What do you set out to achieve at the first project meeting? I’m sure you have a list which includes such things as a programme or timetable, setting up a sequence of meetings, establishing communication lines, the procedure for issuing instructions, and that sort of thing.

But how do you, at that first meeting, make sure that your project is targeted on success, not failure? It’s not just a matter of being methodical and correct in your procedures. It also has to do with the achievability of the project targets, and the way the team comes together with a commitment to mutual aims, a cohesive culture, and a will to be successful.

There are no ready-made, off-the-shelf solutions to these matters. Team-building awaydays, involving lashing oil drums together and crossing rivers, are old hat now, though they did sometimes yield a story on how the teams members naturally interact, and what roles they tended to adopt. They may even have hinted at the cultures of the parent organisations from which those members came, which may have powerful, controlling systems which limit individual agility and stifle compromise arrangements.

Project Managers have the exceptionally difficult task of understanding and acting upon such issues within a very short time period at the start of a project. They need to meet, visit, and get beneath the skin of the participating individuals -and their organisations. And, having done this, they need to form a judgement on how the team will work, and how it will respond to what is being asked of it.

This is particularly the case when teams are novated and the modified agenda of a design and build contract comes into force. Will the contrary forces of the client’s insistence on quality, and the relentless drive towards cost savings, which is central to the contractor’s business case, result in tensions, rework and even stalemate?

Part of the art of the Project Manager is to see these situations coming, and prepare the way for them, carrot and stick in place.