[302] in magellan
Re: Discovery Question
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David F. Lambert)
Mon Oct 25 08:26:26 1999
Message-Id: <9910251226.AA22964@MIT.EDU>
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 99 08:08:04 EDT
From: "David F. Lambert" <LAMBERT@mitvma.mit.edu>
To: Joanne Hallisey <hallisey@MIT.EDU>, magellan@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Your message of Thu, 7 Oct 1999 16:19:19 -0400
On Thu, 7 Oct 1999 16:19:19 -0400 Joanne said:
>I have a couple of questions.
>
>I have made progress in forming a team for the Extended Voice Direectory
>Services @MIT, but am not getting a response from 2 of the 5 team members
>for our first meeting. any good ideas for this other than scheduling the
>meeting and hoping they come? I also worry about the commitment of these
>team members. I can establish all the team roles and responsibilities, but
>cannot guarantee that members will be engaged. How have others dealt with
>this issue? I would like to leave talking to their TL/Manager as a last
>resort.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Joanne
There have been so many topics you folks raise which hit a nerve with
me - and here's another example. I recently had the same issue
with two members of the newly formed delivery project for the enterprise
printing project effort. The way I solved the problem was to directly
contact the two people - one in person and one by phone. I also
have similar concerns regarding the commitment level of one of these
two people. A little salespitch seemed to help last week - the
importance of the work, visibility of the project, the skills and
expertise each member brings to the project's efforts, etc.
Setting some clear expectations via team norms & practices should
help. I think there's real value with clarifying what's expected
from all team members - develop the norms & practices as a team
effort. This may be viewed as too rigid and formal for some folks.
I don't think we've been particularly good in IS in the past with
clarifying our expectations for performance and behavior. It's
mighty tough to hold teams & individuals accountable without a clear
set of expectations.
Try some face-to-face discussions with the individuals. Let us
know how you make out. Do others on the list have suggestions
for improving the commitment/engagement levels of project members?
-Dave
