Reflection on “Disaster Averted by Swanson, July 2014 May 2014”

The article “Disaster Averted” discussed very important aspects of the complex projects, which is the human factor and team morale when applying the change. To have a successful project, we must have a strong and confident team who believes in its ability of change for better. Project success stands for continuously identifying plus avoiding the risks that may lead the project to its failure, and managing the human factor effectively helps the project manager in achieving project success.

The article discussed several examples for project success. One of the projects was facing unclear communications, ambiguous structure plus scope creep. The project manager in that particular project solved the three problems through a project reporting that is more consistent and transparent with a new format and status report process. He also established a clear organizational structure where roles and responsibilities were communicated to the whole team and stakeholders. Finally, to control the scope creep, he made sure that any changes to the scope would be determined in a controlled manner through a committee vetting change requests.

Another project was discussed in the article where the communication with the client’s team was very coarse, especially when tasks were not completed. To solve that communicating problem, the project manager had to learn the client team members’ motivations and personalities, and he found out that the problem was not about having enough communication, but it is all about having an effective one. After understating that, he started asking much more specific and situational questions which triggered different responses than previously and that had more transparency in the overall conversation. As a result, the project had a significant progress.

The last project discussed was facing an internal resistance, where the top management was applying a pressure to reduce costs; however, that pressure was not translating to the team members who were developing, implementing the project. The project manager who understands that external motivation, even if it comes from the top management, it is less effective than self-motivation, he broke the project up into much smaller sub-projects and gave the team members responsibility for executing them, and that give them a great sense of responsibility and a sense of achievement, and that was translated into a huge progress within that project.

Some of the lessons learned from this article are that to help foster a very strong team culture, the project manager needs to build trust, by providing a platform to listen and respond and by celebrating significant milestones though out the project. It is also very helpful to have a reward and recognition program for the team members. The project manager also needs to have a positive attitude since he will be viewed as a role model that team members tend to follow.

In 2013 and after I got the accomplishment award from the AIC-steel group, I was assigned as team leader for a group of 7 engineers, and 5 of them where new in this field (structural design). I told myself “this will be the end of me!!”. Seven engineers and I was the youngest among them, two of them were already team leaders, and the other 5 are brand new designers with no experience, and the project was a maintenance hangar for aircraft. I really felt the end coming closer and closer. After I was a very good designer in the company, how would I let this team destroy what I had built?! I couldn’t believe what just happened. I took three days off so that I can think this through, and I decided to give it a try. I came after my 3-days vacation, and I called the team for a meeting. I could see them worried and doubting my age (23 years old), but I didn’t mind it because I had the same question they had, “Why me?” I asked them for a four weeks trial period, and after that I told them that we would have a voting, and if I found myself not meeting their expectation, I would let them choose another leader.

Two weeks passed, and all votes supported me. So how did I win their trust? First, I told them my expectation of them, and then I asked for their expectation of me. Second, I told them what are my commitments to them, and I asked to hear their commitment to me and to their team members. Third, we agreed on the communication tools and ways that they and I preferred. Fourth, I held free evening design sessions for the new designers to improve their skills. Finally, I never went home before anyone of them, and if I asked anyone to be at work on his/her vacation, I would always be at the office before them. After one year of hard work, we completed the project with very minor technical comments. And because of that, the whole team was promoted and became senior engineers. For me, I was rewarded from the direct owner as a top achiever for 2014, and I was only 24 years old.