Projects are frequently accomplished through the work of a team. To insure a successful outcome, team members’ discus a variety of aspects to insure the best possible outcome. Yet it’s often the things that don’t get talked about that create the most damage and nowhere is that more true than on project teams.

I came across a study that claimed that less than one in five project leaders effectively engage in the critical conversations needed to solve the problems that most often derail projects. And there is a big difference between speaking up and speaking up well.

The critical areas that derail a team’s success that need to be discussed include:

• Plans pulled from thin air – A project that has resource limits and deadlines set with no consideration for reality. Someone decided the end result without any consideration about what was actually possible. They pulled the goal magically from thin air!

• Invisible sponsors – Leaders who fail to provide any leadership, political clout, time, political cover, energy or interest in seeing a project through to completion.

• Going around - People work around the priority-setting process (if there is one) and no one holds them accountable for doing so.

• Dare silently - Neither the leader nor any of the team members admit that there are problems with a project. Everyone waits for ‘someone else to speak up.

• Absent membership - Team members are unwilling or unable to support the project, and the leaders are unwilling to talk about their failures candidly.

If you want to buck the trend and talk effectively about these issues, try the following:

• Don’t water down your concerns. You want to really air the issue and not hide it from view.

• Use phrasing that minimizes people’s defensiveness. Talk about what is wrong, and how things can be improved or corrected rather than why or who should be blamed.

• Create an environment conducive to holding these difficult conversations. Repeatedly send a very clear and public message that these conversations are critical to the team’s success and that those who initiate them are highly valued. Those who take a chance on the new behavior or bringing up a difficult topic should be seen as modeling desired behaviors.

Speaking up well is a skill that can be learned, practiced and reinforced. Critical conversations don’t derail team success – they insure it.

Joni Daniels is Principal of Daniels & Associates, a management training and development consulting practice that specializes in developing human resources in the areas of leadership and management training, interpersonal effectiveness and efficiency, skill- building, and organizational development interventions. With over 25 years of experience, she is a sought after resource for Fortune 500 clients, professional organizations, higher education, media outlets and business publications. Joni can be reached at http://jonidaniels.com