The Role of Project Managers and Subordinates in different project structures.

Is your Project a hierarchical, a flattened or a network structure ? It turns out that there may no quick answer to this question. Projects, like organizations, are dynamic entities that learn, and hence change, throughout their execution. A learning Project Manager recognizes this and adapts the leadership role according to the behaviour, trust and confidence within the team.

A few years ago, I worked on a Project as project manager where a changing situation occurred in the structure not by managerial intervention but by team dynamics. What I learned was that my involvement needed to change from that of a “decision-maker” to a “coach” being available as required to situational leaders who bubbled up in the Project team. The following figure describes the evolution pictorially.

 

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   Hierarchical                 Flattened                     Networked

What I noted throughout this process, was that more decision-making was required of the Project Manager at the early stage (Hierarchical). As the project moved forward and transitioned, the teams ended up making their own decisions with the support of situational leaders (Networked). Since my role became more “hands-off”, I found that I could let the project run autonomously and focus my time and improve my efficiency on other important matters on my plate.

If you manage projects, you may be asking yourself how do project updates get communicated when the Project turns into a Networking structure. As the team is more self-disciplined in this scenario, an easily accessible huddle board containing the deliverables milestone dates and budget may be considered. By walking up to the board frequently throughout the day, the team stays the course. A huddle board also makes schedule discussions simpler than setting up weekly dedicated meetings for this purpose.

The experience I described above was not smooth nor was it precisely timed nor calculated, but it ended up being successful nevertheless. After seeking some coaching and support, I decided to let the team run in a networked fashion only when the message was loud and clear from the situational leaders that they would own the Project. This experience was yet another item to keep in mind for my next Projects.

The lesson learned is that teams that can self-manage are a significant benefit to any organization. Finding a way to foster this type of behaviour, I believe, is Golden to any Project and its organization.

Thanks,

Peter Darveau