Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith, The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization, Collins Business Essentials. Harper Paperbacks, 2003.
Referenced in: Ministry Teams, General Resources
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
This is a dense and substantive exploration of the benefits of teams. It is probably too academic for the average reader, and is not addressed specifically to ministry teams. But for those who are heavy into the team concept, this is the standard primer. The authors build on their research in over 40 organizations and provide dozens of real accounts and case studies from businesses such as Motorola, 3M and Kodak.
They define team as “a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.” [45] Through the Team Performance Curve, they discussion the progression of teams from work group, to pseudo-team, to potential team, to real team, and finally to high-performance team. For example, working groups, unlike teams,
rely on the sum of “individual bests” for their performance. They pursue no collective work products requiring joint effort. By choosing the team path instead of the working group, people commit to take the risks of conflict, joint work-products, and collective action necessary to build a common purpose, set of goals, approach, and mutual accountability. [85]
Also pseudo-teams tend to focus on creating “togetherness” and channel energies toward “forced interactions” but “are not focused on collective performance and are not really trying to achieve it” (91) They may fail to engage “outcome-based” challenges that are more characteristic of high performance teams. The key is focusing on objectives such as “performance, focus, and discipline” versus “communication, openness and chemistry.” This is a helpful corrective for ministry teams that tend toward softer measures of effectiveness.
The book also includes the best practices of teams such as optimal size, managing turnover, etc.
This book contains material that is found nowhere else, and is a great myth buster for those who tout the value of teams but have no idea how teams function best. The difficulty is wading through all of the material to mine the gems. Perhaps appoint one member of your team to read and summarize the book to present it to your group, or find a good executive summary to get the good stuff. But don’t do teams without the insight of this volume.
From the Publisher
Teams — the key to top performance
Motorola relied heavily on teams to surpass its competition in building the lightest, smallest, and highest-quality cell phones. At 3M, teams are critical to meeting the company’s goal of producing half of each year’s revenues from the previous five years’ innovations. Kodak’s Zebra Team proved the worth of black-and-white film manufacturing in a world where color is king.
But many companies overtook the potential of teams in turning around tagging profits, entering new markets, and making exciting innovations happen — because they don’t know how to utilize teams successfully. Authors Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith talked with hundreds of people in more than thirty companies to find out where and how teams work best and how to enhance their effectiveness.
They reveal:
- The most important element in team success
- Who excels at team leadership … and why they are rarely the most senior people
- Why company wide change depends on teams … and more
Comprehensive and proven effective, The Wisdom of Teams is the classic primer on making teams a powerful tool for success in today’s global marketplace
About the Author
Jon R. Katzenbach is a founder of Katzenbach Partners, consultants in the areas of team, leadership, and workforce performance. His published works include Real Change Leaders, Teams at the Top, The Work of Teams, and Peak Performance. Mr. Katzenbach and Mr. Smith are both formerly of McKinsey & Company.
***For additional information on this resource, including reviews, click the bookstore links. Check the reference at page top or the links below for resource guides on related topics.***
See Resources on Over 100 Areas of Ministry Leadership: