You are an experienced project manager who has successfully led
You are an experienced project manager who has successfully led
You are an experienced project manager who has successfully led a number of large projects involving multi-disciplinary teams whose members were drawn from around your organization and even included some members from outside vendors. One afternoon, a junior project manager in your organization asks to speak to you about a project he has just been assigned to manage.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I’ve just been assigned to manage Project Genesis. I’m happy to have the opportunity, as it’s the largest project I’ve been asked to lead so far in my career. I am a little concerned about leading the project team effectively and hoped I could get some advice from you.”
“So far, all of my projects have involved people who were all part of a single department and had worked with each other for at least a couple of years. Some of those projects involved months of work and thousands of hours of effort. We did have to deal with a lot of scope changes and a variety of other problems but were able to complete the projects successfully in the end. A large part of our success was due to the team members knowing each other for years and working quite well together. Actually, I felt blessed!”
“Project Genesis is a different story! Members of the team include technical specialists drawn from all over the company. Most have them don’t even know each other at all and have never worked with each other. They have different skill sets and levels of experience.”
“You’ve been in situations like this before yourself. What advice can you give me about managing and leading a team life this effectively?
What advice would you offer to the junior project manager?