The Challenges of Project Learning and Three Levels of Cooperation

The philosopher George Santayana said, "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.



"This is sometimes referred to as Santayana's Law of Repetitive Consequences; and is nowhere more evident than in project based work. It's been said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. The increasing pace of change in the workplace often makes it difficult to learn from experience as processes and personnel are constantly changing.



In my opinion, to successfully learn from experience requires a regular and consistent approach that can be incorporated into any work management methodology. Here are a few suggestions to help any project team learn from experience:



• Establish a venue for sharing lessons-learned: It doesn't matter whether you call it a post-mortem, a project review, or a project retrospective, most organizations don't do them—but they should.



• Share what has been learned: Although most organizations don't bother with a project retrospective, those that do don't always create an environment that encourages real learning—and even fewer share what was learned.



• Don't make learning the next corporate initiative: It's natural for organizations to try to formalize the learning process into the next corporate project. Although the natural learning process should be encouraged, "corporate" is all to often the same as "bureaucratic," which employees will be more likely to avoid.



• Don't make learning a one-time activity: Project learning should be ongoing and interactive—don't let it become an isolated activity that happens rarely.



Every organization has different needs. Some rely on their project software to help facilitate the learning process. I think that's good, but even organizations that don't use any specific project management tools need to create an environment where project learning can regularly take place…



Three Levels of Cooperation



I think it's universally accepted that collaboration and cooperation are critical to the success of project based work. That being said, how should organizations define cooperation success and how do they achieve it? In an article written by Sue Dyer for Projects@Work, she suggests three levels of cooperation:



1. Cooperation



2. Collaboration



3. Co-Creation



"These three levels of cooperation are available to all teams," writes Dyer. Let's talk about her five suggestions for pushing cooperation to the next level.



Tip #1: Clarifying Roles and Responsibilities



Successful cooperation depends on clearly defining what you are trying to accomplish. It's easy to make assignments and hold each other accountable for whether or not specific tasks are completed, but cooperation can only happen if everyone understands the vision of what they are doing "together."



Tip #2: Commit to Being Fair



The foundation of trust in any kind of strategic partnership or cooperative effort is a commitment to being fair. Successful project management cooperation requires that team members have confidence that they will be treated fairly. When that atmosphere exists, cooperation and synergy really begins.



Tip #3: Get Off Your Butts



Objectives might not always be easy. If all you ever hear is, "yes, but," you're team is defeated before you've even begun. This can make the team adversarial—the opposite of cooperative. Take time to find out why there is push-back and work together to find a solution. Cooperation implies working together to overcome obstacles. Saying, "Just make it happen," doesn't just make it happen.



Tip #4: Create Accountability



Dyer recommends some kind of a scorecard for offering anonymous feedback, so team members can see where they stand with each other and on the objectives. I prefer making expectations clear in the beginning (see Tip #1), and regularly evaluating progress against the objectives. Of course, sometimes situations change which will require objectives to be adjusted. Regular and productive communication and collaboration will make this a seamless process.



Tip #5: Plan For Disagreements



Regardless of your particular work management plan, nothing ever seems to go exactly as planned—and people don't always get along. Creating a conflict resolution plan before conflicts exist makes dealing with issues among team members easier to resolve.



Creating an atmosphere of cooperation, collaboration, and co-creation doesn't just happen. It takes some elbow grease. I'd love to hear about successes you've experienced in this regard.



About this Author: As an "accidental" project manager and marketing veteran with over 25 years of experience, Ty Kiisel makes the concepts and best practices of web-based project management accessible to both the expert and novice project professional by weaving personal experiences, historical references and other anecdotes into daily discussions around effective leadership approaches that maximize the effectiveness of project teams. Ty is also the host of the popular podcast, TalkingWork.com.