work with a small group of known participants to determine
the other players, before you can begin forming your team.
The project should not be defined in so much detail that it dis-
courages ownership. Confusing, huh? This is part of the balanc-
ing act referred to above. One of the truisms of project manage-
ment (actually, this is just human nature) is that the less a per-
son participates in the definition and planning of a project, the
less likely he or she is to take “ownership” of it. So, it’s not a
good idea for you to define and plan the project work alone,
then simply hand it to team members to implement. They’ll feel
that they’re executing yourplan, not theirs, and performance is
likely to suffer.
Consider the expense of involvement vs. anticipated contribu-
tion. Formally assigning an individual to your project is a little bit
like a hiring process. In the eyes of the organization, it authorizes
that individual to begin charging his or her time (or some portion
of it) to your project. If you’re in an environment where you’re
keeping track of costs, you must immediately begin tracking the
expense of the time involvement. Regrettably, this can become
somewhat of a cat-and-mouse game at times.
Building and Maintaining an Effective Team 79Consider Internal Consulting
Most of us tend to think of people as being either “on” or
“off” a project, referring to whether they’ve been formally
assigned. However, in the early stages of a project, getting people for-
mally assigned to work on your project is an iffy proposition, for at
least two reasons. First, the prevailing mindset is often to “keep the
cost down until we figure out whether we have a project or not.” If
you’re keeping track of hours or costs, having several people formally
assigned (and therefore charging their time) to your project can be
contrary to the goal of keeping investigation costs down. Second, get-
ting people formally assigned to projects that aren’t yet a sure thing
can be quite challenging. Consider internal consulting as a potential
alternative to formal assignment. Negotiate directly with appropriate
subject matter experts or prospective team members.Agree upon a
deliverable (or a level of participation) and agree upon a cost (the
number of hours to be charged to your project).