Collective Wisdom from the Experts 93
Second, as the project moves on, it is simply much more efficient for all team
members, especially newcomers, to know exactly who to speak to regarding any
issue. If you have a question, you want to make sure you are asking the right
person—the expert associated with the topic at hand. And, if the expert doesn’t
know the answer, he will get it for you. You shouldn’t have to spend your time
chasing down an answer for something you don’t fully understand in the first
place.
Finally, sometimes (all right, often), projects don’t turn out as expected. If peo-
ple aren’t held accountable for their actions (or inactions), you’ll never be able
to fix the problems that occur, and group dynamics will suffer. Few issues are
more disruptive to team performance than the group wasting time trying to
decide who to blame for failure of a “group” assignment.
You don’t want to turn this into a contentious means of assigning blame, but
rather a means of properly distributing responsibility. And when a deliverable
comes in early and under budget (or at least on time and within budget), it’s
good to know who deserves the praise.