Different Approaches in The Wisdom of Teams

Jon R. Katzenbach is a director of McKinsey & Company, Inc., where he has served the senior executives of leading companies for over cardinal years. His experience includes wager with both public and private sector clients from the industrial, financial, and consumer industries. He has also served a variety of nonprofit institutions. He specializes in issues involving incarnate governance, organization, and leading.Douglas K. Smith is a agent consultant at McKinsey & Company, Inc., who today is a leading commentator on organizational performance and change.Simply, squads outperform hatful work uping alone. This is especi each(prenominal)y true when the performance requires multiple skills, judgements, and experiences.Consultants or former consultants of large consulting firms wrote the lore of Teams. The Wisdom of Teams authors have roots at McKinsey. A consulting firm based out of Dallas Texas. The authors have spent considerable clip working with teams, studying them and atomic number 18 now using their books to impart that noesis to those seeking to form, climb and facilitate successful teams in their organizations. However, the two books apportion very different approaches.Teams argon one of the catchwords of the 90s. And with them has come an explosion of books telling us what teams are and what they are non how to create them, card them, economic consumption them and empower them. A new vocabulary has emerged that distinguishes work groups from work teams, and self-directed teams from all other teams.Some of the essential lessons learned well-nigh teams and team performance are Teams do non arise without a perforce challenge that is meaningful to those involved. original teams results result be greater if the leaders aim their sights on preference. Biases toward individualism earth-closetnot interpose with the teams goals.The Wisdom of Teams presents lessons learned from the success and failure of substantial teams. The authors bas e their wisdom on personal experience along with immense interviews conducted with 50 different businesses. Katzenbach and Smiths lessons are certifyed by case studies. Real teams are the focus of the book. According to Katzenbach and Smith, a real team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a communal purpose, performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.These elements of a team purpose, performance goals, common approach to work and mutual accountability localize what teams are and how they should be managed. Teams are distinguished from work groups in that the work they perform is collective as opposed to the sum of individual contributions, leadership roles are shared, and the team does real work together that result in a specific product or service being delivered. This tubercle is important, because the focus of the book is on what teams are, what it takes to become a team and how to effect the p otential of successful teams.The authors also present useful guidelines for determining when to use a team and when to use a work group. Teams are not presented as an organizational ideal. In detail, Katzenbach and Smith encourage looking at the organizations goals and policies to determine if a team or work group is the better choice. Their bias is that teams are worth the trouble where they support organizational goals. In their view, the potential of teams is unlimited and cultivating real teams is one of the best ways of upgrading the boilersuit performance of an organization.Katzenbach and Smiths advice is simple, straightforward, and practical. They look at teams in an organizational context. Certain elements are critical to team success. The organization needs to have or develop a strong performance ethic. In other words, compelling lead purposes and performance standards need to be an important part of the organizations culture. According to Katzenbach and Smith, performa nce, not chemistry, shapes teams. Real teams emerge when the individuals in them take risks involving involution, trust, interdependence, and hard work.Making conflict constructive by developing ways to handle differences and concerns and molding them into common goals is when real teams emerge. The authors suggest achieving this by establishing urgency and pee-pee mission in teams, selecting members based on skill balance, not personality, and with opportunities to learn from each other. Establishing clear start-up rules for behavior and seizing upon a few immediate performance-oriented tasks that are gainsay but achievable also help teams develop. Spending lots of age together and giving positive feedback are key.The authors describe the senior attention team as the hardest to establish they present this as a fact of organizational life that can be addressed. Their solution start by creating a strong senior management work group and go from there. Many successful organizatio ns using teams have them. The authors are also realists. The difficulty teams may face such as lack of management direction is described with suggestions for addressing them. Finally, and maybe intimately importantly, Katzenbach and Smith are optimists. They believe that most people are able to lead.Leaders need to provide steering and give up control and most importantly believe in the team and put them first. It is that attitude, belief in the team, that is the most important trace of a leader. They conclude that a strong performance ethic leads to the followers of common performance results that benefit customers, shareholders, and employees. An overemphasis on any one field of force creates distortions that lead to turf battles and politics. Managers must demand and then relentlessly support pursuit of performance by teams. This clear simple model can easily be applied to any type of organization.All of this advice is offered plot of ground keeping jargon to a minimum. In fact, the book starts by acknowledging what we all know creating change in an organization can be difficult. Yet, The Wisdom of Teams provides simple strategies, to analyze organizational readiness, and alternatives that will get your organization juxtaposed to a real team environment. It outlines the basics elements of team and then offers techniques for glutinous to them to achieve success. You do not need to be a attend consultant to make teams work in Katzenbach and Smiths world. In addition, this is the books greatest strength. art object the advice offered is good, the book could be much more concise and easier to read. Many of the points are redundant. This is a good book for the beginner, who wants to understand the issues.