I umpire social sport on a Thursday evening. This week, I had to call time and provide a verbal warning to both teams for the manner of their play (i.e. player safety was threatened). Later I reflected on how the game got to that point and how the experience could translate for poor behaviour by project team participants.
The game was a final. But it was still social sport, there were no certificates, trophies or prizes - just bragging rights. The two teams playing are renown in the competition for being fierce competitors, they are great players and evenly matched in terms of skill.
The game started off competitively, but soon there were some tell tale signs of poor behaviour such as appealing to the umpire for decisions, lecturing the opposition players on “the rules” and unnecessary body contact - not yet reckless, but certainly not necessary. I changed my umpiring approach, rather than applying the advantage rule, I actively looked for penalties - and as a result I blew my whistle more and the game slowed down.
Unfortunately the underlying behaviour didn’t change, and in pursuit of the ball, unnecessary body contact escalated into reckless body contact and players started playing “the man” rather than the striving for the ball.
I blew my whistle and called Time, and delivered a short speech about player safety and the need to settling down. I also invited any player queries to be delivered after the match.
The game continued, there was less reckless body contact. I still had to blow my whistle more than I would like, for infringements that were there - but otherwise would have been advantage calls or lost in the flow of a good game. The game finished, I’ve already forgotten who won.
I didn’t want to call Time and deliver a speech about player safety, and I think often that Project Managers shy away from calling out bad behaviour, or poor team play, opting instead for more subtle reward and control mechanisms, or less subtle (but more labour intensive) micro management practices - because the project players can’t be trusted to go about the work unsupervised. Irrespective of whether a Project Manager has shied away from the conversation due to a preference to avoid conflict, failure to recognise the consequences or a hope that things will get better, without calling time, and having the conversation about standards or poor project behaviour or lack of awareness of impacts to other project players… the behaviour will not improve unless the Project Manager confronts it head on.
Its likely the Project Manager doesn’t literally have to blow the whistle on the project team, they don’t necessarily need to be directive or not listen to the project team members. But they absolutely must be authoritative in setting the standard for how the Project will continue and the standards expected. They must also be vigilant in ensuring that the standards are adhered to.
I will need to umpire these two teams again in the next competition, and I am contemplating starting the game with a player briefing - being clear about what is acceptable and what will happen for poor behaviour. Much like a good Project Manager does at her Kick Off meeting.
Photo credit Kampus Productions via pixels.com