The move to teams has largely failed, say Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley, mainly because teams themselves are failing to think through the human implications of teaming. The New Why Teams Don't Work is a handbook for team members and team leaders to maintain the highest possible level of team intelligence-the skills, attitudes, and emotional flexibility to get the most out of a team's inherent differences.
Describing what teams are really like, not how they ought to be, the book teaches people how to work together to make decisions, stay in budget, and achieve team goals. Robbins and Finley show, for instance, how to get hidden agendas on the table, clarify individual roles, learn what team members expect and want from each other, choose the right decision-making process, and much more.
Updated throughout, the book includes completely new material on team intelligence, team technology, collaboration vs. teamwork, team balance, teams at the top, the team of one, plus all new and updated examples.
The move to teams has largely failed, say Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley, mainly because teams themselves are failing to think through the human implications of teaming. The New Why Teams Don't Work is a handbook for team members and team leaders to maintain the highest possible level of team intelligence-the skills, attitudes, and emotional flexibility to get the most out of a team's inherent differences. Describing what teams are really like, not how they ought to be, the book teaches people how to work together to make decisions, stay in budget, and achieve team goals. Robbins and Finley show, for instance, how to get hidden agendas on the table, clarify individual roles, learn what team members expect and want from each other, choose the right decision-making process, and much more. Updated throughout, the book includes completely new material on team intelligence, team technology, collaboration vs. teamwork, team balance, teams at the top, the team of one, plus all new and updated examples.
Based on the authors' bestselling book Why Teams Don't Work-winner of the Financial Times/Booz Allen & Hamilton Global Business Book Award as the Best Management Book of the Year in the Americas
Teaches people how to be good team members and teaches team members how to be team leaders
Includes seven completely new chapters as well as new and updated examples and information throughout
The move to teams has largely failed, say Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley, mainly because teams themselves are failing to think through the human implications of teaming. The New Why Teams Don't Work is a handbook for team members and team leaders to maintain the highest possible level of team intelligence-the skills, attitudes, and emotional flexibility to get the most out of a team's inherent differences.
Describing what teams are really like, not how they ought to be, the book teaches people how to work together to make decisions, stay in budget, and achieve team goals. Robbins and Finley show, for instance, how to get hidden agendas on the table, clarify individual roles, learn what team members expect and want from each other, choose the right decision-making process, and much more.
Updated throughout, the book includes completely new material on team intelligence, team technology, collaboration vs. teamwork, team balance, teams at the top, the team of one, plus all new and updated examples.
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Book Details
Overview
The move to teams has largely failed, say Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley, mainly because teams themselves are failing to think through the human implications of teaming. The New Why Teams Don't Work is a handbook for team members and team leaders to maintain the highest possible level of team intelligence-the skills, attitudes, and emotional flexibility to get the most out of a team's inherent differences.
Describing what teams are really like, not how they ought to be, the book teaches people how to work together to make decisions, stay in budget, and achieve team goals. Robbins and Finley show, for instance, how to get hidden agendas on the table, clarify individual roles, learn what team members expect and want from each other, choose the right decision-making process, and much more.
Updated throughout, the book includes completely new material on team intelligence, team technology, collaboration vs. teamwork, team balance, teams at the top, the team of one, plus all new and updated examples.The move to teams has largely failed, say Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley, mainly because teams themselves are failing to think through the human implications of teaming. The New Why Teams Don't Work is a handbook for team members and team leaders to maintain the highest possible level of team intelligence-the skills, attitudes, and emotional flexibility to get the most out of a team's inherent differences. Describing what teams are really like, not how they ought to be, the book teaches people how to work together to make decisions, stay in budget, and achieve team goals. Robbins and Finley show, for instance, how to get hidden agendas on the table, clarify individual roles, learn what team members expect and want from each other, choose the right decision-making process, and much more. Updated throughout, the book includes completely new material on team intelligence, team technology, collaboration vs. teamwork, team balance, teams at the top, the team of one, plus all new and updated examples.
Based on the authors' bestselling book Why Teams Don't Work-winner of the Financial Times/Booz Allen & Hamilton Global Business Book Award as the Best Management Book of the Year in the Americas
Teaches people how to be good team members and teaches team members how to be team leaders
Includes seven completely new chapters as well as new and updated examples and information throughout
The move to teams has largely failed, say Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley, mainly because teams themselves are failing to think through the human implications of teaming. The New Why Teams Don't Work is a handbook for team members and team leaders to maintain the highest possible level of team intelligence-the skills, attitudes, and emotional flexibility to get the most out of a team's inherent differences.
Describing what teams are really like, not how they ought to be, the book teaches people how to work together to make decisions, stay in budget, and achieve team goals. Robbins and Finley show, for instance, how to get hidden agendas on the table, clarify individual roles, learn what team members expect and want from each other, choose the right decision-making process, and much more.
Updated throughout, the book includes completely new material on team intelligence, team technology, collaboration vs. teamwork, team balance, teams at the top, the team of one, plus all new and updated examples.
About the Authors
Harvey Robbins (Author)
Harvey Robbins, president of Robbins & Robbins, has been a practicing business psychologist since 1974, providing training and coaching in leadership, teamwork, change mangement, and interpersonal effectiveness His clients have included American Express, AT&T, Allied Signal, General Dynamics, 3M, Johnson & Johnson, the FBI, CIA, and the IRS, among many others. He is author of eight books including Turf Wars and How to Speak and Listen Effectively, Why Teams Don't Work, The Accidental Leader, etc..
He conducts workshops and presentations both nationally and internationally and is a Senior Fellow of Executive Education at the Carlson School of Mangement at the University of Minnesota.
Michael Finley (Author)
Michael Finley has authored over a dozen books, including award-winning collaborations with Harvey Robbins that include Transcompetition, Why Teams Don't Work, and Why Change Doesn't Work. Future Shoes, his weekly syndicated column on modern life, appears in newspapers and trade magazines throughout the country, as well as in online editions.
Endorsements
“Why Teams Don't Work is a great business book because it looks up from the bottom, not down from the top, as most do. They describe in winning terms the tensions and anxieties that keep organizations from achieving worthwhile goals.” —Michael Treacy, co-author, The Discipline of Market Leaders “We all want to be part of authentic teams. How do we go about it? Finley and Robbins set us on a compelling journey to teams success by helping us see and embrace the secrets we often hide from ourselves and our teammates.” —Richard J. Leider, author of The Power of Purpose and Repacking Your Bags “Michael Finley and Harvey Robbins, despite the title of their book, are the most pro-team guys you'll ever read. What they have done is to bring our consideration and discussion of teams out of the classrooms and board- rooms and into the trenches of the workday world. The message is that teams CAN work but just not in the way we may have been led to expect. Robbins and Finley not only set us straight on the real world of teams but also tell how to make them work for our organizations.” —James A. Autry, author of Confessions of an Accidental Businessman “Teams generally fail not because managers don't manage, but because there is something wrong with the mindset of the team. An entitlement attitude, secret agendas, glory-hogging, and hiding under the covers are sure ways to drag a team down. Why Teams Don't Work hits it on the head.” —Judith M. Bardwick, author of Danger in the Comfort Zone “This is an immensely helpful book. Finley and Robbins show that that the secret of great teams isn't found in buzzwords or gimmicks, but in bringing out the best in every individual. Their suggestions are compassionate, yet tough-minded and practical. Read this book, heed its wisdom, and experience the simultaneous pleasure of feeling better about yourself and seeing your team's performance and productivity rise.” —Robert K. Cooper, Ph.D., advisor to organizational leaders and best-selling author of The Performance Edge and Executive EQ “This book is a masterpiece of explanatory journalism.” John Bicknell, New Orleans Times Picayune “Too many books on teams focus on the how-to technicalities. It is rare to find a contribution where the personalities of the team members occupy central place. Why Teams Don't Work, an extremely enjoyable book, takes on this challenge, and by doing so provides a highly original view on team behavior.” —Manfred Kets de Vries, Raoul de Vitry d'Avaucourt Professor of Human Resource Management. Professor of Leadership Development, INSEAD “Robbins and Finley make a compelling case that the reason teams fall short is less a management issue than a failure of the soul of the team. This is a book about group intelligence, challenging us to understand one another in our rich human complexity . . . I like it a lot.” —Danah Zohar, author of Rewiring the Corporate Brain and SQ: Spiritual Intelligence “Why Teams Don't Work is that rarest of beasts: a book of truths. Using language that is remarkably entertaining, honest, and brief, Robbins and Finley dissect the hackneyed assumptions about teams to explain why so many companies that switched to teams ‘have not been experiencing the organizational bliss they counted on.'” —Jim Kane, Linkage, Inc. “Serves well any manager's interest in maximizing productivity and quality improvement with teams. Recommended for all quality professionals!” —Quality World “With its slant on the psychological, this one's a gem.” Soundview Executive Summaries “This book is for the millions of workers who either volunteered or were enlisted by a team, gave their honest best to the cause, and then wondered why.” —Library Journal “The title tells it all—if you believe in teams and want to make them work for your organization, this book is for you.” —Pete Nelson, Thomson Learning “For all public library business collections.” —Library Journal “Robbins and Finley are provocative writers . . . the read is fast, funny, and highly stimulating.” —Business Book Review “Reading The Wisdom of Teams without also reading Why Teams Don't Work is like making a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich without bread. You may very well end up with a sticky mess! Why Teams Don't Work is a wonderful excursion through the minefield that threatens to destroy the best team intentions.” —Dan R. Dick, Director of Quest Resources, General Board of Discipleship
Table of Contents
Preface What's New Acknowledgments
Part One: The Dream of Teams Chapter 1 The Team Ideal Chapter 2 Team Instinct Chapter 3 Individual Needs vs. Team Needs Chapter 4 Teamwork vs. Social work
Part Two: Where Teams Go Wrong Chapter 5 Misplaced Goals, Confused Objectives Chapter 6 Bad Decision Making Chapter 7 Empowerment Uncertainties Chapter 8 Unresolved Roles Chapter 9 The Wrong Policies and Procedures Chapter 10 The People Problem Chapter 11 Dealing with Difficult People Chapter 12 Leadership Failure Chapter 13 Faulty Vision Chapter 14 Toxic Teaming Atmosphere Chapter 15 Competitive Hazards Chapter 16 Communication Shortfalls Chapter 17 Rewards and Recognition Chapter 18 Trust Hell Chapter 19 Change Issues
Part Three: Team Myths Chapter 20 The Myth of Adventure Learning Chapter 21 The Myth that Sports Teams and Work Teams Are Similar Chapter 22 The Myth of Personality Type Chapter 23 Myths of Team Leadership Chapter 24 The Myth that People Like Working Together Chapter 25 The Myth that Teamwork Is More Productive than Individual Work Chapter 26 The Myth of “The More, the Merrier” on Teams Chapter 27 The Myth that a Team Must Somehow Have More than One Team Member to be a Team Chapter 28 The Myth that Teams Work Everywhere
Part Four: Turning Teams Around Chapter 29 Moving Teams through Stages toward Success Chapter 30 Teams and Technology Chapter 31 Long-Term Team Health Epilogue: Toward Team Intelligence Index About the Authors
Excerpt
Macroshift
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WE LIVE IN AN ERA OF DEEP-SEATED TRANSFORMATION—a shift in civilization. Its signs and manifestations are all around us. While globalization is integrating production, trade, finance, and communication, it is producing a social and ecological backlash characterized by regional unemployment, widening income gaps, and environmental degradation. The benefits of economic growth, for long the main indicator of progress, are becoming more and more concentrated. Hundreds of millions live at a higher material standard of living, but thousands of millions are pressed into abject poverty, living in shantytowns and urban ghettos in the shadows of ostentatious affluence. This is socially and politically explosive: it fuels resentment and revolt and provokes massive migration from the countryside to the cities, and from the poorer to the richer regions. In such conditions organized crime, already growing into a global enterprise, finds fertile ground with a gamut of activities ranging from information fraud to traffic in arms, drugs, and human organs.
The application of new technologies, another indicator of progress, is a two-edged sword. Nuclear power promises an unlimited supply of commercial energy, but disposal of nuclear wastes and decommissioning aging reactors pose unsolved puzzles, and the specter of nuclear meltdown, whether due to technical accident or intentional terrorism, remains unchallenged. Genetic engineering has a fabulous potential for creating virus-resistant and protein-rich plants, improved breeds of animals, vast supplies of animal proteins, and microorganisms capable of producing proteins and hormones and improving photosynthesis. But genetic engineering can also produce lethal biological weapons and pathogenic microorganisms, destroy the diversity and the balance of nature, and create abnormal—and abnormally aggressive—insects and animals.
4
Our information technologies could create a globally interacting yet locally diverse civilization, enabling all people to be linked whatever their culture and ethnic or national origin. But if these networks remain dominated by the power groups that brought them into being, they will serve only the narrowly focused interests of a small minority of people and marginalize the rest. If the Internet, television, and the electronic and print media become further commercialized, these media will cater to the demands of those who have the means to enter the global marketplace rather than giving voice to all people. Worse than that, the cyberspace of telecommunications could become a new medium for information warfare, intolerant cultural influences, pornography, and crime.
But the macroshift today harbors not only danger; it is also the cradle of opportunity. Our globalized technological civilization could break down in chaos and anarchy—or it could break through to a more humane and sustainable world. The choice between these possibilities will not be made by applying technological fixes or implementing strategies based on the same kind of thinking that created today’s unsustainabilities. As this report will show, to master our destiny we need new thinking, new values—a new consciousness.
In this opening Part we first review the nature and dynamics of macroshifts, and then describe how they came about in history and how the one we now experience is unfolding in the contemporary world. We then outline the factors that influence its unfolding and show that they are not written in the stars but depend on the evolution of our values and behaviors. The oft-neglected value-sensitivity of macroshifts is what opens for us a real opportunity to choose our destiny—and the unprecedented responsibility to choose it wisely.
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