PMP · Question #870
A new project team has formed, and the project manager notices that some of the team members do not feel comfortable being part of the project team. As a result, members of the team are working indivi
The correct answer is A. Facilitate a team building meeting to help this issue.. To address team members not feeling comfortable and working individually, the project manager should facilitate a team-building meeting to foster cohesion, establish trust, and encourage collaborative working within the newly formed team.
Question
A new project team has formed, and the project manager notices that some of the team members do not feel comfortable being part of the project team. As a result, members of the team are working individually and not as a team. What should the project manager do to resolve this?
Options
- AFacilitate a team building meeting to help this issue.
- BAllow the team members to remain in their former individual roles.
- CDirectly guide the team members on how to perform their tasks.
- DWait until some iterations are completed to intervene.
How the community answered
(57 responses)- A79% (45)
- B12% (7)
- C4% (2)
- D5% (3)
Why each option
To address team members not feeling comfortable and working individually, the project manager should facilitate a team-building meeting to foster cohesion, establish trust, and encourage collaborative working within the newly formed team.
When a new team is forming and members are uncomfortable or working individually, it indicates a lack of cohesion and trust. Facilitating a team-building meeting is a classic and effective strategy to help team members get to know each other, build rapport, establish shared goals, and start working together as a cohesive unit.
Allowing team members to continue working individually goes against the objective of forming a project *team* and will hinder collaboration, knowledge sharing, and overall project performance.
Directly guiding team members on tasks is a different function (directing or coaching) and does not address the underlying issue of discomfort and lack of team cohesion.
Waiting to intervene might allow the negative behaviors and discomfort to become entrenched, making it harder to build a cohesive team later and potentially impacting early project progress.
Concept tested: Team building and development
Source: https://www.pmi.org/pmbok-guide-standards/foundational/pmbok/develop-team
Topics
Community Discussion
5
Wesley A.Mar 25, 2026Failed my first attempt partly because I overthought questions like this. The answer is A, facilitate a team building meeting to help this issue. The scenario describes Tuckman's forming stage where people naturally feel uncomfortable and work individually instead of as a group. B and D are trap answers that sound reasonable but really just let the problem fester, and C is too directive for what is a people issue, not a task issue. The PM needs to actively build trust and cohesion, and a team building session directly addresses that discomfort.
Orla P.Mar 11, 2026A on my exam last June. Saw this exact Tuckman storming scenario, team building is always the fix.
Anjali D.Mar 6, 2026A. Saw this on my exam last month and the group consensus is pretty unanimous here, though a couple folks in our study thread argued for C because it sounds proactive. A is the PMI answer though, team discomfort early on is a forming stage issue and you address it with team building, not task direction.
Wesley A.Mar 8, 2026Agree on A, and I would add that C is the trap that got me on my first attempt because "proactive" sounds right until you realize pushing task direction during forming just creates more friction.
Zlatan X.Mar 21, 2026A is the call here. From a program governance lens, a component team that never moves past individual execution threatens benefits realization across the broader portfolio, so the PM has to intervene early with a team-building session rather than wait. D is the tempting trap because agile thinking says let the team self-organize, but self-organization presupposes a baseline of trust that clearly does not exist yet. C might feel productive but micro-managing task execution just entrenches the silo behavior you are trying to break down.