Post on 21-Apr-2017
Nine Principles for a
“No Assholes”
Project Team
PLUS A TEAM CHARTER THAT LOCKS
IN AGREEMENT, UNDERSTANDING
AND CO-OPERATION
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
CREDITS
Cartoons are © adamonprojects.com,
drawn by Maignan “Kadran” Stéphane
Thanks to Bob Sutton (@work_matters) for
not objecting to me co-opting the “Asshole
Rule” concept / theme.
✴ Have you ever worked in a high-performance team? One that
really “clicked”? A team that was harmonious, complementary, and
truly greater than the sum of its parts?
✴ Have you ever worked in a real “self-organizing team”? A team that
could quickly and respectfully work out solutions for itself? A self-
organizing team that wasn’t managed to death?
✴ If you have, you never cease wanting to work in another one. If
you haven’t, you’ve never really experienced positive work.
Building a Great Team
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
✴ Why is building a great team so hard? We know and value the need, and there are so many courses,
tips and tricks, consultants, and so forth.
✴ Teams form through the exercise of discipline and maturity, and by following a some basic principles.
These principles overcome or remove the threats to team-building that prevent people from bonding
and exploring team benefits as they would in an unmanaged state.
✴ One of the main threats to team-building is the “Project Asshole”: an individual who breaks or
undermines these principles by their attitudes, behaviour or emotions.
✴ Here we outline nine Teaming Principles that can nudge a team towards excellence, and a Team
Charter that helps set up agreement and understanding of those principles, especially designed to
weed out those “Project Assholes” from your teams.
Building a Great Team
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
AND THEIR BEHAVIOURS
The Project Asshole
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
A “Project Asshole” is someone on or around
your Project team who exhibits behaviours
that are acts, words, or attitudes that create
tension or frustration.
“Project Asshole” behaviours (examples of
which are listed in the next slide), if left
unchecked, relentlessly undermine the trust,
common work ethic, and interpersonal
bonding required to form a high-performance
team. They generate negative emotions and
friction.
On the next 2 slides we summarise some
examples of Project Asshole behaviours.
Unfortunately it’s a long list.
The Project Asshole
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
Project Asshole Behaviours (1)
• Showing little respect for individuals or teams in the
context of group discussions: interrupting speakers
before they have finished, or responding to
propositions with ridicule or sarcasm.
• Agreeing to something at a meeting, and then doing
whatever they originally planned, or something else
entirely
• Regularly intimating that they are not happy about the
project or their role; treating the project team as merely
a very short-term activity.
• Always taking advantage of opportunities to be absent:
sick on Fridays or Mondays, or taking a holiday
“sandwich day”; “special assignments” from boss etc.
Not advising of upcoming holidays.
• Assigning an action to someone else just before a
review meeting so they can say “I’m waiting on
so-and-so”. Saying “I’m trying to contact so-and-
so” when they’ve only sent 1 email, or stopped by
the desk at lunchtime.
• Insisting on a particular process, document, or
technique regardless of whether it’s appropriate
or actually adds value to the project.
• Keeping religiously to a fixed work schedule even
stopping mid-task to go home at the designated
time, rather than complete the job at hand,
especially when other team members are working
long and irregular hours.
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
Project Asshole Behaviours (2)
• Giving feedback on documents at signoff
meetings instead of providing it in advance so
that it can be incorporated into the final
document, because “I’m so busy”.
• Treating project or other meetings as the
“quality time” for the project, by reading the
material to be discussed or workshopped, or
by catching up on reading or emails.
• Not reading or responding to actions assigned
in meetings until the next meeting. Claiming
that they didn’t know they had been given a
task.
• Bringing past disputes with other teams
into the current project, perhaps by
making negative comments or proposing
pathways that circumvent or undermine
a particular system or team.
• Not reviewing and approving key
documents without numerous follow-ups.
• Not executing actions or tasks unless
repeatedly prompted to.
• Artificially prioritizing the needs of
existing systems or organizations over
project needs.
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
IN VARIOUS FORMS
The Principles and the
Charter
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
Principles & Charter
The Principle-based Charter
The full charter is outlined as a set of 9 pairs of
slides
First, each of the nine principles is summarised
on a slide, with a link back to the principle’s
page on the adamonprojects.com website.
Second, is a slide that provides the full charter
clause relevant to that principle.
All the clauses appended together make up the
Charter.
The Pocket Charter
The Pocket Charter simply lists an abbreviated
text of the charter clause that is related to the
equivalent of the nine principles.
There are also two bonus Charter clauses (#10
and #11) at the end, which can be optionally
used in either version of the Charter.
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
The Principle-based
Charter
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
The most fundamental
element of putting together a
great project team is the
unambiguous and explicit
commitment to the team.
Individuals can be in a team
without putting aside their
individuality.
Once bonded to a team,
individuals prioritise the team
over almost anything.
#1: There’s No “I” in team
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
CLAUSE #1
I commit to this team:
“I join this team willingly and freely. I may have been assigned to this team or
volunteered, but I now independently and explicitly commit myself to the team.
I am now part of the future success or failure of the project. I trust and expect that
it is the same with all members of the team. I recognize that I can achieve my own
personal goals, such as skills improvement, reward or recognition, only by
ensuring the team’s success; I cannot ethically succeed if the team fails.
Teams are strong because they are mutually supportive and complementary, and
can achieve goals that cannot be achieved by one person alone. My skills,
knowledge, experience, and judgment will be amplified by those of my teammates.
My emotional and personal capabilities are just as important as my technical or
domain expertise, and I can express my personal style within the framework of a
mutually supportive group .”
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
The project must move forward at the
required rate and delivers real value to
its customers.
The “required” rate is the rate at which
you will beat all the existing milestones.
It is as fast as the team can go without
creating uncertainty and doubt, and then
push just a little harder.
Speed is more important at the start of
the project than the end.
This needs to be a clear expectation for
every team member.
#2: Deliver Value: Fast &
Furious
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
CLAUSE #2
My contribution is value, speed, and passion:
“My primary responsibility is to ensure that the project delivers real value to its
customer and moves forward at real speed. This team uses speed to push
alignment and efficiency; the team does not subscribe to reckless speed for its
own sake. I acknowledge our team’s obligation to get our project done as quickly
as practicable, and as inexpensively as we can manage, without inadvertent
reduction in quality.
I understand that the biggest contributor to net time to delivery is to develop a
direct and deep understanding of this customer value. I will encourage a passion
within the whole team to understand and empathize with that value in the way that
our customer sees it. We cannot know too much about our customer and how our
customer derives value from our project’s deliverables.
I define the value of my work in terms of how the output from this work satisfies
this customer’s needs.”
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
A common mental model for
success will help form a team,
guide its efforts, and even in the
absence of a plan, keep it on track
as problems and gaps emerge
between the expected/committed
and the delivered.
Mental models are the “fuel” to the
team’s “engine” that drives team
identity, efficiency and harmony/
#3: Share the Dream
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
CLAUSE #3
I will embrace and nurture the dream.:
“Our team must have a mutually compatible and shared idea of its end goal, which
is our “shared vision of success” and a critical enabler of the team’s effectiveness.
I understand that developing, validating, and maintaining a “shared vision of
success” requires nontrivial effort, and I will help establish, protect, and nurture
this shared vision so that it is actionable and tangible in the minds my teammates.
I will help my teammates validate that their understanding and mine are the same,
by looking for evidence each and every day that the shared vision is in use and
that it drives all of our activities on the project.
A valid and shared vision of success literally puts the team “on the same page,”
and sets the team up for rapid progress toward this success .”
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
One powerful way to destroy or hinder a
team is to add constraints that aren’t
really part of the solution to the problem
you are trying to solve.
Acting on the basis of your job title, your
department, or your profession over the
team’s needs will threaten the team’s
existence.
Bringing in fixed ideas about who you
represent, how you do things, or what
you deliver causes friction and gaps in
the team structure.
#4: Do Your Job, But Don’t
Get in the Way
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
CLAUSE #4
I am not a job title, a deliverable, or a process:
“I will exercise my specialist skills and domain expertise as required to achieve the
team’s goals, and not as an end in themselves. My title, profession, or
departmental origins do not dictate how I contribute to the team.
My organization or department may have specific deliverables or processes that it
values or even mandates, but executing these deliverables and processes are not
my primary purpose in the team. The team will mutually work out what role each
person will focus on for the project (my “position”) in order to maximize the
chances of success.
I will contribute ideas and suggestions based on my experience, and that of my
department or professional vocation, to define the role. But once the role is agreed
upon, I will “play my position” within the team as required. At all times I will be
ready and flexible to support the team in different roles as the need may arise.”
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
Projects move forward by the accumulation
of outcomes: decisions, completed tasks,
successful milestones, and so forth.
Each outcome is achieved because
someone accepted accountability for its
completion.
A team must enthusiastically embrace
accountability, first at the individual level,
then at the team level.
Teams without a “cult of accountability” will
never reach their potential.
#5: Demand Accountability
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
CLAUSE #5
I embrace a cult of accountability:
“Personal accountability for team outcomes, fulfi l led fully and generously, is the foundation of
team success. I accept and will fulfi l my accountabilit ies in conjunction with my teammates.
My accountability cannot be replaced or subverted by prescriptive methodology, process
document, job description, isolated conversation, or any other mechanism other than an explicit
agreement with my teammates.
The team as a whole owns all the project outcomes and the means to achieve them, including
administrative or office environmental tasks. I will proactively help to identify work or deliverables
that have no owner so that the full scope of the project is fully accounted for in our plans.
Not all situations can be determined in advance, so I will be flexible in terms of what work I do, and
what accountabilit ies I might be asked to hand off or take on, to ensure the team’s success.
I will help my teammates by helping to keep them accountable for their tasks, at all t imes in a
respectful and supportive manner.”
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
Every team needs to leave a
“footprints” that can be tracked
backwards to decisions, data,
actions or instructions.
Anyone who doesn’t document
their work in a project, or actively
participates in helping create a
persistent record of the project, is a
Project Asshole.
Yet the entire concept of project
documentation seems to generate
a lot of angst for many people.
#6: Leave Footprints
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
CLAUSE #6
I will leave footprints:
“I understand that the team has an obligation to create a persistent record of project
outcomes and to communicate to key stakeholders; this is often called “documentation.”
Such documentation includes project progress, status, and outlook reports, summaries of
decisions, and deliverables-related information. After the project is over these records
must enable future teams identify project successes and/or failures to help with future
project planning.
I will work with my teammates to identify and provide the optimal set of “documentation”
to meet our team obligations, and I will not debate or avoid this necessity, only
participate in discussion regarding what is optimal for this particular project. “Optimal”
means that the effort expended in the project documentation will be reasonable with
respect to the size, scope, and complexity of the project.
Creating this persistent record is not the responsibility of a single role or individual (e.g.,
the project manager or project administrator), and I will participate in this task to ensure
minimal impact on any one team member, done as completely, quickly, accurately, and
efficiently as possible.” adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
Doing things the same way or allowing
habits to constrain the team’s creativity or
impact will lead to disaster, and allowing
complacency or personal problems to
evolve disrupts harmony and builds
contempt and mistrust.
Anytime someone says “the process
won’t allow me to ...” you know you have
a blockage that requires a rethink. But
often the signals are more subtle.
You must disrupt the team to improve the
team, but don’t be rude or negative.
#7: Disrupt Respectfully
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
CLAUSE #7
When beneficial, I will respectfully and appropriately disrupt:
“From time to time, members of the team will not have the same opinion about a situation,
direction, decision, or outcome. Often these differences are not raised within the team for
fear of conflict and remain unresolved. I acknowledge that as a team member it is
important that these differences be surfaced and resolved as rapidly as possible. This
applies in particular to dissonance over the “shared vision of success.”
I will voice and work to resolve these differences of opinion with my teammates in a
constructive and respectful way that creates lasting harmony among the team.
I will be vigilant and have particular sensitivity to call attention to harmful or
unprofessional behavior or other major items of dissonance. But I also may need to
disrupt emerging bad habits or trends in a creative and amusing way.
Above all, I will ensure that no matter how well the team is performing, how many
successes the team achieves, or how much praise the team is getting, we will never fall
victim to ‘believing our own bull crap’.”
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
All organizations develop their own ways
of doing business.
Their internal systems, processes, rules,
and management style can evolve
organically or under the direction of
company strategy.
But every organization will eventually
end up with a certain number of
processes that don’t provide value.
Recognise and undermine value-less
process, lest it undermine the team.
#8: Undermine Bureaucracy
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
CLAUSE #8
I will undermine bureaucracy when I can, and cooperate efficiently when I
have to:
“During the project I may be asked to perform processes that don’t make sense to me, are
boring, or that slow down my work. These processes may originate from within the team,
or be imposed by other parts of the organization or even externally. I may propose my
own processes to the project based on habit, preference, or past professional training.
I will look carefully at any process that is followed or proposed and objectively determine
whether it adds value when measured against our team’s project goals.
If the team has a choice, I will work with the team to ensure that processes that do not
add value, even my own, are eliminated without ruthlessly and without emotion.
If the team does not have a choice, then the process will be performed to the necessary
minimum, without emotion, ridicule, or bitterness. I will make it my goal to ensure that
such processes do not interfere with or distract my teammates from the execution of their
required tasks.”
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
Teams that are open to being excellent will
often surprise you with what they can
achieve.
Allow teams to become too comfortable and
they will start an inward spiral to mediocrity,
corner-cutting and, ultimately, failure.
When was the last time you a project
thrilled you? When was the last time the
hairs on the back of your neck stood up
because what you had produced was so
cool and awesome?
It’s a great feeling and generates much
positivity, confidence and de-stresses
everytong.
#9: Practice Awesomization
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
CLAUSE #9
I will strive to be awesome:
“I will strive to infuse a sense of “awesomeness” into every aspect of my team’s work,
and I will support my teammates in being awesome. “Awesome” in this context is top -line
quality and standards consistent with project goals and team behavior. It means
preferably world or country- level “best in class.” It means the highest possible quality
within project constraints. It means that if I’ve done this type of project or role before,
then I want to do it much better this time, no matter how good I was the last time. I want
this project to become a case study for other teams in the future. I want our team to be
awesome.
It is not my goal to do as little as possible, to just “get by” or do the minimum that is
needed. I understand that “just showing up” to do my own job in a project context is not
being a team member.
I will challenge comfort and boundaries: if the customer doesn’t expect best -in-class
quality, I will ask ‘how close can we come?’ If the customer wants this in five months with
a budget of $100k, I will ask, ‘Why can’t we do it in three months and for $50k?’”
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
CHARTER POCKET
VERSION
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
I commit to the team.
“Whether I was assigned to this
team or volunteered, I explicitly
commit myself to the team.
I recognize that I can achieve my
own personal goals by ensuring the
team’s success.
I gain from the power of individuals
working together and cannot
succeed ethically if the team fails.”
#1: There’s No “I” in team
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
My contribution is value, speed,
and passion:
“Our obligation is to complete our
project as quickly and as inexpensively
as practicable, without inadvertent
reduction in expected customer value.
The right speed is its own risk
management function.
I define the value of my work in terms
of its outcomes satisfies this
customer’s needs.”
#2: Deliver Value: Fast &
Furious
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
I will embrace and nurture the
dream.
“Our team must have a mutually compatible
and shared idea of its end goal, which is our
‘shared vision of success’.
I undertake the non-trivial effort to help
establish, protect, and nurture this shared
vision that is actionable and tangible, and to
continuously validate their understanding
with mine.
I will help set the team up for success to put
the team literally ‘on the same page’.”
#3: Share the Dream
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
I am not a job title, a deliverable,
or a process.
“My title or departmentally mandated
deliverables do not dictate how I
contribute to the team.
At all times I will be ready and flexible
to support the team in different roles as
the need may arise.”
#4: Do Your Job, But Don’t
Get in the Way
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
I embrace a cult of accountability.
“I will fulfill my accountabilities in
conjunction with my teammates.
I will proactively help to identify
deliverables that have no owner.
I will be flexible in terms of what I might
be asked to hand off or take on as
situations change.”
#5: Demand Accountability
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
I will leave footprints.
“Our team must create a persistent
record of project outcomes that
includes project reports, decisions, and
deliverables.
I will perform this necessary work as
accurately and efficiently as possible.”
#6: Leave Footprints
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
When beneficial, I will
respectfully and
appropriately disrupt.
“I will surface and help resolve
disagreements within the team
about a situation, direction,
decision or outcome as rapidly
as possible, and in a
constructive and respectful
way that creates lasting
harmony. “
#7: Disrupt Respectfully
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
I will undermine bureaucracy
when I can, and cooperate
when I have to.
“If a process does not add value, I
will eliminate if I can and perform it
without complaint if I can’t.
I will work to ensure that such
processes don’t interfere with the
execution of my teammates’ tasks.”
#8: Undermine Bureaucracy
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
I will strive to be awesome.
“I will strive to infuse a sense of
‘awesomeness’ into every aspect of
my team’s work and to help my
teammates to be awesome,
meaning achieving the highest
possible quality within project
constraints.”
#9: Practice Awesomization
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
Bonus Slides
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016
Bonus #1: Additional
Principles #10: I will build and reinforce the
team as personnel changes.
“As a member of a team that is
valuable I have a moral obligation to
keep the team healthy and to maintain
its value over time.
When we make changes to the team’s
membership, I will actively participate in
discussing the role or “position” within
the team, reviewing resumes, or and
engaging in interviews and orientation.”
#11: I will support every effort to
improve the team’s environment.
“I recognize that the team’s working
environment has a significant impact on
the awesomeness of team
performance.
I will surface environmental concerns in
a solution-oriented way and will not
‘suffer in silence’.”
adamonprojects.com – Nine Principles 23rd May, 2016