The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization

Description

Teams are the key to top performance. It's long been known that teams, more so than single individuals and large groups, are the best at solving complex problems and delivering results. Great teams enabled Motorola to build the lightest, smallest, and highest-quality cell phones before the advent of the iPhone; Ford to leverage its Taurus brand to become the world's most profitable car manufacturer; and U.S. coalition forces to claim victory in Iraq during the Gulf War. But many companies don't have a proper understanding of how to form, organize, and utilize teams, and how teams play a key role in increasing profits, entering new markets, and coming up with new products and innovations, among many other objectives. In The Wisdom of Teams, authors Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith reveal the traits that make great teams great. Based on conversations with hundreds of people in more than thirty companies, they describe how teams work best and how to enhance their effectiveness.

Jon R. Katzenbach is Founder and Senior Sponsor of the Katzenbach Center at PwC Strategy& (US) LLC. Since the 1980s, he has been recognized as a global leader and expert in leadership, teaming, and culture. Douglas K. Smith is widely acknowledged to be among the world's leading management innovators and thinkers. His books include On Value and Values, Fumbling the Future, Make Success Measurable, and Taking Charge of Change.

PRAISE for The Wisdom of Teams: "A thoughtful and well-written book filled with fascinating examples ... You will be hard-pressed to find a better guide to the essential building block of the organization of the future." -- BusinessWeek "An unusually thorough study of teams ... As well as challenging much conventional wisdom about teams, the book is full of advice about how to organize proper--and properly effective--teams." -- Financial Times "The Wisdom of Teams captures the power and vision of what great business teams can accomplish. Its stories and lessons should be read and learned." -- Senator Bill Bradley "Jon Katzenbach and Doug Smith have lived with high-performance teams for years. Now they share their meticulous observations with all of us in an important and timely book, brimming with useful detail." -- Tom Peters