Building Your Project Team: Lessons from Football’s Draft Day

What are the chances the answer is already in the room?

Welcome fellow business owners, innovators and trendsetters!

Jim Cendoma here with the latest edition of the Industrial Observer newsletter!

This week I’m sharing some invaluable team building tips and insights from my 35+ years of experience building winning teams. Let’s jump right into it!

The Monumental Task of Assembling a Project Team

When faced with the monumental task of assembling a project team to tackle a complex manufacturing challenge, most of us focus on the obvious: technical expertise, timelines, and budget constraints.

There’s one crucial question which often gets overlooked—this question can make or break the entire project from the outset:

In other words, is your current team missing key skills, perspectives, or solutions? If the answer is "yes," you're in trouble from the get-go.

It’s a tough reality—the real problem comes when we stop asking this question too soon.

You have to keep pushing—keep interrogating your team's capabilities—until they start thinking critically and providing the feedback you truly need.

Let me explain through a scenario every football fan will understand: Draft Day.

The Manufacturing Project Draft: A Game of Strategy

Imagine for a moment you’re building a project team for a high-stakes manufacturing venture.

Maybe it’s the development of a new, automated assembly line, or a long-overdue plant upgrade.

Now, picture Draft Day for an NFL team.

On the surface, football and industrial project management might seem worlds apart—the principles of team building are remarkably similar.

On Draft Day, a football team’s leadership faces an intense decision-making process:

What skills are missing?

Which positions need strengthening?

Is there enough balance between offense and defense?

And most importantly, are they truly prepared to build a winning team from the players available?

Let’s apply this to your manufacturing project team.

At the end of the day, building a manufacturing project team is similar to putting together a winning football team.

Your "offense" might be the engineers who design the system, the technicians who implement it, or the strategists who set the direction.

Your "defense" could be the quality control experts, supply chain analysts, or the maintenance specialists who ensure things run smoothly long after the system is in place. Each role is essential, and missing a critical skill set could be the difference between success and failure.

Now, if you’re assembling this team and you find yourself thinking, "I already have all the answers in the room," you’re setting yourself up for failure.

Just like in football, when a coach assumes the players he already has will carry the team through the season, they’re likely in for a rude awakening when real challenges arise.

The Hidden Danger of Overconfidence

Let’s go deeper into this football analogy. On Draft Day, a coach might feel confident in their star quarterback and pass on drafting a backup.

Fast forward to the playoffs, and if the quarterback gets injured, the whole season could be on the line because all possible scenarios we overlooked.

In your manufacturing project, it’s the same potential pitfall. Overconfidence can blind you to potential gaps in your team.

Maybe you have brilliant designers. The real question is—do they understand how to navigate supply chain disruptions?

Or you’ve hired the best technical operators— do they know how to collaborate with vendors on a global scale?

These are your potential weak points—your team’s "injuries" waiting to happen if you haven’t fully accounted for them during the drafting process.

Keep Asking, Keep Challenging

You must keep asking the tough questions:

• What’s missing?

• Do we have all the perspectives we need?

• Are there any blind spots we have yet to address?

When your team begins to realize the answer is outside the room—when they admit what’s missing—this is when real growth happens.

You’ll start to get the feedback you need, whether it’s additional training, outsourcing certain functions, or bringing in a consultant to fill gaps.

Just as a football coach refines his team selection until he has the perfect blend of talent, strategy, and flexibility, you must keep refining your team until it’s equipped to handle every curve ball a complex project can throw your way.

Draft Day Success: A Balanced, Adaptive Team

On Draft Day, a successful football team does more than draft the best players—they draft the right players.

They look for versatility, endurance, and the ability to adapt under pressure.

This is exactly how you should approach building your project team.

Here’s a checklist to guide you:

• ✅ Evaluate all positions: Whether it's engineering, supply chain, quality control, or leadership, ensure every critical role is filled with the right expertise.

• ✅ Seek diverse perspectives: The best teams bring together different experiences, and innovative thinking. Innovation often comes from cross-disciplinary collaboration.

• ✅ Build in flexibility: Just like football teams need to adjust their game plan mid-game, mid-season, your project team must be able to adapt to unforeseen challenges like market fluctuations or technological changes.

• ✅ Never stop improving: A football team doesn’t stop refining after Draft Day, and neither should your project team. Encourage continuous learning, periodic reviews, and a willingness to pivot when necessary.

Actionable Team-Building Tips

Here are some actionable team-building tips to ensure you’re setting up your project team for success, whether it’s in manufacturing or any other complex field.

These tips will help ensure you are doing more than just putting a warm body in a position:

1. Identify Skills Gaps Early

Tip: Before assembling your team, create a skills matrix. Identify the technical and soft skills needed for the project and compare them to what your current team possesses. This will help you spot gaps and avoid over-reliance on any single skill set.

Why it matters: If key areas like supply chain management, quality control, or communication aren’t covered, you’ll face delays or breakdowns later.

2. Diversify Your Team's Expertise

Tip: Bring together people from different disciplines—engineers, operators, analysts, and project managers. The cross-pollination of ideas from different fields encourages innovation and prevents group-think.

Why it matters: Diverse perspectives bring creative solutions and help to see blind spots a more homogeneous group might miss.

3. Encourage Open Communication

Tip: Foster an environment where team members feel comfortable raising concerns or suggesting ideas, the more radical the ideas the better.

Regular check-ins and an open-door policy for feedback are key.

Just make sure there is a continuous informational feedback loop to ensure on-time delivery of requested deliverables.

Why it matters: Good communication helps to surface problems early, long before they become critical.

4. Set Clear Roles & Responsibilities

Tip: Clearly define each team member’s role from the start, ensuring everyone knows who is responsible for what.

Use a RACI matrix (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) to map out each member’s duties.

Why it matters: Clear roles prevent duplication of effort and confusion, which can slow down progress or lead to costly mistakes.

5. Empower Decision-Making

Tip: Give your team the autonomy to make decisions and take ownership.

When team members feel trusted and empowered, they’re more engaged and effective.

This approach parallels how successful football teams empower players to make game-time decisions. In game-day jargon, players can call an “audible” based on how the other team lines up.

Why it matters: Empowered teams act faster, adapt to changes, and feel more ownership of the project’s success.

6. Invest in Continuous Learning

Tip: Offer training and development opportunities for your team members. Whether it’s technical training or leadership coaching, up-skilling your team keeps them sharp and better prepared for unforeseen challenges.

Why it matters: Projects evolve, and new skills are often required along the way. Keeping your team ahead of the curve mitigates risk and enhances adaptability.

7. Build Resilience into the Team

Tip: Ensure your team can handle setbacks by instilling a growth mindset. Encourage members to view challenges as opportunities to learn and improve.

Why it matters: Resilient teams bounce back from failures quickly, reducing downtime and keeping projects on track.

8. Leverage External Experts When Needed

Tip: Be open and welcoming when it comes time to bring in consultants or external experts when your team finds the need to learn new critical skills for a specific phase of the project.

Outsourcing certain tasks can also be an option for non-core activities.

Why it matters: Sometimes, your internal team may need outside help—and this is okay. The key is knowing when and where to seek outside help.

9. Promote Team Accountability

Tip: Hold team members accountable for their contributions. Use metrics to measure progress and regularly review performance against expectations.

Promoting team accountability will challenge most team leaders. It has to be administered in a positive and motivational way, otherwise it could backfire.

Why it matters: Accountability drives individual and collective performance. Without it, deadlines slip, and quality suffers.

BONUS Tip. Celebrate Wins, Big and Small

Tip: Recognize achievements throughout the entire project. Whether it’s hitting a milestone, or solving a tough problem, acknowledging efforts keeps morale high and reinforces positive behaviors.

Why it matters: Recognition fosters a motivated, cohesive team driven to continue performing at their best.

Final Thoughts

A great team is more than just a collection of skilled individuals—it’s a balanced, flexible, and collaborative unit.

These tips will help ensure you’re filling all positions with MVP’s—creating a dynamic group capable of overcoming any challenge thrown their way.

Final Whistle

At the end of the day, building a manufacturing project team is similar to putting together a winning football roster.

It's all about foresight, adaptability and knowing this—with all the talent in your current lineup, there will always be weak spots.

At all times, leadership must continuously ask, "what's missing?".

One must also be aware of the paralysis by analysis trap. The key is knowing it's a journey of learning, knowledge acquisition and when to seek outside help.

Keep probing until the answers surface, and you'll be setting your team up to go beyond a successful project.

You will also create a solid foundation for resilience in the face of whatever challenges come your way.

Thanks for reading!

Stay tuned for more insights in next week’s issue of Industrial Observer.

The More You Learn, The More You Grow

In the spirit of growth and learning, here's a short quiz to help you remember the entrepreneurial lessons in this week's newsletter.

1) Why is it dangerous to assume all the answers are already in the room when assembling a project team?

2) In the newsletter, building a manufacturing team is compared to drafting a football team. What key principle do both processes share when it comes to achieving success?

3) What is the importance of continuously asking, "What’s missing?" when building your team, and how does this question impact project outcomes?

4) Why is team diversity (in terms of skills and perspectives) critical for tackling complex manufacturing projects? Give an example of how this could be beneficial.

5) In what ways does empowering your team to make decisions contribute to the overall success of the project? How does this compare to the approach taken by a football team on Draft Day?

Stay tuned to the Industrial Observer for more team building insights and other proven strategies for project success.

Need Help With Your Team Building & Optimizing Processes?

Call me! I’m always happy to explore new opportunities to help companies build successful teams and optimize processes with proven Lean Six Sigma strategies: (607) 731-9032

I’m available Mon-Fri from 10am-6pm (EST).

Or, send me a message via the contact form on my website: https://jamescendoma.com/contact/

Have solutions! Will travel!

-Jim Cendoma

About the Founder of Industrial Observer

Jim Cendoma is an innovative technology enthusiast, all around good guy, and business owner who explores the intersection of innovation and entrepreneurship. Follow his insights into business trends and innovations and learn more from his 35+ years of entrepreneurial experience by following Jim on LinkedIn. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimcendoma).

Jim has decades of experience as a customer, supplier, guest speaker, and entrepreneur. He has worked in manufacturing industries and sales all over the Northeast.

Author of the book “PEP – Profit and Extreme Performance”, Jim focuses on helping clients achieve their best-practice success through troubleshooting, networking, and consulting.

Find him at www.jamescendoma.com or pick up the phone and give him a call: (607) 731-9032

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