Establish a set of ground rules that you will use during the project to manage team interactions.

The Sedona Management Group (SMG) recognizes the importance of teamwork in the successful completion of projects. Tim Turnpaugh also believes in building a project team based on both the skills and diversity in background of the project team members. To Turnpaugh, diversity in background adds fresh ideas that can enhance the quality of SMG’s products. As an example, the chief programmer at SMG not only has the expected skills in PHP, Ajax, and MySQL, but he is also a professional jazz musician. Another member of SMG’s team, a graphic designer, was a physical therapist and an artist prior to joining the team. Turnpaugh believes that such diverse backgrounds allow people to approach problems differently, see issues from different perspectives, and in many ways, enhance the quality of the work environment. All these factors not only result in enhanced project quality but also help the team learn to “think outside the box” and build new products and services that enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.