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You selected the most impressive and highly talented individuals to comprise the "A" team for the company's most important project. These star performers, you believe, can achieve ANYTHING! This is a sure thing.

Three months later, forget the notion of the "A" team. These folks aren't the "D" team. In fact, now that you think about it, they aren't even a team at all!

What happened? A sure-fire culprit to consider is your team’s COMPATIBILITY – or rather, its lack thereof.

It's shameful how little consideration is given to compatibility when assembling teams. Sadly, I've seen more consideration given to the compatibility of a golf foursome than to the compatibility of a project team for a $500M high profile capital project or the compatibility of two companies who are going to joint venture.

Think about it. "Let's get Joe to join our foursome Saturday", you suggest. "No, not Joe. He is so picky, taking his time with EVERYTHING! It takes five hours to play a round of golf with Joe!" "How about Sam?" your buddy asks. "Are you kidding? You know how Sam is on the golf course. He starts out fine, but once he has a bad hole, which is early in nearly EVERY round; well you know it is all downhill from there." And so it goes in the search for the compatible golfing partner for Saturday.

Is it any wonder then that golfing foursomes stick together for years? Not any wonder at all considering how crucial compatibility is. In our personal lives we search out compatibility without even thinking about it. Yet, it is often not even a serious consideration when putting together project teams. Having observed many, many projects during my career, I have come to realize that it isn't a deliberate omission on the part of project leaders, but rather that they simply don't know how crucial compatibility really is.

Compatibility is an essential ingredient for a successful team. So take a look at your teams today. Are the key team members compatible? Or do you need to make some changes so that they all have an opportunity for success?