Projects in a crisis?

A coaching program

3. Clarify responsibilites

Up to this stage of the program focused on the project manager. Now we start to involve the team. We find out whether the team is motivated, whether the responsibilities are assigned appropriately and whether each team member is absolutely sure what work they have to do and what is expected from them.

Depending on the results it may be necessary to organise the project differently in order to achieve unambiguous responsibilities. It may be sensible to adjust the project communications to ensure that each team member obtains the information they need and no one is expected to attend meetings that are not relevant for their work. It may also turn out appropriate to give more responsibility to some team members or to refrain from too constrictive guidance.

Example:

A project manager assigned responsibility for three different topics to a team of three. In consequence each team member relied on the other to start necessary action. After discussing the situation in a coaching session the project manager decided to assign each topic to one team member. In consequence one team member was in charge of one topic. Team morale improved and the project performance improved.