PMP People — Leading Projects Practice Question
Your project uses a hybrid approach. The team has been working remotely for six months, and you notice a decline in collaboration and an increase in misunderstandings. What is the BEST action to improve team cohesion?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently choose Option A (increase status meetings) because they mistake information sharing for collaboration, failing to recognize that misunderstandings in remote teams are typically due to lack of social bonding and non-verbal cues, not insufficient updates.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Organize virtual team-building activities and encourage video calls for key meetings
Virtual team-building activities and encouraging video calls directly address the root cause of declining collaboration and misunderstandings in a remote team. Video calls enhance non-verbal communication cues and social presence, which are critical for building trust and reducing ambiguity in a hybrid project environment. This aligns with the PMBOK Guide's emphasis on developing the team and using virtual collaboration tools to foster cohesion.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Increase the frequency of status meetings
Why it's wrong here
Increasing status meeting frequency primarily focuses on information dissemination rather than fostering interactive collaboration or building rapport. While useful for providing updates, more meetings can lead to 'meeting fatigue,' reducing productive work time and failing to address the underlying need for stronger interpersonal connections and informal communication crucial in a hybrid environment. This approach often prioritizes reporting over genuine team engagement.
- ✓
Organize virtual team-building activities and encourage video calls for key meetings
Why this is correct
Organizing virtual team-building activities directly addresses the need for social interaction and rapport-building, which are often diminished in hybrid settings. Encouraging video calls for key meetings enhances communication richness by allowing participants to observe non-verbal cues, thereby reducing misunderstandings and fostering a stronger sense of presence and connection among team members. These actions proactively build psychological safety and cohesion, essential for effective hybrid teamwork.
- ✗
Request that team members relocate to a central office for the remainder of the project
Why it's wrong here
Requesting team members relocate to a central office is a drastic and often impractical solution that ignores the benefits and realities of hybrid work models. Such a mandate could significantly decrease team morale, increase project costs due to relocation expenses, and potentially lead to key team members leaving the project or organization. It fails to leverage the advantages of a distributed team and does not address how to improve collaboration within the existing hybrid structure.
- ✗
Send a detailed communication protocol to all team members
Why it's wrong here
While a detailed communication protocol is essential for establishing clear guidelines on *how* and *when* to communicate, it primarily addresses formal communication channels and procedures. This structured approach does not inherently cultivate the informal interactions, trust, or empathy necessary for deep interpersonal connections and robust team collaboration. A protocol defines rules, but it doesn't build relationships or foster the psychological safety required for effective teamwork.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PMP practice question is part of Courseiva's free PMI certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the PMP exam.