Every Project Team Has A Culture
Joining a different team of people to get the job done on every project is the norm. Every project team has a culture of its own and many of those cultures are highly dysfunctional. Think of all the projects you’ve been a part of where finger-pointing and outright lying made the project a toxic environment and led to poor results. I’ll bet those projects weren’t good for your reputation or your finances either.
Contractors put their company and personal reputation at risk on every job. That’s one of the reasons we always preach about building relationships with clients before working with them and being very careful about the work you pursue. Ideally, most of your work would be with teams that have learned to work well together on past projects and keep the band together. Still, for growing companies like yours, there’s always a necessity to branch out and work in unfamiliar environments.
When you’re on a new project with a new team, make a conscious decision to join that project team fully. Avoid viewing your company as entirely separate from the project team. Instead, seek to form a shared “entity” with your project team. Openly discuss your goals for the project, establish clear lines of communication, and agree to some guidelines for good team member behavior. Doing this will create a shortcut to the kind of hard-earned trust forged by teams who’ve worked together for years. Heck, doing this with well-established teams would still be a valuable activity to explicitly identify the kinds of things that have made the team successful on past projects!
Well Built is often hired as a third party facilitator to bring project teams together in exactly the manner described above. We’re brought in by GCs or Owners and we love working with a project’s stakeholders to create a high-performance environment. That said, in most cases, you really don’t need us to do this work. Don’t wait for an outsider facilitator, the Owner, or GC to work on building a strong project team culture. Be a leader yourself and make it happen today.
And, of course, if you feel the situation warrants it, we’re happy to help.
The Spark Notes:
Joining a new project team often means encountering unique, sometimes dysfunctional, team cultures that can harm your reputation and finances.
To protect your reputation, it's crucial to build relationships with clients beforehand and carefully choose the projects you pursue, ideally working with teams that have a history of collaboration.
When starting a new project with an unfamiliar team, fully integrate yourself into the team, establish shared goals, clear communication, and agreed-upon guidelines to quickly build trust and foster a positive team culture.
While Well Built often facilitates team integration, you don't need to wait for an outsider—take the initiative to lead and create a strong project culture yourself.
