Tipping Points for Teams

Last evening, I watched my 11-year-old son's hockey team in a playoff game. Winning would eliminate the opposing team and allow our guys to move onto the quarter-finals. Our opponents had a better season record, but we hadn't dropped a game to them all year. Pre-game confidence was high. It was in the bag. We lost 0-3. The series is now wide open.

So what happened? Our boys are a capable team. When all 17 play with their heads and their hearts in the game, they cannot be beat. They have stared down older, higher-ranked, and bigger teams and shown some amazing depth. It's not an issue of capability.

The tipping point for this team is confidence. Too little and they fold like a cheap shirt. Too much and they engineer their own defeat. Maybe not enough of the 17 hearts were in it last night. You could say the other team had one or two more heart muscles pumping for the win.

And so it often is with my project teams. Our ability to find success as a team hinges more often than not on the will to win - a desire to achieve something worth achieving. Not for the company or even the other members on the team, but for themselves. I may not get it from all the team members; that may not even be realistic. But I will need enough hearts in the game to reach my tipping point. If my team is coming up short, I reach out to those on the team who can close the distance. I help my team members evolve the project goals so that they resonate. And that's less about being a project manager and more about being a coach and colleague. Cool!

So, our next game is tomorrow. The coaches will be thinking about what it will take to unleash this team's will to win.

What's the tipping point for your team?

PM Laws: Who Defines Project Success?

When joining a project, I often ask team members to tell me a bit about previous projects. It helps me to understand their perspective on project work ... and keeps me from being (as) surprised later.

I'll ask them to tell me about a successful project and what it was that made it a success. I hear lots of reasons such as a great team, got to use new technology, build what 'I' wanted, requirements didn't change, ... When I ask why the sponsor or key stakeholders thought the project was successful, the confusion sets in. Some team members tell me that the sponsor was not happy with their successful project. More commonly, they simply don't know whether stakeholders considered the project a success or not.

This perplexes me. How is it possible for team members not to know what their stakeholders think about the project? This form of 'tone deafness' is a huge risk for project failure.
It's completely fine to be proud of the work we've done on projects, to enjoy being part of a particular team, or to get a chance to work on something really new. In the end, however, the success of any project will be defined and judged by those that initiated and paid for it. Just keeping this on the team radar goes a long way to ensure that the work being done is moving the project towards success.

So, the project you just finished ... was it a success? Says who?