Building a team is tough. That seems to be the consensus.

Which is pretty odd, when you think about it. After all, human beings are social animals; we like to form groups. So why is it that we seem to find it so hard to form a team in our projects?

The problem isn’t really with forming a team, or a group, it’s with forming the team we want. Normally, we would form social groups with people we like, and the traits and attributes that we like in those people may not necessarily be the ones we would value in a team member.

And therein lies the problem. We select project team members based on attributes other than how well they get on with the rest of the team members. This is based on the not unreasonable expectation that they will be professional enough to work with pretty much anyone.

Much of the time, when there isn’t too much pressure on the team, this works out fine. People are professional enough to just get on with their job. But where this falls apart is when you start putting pressure on the group.

At that point, tensions rise to the surface. Little irritations explode into major problems. And people who were just getting on with their job start to feel less willing to do that.

The problem is the level of commitment, of connection to the project, that a group of individuals has is much lower than that of a team. A team is working towards a common goal, and feels a duty and responsibility to each other, and to the project.

That means that when a team is put under pressure, they work together to defeat the problem, to build the solution, to find the right path to their goal. Pressure can actually help a team be more productive, not less.

Building a team, then, requires emphasising and promoting the values and goals the members share, it involves listening to them, helping them all work together. But most importantly, it involves recognising that most of the work of building a team has to come from the team members themselves.

Yes, you can help the process, facilitate it, provide an environment which makes it more likely to happen. Ultimately, though, it is as much the responsibility of your team members as it is of the project manager. Let them know the importance of this, of them, and of the team.