One of the biggest challenges project managers need to overcome is being able to influence their teams without having direct authority over each individual within their project. Frequently, project managers are tasked with overseeing cross-functional teams in order to achieve successful project results.
For this week's Application, you are tasked with managing a small cross-functional project team of 15 individuals (including yourself) in a pharmaceutical company. The team composition is:
- Pharmaceutical chemists: 3
- Pharmaceutical lab technicians: 4
- Medical doctors: 3
- Lawyers: 2
- Medical editors: 2
The project goal is to develop safety standards to be implemented by the company's engineering laboratories. The standards are scheduled to be deployed 2 months from the start of the project.
The cross-functional individuals involved in this project have different qualifications, experiences, and professional orientations. They have different, and sometimes conflicting, goals. For example, the lawyers may try to frame standards in such a way that the pharmaceutical company is immune to any lawsuit. The doctors may be concerned primarily with the health and safety of the workers. The pharmaceutical chemists and lab technicians may want to get their work done most efficiently, while the writers may want to devise standards in such a manner that they are easily understandable.
Based on the above scenario, formulate responses to the following questions:
• How will you align the interests of various individuals in the cross-functional team so that despite their professional backgrounds and possibly competing agendas, they work to complete development of the safety standards on time?
• What problems do you foresee in achieving the project goal because of the cross-functional team?
• What three benefits do you see from the behavioral standpoint for this cross-functional team?
• What are the structural and behavioral challenges in managing this cross-functional team?