Replace Team Members

In a project of any duration team members come and go. This is natural. You cannot afford to plan for the transition of the team members. Let’s divide this discussion into two parts—the departing team member and the new team member.

Assume that all team members will be leaving. This means that you must make an effort as a manager to ensure that there is a capture of information and knowledge from the departing team member to the rest of the team. If you have organized many of the tasks as joint, this is less of a burden since there is some degree of backup. Have team members present their work in team meetings on a regular basis. Since this becomes routine, it is non-threatening to the people. They don’t feel singled out for attention.

Another guideline is to state to the team that some of them will likely be pulled from the project for other work. Indicate that you expect and anticipate this. Also, indicate that you expect them to keep the project leaders apprised of potential developments that would take them from the project. Keep an early warning system by staying in touch with the team members.

Now let’s assume that a team member is leaving within two weeks and that they have been working mainly alone. What steps should you take?

Taking these steps will provide a number of benefits. First, you show that you care about the well being of the team members. This will help with the remaining members of the team. Second, you show that you have an organized approach for dealing with transition.

Now let’s turn to the problem of getting someone to replace the departing team member. Here you want to follow an organized approach. Here are some useful steps.

• Step 1: Review the project plan and the work to date.

• Step 2: Identify the open issues and problem areas that you have. Also, review and update the tables related to skills that you developed earlier in this chapter. These two actions will help to give you a better idea of what type of person you need. In general, you don’t want to replace someone with someone who is like the departing person.

• Step 3: Create a small list of characteristics and experience that you think would be most suitable for the project.

After you have carried out these two steps, you have a better idea of what would be most useful to assist the project. Next, you will have to approach either headquarters or local managers to get a new team member. Don’t present the situation as a problem. Instead, present it as an opportunity to involve more people in the project. Also, indicate that you support their reassignment since there is other important work to be done. Point out the areas where the project could most use additional help. Show them the list from Step 3 above. Don’t insist on getting a specific person unless there is one person who is absolutely critical. Instead, make suggestions of other people.

Now let’s assume that you have a new team member that has been assigned to the project. Pursue these actions:

This last action is important because it gets them involved in the project. Your objective is to several-fold. First, you want to obtain an assessment that this is the right person for the work. Second, you want to get them involved and committed to the project.

After reviewing their plan for their work, have them introduced to the project team in a project meeting. Get them to discuss their background and lessons learned from past projects. Next, assign some of their tasks jointly. This has several benefits. First, it gets collaboration going right away for them. Second, the current team members will probably get back to you on what they think of their skills—not bad information to have.