Project teams that are not established appropriately, or simply do not
come together successfully, often produce poor results and are viewed
as artificial and unsatisfying experiences by all concerned. Members of
failed teams often have such a bad taste in their mouths that they go to
great lengths to avoid teams or cause them to fail fast to avoid the anticipated
pain. Given this risk that a team may never come together again,
a wise team leader will look carefully at the beginning at an individual’s
past teaming experience and determine if the risk reward makes sense. A
failed team can be a real drain on the company, productivity and longterm
team relationships. The team building idea needs to be successful if
the power of teamwork in the company is to become a meaningful reality.
Unfortunately, because of the limitation of available human resources,
the project leader is often unable to choose the particular members of
the project team aggressively. All too often, senior executives select team
members with minimal, if any, input from the project leader. However, in
situations in which the project leader has a significant say in determining
the composition of the team, it is important to consider the following
(Flannes and Levin, 2001):