How to Create and Maintain a Team Identity
Lack of full-time involvement is one of several challenges that project managers can expect to encounter when creating a team. Specialists need to work on various aspects of each project. As such, you will find that their energy and time will often end up getting spent elsewhere.
It is common to find specialists working on multiple teams. Each time will need their allegiance and time. It, therefore, becomes quite challenging to create a team identity.
Activities to Help Project Managers Establish Team Identity
As a project manager, you have to try and ensure that your team is as tangible as possible. Team participants should get attached to it emotionally. The following are activities to help you create and maintain a team identity:
- Team Meetings
Periodic meetings are essential as they provide a forum for you and the participants to pass on necessary project information. Although not obvious, one primary function of a team meeting is to help come up with team identity. The sessions help the participants to realize that they are not alone and that they do have a support base.
Members get to see that they are a part of a bigger team. The meeting helps the members to realize that the success of that project will get determined by the input made by each person. You will, therefore, find that timely gatherings go a long way in helping to reinforce team identity and in defining team membership.
- Creation of Team Name
Developing a team name helps make the team tangible. It also increases the identity of the team. In addition to creating a team name, you can also come up with a team logo.
If you need to customize a t-shirt for the team, ensure that you also get to rely on the collective team ingenuity. The team members should play an active role in helping create the name and the logo.
You can affix the name and logo that you come up with on coffee mugs, t-shirts, and even stationery. It will help showcase team membership.
- Co-locating Team Members
A great way to ensure that the team remains tangible is to have all the members working together in a shared space. While this may not work in a matrix environment, you could consider creating a project office.
Such an office is also known as a clubhouse or a project war room. The rooms will act as current team meeting spaces. They are also the ideal places for the team to handle all documentation relating to the project.
Cover the project war room with cost graphs, Gantt charts, and any other output related to your projects control or planning phases. The charts will display the progress achieved since the beginning and will help the manager to create a team identity.
- Team Rituals
Corporate rituals are used to establish the identity of an organization. Incorporating such symbols at the project level helps to develop a subculture or team identity.
The rituals will assist in separating project work from other organizational operations.