Working as a team on work projects is vital to their success, but people make project collaboration mistakes daily. Some of those mistakes can derail a successful project, so the blunders we highlight below may help you keep your team on track.
And remember to use excellent project management software to ensure your project is completed on time and under budget – your manager will appreciate it!
Failing To Design a Strategy
Many organizations struggle with the problem of starting a project without designing a strategy or plan. Your team needs to have a crystal-clear picture of what they’re doing well before the project launches.
Some project management authorities say that a lack of clear goals dooms about 40% of projects to failure.
To remedy this problem, design a clear-cut strategy before the project is introduced to the team. If your team members are baffled and clueless from day 1, the train will derail almost immediately. Hold a meeting with stakeholders at the start of the project to talk about:
- Cost
- Purpose
- Timelines
- Deliverables
- Product quality
Not Designating Roles
Another major collaboration blunder is failing to define roles and responsibilities in crisp detail to your project team. Each project member must know what the project is and what their part is in it.
Once you have explained the strategy, the next thing to do is define roles and responsibilities for each team member. Doing this removes any chance of confusion or miscommunication about who does what.
Failing To Listen To Project Team Members
A leader takes the project team along and doesn’t dictate what they should do and where they should go. If your project manager operates like a dictator, he’s making a massive collaboration mistake. Employee morale plummets when a manager is pulling all the strings and giving orders like the military.
Instead, offer autonomy to team members and listen to their voices when they provide ideas, input, and suggestions for a more successful project. Once in a while, allow them to make more significant decisions because it will lift their spirits. Always remember that the most productive employees are happy and feel optimistic about the project.
Failing To Create A Supportive Environment
It’s challenging to encourage a collaborative environment if the focus is on individual performances and a lack of trust permeates the organization. Also, company flexibility, values, and transparency play a critical role in upkeeping a collaborative and supportive project environment.
It’s the primary duty of a project manager to create a collaborative environment. In this space, employees should be able to offer opinions and inputs without thinking twice. Where there is trust, camaraderie, and mutual respect, workers develop more helpful ideas and are more productive.
Not Anticipating Risks
Some studies suggest that professionals aren’t identifying and assessing emerging risks because of poor collaboration in organizations. Risk professionals note that lack of proper collaboration is one of the enormous obstacles to understanding emerging risks.
This problem can be mitigated by encouraging collaboration in your team and dealing with emerging risks by using a risk committee with input from the organization. Talk about the industry and global trends across the company and talk about takeaways from many sources on emerging risks.
Team Members Not On The Same Page
You could have several people working on the same tasks with detailed results. If there are updates or changes in requirements, team members may not be informed, and this can lead to inefficiency, double work, and puts the project in jeopardy. You can avoid these issues if you understand the skills and needs of your team members in advance.
Ensure roles are well defined and explained to them. Online project management software can show what each team member is doing and notify them when there’s an update to a deliverable or due date.
Collaborating effectively is essential to project success. By following these simple rules, your project collaboration is sure to improve, and your project results will impress your managers.
