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

Katzenbach, Jon R.; Smith, Douglas K.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0887306764 ISBN 13: 9780887306761

Publisher: Harper Business, 1999

Synopsis

The definitive classic on high-performance teams

The Wisdom of Teams is the definitive work on how to create high-performance teams in any organization. Having sold nearly a half million copies and been translated into more than fifteen languages, the authors’ clarion call that teams should be the basic unit of organization for most businesses has permanently shaped the way companies reach the highest levels of performance.

Using engaging case studies and testimonials from both successful and failed teams ranging from Fortune 500 companies to the U.S. Army to high school sports the authors explain the dynamics of teams both in great detail and with a broad view. Their conclusions and prescriptions span the familiar to the counterintuitive:

Commitment to performance goals and common purpose is more important to team success than team building.
Opportunities for teams exist in all parts of the organization.
Real teams are the most successful spearheads of change at all levels.
Working in teams naturally integrates performance and learning.
Team endings” can be as important to manage as team beginnings.”

Wisdom lies in recognizing a team’s unique potential to deliver results and in understanding its many benefits development of individual members, team accomplishments, and stronger companywide performance. Katzenbach and Smith’s comprehensive classic is the essential guide to unlocking the potential of teams in your organization.

About this title

Review

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

Synopsis

More and more organizations are using teams and reaping the extra performance results that come with melding skills, experiences and insights of small groups of people working as real teams. Katzenbach and Smith declare teams to be one of the most powerful elements for businesses to meet the challenges of the future - from reengineering to total quality to faultless customer service. Based on hundreds of interviews with team members from a variety of companies and organizations, this book shows why teams work, and explains how to set up and get real results. They provide dozens of real accounts and case studies that illustrate successes and failures, and demonstrate what can be learned from these examples. Douglas K. Smith is the co-author of "Fumbling the Future: How Xerox Invented and Then Ignored the First Personal Computer".

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper Business
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0887306764
• ISBN 13: 9780887306761
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336