10 - Team Alignment, Change Management & High-Performance Teams

Project Management Framework

• Five Process Groups

  • Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling, Closing

• Key Knowledge Areas explicitly highlighted in this lecture

  • \text{Scope}, \text{Schedule / Time}, \text{Cost / Budget}

  • Integrated Safety, Quality, Communications, Human Resources, Risk, Procurement, Training, Metrics, Human-Performance Improvement

  • Three NEW/EMPHASIZED areas for this class session:

  • Team Alignment

  • Change Management

  • High-Performance Teams

Team Alignment

• Definition – “Condition where all appropriate participants work within acceptable tolerances toward a uniformly defined & understood set of objectives.”

  • A continuing state of being that must be fostered over the entire project life-cycle.

  • Requires re-alignment whenever objectives change or new members join.

• Why Critical?

  • Misalignment → cost, schedule, quality, safety, morale problems.

  • Shown on slide: “Alignment is Critical to Project Success.”

• Three-Dimensional Requirement

  1. Longitudinal (Stay aligned over time).

  2. Vertical (Values & purpose shared up/down the hierarchy).

  • Example work-flow from Task Lead → Planning → Management.

  1. Horizontal (Functional groups pull in same direction).

  • Safety ↔ Engineering ↔ Construction.

• Common Alignment Challenges

  • Conflicting objectives, mixed stakeholders, siloed functional experts, multiple decision makers, shifting schedule / funding.

Alignment Thermometer Tool

• Visual gauge with reference bands

  • 70\% – “Comfortable Road to Success.”

  • 40\% – “Discomfort on the Road to Mediocrity.”

  • 100\% – Perfect alignment.

• Uses survey data to:

  • Measure baseline alignment.

  • Pinpoint weak areas for corrective action.

  • Track improvement over time.

The Alignment Survey Process (RadCon case study)

1. Develop Survey

   • Identify key work-control elements.

   • Craft clear statements (Likert 1\,\text{–}\,5).

2. Conduct Stakeholder Survey

   • Include all relevant positions (management, supervision, working level, functional specialists).

3. Analyze Data

   • To reduce bias:

     • Drop highest & lowest score for each statement.

     • Omit respondents who give >95\% identical ratings or >40\% N/A.

   • Produce spider/radar charts:

     • Average ranking per spoke.

     • Range (max–min) exposes disagreement.

4. Stakeholder Workshop

   • Explore strengths, weaknesses, barriers.

   • Co-create action plan.

5. Address Work-Control Solutions & Provide Feedback

6. Repeat Survey on refined list → verify improvement.

Key RadCon Findings (examples)

• Statement #1 “RadCon included in meetings/communications” – Statistically lower at working level.

• Statement #10 “RWPs easy to understand” – Generally high agreement but variation among functions.

• Statement #16 “Exposures are ALARA*” – Very high agreement across groups.

  • ALARA = As Low As Reasonably Achievable.

• Statement #18 “Workers included in developing RWPs” – Notably lower scores from working level, signalling weak participatory planning.

Typical Barriers

• Culture – No clear ownership; responsibility diffused.

• Execution – Workers insufficiently engaged in planning.

• Communication – Poor vertical/horizontal information flow.

• Tools – Lessons Learned not captured or recycled.

Practical Take-Aways

• Embed alignment checks into periodic project reviews.

• Use quantitative tools (surveys, \text{radar-plots}) plus facilitated dialogue.

• Targeted actions produce measurable movement up the “thermometer.”

Change Management

• “Change should be expected – the challenge is to manage it.”

• Typical Human Responses

  • Fight, passive acceptance, or proactive opportunity seeking.

• Real-World Change Categories (student examples)

  1. Organizational – new manager, re-org, outsourcing 40\% scope.

  2. Financial – budget cuts.

  3. Regulatory – new rules.

  4. Programmatic – new safety initiative, contract expansion.

  5. Operational – shutdowns, schedule shifts, security upgrades, construction in live facility.

• Integration With PMBOK Grid

  • Every change can affect any Process Group (Initiate → Close) and any Knowledge Area (Scope, Cost, EHS, etc.).

  • Effective change control requires integrated approach across the matrix.

• Assignment Prompt (08)

  • Write on a significant change last year, its impact on org/self, how you managed it, what you would do differently, and derived lessons learned.

  • Due 8\ \text{AUG}, 23{:}59\ \text{CT}, worth 8\% of course grade.

High-Performance Project Teams

• Definition – Group that works efficiently & effectively toward a common goal, sustaining high performance over time.

• Core Attributes (“wheel” shown repeatedly)

  1. Technical & Personal Diversity (inc. EQ).

  2. Clear Goals & Expectations.

  3. Effective Communications.

  4. Trust.

  5. Ownership.

  6. Alignment.

• 1 – Diversity

  • Mix of skills, experiences, personalities.

  • Emotional Intelligence complements IQ → better behavior management & decision quality.

  • Respect & embrace differing opinions; “no fear of reprisals.”

• 2 – Clear Goals & Expectations

  • Specific milestones/deliverables, roles & responsibilities.

  • Progress measured routinely (metrics, dashboards).

• 3 – Effective Communications

  • Clear, concise oral & written exchange.

  • Safe environment to “speak out” with ideas/questions.

  • Regular meetings & e-comms connecting subordinates ↔ peers ↔ leaders.

• 4 – Trust

  • Rely on each member’s competence & commitment.

  • “Quality goes in before my name goes on.”

• 5 – Ownership

  • Empowerment & accountability for both individual tasks and total team product.

  • Inclusion in planning & major decisions fosters buy-in.

• 6 – Alignment (ties back to earlier section)

  • Uniform understanding of objectives; revisited when team membership or goals shift.

Characteristics of a High-Performance Workplace

• Clear, realistic vision.

• Distinct roles/responsibilities.

• Adequate training, time, resources.

• Continuous communication & rapid conflict resolution.

• Valuing each member’s contribution; collaboration Culture.

Ethics for Project Managers

• PMI Code of Ethics & Professional Conduct – four foundational values:

  1. Responsibility

  2. Respect

  3. Fairness

  4. Honesty

• Ethical behavior underpins trust, alignment, and ultimately high-performance team success.

Connections & Significance

• Team Alignment, Change Management, and High-Performance Teams are inter-dependent:

  • Rapid change stresses alignment; high-performance attributes buffer that stress.

  • Ethical culture sustains trust & ownership during turbulence.

• The Alignment Thermometer offers a quantitative complement to traditional qualitative team-building tools.

• Survey design, statistical cleansing (drop high/low; exclude flat-liners) mirrors quality-control techniques, reinforcing PM principle that what gets measured gets managed.

• Public Health projects often have diverse stakeholders (clinicians, community, regulators, funders) → alignment tools are especially valuable.