Episode #294: Death Of A Project Team

There are no shortage of projects and project teams inside companies. Often, for big projects, various people are brought together to create a specialist team for that particular project. The projects eventually come to an end and most commonly, start with a bang and go out with a whimper. Are we gaining all that we can from these non-permanent team formations? What are we doing about the people part of ending the project team? Are we leaving on a high or low note?

Teams have their own cycle. There is the Formation Stage where a team is chosen, and clear goals and direction are defined. The next element is the Stabilisation Stage where everyone settles into their roles. Following that we have the Integration Stage where the big goals are being broken down to smaller bits and being worked on. People are starting to get used to working with each other in cooperative way. Actualisation comes after that stage and the team is really starting to gel well together. Things are humming like a well oiled machine, everyone is engaged and progress is being made. The Maturation Stage is next, greater progress is being made and the teamwork is showing outcomes and rewards. The final stage is the Termination Stage when the team’s job is finished or the team is dispersed into other roles.

This final stage is critical because it means the project was successfully completed and there is no more rationale to have a team working on this project. Alternatively, the project may have failed and resources now must be dispersed to other projects and teams.

We know that we will always have projects and project teams. Yet, we treat them all as one offs. We are losing a lot of insight when we do it this way. In order to retain the successes and learned lessons of a team, that is in the Termination Stage, it is important to arrange an organised, detailed closure to the team cycle. Teams at this stage typically have developed a wide range of influence in the organisation, often they are more willing that ever at this stage to be honest about their observations and recommendations to the organisation. Are we sufficiently adding to our stock of knowledge, creating templates of successful processes, highlighting ideas for broader distribution and passing this on throughout the organisation? What is the flow of this processs?

There are four elements of establishing closure to the team cycle.

1. Completion of any deliverables or any remaining team efforts

The original planning will have had timelines attached to various stages of the project and these need to be checked for completion. If there is anything left over, then this has to be finished immediately.

2. Evaluation of the team’s process and product

Did we finish late, on time or early? What worked and didn’t work during the team cycle? Did we chronicle the journey? If we are going to be doing a similar project is this a point of failure we need to prepare ahead of time? What went well process wise to bring the team together and why?

3. Identification of lessons learned and passing these on to future teams

Inevitably teams learn hard lessons during their team cycle, sometimes captured as “mistakes we have made”. Success or failure, there are lessons aplenty but are we well enough organised to capture them? Often the learnings are picked up along the way, but everyone is too busy to note what works well or what innovations they introduced. Getting these down on the record is the way to pass these on to other teams or future teams. Global consulting companies are totally project focused and they are very disciplined about capturing what they have found, in order to speed up completion of other projects of a similar nature. Are we doing that or are we constantly too busy to capture critical data points, reflections, breakthroughs, innovations?

4. Creating a closing celebration that acknowledges the contributions of individuals and the accomplishment of the team and that formally ends this team’s existence

These events are sometimes hard emotionally for the dissolving team and any departing members and also for individuals and teams left behind. The whole aim of creating a successful team is to get the people working as a single unit, really invested in pulling together as a team and being recognised as a distinguishable unit within the broader organisation. And then we break it all up.

If it were ever only one team, that would be okay, but people are designated to participate in other teams and at different stages of their career. After a painful experience attached to the ending of a team, they may be gun shy about getting too emotionally attached to their fellow team members on the next go around. This creates a new problem in the next team being created.

As professionals, many of us tend to avoid emotional work situations that might make us feel uncomfortable. For departing team members, there might be a strong desire to move on to the next adventure and depending on the circumstances of the team termination, there might be some hard feelings toward individuals and the organization. As a result teams often fade out.

This is where the leaving on a high feeling must be created. It happened to all of us after High School, after University graduation, when people went their different ways. This is similar and it can be sad or disheartening. It doesn’t have to leave a bitter taste in everyone’s mouth, if we design the ending properly. Leaving in triumph should be the theme and everything geared up to celebrate the people and their joint achievements. This should be baked into the leader’s plan at the start. Create a project team, capture the team’s learnings all the way through and then go out with a bang. We know it intellectually but often we don’t do it. On the next project, plan the party first!