Building High-Performance Project Teams

About this course

Most project “teams” are working groups in costume: capable specialists, a shared kickoff pack, and no shared performance challenge. When the programme turns, the instinct is to swap out a star. The real fix is usually a team-system move.

Building High-Performance Project Teams is a practical Leadership Vault course (~2.5–3 hours) for project directors, PMs, package leads and PMC leads who assemble and lead multi-party teams on capital works. Through the Kilnarrow Viaduct Renewal case, you learn to tell a working group from a real team, run a real-team launch gate, frame a team-specific performance challenge, put one Accountable name on every interface, build vulnerability-based trust and psychological safety, and — when delivery drifts — diagnose with the Project Team Performance Model and run a mid-project reset instead of blaming individuals.

What you will learn

• Spot when a roster is still a working group, and what a launch gate must prove before day one.
• Frame a results-based performance challenge the team can recite — not a charter restatement.
• Hand down decision rights with exactly one Accountable per interface (“I intend to…”).
• Build trust and psychological safety so near-misses surface the day they happen.
• Hold peer accountability and structured collaboration when pressure rises.
• Diagnose mid-flight with the Project Team Performance Model and reset the team system, not the person.

Who should take this course?

Project directors, project managers, package leads, PMC leads and delivery leaders assembling multi-organisation teams on infrastructure and capital programmes. Working familiarity with project delivery is assumed; no prior team-science training is required.

What is not covered?

Virtual/hybrid team design, team incentives and reward systems, conflict-style instruments, detailed coaching skills, team ROI measurement, and succession after close-out. Those remain separate topics.