The Fellowship of Teams: The Power of Individual and Shared Responsibilities on Projects

Editor’s note: This paper was originally presented at the 3^rd Annual UT Dallas Project Management Symposium in Richardson, Texas, USA (http://pmsymposium.utdallas.edu/) in August 2009. As Media Partner for that event, PMForum agreed to republish selected papers in PM World Today. This paper is included here with the consent of the author and permission of the Graduate Program in Project Management at The University of Texas at Dallas School of Management, who is the copyright holder of the conference proceedings. All conditions and disclaimers of the copyright holder pertain.

Introduction:

In the quest for successful project execution, today’s project managers must rely on more than their own leadership power to complete the project’s journey. As projects become complex and more virtual, it is important that project managers consider group dynamics and form a “fellowship of the team” where members embrace both individual and shared responsibility for results.

The Fellowship of the Team

The Lord of the Rings movie “The Fellowship of the Ring” contains a scene where the Council of Elrond is convened with men, wizards, elves, hobbits and dwarves¹. The council is preparing to sponsor a project of the utmost importance. The charter is to save Middle Earth from darkness and despair by destroying a magic ring in the fiery chasms of Mount Doom. Lord Elrond warns the council members that “Middle Earth stands upon the brink of destruction. None can escape it. You will unite or you will fall.”

Aragon, the reluctant leader, now has the challenge to take a group of divergent personalities and transform them into a high performing “fellowship” to successfully execute a seemly insurmountable project charter. Sound familiar?

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About the Author Wendy Overturf, PMP Author Wendy Overturf is an IT project manager within the Business IT Transformation Group at Texas Instruments, Inc, in Richardson, Texas, USA. She has over 20 years of experience in team supervision, project management, business analysis and software engineering. Wendy is also a Project Management Professional (PMP) and represents the PMI Dallas Chapter as the Registered Company Coordinator (RCC) for Texas Instruments. Wendy can be contacted at w-overturf@ti.com.

Movie: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, New Line Cinema,, 2001