Teams are everywhere-in all kinds of organizations. Some work beautifully to produce wonderful successes; others are miserable failures. Why? The authors conducted research with over 6,000 team members and discovered five factors that determine a team's success: collaboration, relationships, group processes, leadership, and the organizational environment. This book is a report of what they learned, loaded with plenty of advice for increasing team effectiveness. After an introductory prologue, the book delivers five well-organized chapters that correspond to the factors of success. The first chapter explores what makes a good team member--abilities and behaviors that matter. What determines how collaborative someone will be in a team setting? The second chapter examines relationships among members of teams: what's most important, where are the greatest challenges, and how can you make it all work?In the third chapter, the authors look into team problem solving. Included are the distinguishing factors of good problem-solving teams, dynamics and processes of solving problems and making decisions, and building systems that support results. Chapter four really digs into the team leader, reviewing six key dimensions of the role. This chapter alone is worth buying this book. Following the research-based model, the last chapter zeros in on the organizational environment. The authors evaluate management practices, structure and processes, and systems in an insightful look at how the environment affects team performance. Each chapter is preceded by a one-page Snapshot that offers a valuable overview of the chapter. Two indexes and a half-dozen pages of notes add more value to this volume. Good flow, readable, and useful. Recommended as a good tool for team leaders, members, and encouragers in any organization. When Teams Work Best : 6,000 Team Members and Leaders Tell What It Takes to Succeed
When Teams Work Best: 6,000 Team Members And Leaders Tell What It Takes To Succeed by Frank LaFasto (Senior Vice President of Organization Effectiveness for Cardinal health, Inc.) and Carl Larson (Professor of Human Communication, University of Denver) is a practical, "user friendly" guide to the harnessing the power of cooperation and teamwork for increased productivity and effectiveness. Individual chapters address what makes a good team member, what makes a good leader, problem solving methodologies, and how to best promote confidence and trust. When Teams Work Best is very highly recommended for anyone charged with the corporate responsibility for cultivating business group work skills!
I had this as a text book for an organizational leadership class at the master's degree level. The material is repetitive in its chapter presentations, but the core elements are still good. I just didn't find it to be reader-friendly. For some reason the authors feel compelled to remind the reader every few paragraphs that the responses of more than "6,000 team members" form the basis of their conclusions. I understood that point based on the title and didn't need to be reminded on each page. The book reads as if someone went straight to print with their research paper, rather than making it an engaging read. By chapter 3 I no longer cared about the value of the content, I just hated the book. Seriously. You've been warned.
One of the most useful books on managing teams that I've read. It combines clearly articulated concepts with practical guidelines fo promoting more productive behaviors within my department and cross-functionally. The checklists, in particular, make this book a hands-on guide that I will pick up to use again and again.Head of Marketing-Europe, Middle East (Financial Services Sector)
This is a terrific text. Lafasto and Larson have made sense out of a lot of data in a way that makes it exceptionally readable. It reads like a conversation with a colleague eager to share key ideas that ensure success.
For anyone who teaches about teams or leads a team this is a must have book. Each chapter has something special to make the read worthwhile.
If you do nothing but read chapter two and take its message to heart you will become a much better leader and team member. Their connect model, in fact all the models, will make you much more effective, no matter what your role on the team. But then, every chapter has something special to offer.
This will become the lead text in my biopharma team leadership course.
I read this book as an assigned text for a seminary course on team leadership. As the authors explain up front (and then repeat, ad nauseam), they compiled research from over 6,000 employees to gather their feedback on their various experiences of working in teams. And that research yielded some interesting results that may help to instruct any of us who want to effectively lead teams.
There is no question that some very helpful stuff emerged from the research for this book. LaFasto and Larson make compelling arguments that teams only function well in the context of supportive and open environments. They describe the need for candor and accountability. They acknowledge the need for trust and empowerment from team leaders to team members. All of this is good stuff. But the presentation of their conclusions was utterly stale and lifeless. Rather than speaking in specifics and offering actual examples from real-life companies, everything was discussed in abstract generalities. Jim Collins has influenced millions of leaders by discussing the actual dynamics at play in particular businesses, presenting the analysis of business management in story form. It's an engaging approach, one that LaFasto and Larson would do well to consider. Instead, we are left with a million varieties of "a common response from the 6,000 team members who were interviewed was..."
My other primary critique of this book is its repetitive nature. The chapters were organized around clearly differentiated categories (i.e. how to lead a team, how to participate on a team, etc.), but that approach isn't helpful if the same conclusions pop up over and over again. Yes, team leaders need to trust. And team members need to trust. But it's numbingly bland when the same point comes up in several different chapters.
Ultimately, I think I learned some good stuff from reading this book, or at least I was reminded of some important ideas about highly functioning teams. But the book wasn't nearly as compelling as it might have been, had it been organized better and written in a more narrative style. I'm still waiting to read a great book on team leadership, as this one doesn't qualify. - Business'
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