PeopleDefine team ground ruleseasy
A newly formed project team is experiencing friction over basic working practices: members arrive late to meetings, interrupt one another, and disagree about how quickly messages should be answered. What should the project manager do?
- AIssue a set of team rules and require everyone to follow them.
- BFacilitate a session where the team collaboratively defines its own ground rules and records them in a team charter.
- CAddress each violation individually as it occurs.
- DAsk the sponsor to communicate expectations about professional behavior.
Explanation
Correct answer: BGround rules are most effective when the team creates and owns them collectively, typically captured in a team charter.
- A
- Imposed rules generate compliance at best; the team is far more likely to honor norms it helped create.
- B
- Correct. Facilitating the team to define its own ground rules builds ownership and gives everyone a shared standard to hold each other to.
- C
- Handling violations one at a time treats symptoms repeatedly without ever establishing the shared expectation.
- D
- Outsourcing basic team norms to the sponsor undercuts the project manager's leadership and does not create team ownership.