams but
our inner self always asks "What's in it for me?"

As a manager we should ensure that each and every individual
grows and acquires new skills and new technical expertise
and exposure. This new learning should be consciously
planned as a by-product of the project activities. This
happiness at learning and growing will encourage the
individuals to give their best to the project activities.

Hold regular meetings & outings (communicate)

Lack of proper communication is quoted as the main reason
for project and business failures. Creating an excellent
workable plan is just half the story: keeping the whole team
aware of the twists and turns in the project is the other
half. Having delegated decision-making to the individuals,
you as a manager should now provide them the mechanisms to
discuss their problems, consult with the rest of the
team and arrive at consensus decisions.

For this we require regular meetings & discussions. There is
a world outside of the project also: therefore the team
members should be encouraged to go for picnics and outings
together. Do include the support staff in these outings
since that is the next point for a winning team.

Ensure support from others (external)

For a project to be successful in an organization, there are
external and peers whose help and support is required at the
right times. For a software project, machines equipment and
software are provided and installed by the Computer Services
Group. Then we may need external peers to review our work
products. Last but not least we need the support of our
projects internal and external customers.

Internal customers are the top Management with whom we have
a give and take relationship: we give them successful
projects and they give us the resources to succeed. An
external customer is the client or actual customer for whom
the software is being created. The team members should be
guided to maintain good healthy relationships with these
agencies that are external to the team.

Have escalation points (back-up strategy)

Murphy's Law states: If anything can go wrong, it will. We
did make contingency plans as part of the planning process.
Now we need to also create escape routes through which we
can salvage the project when disaster strikes.

Who are the people whom we can contact to take the tough
decisions as to how much of the project and customer
relationship we should salvage when the going starts getting
disastrous. In the normal course we may not need to request
the help of our escalation points but it is a good idea to
identify them up front before the emergency situations
arise.

Give Rewards, awards and promotions (encourage)

The best way to encourage and create winning teams is to
have rewards, awards and promotions that emphasize the
importance of teamwork. Take time to define the criteria
for winning teams and then select the best team of the
organization periodically and give each individual in the
team an award. Only that is perpetuated that is recognized
and praised. By encouraging good teams you end up
encouraging the formation of winning teams.

Follow these 10 Tips to turn any set of individuals into a
winning team: whether it is in a sports team or a business,
project team. In today's world the ability to make winning
teams and throw in the gel of teamwork into a group of
individuals is a much-needed skill.

Keep in mind the above 10 steps each of which helps in
creating and keeping a winning team together.

Related Reading

"5 Steps to Stress Free Project Management"
http://www.123projectmanagement.com/project-management-stress-free.html

"Communicate and Cooperate to Satisfy Your Customer"
http://www.123projectmanagement.com/crm-communicate-cooperate.html

Copyright @ 2003 Project Dioxide Consultants (P) Ltd.

About the Author

Naseem Mariam is the editor of "Management that Soars"
eNewsletter & author of "Project Serenity - How to gain
happiness and peace". Her writings draw life from her
18 years experience as software Project Manager. Let her
guide you towards Faster All Round Success and a Stress
Free, Joyous Life. Her free ebook and Newsletter tell You
How. Subscribe with mail to projectdioxide@sendfree.com
Visit her at http://www.123projectmanagement.com

Ten Teamwork Quotes

What do you really believe makes a difference in the
company? For me it's really clear. It's about customers and
employees. Everything else follows. If you take care of your
customers and you have motivated employees, everything else
follows. -- Anne Mulcahy, CEO Xerox Corp.

The nice thing about teamwork is that you always have others
on your side. -- Margaret Carty

Coming together is a beginning, staying together is
progress, and working together is success. -- Henry Ford

Most teams aren't teams at all but merely collections of
individual relationships with the boss. Each individual
vying with the others for power, prestige and position.
-- Douglas Murray Mcgregor

We have always found that people are most productive in
small teams with tight budgets, time lines and the freedom
to solve their own problems. -- John Rollwagen

When your team is winning, be ready to be tough, because
winning can make you soft. On the other hand, when your team
is losing, stick by them. Keep believing.-- Bo Schembechler

The key elements in the art of working together are how to
deal with change, how to deal with conflict, and how to
reach our potential...the needs of the team are best met
when we meet the needs of individual persons. -- Max DePree

Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common
vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments
toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows
common people to attain uncommon results.-- Source Unknown

None of us is as smart as all of us.-- Ken Blanchard

The strength of the team is each individual member...
the strength of each member is the team.
-- Coach Phil Jackson