Establishing a dedicated team (managers and employees) for project management in private and public organizations has always been a first-class management challenge both in achieving the project's goals and in being able to be effective and efficient in promoting the organization's interests in the project. Not least when it comes to a dedicated team that is not from the same organization and is required to provide the same response in a project that is sometimes even managed by an external project manager.
I found it appropriate to engage in this article on managing and harnessing a non-organic team in projects for the simple reason - this issue at Dviewsion is a candle to our feet and every day when we wake up for a new work day, we must remind ourselves as a mantra:
Remember our position in the project team as the client's representative and that we faithfully represent his interests for all that is implied and we must not compromise on this issue!
Take a deep breath and be prepared for the fact that in the next discussion all the partners and stakeholders who will eventually be involved in the project will not necessarily be committed to it and certainly not to the goals of the organization, at the end of the day they do not have the existing pressure on the client at the execution level - schedule, budget and quality as defined! !!
In academia, it is customary to illustrate this through a famous story that tells of a chicken and a pig traveling together and discussing the possibility of establishing a joint restaurant. What will we call the restaurant, asks the pig? It's simple, the chicken answers him - "Egg and Bacon" (in Hebrew - eggs with pieces of ham). I'm not sure I'm interested, says the pig; Although we are both partners in the story here, there is a difference: you are involved, while I am committed.
What is commitment? And why should you create a commitment? I will ask to reflect on this in the article. So how do you still manage to score using a team that is not organic and how do you still manage to get the stakeholders not only involved, but also committed so that the result is the most effective and appropriate?
When thinking about commitment in a project, associations of reward, satisfaction, and identification with the project arise in order to reduce the risk of departure, turnover or brain drain of our partners in the project and as a result the loss of knowledge and the loss of a lot of work invested by the stakeholders and partners throughout the project. All of these are indeed related to commitment, but are not identical to it. Project commitment here is more in the spiritual aspect as far as the psychological engagement with those involved in the project. We have learned and it has also been proven in academia that commitment based on "material" reward lasts a short period of time compared to psychological commitment which lasts for years.
This subject has made me realize over the years that there is indeed a "carrot" called compensation in projects, and businesses are ultimately built on the bottom line, which is the profit line! And yet I found that there is quite a bit of room for the psychological aspect. For example - in one of our projects where the schedule was one of the most challenging that we knew was impossible and the prediction was that we would not meet the project's goals, the thing that swept all the stakeholders was that it was a national program and we always made sure to emphasize the nationalism of the project, the concern for the children and parents who stood behind the program and saw it created A mission also among the subcontractors in all the lots who ultimately made it possible to put the project on time.
Bottom line - for all the skeptics among us, I believe there is a lot of room for spirit, for sharing the partners and stakeholders in the goals and pressures exerted on the organization in order to succeed in the project and the psychological dimension should not be underestimated because in the end we are all human beings and ultimately everything has to do with human relations and the bonds that exist between the partners within the project.
Perhaps this is the main thing as a client side manager in projects - to see that the flame is constantly present and that we are there to remind everyone what the purpose of the project is!
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