{"id":18183,"date":"2026-10-15T19:07:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T19:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/4result.be\/2026\/10\/15\/a-project-team-also-needs-its-golden-weeks\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T20:41:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T20:41:12","slug":"a-project-team-also-needs-its-golden-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/4result.be\/en\/2026\/10\/15\/a-project-team-also-needs-its-golden-weeks\/","title":{"rendered":"A project team also needs its Golden Weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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A project team also needs its Golden Weeks<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Why the first weeks are decisive for a high-performing project team<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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September is over. Consequently, the first month of school is also over. Last week, I received the newsletter from our children’s school in my inbox. <\/p>

It contained a piece about the first weeks of the new school year. At school, they call that period the Golden Weeks<\/strong>. <\/p>

During those first weeks, teachers consciously devote extra attention to connection and group formation. Children get to know their place in the group. They learn to collaborate, make agreements, and practice routines. Work is done on independence and responsibility. The goal is to create a classroom where children feel safe, know what is expected of them, and dare to help one another. Only then is there room to learn and grow effectively.<\/strong><\/p>

I lingered on that passage.<\/p>

Perhaps because I worked as a project manager myself for more than 10 years. Because, in fact, the parallel with project teams is remarkably strong. <\/p>

We start a project. Do we then also have a team? <\/strong><\/h3>

At the start of a new project, we bring a number of people together.<\/p>

We look for the right expertise. We define the scope. We create a schedule. Roles are assigned, milestones established, and the first meetings appear on the calendar. <\/p>

Subsequently, we call that group of people a project team.<\/p>

However: are they actually a team at that moment?<\/p>

Often, these people hardly know each other. Sometimes they have never even worked together. Moreover, in many projects, the team consists of people from different organizations. A few colleagues from your own organization, some people from the client, and perhaps an external partner. <\/p>

Everyone brings their own expertise, but also their own expectations, interests, way of working, and background. So, you have placed a group of competent people around the table. The ability to perform together as a team still needs to grow. <\/p>

That idea is not new, by the way. As early as 1965, Tuckman described how groups develop through forming, storming, norming<\/em>, and performing<\/em>. His model primarily shows that a group needs time and interaction to reach a phase where roles and relationships are sufficiently developed to focus fully on the task. <\/p>

And yet, an organization often expects a temporary project team to perform from day one.<\/p>

Perhaps every project team needs its own Golden Weeks<\/strong><\/h3>

That brought me back to that newsletter.<\/p>

Our school finds it logical to consciously invest time in group formation at the beginning of the year. The teacher does not just start with the curriculum. He or she also works on the conditions in which those children must learn together for the rest of the year. <\/p>

Why wouldn’t we do the same for a new project?<\/p>

I believe there is an important role there for the project manager.<\/p>

As a project manager, you are responsible for planning, budget, scope, and progress. Of course. But you also have a temporary team in front of you every time that must deliver results together in a relatively short period. <\/p>

In that case, to me, you are also a team builder<\/strong>.<\/p>

And that requires different skills than maintaining a good action list.<\/p>

Teambuilding starts before there are problems<\/strong><\/h3>

The word itself says it: team-building<\/strong>. Building a team. <\/p>

Yet, I often see teambuilding appear in organizations at a different time.<\/p>

A team gets stuck. There are frustrations. People do not hold each other accountable enough. Silos emerge. Trust is dented. And then the question arises: “Should we do something with teambuilding?<\/em>” <\/p>

In our training courses, we often use the expression: trust arrives on foot and leaves on horseback.<\/strong> That is why the beginning is so important.<\/p>

When a temporary project team is assembled, you have a unique period in which habits, relationships, and expectations are still being formed. That is the moment to let people truly get to know each other and gain experiences together. <\/p>

And by that, I mean more than a round of: “I am Dorien, this is my role, and this is my expertise.”<\/em><\/p>

As a team member, I also want to know: What are you truly good at? What do you sometimes struggle with? When should we call on you? What do you need others for? How do you like to work? What do you expect from me? What do you do when something goes wrong? <\/p>

For me, that is where complementary collaboration begins.<\/p>

Research into project teams points to the importance of that start. Ericksen and Dyer compared high- and low-performing project teams and found differences in the way teams were mobilized and launched. The better-performing teams started faster, used a broader approach in their mobilization, and had more participatory kick-offs. <\/p>

The start of a project is therefore not lost time before the “real work” begins.<\/p>

It is<\/strong> part of the real work.<\/p>

What should a project manager do then?<\/strong><\/h3>

At the start of a project, I would consider at least five things.<\/p>

  1. Zorg dat mensen elkaar leren kennen<\/strong><\/h4><\/li><\/ol>

    A new project team does not start as a team, but as a group of individuals. Therefore, take time to get to know each other’s expertise, experience, strengths, pitfalls, expectations, and preferred ways of working. This way, you discover not only what everyone brings to the table, but also where complementarities lie and where there might still be blind spots or gaps in the team. <\/p>

    Research into project teams shows, for example, that familiarity between team members is linked to better performance. In a study of software project teams, previous shared work experience was even more consistently linked to performance than the individual experience of team members themselves. <\/p>

    I find that interesting.<\/p>

    When assembling teams, we pay a lot of attention to the question: Do we have the best people on board?<\/em><\/p>

    Perhaps we should pay just as much attention to: How do we ensure these people can work well together?<\/em><\/p>

    1. Verbind het team met de opdracht<\/strong><\/h4><\/li><\/ol>

      A project usually consists of individual tasks. But a project result is not a collection of checked-off tasks. <\/p>

      People need to understand what they are trying to achieve together, what their contribution is, and where they need each other.<\/p>

      For a project manager, very concrete questions are linked to this: Does everyone know what is expected of them? Do people know how decisions are made? Is it clear who is responsible for what? Does everyone understand what their contribution means for the final result?<\/strong><\/p>

      1. Bouw aan veiligheid om problemen vroeg op tafel te krijgen<\/strong><\/h4><\/li><\/ol>

        In a project, things go wrong. That is almost inevitable. The important question is what happens next. <\/p>

        Does someone dare to say during a meeting: “I don’t actually understand this”?<\/em><\/p>

        Can someone indicate: “I’m not going to make my deadline”<\/em>?<\/p>

        Can someone question a decision made by the project manager or the client?<\/p>

        Can you say: “This was my mistake”?<\/em><\/p>

        Amy Edmondson calls this psychological safety<\/strong>: the shared belief that the team is safe enough to take interpersonal risks. Her research with 51 work teams showed a link between psychological safety and learning behavior, where that learning behavior was subsequently linked to team performance. <\/p>

        I find that particularly relevant for projects.<\/p>

        A mistake that is brought to the table quickly can be investigated and corrected. A mistake that is hidden for weeks because someone is afraid of the reaction can become extremely expensive. <\/p>

        A good project team must therefore be able to quickly enter a cycle of trying, identifying mistakes, discussing, learning, and adjusting.<\/p>

        1. Maak samen de spelregels<\/strong><\/h4><\/li><\/ol>

          Here again, I found the comparison with our school interesting.<\/p>

          During their Golden Weeks, they also work on routines. Clarity and predictability help children to function more independently. <\/p>

          I believe that applies equally to teams.<\/p>

          How do we communicate? When is something urgent? Where do we record decisions? How do we hold each other accountable? What do we do when someone does not keep an agreement? Who is allowed to make which decisions? When do we escalate something? <\/strong><\/p>

          Good teams do not just agree on how they work together. They also agree on what they expect from each other and how they address one another when those expectations are not met. This makes a team more independent. <\/p>

          1. Sta stil bij vertrek of start van een nieuwe persoon in het team<\/strong><\/h4><\/li><\/ol>

            Someone leaves, someone new joins. These are important moments to reflect on together with the team. The team\u2014as it was\u2014no longer exists. New dynamics emerge with departure and entry, so as a project manager, you must create momentum for this to ensure that brief attention is again given to team-building, to agreements and collaboration, and to looking at complementarity. <\/p>

            And then that weekly status meeting…<\/strong><\/h3>

            In my years as a project manager, I have often enough heard the joke: “What does a project manager actually do, besides organizing meetings?”<\/em><\/p>

            There is an uncomfortable kernel of truth in that.<\/p>

            In many projects, an enormous amount of time is spent on status meetings. We open the action list. We go through the actions person by person. <\/p>

            • Have you done this?<\/li>
            • When will that be ready?<\/li>
            • What is the status?<\/li>
            • Next point.<\/li><\/ul>

              A week later, we do the same thing again.<\/p>

              When people only come to such a meeting to report their status to the project manager, the group is likely not yet truly functioning as a team.<\/p>

              We need consultation, of course. Especially in complex projects. But consultation can be much more than control. A good project meeting helps the team make decisions, make problems visible early, learn from each other, discuss dependencies, and ask for help. <\/p>

              For me, that is where an important difference lies.<\/p>

              Also plan an initial assessment moment<\/strong><\/h3>

              Our children’s school does something else during those Golden Weeks that I would like to bring to project teams.<\/p>

              After a few weeks, an assessment moment<\/strong> follows.<\/p>

              Where does this class group stand? What is going well? Where are the challenges? What does this group need? What does the teacher need? <\/strong><\/p>

              Subsequently, they determine what support is needed. Not every class automatically receives the same approach. <\/p>

              Why wouldn’t we do that more often with project teams?<\/p>

              For example, consciously plan a team discussion a few weeks after the kick-off:<\/p>

              • How are we currently working together?<\/li>
              • What is going well?<\/li>
              • Where are we losing energy?<\/li>
              • What remains unsaid?<\/li>
              • Are roles and expectations sufficiently clear?<\/li>
              • Where do we need each other more?<\/li>
              • What do we need to adjust to function better as a team?<\/li><\/ul>

                For me, that too is part of project management.<\/p>

                So perhaps we should start projects differently<\/strong><\/h3>

                I find it beautiful that a newsletter from the primary school has once again made me think about my years in project management.<\/p>

                At the start of the school year, children are consciously given time to turn a class into a group.<\/p>

                Project teams are not actually that different in that regard. They too need time to align expectations, build trust, and develop effective ways of working together. <\/p>

                So when you start a new project soon, I would put one more question on the kick-off agenda, alongside scope, timing, budget, resources, and deliverables:<\/p>

                What does this group of people need to become a real team as quickly as possible?<\/strong><\/p>

                Perhaps those are the Golden Weeks of every project.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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                \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"dorienhouben\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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                Author: Dorien Houben<\/p>

                Publication date: October 15, 2026<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                A project team also needs its Golden Weeks Why the first weeks are decisive for a high-performing project team September is over. Consequently, the first month of school is also over. Last week, I received the newsletter from our children’s school in my inbox. It contained a piece about the first weeks of the new school year. At school, they call that period the Golden Weeks. During those first weeks, teachers consciously devote extra attention to connection and group formation. Children get to know their place in the group. They learn to collaborate, make agreements, and practice routines. Work is done on independence and responsibility. The goal is to create a classroom where children feel safe, know what is expected of them, and dare to help one another. Only then is there room to learn and grow effectively. I lingered on that passage. Perhaps because I worked as a project manager myself for more than 10 years. Because, in fact, the parallel with project teams is remarkably strong. We start a project. Do we then also have a team? At the start of a new project, we bring a number of people together. We look for the right expertise. We define the scope. We create a schedule. Roles are assigned, milestones established, and the first meetings appear on the calendar. Subsequently, we call that group of people a project team. However: are they actually a team at that moment? Often, these people hardly know each other. Sometimes they have never even worked together. Moreover, in many projects, the team consists of people from different organizations. A few colleagues from your own organization, some people from the client, and perhaps an external partner. Everyone brings their own expertise, but also their own expectations, interests, way of working, and background. So, you have placed a group of competent people around the table. The ability to perform together as a team still needs to grow. That idea is not new, by the way. As early as 1965, Tuckman described how groups develop through forming, storming, norming, and performing. His model primarily shows that a group needs time and interaction to reach a phase where roles and relationships are sufficiently developed to focus fully on the task. And yet, an organization often expects a temporary project team to perform from day one. Perhaps every project team needs its own Golden Weeks That brought me back to that newsletter. Our school finds it logical to consciously invest time in group formation at the beginning of the year. The teacher does not just start with the curriculum. He or she also works on the conditions in which those children must learn together for the rest of the year. Why wouldn’t we do the same for a new project? I believe there is an important role there for the project manager. As a project manager, you are responsible for planning, budget, scope, and progress. Of course. But you also have a temporary team in front of you every time that must deliver results together in a relatively short period. In that case, to me, you are also a team builder. And that requires different skills than maintaining a good action list. Teambuilding starts before there are problems The word itself says it: team-building. Building a team. Yet, I often see teambuilding appear in organizations at a different time. A team gets stuck. There are frustrations. People do not hold each other accountable enough. Silos emerge. Trust is dented. And then the question arises: “Should we do something with teambuilding?” In our training courses, we often use the expression: trust arrives on foot and leaves on horseback. That is why the beginning is so important. When a temporary project team is assembled, you have a unique period in which habits, relationships, and expectations are still being formed. That is the moment to let people truly get to know each other and gain experiences together. And by that, I mean more than a round of: “I am Dorien, this is my role, and this is my expertise.” As a team member, I also want to know: What are you truly good at? What do you sometimes struggle with? When should we call on you? What do you need others for? How do you like to work? What do you expect from me? What do you do when something goes wrong? For me, that is where complementary collaboration begins. Research into project teams points to the importance of that start. Ericksen and Dyer compared high- and low-performing project teams and found differences in the way teams were mobilized and launched. The better-performing teams started faster, used a broader approach in their mobilization, and had more participatory kick-offs. The start of a project is therefore not lost time before the “real work” begins. It is part of the real work. What should a project manager do then? At the start of a project, I would consider at least five things. Zorg dat mensen elkaar leren kennen A new project team does not start as a team, but as a group of individuals. Therefore, take time to get to know each other’s expertise, experience, strengths, pitfalls, expectations, and preferred ways of working. This way, you discover not only what everyone brings to the table, but also where complementarities lie and where there might still be blind spots or gaps in the team. Research into project teams shows, for example, that familiarity between team members is linked to better performance. In a study of software project teams, previous shared work experience was even more consistently linked to performance than the individual experience of team members themselves. I find that interesting. When assembling teams, we pay a lot of attention to the question: Do we have the best people on board? Perhaps we should pay just as much attention to: How do we ensure these people can work well together? Verbind het team met de opdracht A project usually consists of individual tasks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_templately_pack_id":"","_templately_imported_at":"","_templately_source":"","_templately_import_session_id":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[96,94],"tags":[131,110,71,128,129,130],"class_list":["post-18183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership","category-team-development","tag-golden-weeks","tag-leadership-4","tag-leadership","tag-project-management","tag-project-team","tag-teambuilding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/4result.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/4result.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/4result.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4result.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4result.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18183"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/4result.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18202,"href":"https:\/\/4result.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18183\/revisions\/18202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4result.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/4result.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4result.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/4result.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}