Why Teams Don T Work

Toady's companies are fast turning to teams as a means of organising and doing work. In theory, teams increase productivity; they improve communication; they make better use of resources; they are more creative and more efficient at solving problems, they make and implement higher-quality descicions. In reality however, many companies and managers have found teams prone to problems that make them ineffective. Teams become confused about goals; they have a difficult time making descicions; individuals don't accept their roles; team members often aren't rewarded appopriately, and team leaders don't always act like one. Packed with practical questions and answers about teams, this award-winning bookidentifies the obstacles preventing teams from achieving their potential and suggests ways to remove them.

Research on small groups played an important role in the early formulation of social psychology. By the 1970s, however, the field had lost the interest of most social psychologists. Theory and Research on Small Groups reintegrates that work back into the mainstream of social psychology. The more recent `issues-oriented' approach has not only resulted in many interesting findings-it has also applied basic social psychological theory in new ways and, moreover, led to new theoretical developments that deserve more attention. This volume, which features the work of esteemed researchers from around the world, is a bountiful resource worthy of notice by all social psychologists.

Most teams underperform. Yours can beat the odds. If you read nothing else on building better teams, read these 10 articles. We’ve combed through hundreds of articles in the Harvard Business Review archive and selected the most important ones to help you assemble and steer teams that get results. Leading experts such as Jon Katzenbach, Teresa Amabile, and Tamara Erickson provide the insights and advice you need to: Boost team performance through mutual accountability Motivate large, diverse groups to tackle complex projects Increase your teams’ emotional intelligence Prevent decision deadlock Extract results from a bunch of touchy superstars Fight constructively with top-management colleagues

An organisation's fate hinges on its CEO—right? Not according to the authors of Senior Leadership Teams. They argue that in today's world of neck-snapping change, demands on leaders in top roles are rapidly outdistancing the capabilities of any one person - no matter how talented. Result? Chief executives are turning to their enterprise's senior leaders for help. Yet many CEOs stumble when creatinga leadership team. One major challenge is that senior executives often focus more on their individual roles than on the top team's shared work. Without the CEO's careful attention to setting the team up correctly, these high-powered managers often have difficulty pulling together to move their organisation forward. Sometimes they don't even agree about what constitutes the right path forward.The authors explain how to determine whether your organisation needs a senior leadership team. Then, drawing on their study of 100+ top teams from around the world, they explain how to create a clear and compelling purpose for your team, get the right people on it, provide structure and support, and sharpen team members' competencies - and your own. Timely and practical, this book enables you to create and sustain a leadership team whose members learn from one another while collaborating to pursue your company's objectives.

Based on the authors' bestselling book Why Teams Don't Work-winner of the Financial Times/Booz Allen & Hamilton Global Business Book Award as the Best Management Book of the Year in the Americas Teaches people how to be good team members and teaches team members how to be team leaders Includes seven completely new chapters as well as new and updated examples and information throughout The move to teams has largely failed, say Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley, mainly because teams themselves are failing to think through the human implications of teaming. The New Why Teams Don't Work is a handbook for team members and team leaders to maintain the highest possible level of team intelligence-the skills, attitudes, and emotional flexibility to get the most out of a team's inherent differences. Describing what teams are really like, not how they ought to be, the book teaches people how to work together to make decisions, stay in budget, and achieve team goals. Robbins and Finley show, for instance, how to get hidden agendas on the table, clarify individual roles, learn what team members expect and want from each other, choose the right decision-making process, and much more. Updated throughout, the book includes completely new material on team intelligence, team technology, collaboration vs. teamwork, team balance, teams at the top, the team of one, plus all new and updated examples.

The move to teams has largely failed, say Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley, mainly because teams themselves are failing to think through the human implications of teaming. The New Why Teams Don't Work is a handbook for team members and team leaders to maintain the highest possible level of team intelligence-the skills, attitudes, and emotional flexibility to get the most out of a team's inherent differences. Describing what teams are really like, not how they ought to be, the book teaches people how to work together to make decisions, stay in budget, and achieve team goals. Robbins and Finley show, for instance, how to get hidden agendas on the table, clarify individual roles, learn what team members expect and want from each other, choose the right decision-making process, and much more. Updated throughout, the book includes completely new material on team intelligence, team technology, collaboration vs. teamwork, team balance, teams at the top, the team of one, plus all new and updated examples.

The authors argue that the move to teams has failed because teams themselves are unaware of their own needs, conflicts, and peculiarities. This text is a handbook for team members and leaders to succeed, through recognizing what teams are really like, not what they ought to be.

Today's companies are turning to teams as a means of organizing and doing work. In theory teams increase productivity, but in reality, many teams are prone to problems. This book provides tools and insights intended to help team members and managers to make the promise of teams come true.