ABSTRACT
Project managers are like ships’ captains whose crew members are the project’s management team. Bringing together a collaborative, cooperative and committed group of competent self-starters can make for smooth sailing; while choosing unwilling, incompetent, conspiring and self-indulgent individuals might well sink the ship. A project team may be comprised of in-house staff members or external consultants who work on one or more phases of the project on a full-time or parttime basis. Team building is all about selecting the right individuals for the job, molding them into a cohesive group and building relationships between them. The project manager needs to understand the strengths of each potential team member and what value they bring to, or what detriment they might have on, the project. Effective teams have a clear unity of purpose and are typically very energetic and cohesive groups that form their own particular set of characteristics.
