The thing about that connects a “Foosball” team to a project team is the fact that both can become static. In a sense, not moving or changing it’s strategy. Constantly doing the same thing can cause either to become static and prevent the team from growing. However, a static project team can get past the “static” phase by choosing to change different aspects of it’s operations.

Case study 2: Foosball Project Team

Image: www.SXC.hu

The whole plan of Foosball is to make sure your ball goes into your opponent’s goal while stopping it from going into yours by using the player rods that you push, pull and turn. This is related to a project team in the following ways:

• Static positions: no matter how much you push, pull, or turn the handles in foosball, the players stay on the same particlar row. No room for growth within a project team can cause the team members to become static and thus affecting the project.
• Tunnel view: because one of the objects is to make a goal, sometimes you can become so concentrated on doing that, you may forget to gaurd against your opponent’s attempt to make a goal. Within a project team, it is important to keep in mind that a broad view is good to have as well as a focused view so that you can keep all aspects of the project in focus. Allowing both views to be a part of your project team may allow you to see upcoming project issues and give you an opportunity to plan on how to handle them strategically.
• Loosing control: when playing foosball, sometimes it’s hard not to lose control of the ball and your foosball players. To gain control in foosball, it takes practice and the honing of your skills. Just the same when dealing with a project team, it takes practice and the honing of your skills as a project manager in order to continuously stay in control of your team. If you find that control is slipping out of your hands, it’s always a good idea to regroup everyone, analyze what’s going on with the team and then make a plan on how to get control back.

Post from: EveryJoe

Organizing Large Project Teams, part 2

This article is the first in a series about organizing large project teams. Each of the articles will cover a particulr type of team along with the pros and cons of using each type of team.

Case Study 1: Circular Team

Image created by Kim Beasley using photo from www.SXC.hu

Being able to create smooth transitions between the sub-teams and the full project team is very important. In the image above, the teaming environment is considered a circular teaming environment and has been separated into three sub-teams. As you can see, each team has been color-coded which is a good way to keep tasks and process organized. Also the diagram shows how the information flows between the teams.

Pros of using a Circular Team

• Project Manager: will be able to color code the tasks and responsibilities for each sub team. Will also be able to create a process flow chart that shows the path that each project would take.
• Core Team: project members who would be considered leaders of the sub-teams and would be consistent throughout the entire process.
• Contracted Team: project members who could be moved from team to team as needed.

Cons of using a Circular Team

• Project Manager: may find that allowing communication between non-connected teams to be difficult.
• Core Team: may develop tunnel vision about the project because all they would know is what affects their part of the project and may not be able to grasp the full vision of the project.
• Contracted Team: may not be able to become familiar with any one part of the project because they would be moved around as needed.

Post from: EveryJoe

Organizing Large Project Teams, part 1