“The Motivation Triangle”

In the article, “Motivating the Project Team” by James R. Chapman, he discusses the objectives necessary for good group dynamics and what sort of things he tries to do as a team manager. For, example, he makes sure that all team members realize the importance of their individual assignment for the whole team success. Although he monitors stress among members of his team, he also makes sure that each member has a variety of assignments to be completed so that if they get bored with one, they can work on something else for a little while. It is important for employees understand the importance of their work and know they are valuable to the team. Another crucial element of team success celebrating the small accomplishments a team achieves as it moves towards the completion of a project. He terms such accomplishments “mini-milestones”. This helps to keep team morale up and encourages members.

Chapman also offers this advice: “Find out what each team member win conditions are, and try to make these part of the project goals”. This includes such conditions as what their career goals are, what they would like to personally improve, and what concerns they would like to address/ what they would like to avoid. In this way, the team can not only reach a successful conclusion on their own project, but individual members are dedicated to the project and enjoy the process. This leads to higher employee satisfaction, which is important, as our textbook explained: about 9% of a company’s profit is wasted on employees who declare sick days when they are actually burnt out, not ill. If a team’s goals can somehow incorporate members’ personal goals, members are motivated to work harder and feel a greater sense of pride in the work that they do.

Source:
Chapman, James R. "Motivating the Team Project." Priciple Based Project Management: Information and Training Site. 26 Feb 2007. Web. 13 Feb 2010. .