The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.
Theodore Roosevelt, former US president.
One of the biggest differences between implementing individual projects and implementing team projects is the interaction between different personalities within the team. Some teams have a great balance of personalities and skills, but nearly all teams will need the assistance and support of people outside the team at some point. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your team, and where you can get external support from, will improve your chances of success. As you can see in the team support model shown in figure 12.1, the four key support roles for a team are: advisers, buddies, assistants and champions.
Let’s look at an inspiring team that came together for a significant project, and then examine how these four roles worked.
Figure 12.1: team support model
On Saturday 7 February 2009 the state of Victoria suffered its worst natural disaster, a bushfire that became known as Black Saturday. The temperature was 46°C, and there were very high winds, reaching in excess of 100 kilometres per hour. The state had experienced an intense heat wave and almost two months of little or no rain on top of a decade of drought. There were more than 400 fire incidents ...
