{"id":1743,"date":"2009-02-17T13:11:48","date_gmt":"2009-02-17T20:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=1743"},"modified":"2019-08-07T14:32:23","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T21:32:23","slug":"its-official-start-digging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=1743","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Official \u2013 Start Digging!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"dig1\"Today, President Obama signs a massive Economic Stimulus Package, offering significant funding for new infrastructure projects. <\/span>Dust off your shovels!<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Regardless of project type or size, this is a great time to introduce a set of Expected Behaviors to your project team to support improved decisions, efficiency, and project results. <\/span>As a reminder, here is a universally-accepted set of team behaviors for you to consider for your project team:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Treat others with dignity and respect<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Support intra- and inter-departmental teamwork<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Demonstrate an ability to problem-solve and make timely decisions<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Be responsible for your actions<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Consistently share knowledge and information<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Actively seek and receive feedback for improvement<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

As you prepare your toolkit to support effective and efficient project management activities, have you also considered a few tools to support the health of your project team? <\/span>The toolkit does not need to be big or complicated to be effective. <\/span>Actually, it should be exactly the opposite. <\/span>A toolkit to support strong team dynamics should include a few simple, user-friendly tools that teams can use to develop and refine their adoption of Expected Behaviors.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The toolkit should include enough tools to meet team needs, but not so many tools that it overwhelms the users. <\/span>A small variety of tools should be available, to meet or support different team challenges as the project\/program progresses through stage gates. <\/span>Some tools should be designed to help teams initially agree on how they will operate, and are only revisited if those agreements are not being kept. <\/span>Other tools should be included for the purpose of helping teams address specific problems caused by not practicing a given Expected Behavior. <\/span>Overall, the toolkit should be used to encourage the healthy differences of opinion that naturally arise and enable the kind of respectful debate that occurs all the time in high-performing teams.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Project managers can begin the process by planning a discussion with their team about the impact and value of adopting Expected Behaviors as a way to enhance team effectiveness. <\/span>The intent is to have the project manager initiate a discussion that guides the team to evaluate which behaviors are done well and indentify where and how improvements can be made.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The project manager can begin the discussion by setting the context. <\/span>It is important to reinforce the value of team behaviors from the leader\u2019s perspective. <\/span>The leader should express personal commitment to team behaviors and acknowledge that even leaders don\u2019t get them \u201cright\u201d all the time. <\/span>As such, the project manager must give the team permission to hold each other accountable, including the leader. <\/span>The team leader must actively seek input from each team member as to whether the leader is demonstrating Expected Behaviors. <\/span>Sharing the idea that all team members are created equal when it comes to supporting healthy and productive team interactions is critical.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Have team members evaluate their team\u2019s current adherence to Expected Behaviors. <\/span>How? <\/span>Just ask them. <\/span>You won\u2019t need to hit them over the head with a shovel to get some good, honest feedback. <\/span>So, be bold, ask your team members how you are doing as a team; them be brave, and act upon the feedback.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, President Obama signs a massive Economic Stimulus Package, offering significant funding for new infrastructure projects. Dust off your shovels! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":259,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","category-miscellaneous"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/259"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1743"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14168,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1743\/revisions\/14168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}