Making the teaM: a guide for Managers
S i x t h E d i t i o n
Leigh L. Thompson Kellogg School of Management
Northwestern University
330 Hudson Street, NY NY 10013
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Thompson, Leigh L., author. Title: Making the team : a guide for managers / Leigh L. Thompson, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. Description: Sixth Edition. | New York : Pearson Education, 2016. | Revised edition of the author’s Making the team, [2014] Identifiers: LCCN 2016042609| ISBN 9780134484204 | ISBN 0134484207 Subjects: LCSH: Teams in the workplace. | Performance. | Leadership. | Organizational effectiveness. Classification: LCC HD66 .T478 2016 | DDC 658.4/022—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc. gov/2016042609
ISBN 10: 0-13-448420-7 ISBN 13: 978-0-13-448420-4
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For my home team: Bob, Sam, Ray, and Anna
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BRIEF CONTENTS
Part 1 Building the team 1 Chapter 1 Types of Teams 3 Chapter 2 Designing the Team 26 Chapter 3 Leading Teams 51 Chapter 4 Team Cohesion and Trust 82
Part 2 team Performance 109 Chapter 5 Performance and Productivity 111 Chapter 6 Team Communication and Collective Intelligence 133 Chapter 7 Team Decision Making 163 Chapter 8 Managing Team Conflict 196 Chapter 9 Creativity and Innovation in Teams 219
Part 3 teams in Organizations 249 Chapter 10 Subgroups and Multi-Teams 251 Chapter 11 Team Networking and Social Capital 275 Chapter 12 Virtual Teamwork 299 Chapter 13 Multicultural Teams 323
Appendix 1 Rewarding Teamwork 345 Appendix 2 Managing Meetings 361 Appendix 3 Creating Effective Study Groups 371
References 374 Name Index 434 Subject Index 449
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CONTENTS
Preface xvii
Part 1 Building the team 1
Chapter 1 tYPES OF tEaMS 3 Teams vs. Groups 4 Why Should Organizations Have Teams? 5
Information Technology 5 Competition 6 Globalization and Culture 7 Multigenerational Teams 7
Task Focus 8 Tactical Teams 8 Problem-Solving Teams 9 Creative Teams 9
Types of Team Autonomy 12 Manager-Led Teams 12 Self-Managing Teams 13 Self-Directing Teams 15 Self-Governing Teams 15
Observations About Teams and Teamwork 16 Teams Should Be the Exception, Not the Rule 16 Managers Fault the Wrong Causes for Team Failure 17 Teams Require Attention 17 Experimenting with Failures Leads to Better Teams 17 Conflict is Not Always Detrimental 18 Strong Leadership is Not Always Necessary for Strong Teams 18 Good Teams Can Still Fail Under the Wrong Circumstances 18 Retreats Will Not Fix All the Conflicts Between Team Members 19
What Leaders Tell Us About Their Teams 20 Most Common Type of Team 20 Team Size 20 Team Autonomy versus Manager Control 20 Team Longevity 20 The Most Frustrating Aspect of Teamwork 20
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vi Contents
Developing Your Team-Building Skills 22 Accurate Diagnosis of Team Problems 22 Evidence-Based Management 23 Expert Learning 24
A Warning 24 Chapter Capstone 25
Chapter 2 DESIGNING tHE tEaM 26 Team Design 27 Define the Goal 27
Ends vs. Means 27 Performance vs. Learning Goals 28 Promotion vs. Prevention Goals 29 Goal fit 29 Pre-Planning vs. On-line Planning 30 Timelines and Time Pressure 30 Capacity Problems vs. Capability Problems 32
Selecting Team Members 32 Member-Initiated Team Selection 33 Optimal Team Size 33 Skills, Talents, and Abilities 35 Roles and Responsibilities 35 Diversity 38
Processes: How to Work Together 43 Task vs. Outcome Interdependence 43 Transition and Action Processes 45 Structure 45 Norms 46 Team Coaching 48
Chapter Capstone 50
Chapter 3 LEaDING tEaMS 51 Leadership Versus Management 52 The Leadership Paradox 52 Leaders and the Nature–Nurture Debate 54
Trait Theories of Leadership 54 Incremental Theories of Leadership 57
Leadership Styles 58 Task Versus Person Leadership 59 Transactional Versus Transformational Leadership 60
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Contents vii
Autocratic Versus Democratic Leadership 62 Leader Mood 65
Expectations of Leaders 66 Implicit Leadership Theories 66 Prototypicality 66 Status & Uncertainty 66
Leader–Member Exchange 68 Attributes that Influence Differential Treatment 68 Advantages of Differential Treatment 69 Disadvantages of Differential Treatment 70
Power 70 Sources of Power 71 Power Distance 72 Using Power 73 Effects of Using Power 73
Participative Management 74 Task Delegation 77 Parallel Suggestion Involvement 77 Job Involvement 79 Organizational Involvement 79
Chapter Capstone 81
Chapter 4 tEaM COHESION aND trUSt 82 Team Identity 83
Group Entitativity 83 Group Identity 83 Identity Fusion 84 Common Identity and Common Bond Groups 84 Relational and Collective Identity 84 Self-verification vs. Group-verification 85
Team-Member Exchange 85 Group-serving Attributions 87
Group Potency and Collective Efficacy 87 Team Efficacy and Performance 87
Group Mood and Emotion 88 Group Affect and Performance 90 Emotional Contagion 90 Behavioral Entrainment 91 Emotional Nonconformity 92
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Emotional Intelligence 92 Leadership and Group Emotion 92
Group Cohesion 94 Cohesion and Team Behavior 94 Cohesion and Performance 94 Building Cohesion in Groups 95 Fear of Social Exclusion 96
Group Trust 96 Trust vs. Respect 96 Trust & Monitoring 97 Trust Congruence 98 Propensity to Trust 98 Types of Trust 98 Repairing Broken Trust 100 Psychological Safety 100
Group Socialization & Turnover 101 Group Socialization 102 Phases of Group Socialization 102 Old-timers’ Reactions to Newcomers 105 Deviant Opinions 106 Newcomer Innovation 106 Turnover and Reorganizations 107
Chapter Capstone 108
Part 2 team Performance 109
Chapter 5 PErFOrMaNCE aND PrODUCtIVItY 111 An Integrated Model of Team Performance 112 Team Context 112
Organizational Context 113 Team Design 113 Team Culture 113
Essential Conditions for Successful Team Performance 114 Expertise 115 Engagement 118 Execution 126
Performance Criteria 128 Productivity 128
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Cohesion 129 Learning 130 Integration 130
Team Performance Equation 131 Chapter Capstone 132
Chapter 6 tEaM COMMUNICatION aND COLLECtIVE INtELLIGENCE 133 Collaboration 134
Uneven Communication 134 Knowledge Specialization 135 Knowledge Sharing and Knowledge Hiding 135 Transforming Knowledge into Solutions 136 Experienced Community of Practice 136 Adaptive Capacity 137 Monitoring and Talking to the Room 137
Team Mental Models 137 Reflective vs. Reflexive Mental Models 138 Representational Gaps 138 Accuracy 139 Correspondence 140
Transactive Memory Systems 141 Centralized vs. Decentralized TMS 142 Differentiated vs. Integrated TMS 142 Tacit Coordination 143 Routine vs. Nonroutine Tasks 143 Resilience to Team Member Loss 144 Reaction to Free-Riding 144 Developing a TMS 144
Common Information Effect 148 Hidden Profile 151 Ineffective Strategies 153 Effective Interventions 154
Team Learning 158 Environment 158 Newcomers and Rotators 158 Vicarious vs. In Vivo Experience 159 Threat, Change, and Failure 159
Contents ix
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After-Action Review (AAR) 159 Routinization vs. Innovation Trade-Offs 159
Chapter Capstone 162
Chapter 7 tEaM DECISION MaKING 163 Team Decision Making 164 Individual Decision-Making Biases 164
Framing Bias 165 Overconfidence 165 Confirmation Bias 167 Decision Fatigue 168
Individual Versus Group Decision Making 168 Demonstrable versus Non-Demonstrable Tasks 168 Groups Out-Perform Individuals 168 Group to Individual Transfer 169 Minorities versus Majorities 170 Group Decision Rules 170 Refusal to Make Decisions 172
Groupthink 172 Learning from History 174 Reducing Groupthink 174
Escalation of Commitment 178 Project Determinants 180 Psychological Determinants 180 Social Determinants 181 Structural Determinants 181 Minimizing Escalation of Commitment to a Losing Course of Action 182
Abilene Paradox 183 How to Avoid the Abilene Paradox 184
Group Polarization 185 The Need to be Right 187 The Need to be Liked 187 Conformity Pressure 188
Unethical Decision Making 190 Rational Expectations Model 190 False Consensus 191 Vicarious Licensing 191 Desensitization 191
Chapter Capstone 195
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Chapter 8 MaNaGING tEaM CONFLICt 196 Relationship, Task & Process Conflict 197
Relationship Conflict 197 Task Conflict 199 Process Conflict 199 Impact on Performance 200 Personality & Conflict 202 Team Identification 202 Power & Conflict 202 Organizational Climate and Conflict 203 Global Culture and Conflict 203
Types of Conflict 204 Proportional and Perceptual Conflict 204 Conflict States vs. Conflict Processes 205 Conflict Contagion 205 Distributive vs. Procedural Conflict 205 Equity, Equality and Need 205 Minority and Majority Conflict 207 Work–Family Conflict 209 Organizational Culture Conflict 209
Conflict Management 209 Conflict Modes 209 Contingency Theory of Task Conflict and Performance in Teams 211 Investment Model of Conflict 212 Wageman and Donnenfeld’s Conflict Intervention Model 214 Interests, Rights, and Power Model of Disputing 216
Chapter Capstone 217
Chapter 9 CrEatIVItY aND INNOVatION IN tEaMS 219 Nature vs. Nurture 220 Creativity Versus Innovation 221
Convergent versus Divergent Thinking 221 Radical versus Incremental Innovation 223 Creative Realism 224 Fluency, Flexibility, and Originality 226 Exploration versus Exploitation 227
Brainstorming Versus Brainwriting 228 Brainstorming 228 Brainstorming versus Nominal Group 229
Contents xi
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Brainwriting 230 Speedstorming 231 Electronic Brainstorming 232
Threats to Team Creativity 233 Social Loafing 233 Conformity 234 Production Blocking 234 Performance Matching 235 What Goes on During a Typical Group Brainstorming Session? 236
Best Practices for Enhancing Team Creativity 236 Motivational Methods 236 Cognitive Methods 238 Facilitator-Led Methods 241 Leader and Organizational Methods 244
Chapter Capstone 247
Part 3 teams in Organizations 249
Chapter 10 SUBGrOUPS aND MULtI-tEaMS 251 Intergroup Relations 252
In-Groups and Out-Groups 252 Social Comparison 252 Team Rivalry 253 In-group Bias 254 Transgression Credit 254
Subgroups 254 Size 255 Identity, Resource, and Knowledge Subgroups 255 Number of Groups 256 Impact on Performance 256 Faultlines 257 Status 259 Deference 261 Intragroup Deviance 261
Team Boundaries 261 Underbounded versus Overbounded Teams 261 Founding Teams 262 Informing, Parading, and Probing Teams 262 X-Teams 263
xii Contents
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Teams in Matrix Organizations 264 Cross-functional Teams 264 Multi-team Systems 264 Integration Between Teams 265 Integration Across Multiple Teams and Components of a Business Unit 266
Teamwork in Reorganizations & Mergers 267 Reorganizations 267 Mergers 267
Improving Interteam Relationships 269 Perspective Taking 269 Superordinate Identity 269 Contact 270 Apology 272 Assistance and Help 273 Affirmation 273
Chapter Capstone 274
Chapter 11 tEaM NEtWOrKING aND SOCIaL CaPItaL 275 Taskwork and Teamwork 276
Taskwork vs. Teamwork 276 Taskwork and Teamwork Network Structures 276 Factors that Affect Networks 277
External Leadership 277 General vs. Differential 278
External Roles of Team Members 278 Organizational Networks 280
Sharing Knowledge 280 Insider vs. Outsider Knowledge Valuation 280 Human Capital and Social Capital 282 Boundary Spanning 284 Boundary Loosening Versus Boundary Tightening 285 Cliques Versus Entrepreneur Networks 285 Team Social Capital 287 Friendship, Trust, and Advice Ties 288 Leadership Ties 290
Increasing your Social Capital 292 Analyze your Social Network 293 Identify Structural Holes 293 Expand the Size of the Network 294
Contents xiii
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Diversify Networks 295 Build Hierarchical Networks 296 Recognize Gender Scripts in Networks 297 Reputation Management 297
Chapter Capstone 298
Chapter 12 VIrtUaL tEaMWOrK 299 Place–Time Model of Social Interaction 300
Face-to-Face Communication 301 Same Time, Different Place 303 Different Time, Same Place 305 Different Place, Different Time 306
Information Technology and Social Behavior 309 Reduced Status Differences: The Weak Get Strong Effect 309 Equalization of Participation 310 Increased Time to Make Decisions 310 Information Suppression 311 Risk Taking 311 Disinhibition and the Negativity Effect 312 Task Performance and Decision Quality 312 Trust and Rapport 313
Virtual, Hybrid, and Traditional Teams 313 Prevalence 313 Advantages 314 Identification 315 Leadership 315 Attention and Problem-Solving 316 Conflict 316 Geographic Faultlines 316
Enhancing Virtual Teamwork 317 Team Formation 317 Technology 317 Shared Mental Models 318 Boundary Objects 319 Initial Face-to-Face Experience 320 Objective Self-Awareness 321 Integrity 321
xiv Contents
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Cave and Commons Flexibility 321 Coaching the Virtual Team 322
Chapter Capstone 322
Chapter 13 MULtICULtUraL tEaMS 323 Challenges of Cross-Cultural Teamwork 324
Multinational Teams 324 Stereotypes versus Prototypes 324
Cultural Values 325 Defining Culture 325 Iceberg Model 325 Hofstede’s Model 325 Dignity, Face and Honor Cultures 331 Tight versus Loose Cultures 333
Cultural Intelligence 333 CQ Model 333 Cultural Metacognition 335 Fusion Teamwork 336 Multicultural Engagement 336 Work Ways 337
Multicultural Teamwork 337 Creative Innovation 337 Relationship Orientation 338 Networks 338 Egalitarian Values 338 Status Perceptions 339 Emotional Display 339
Multicultural Collaboration 340 Ethnocentrism 340 Cultural Relativism 340
Managing Multicultural Teams 341 Change and Adaptation 341 Transactive Memory Systems 342 Language Barriers 342
Cultural Change 342 Integration 343 Assimilation 343
Contents xv
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Separation 343 Marginalization 344
Chapter Capstone 344
Appendix 1 Rewarding Teamwork 345 Appendix 2 Managing Meetings 361
Appendix 3 Creating Effective Study Groups 371
References 374 Name and Author Index 434 Subject Index 449
xvi Contents
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PREFACE
Making the Team has two audiences: leaders and team members. For leaders, the book provides direction about how teams can be designed to function optimally; for team members, the book focuses on the skills necessary to be productive.
Since the publication of the first five editions, many advances have occurred in team and group research. Every chapter has new information, new research, updated examples, and more. Specifically, I have made the following major changes to the sixth edition of Making the Team:
1. Revised chapter structure: The order of the chapters is slightly changed to reflect the revised three-part structure of the book: Building the Team, Team Performance, and Teams in Organizations. The book still contains 13 chapters (suitable for semes- ter or quarter-length courses). Rewarding Teamwork is now an appendix. And Vir- tual Teams and Multicultural Teams are each separate chapters.
2. Internal structure of chapters: Most of the chapters have new subheads that reflect new theories, research, and topics.
3. New, updated research: True to the book’s defining characteristic—providing managers with the most up-to-date research in a digestible fashion—I have included the latest research about teamwork and group behavior, thus keeping the book true to its strong research focus and theory-driven approach.
4. Surveys of managers and executives: The updated research also reports on the survey of executives that we have conducted at Kellogg for the past 17 years. The survey in the first edition reported the responses of 149 managers and executives; the sixth edition has a database of more than 1,200 team managers.
5. New research studies: More than 220 new research studies have been cited. 6. More case studies: I have included more examples and illustrations of effective
(as well as ineffective) teamwork. More than 160 new case studies and examples of actual company teams have been added. And, each chapter has a new, updated opening example.
7. Illustrations and examples: Many of the concepts and techniques in the chapters are supplemented with illustrations and examples from real teams, both contem- porary and historical. I do not use these examples to prove a theory; rather, I use them to illustrate how many of the concepts in the book are borne out in real-world situations.
New exercises, cases, and supplemental material: The supplemental material and teaching support materials have been greatly improved so as to complement the text. This allows students to have a more integrated experience inside and outside of the classroom. The book strongly advocates experientially based teaching, and the instruc- tor now has even more options for making the concepts come alive in the classroom. All of the supplements are available on Pearson’s Instructor’s Resource Center; instruc- tors should contact a Pearson sales representative to be assigned a user name and password. I have also developed a MOOC (massive online open course) that anybody, anywhere in the world can enroll in for no charge: High Performance Collaboration: Leader- ship, Teamwork, and Negotiation (on coursera). In addition, I have developed Teamwork
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xviii Preface
101, which contains four 15-minute videos about teamwork, accessible by: http://www .kellogg.northwestern.edu/news_articles/2014/12202014-teamwork-101.aspx, or simply Google “teamwork 101 Kellogg.”
The revision was sparked not only by advances—as well as calamities—in the corporate world, but even more, by the great scientific research about teamwork that my colleagues have relentlessly contributed to the field of management science in the years since the first edition was published.
One of the reasons why I love this field is that there are so many wonderful people with whom to collaborate. The following people have had a major impact on my think- ing and have brought joy and meaning to the word collaboration: Cameron Anderson, Linda Babcock, Max Bazerman, Terry Boles, Jeanne Brett, Susan Brodt, John Carroll, Hoon-Seok Choi, Taya Cohen, Jennifer Crocker, Susan Crotty, Jeanne Egmon, Hal Ersner-Hershfield, Gary Allen Fine, Craig Fox, Adam Galinsky, Wendi Gardner, Dedre Gentner, Robert Gibbons, Kevin Gibson, James Gillespie, Rich Gonzalez, Deborah Gru- enfeld, Brian Gunia, Erika Hall, Reid Hastie, Andy Hoffman, Elizabeth Seeley Howard, Molly Kern, Peter Kim, Shirli Kopelman, Rod Kramer, Laura Kray, Terri Kurtzburg, Sujin Lee, Geoffrey Leonardelli, John Levine, Allan Lind, George Loewenstein, Jeff Loewen- stein, Bob Lount, Denise Lewin Loyd, Brian Lucas, Beta Mannix, Kathleen McGinn, Vicki Medvec, Tanya Menon, Dave Messick, Terry Mitchell, Don Moore, Michael Mor- ris, Keith Murnighan, Janice Nadler, Maggie Neale, Erika Petersen, Kathy Phillips, Jason Pierce, Robin Pinkley, Jo-Ellen Pozner, Mark Rittenberg, Ashleigh Rosette, Ken Savitsky, David Schonthal, Vanessa Seiden, Catherine Shea, Marwan Sinaceur, Ned Smith, Har- ris Sondak, Tom Tyler, Leaf Van Boven, Kimberly Wade-Benzoni, Cindy Wang, Juinwen Wang, Laurie Weingart, Judith White, and Elizabeth Ruth Wilson.
The revision of this book would not have been possible without the dedication, organization, and creativity of Ellen Hampton, Larissa Tripp, and Joel Erickson, who created the layout, organized the information, edited the hundreds of drafts, mastered the figures, organized the permissions for the exhibits in each chapter, and researched many of the case studies for this book.
In the book, I talk quite a bit about the “power of the situation” and how strongly the environment shapes behavior. The Kellogg School of Management is one of the most supportive, dynamic environments that I have ever had the pleasure to be a part of. My colleagues across the Kellogg School are uniquely warm, constructive, and gener- ous. Directing the KTAG (Kellogg Team and Group) Center has been a pleasure beyond compare. I am very grateful for the generous grants I have received through the years from the National Science Foundation’s Decision, Risk and Management Program, the Kellogg Team and Group Center, and its sister, the Dispute Resolution Research Center.
This book is very much a team effort of the people I have mentioned here; their talents are diverse, broad, and extraordinarily impressive. I am deeply indebted to my colleagues and students, and I am grateful that they have touched my life. I would like to thank Paul Capobianco for the photograph of the University of Wisconsin Men’s Heavy Weight Varsity rowing team: Cox: Brandt Roen, 8: Sam Weeks, 7: Sebastian Amberger, 6: James Lueken, 5: Christoph Bub, 4: Jonah van der Weide, 3: George Perrett, 2: Nick Montalvo, Bow: Jacob Hurlbutt.
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http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/news_articles/2014/12202014-teamwork-101.aspx
http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/news_articles/2014/12202014-teamwork-101.aspx
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Building the TeamI
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3
The ad was posted to Facebook: Diggers needed for an exotic expedition. Experience needed in paleontology or anthropology. Willing to fly to South Africa within the month. And “the person must be skinny and preferably small, they must not be claustrophobic, they must be fit, they should have some caving experience. Climbing experience would be a bonus.1” Dr. Lee Berger, a university paleoanthropologist, selected six slender women from 57 applicants for a major excavation. The team squeezed themselves through a long vertical chute which narrowed to a gap just 18 inches wide and inched their way to a landing zone at the bottom of the cave. The team of women crouched in the fossil chamber plotting, digging, and bagging densely packed bones in 6-hour shifts in near total darkness, connected to the surface by the nearly two miles of power cables that local climbers had threaded from the surface to the fossil chamber. Dozens of scientists watched excitedly on video from a tent outside the cave and waited to catalog samples. Dr. Berger invited 30 scientists from 15 countries to Johannesburg for a 6-week frenzy of fossil research and the putting together of skeletons from the assembled parts. Teams were divided by specific body part—one group for feet, one for legs, one for skulls, and so forth, while Berger and his advisers rushed between groups. The discovery of 1,550 fossil fragments was ultimately regarded as a breakthrough discovery in the field.2
2Smith, D. (2015, September 10). Small spelunkers required: The ad that led to the discovery of Homo naledi. The Guardian. guardian.com; Young, E. (2015, September 10). 6 tiny cavers, 15 odd skeletons, and 1 amaz- ing new species of ancient human. The Atlantic. theatlantic.com; Schreeve, J. (2015, September 10). This face changes the human story. But how? National Geographic. nationalgeographic.com
1From ad posted to Facebook by Lee Berger, © October 7, 2013 Dr.Lee Berger.
Types of Teams1 C
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4 Part 1 • Building the Team
A shared goal and an interdependent group of people are the defining characteristics of teams. Whereas most businesspeople are not digging up fossils in caves, they do engage in missions that involve significant economic and social stakes.
Virtually everyone who has worked in an organization has been a member of a team at one time or another. Good teams are not a matter of luck; they result from hard work, careful planning, and commitment from the sponsoring organization. Designing effec- tive teams is a skill that requires a thorough understanding of groups to ensure that the team works as designed. Although there are no guarantees, understanding what makes teams work will naturally lead to better and more effective teams. This book introduces a systematic approach that allows leaders, managers, executives, trainers, and professionals to build and maintain excellent teams in their organizations.
Our systematic approach is based on scientific principles of learning and change. Implementing change requires that managers audit their own behavior to see where mistakes are being made, consider and implement new techniques and practices, and then examine their effects. Unfortunately, accomplishing these tasks in a typical orga- nization is not easy. This chapter sets the stage for effective learning by defining what a team is—it’s not always clear! We distinguish three types of teams in organizations based on their task focus. We also distinguish four types of teams in terms of their authority. We expose the most common myths about teamwork and share some observations from team leaders. We provide the results of our survey assessment on how teams are used in organizations and the problems with which managers are most concerned.
TEAMS VS. GROUPS
A group is a collection of people. A team is an interdependent group of people working for a shared goal. A work team is a collection of individuals who share responsibility for specific outcomes for their organizations. Not everyone who works together or is in proximity belongs to a team. A team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to information, resources, and skills and who seek to combine their efforts to achieve a common goal. Teams have five key defining characteristics.3