Blog

In this article, Lars Linnekogel shares the key points of importance in the formation of a project team.

In our work to date, we have been introduced to many project teams on the basis of which a project can succeed or possibly fail. The “formation of a project team” may sound simple at first, but entails a large number of important factors which must be taken into account by the project leader. This article outlines the points of importance with the aid of two genuine customer examples from our coaching seminars for project leaders.

Our first example is that of the “learning effect”:

In a change management project for the communication sector, various people were selected who were readily available, but did not have any innovative ideas for clear communication, although that is a fundamental requirement for the communication sector. The success of the project was consequently threatened. A PR agency had to be retained to minimize the damage internally, leading to high additional costs and lost time.

What went wrong here? The purported pressure of time was the problem here. Since a team was/had to be formed within a very short space of time, the first people available were chosen. This was a big mistake, as even the project leader did not properly identify the project requirements and consequently failed to identify the right people in the company. Perhaps a coach should have been consulted here to support the process by asking the right questions:

How is the goal of the project to be achieved?

In which space of time?

With which resources?

With which powers?

Who is to be involved?

Which existing results / findings can be used?

What must be avoided?

What must the project team ultimately deliver?

The project leader must then consider the structure required for the project to be undertaken in accordance with the questions set out above. TTE recommends a modular approach here, i.e. subdivision of the project into “modules” or project parts. People are then specifically selected for each module according to the following criteria.

Key points include:

• The learning effect
• The modular approach
• The structure required

Read the full article, The right choice is decisive: formation of a project team, on LinkedIn.