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Activities for Leading Successful Cross-Functional Teams continued... page 2
- The project manager should visit the sponsor in each department to request feedback on the work to be done in their area. This includes the initial estimate of how many staff-hours may be needed for the project. The key is to start developing a sense of shared ownership for the tasks.
- The project manager should solicit recommendations for representation on the core team. If the project manager has a preference this should be discussed.
- At this point the project manager should strive to achieve a commitment from the sponsoring individual in each department for representation at the initial project meetings where the team will be developing its project plan. In general initial core team meetings should be limited to 6-8 people. The people you want at the meeting are the ones who are going to be doing the work or are involved daily in the work. The department sponsor should inform the potential core team members about their assignment to the cross-functional project. Remember that cross-functional teams operate in an output/results-oriented culture. The team members you identify will be responsible for answering both questions; what should we be doing and how should we do it?
Once the core team members are identified and notified about the project the next step is to organize the "kick-off" meeting. Depending on the organization and on the project this can be a rather elaborate affair and some of the sponsors may want the opportunity to be included. This can be a very positive sign if the sponsors are attaching themselves to the program. If possible you may want to ask that your assignment as project leader be re-announced at the meeting.
The key activity at the "kick-off" meeting is for the core team members, your task leaders, to be briefed on the goals and objectives of the project. These task leaders will be responsible for developing their initial work plans so they will need to know about all of the specifics the project is scheduled to deliver. It is important that the task leaders know that they will probably be working with functions that are not part of the core team. This is normal and standard, many of them may end up forming their own task "core" teams and will copy many of the main core team leader's (your) activities.
Developing A Comprehensive Task List
The next activity is for the project leader and the core team members to break the project into its component parts. This process starts at the core team meetings and will become the first assignment to the core team. Just like the project manager's initial task list, the task leaders should ask to prepare the first draft of their work plans including:
- Time estimates expressed as start dates, completion dates and required precursors
- Cost estimate including all staff-hours, purchased goods and services, capital and expense needs
- A definition of what will be delivered, and in what form it will be delivered
- A list of each tasks precursors and were they will come from.
One system that has proven useful in integrating the project schedule uses a graphic grid that identifies the tasks and the functions to accomplish the task. The basic structure looks like this:
The dots indicate which functions will be involved in the task; the "circle-dot" indicates which function will have responsibility for that activity. Almost all tasks on the grid will be cross-functional in nature; however, one key individual needs to be identified as being responsible for each task.
After the tasks are identified the time, cost, performance and precursor criteria can be filled in. When completed each task should read as an objective or group of objectives, including who, what, when, how, and asset information. The groups of objectives should be broken down until all of the involved functions understand what they are being asked to do.
The project manager can now insert the tasks into a spreadsheet or project software program; including all precursor information and the links between tasks. Some software is capable of tracking information on cost and staff-hour requirements as well. The purpose of this step is to generate an overall work plan for the project; including cost and other asset requirements. If your company uses a stage promotion process the gate or hurdle meetings for the project and the preparation for these meetings should be included in the task list.
The links between tasks are critical for all cross-functional projects. Each task will require information from one or more previous tasks and will provide key information for a subsequent task. By properly managing these links between activities the project manager can achieve time savings over the course of the project and generate a competitive advantage for the cross-functional team. It may take several iterations to develop a comprehensive plan that the core team agrees with. Remember that your task leaders need to be able to sell the plan to their task "core" teams.
The final step in this process is to close the loop with the project sponsors. The project plan you and the core team have developed may not agree in one or more aspects with the original goal and objectives you initially negotiated with your sponsors. In may be necessary to look at the relative impact on cost, schedule and performance criteria if changes are needed. Your final plan may meet the performance requirement but start-up may be months later than the desired window. Moving-up start-up may cause the cost to increase. This step may require going back to your core team for additional options or for the sponsors to work with the project manager to redefine the performance criteria. The key thing to remember is that before significant resources are committed the project manager must negotiate agreement between the sponsors and the task leaders.
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