Building the Right Project Team

Building the right team is critical to the overall success of your project. At Forsyte we are building the team on the client’s dime, there is no tolerance for adjustment periods or learning curves. Our team has to work efficiently and profitably from the first hour billed, so we have refined the team selection process to ensure there is no waste. Let me share with you some inside secrets. 

Team Culture

Culture is everything, if you have the right team culture, you can ensure there that the project will be trimmed to maximum results for minimum investment. The culture we are looking for comes from the following characteristics:

They Can Be Accountable.

 There are no individual failures on a project, we all answer to each other, win or lose. Boll understands that a late night on Sunday could cause a failure for Sally on Monday so he protects her by making good decisions. Sally understands the sacrifice that Bob makes in his personal life to ensure success, so if Bob makes a mistake on Monday, Sally makes sacrifices to help make things right. The only way this can work if people are quick to spot their own shortcomings, and take responsibility or ask for help. 

Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses. -George Washington Carver

They Can Be Transparent.

Team members do not hide mistakes, weaknesses, or take undue credit. A team that is transparent hides no agendas, this allows for good decisions to be made quickly because members trust the data at hand and don’t fear they will be held responsible for things they cannot see. 

The single most important ingredient in the recipe for success is transparency because transparency builds trust. Denise Morrison

They Can Push Back

Those who say yes too easily will be a team’s downfall, they are people pleasers and often motivated by insecurity. Pick people who are willing to say no for the sake of success. That way the team can set realistic goals and milestones. 

Focusing is about saying no. – Steve Jobs

They Communicate Well

How many times have you seen delays, mistakes, and failures caused by bad communication? Today we have an infinite number of platforms, apps and tools to help us communicate, but that does not replace a genuine desire and the skills to communicate effectively. We look for members who show a passion for tweaking and improving the communication between members and always take responsibility for effective dialogue. 

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”- George Bernard Shaw

Skill Sets

Ok, so it looks as if I have left the most important thighs to the end, however for the purpose of this article, very few projects fail because of this component. Acquiring the people with the right skill set is relatively easy because you can often see these things in their work history or CV. You can see the projects and the results of skill set quite easily, but what we often miss is the frustrations, the budget blowouts, and the friction caused by people with the right skill sets but the wrong culture. 

Finding people with the right skill sets is important, and you do that through all the usual channels

• Checking qualifications.
• Checking references.
• Assigning low-risk projects during qualifying periods.
• Having them work alongside other qualified team members. 

It’s important to remember that skills can be learned and upgraded, but a team that has a bad culture will always struggle.

Culture Correction

When we have a member who is not fitting in with the culture of our teams we are quick to work on change. It does not take long for one rotten grape to start to affect the whole bunch, and our projects require the right culture to deliver successful and timely results.

Having them become a supportive member of the team under a strong mentor who is an active member of the project creates a bit of a buffer zone between the productive culture and the ideas that need a little bit of tweaking. This way the team still gets the resource skills and resources of the offending member but they are one step removed from the project and are less likely to affect the positive culture required to keep the project on track. It’s a great way to keep a valuable skillset in play while some tweaking takes place.