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

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

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.

About this edition

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