The Wisdom of Teams

by Katzenbach, Jon R.

• ISBN13: 9780875843674
• ISBN10: 0875843670
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1992-11-01
• Publisher: Harvard Business School Pr

Summary

Teams are fast becoming a flexible and efficient way to enhance organizational performance. Yet today's business leaders consistently overlook opportunities to exploit their potential, confusing teams with teamwork or sharing. In this book, two senior McKinsey & Co. partners argue that we cannot meet the challenges ahead, from total quality to customer service to innovation, without teams. The authors talked with hundreds of people in more than fifty different teams in thirty companies to discover what differentiates various levels of team performance, where and how teams work best, and how to enhance their effectiveness. Among their findings: formal hierarchy is actually good for teams; successful team leaders fit no ideal profile; commitment to performance goals is more important than commitment to team-building goals; top management teams are often smaller and more difficult to sustain; and team endings can be as important to manage as team beginnings. The wisdom of teams lies in recognizing their unique potential to deliver results and in understanding their many benefits.

Author Biography

Jon R. Katzenbach is a founder of Katzenbach Partners, consultants in the areas of team, leadership, and workforce performance Douglas K. Smith is a leading consultant on organization, performance, and change

Table of Contents

Authors' Note	p. i
Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction: What We Have Learned	p. xiii
Prologue: A Note About What to Expect	p. 1
Understanding Teams	p. 9
Why Teams?	p. 11
One Team: A Story of Performance	p. 27
Team Basics: A Working Definition and Discipline	p. 43
High-Performance Teams: Very Useful Models	p. 65
Becoming A Team	p. 85
The Team Performance Curve	p. 87
Moving up the Curve: From Individual to Team Performance	p. 109
Team Leaders	p. 130
Teams, Obstacles, and Endings: Getting Unstuck	p. 149
Exploiting the Potential	p. 173
Teams and Performance: The Reinforcing Cycle	p. 175
Teams and Major Change: An Inevitable Combination	p. 195
Team Performance at the Top: A Difficult Challenge	p. 212
Top Management's Role: Leading to the High-Performance Organization	p. 239
Epilogue: A Call to Action	p. 259
The Teams Question and Answer Guide	p. 267
Teams Researched for Book	p. 297
Selected Readings	p. 305
Index	p. 308
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