The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High Performance Organization - Hardcover

Katzenbach, Jon R; Smith, Douglas K

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0875843670 ISBN 13: 9780875843674

Publisher: Harvard Business School Press, 1992

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Jon R. Katzenbach has been with McKinsey & Company, Inc. for more than three decades, and since the mid-1980's has led the firm's worldwide organization performance and change practice.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0875843670
• ISBN 13: 9780875843674
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 291