Search results

In the knowledge economy, teams play a central role in decisions made within and across organisations. The reason why teams with diverse compositions are often used is arguably their ability to develop solutions that none of their members could have produced alone. Systems design, strategy and policy development, risk management, and innovation are just a few of the areas that call for team decisions. Unfortunately, a considerable number of behavioural research studies show that teamwork is fraught with difficulties. Teams often underestimate their fallibility, struggle with conflict, or are unable to share and integrate critical information effectively. Indeed, the evidence shows that two out of three teams do not achieve their goals and half of organisational decisions – many of which are team decisions – fail.

In this book, the authors draw from research in psychology, decision and systems sciences – as well as their own research and consulting work that spans more than 20 years – to show how designed interventions can enable team decision making to become rigorous, transparent, and defensible. They cover theory and practice regarding the design, delivery, and evaluation of interventions to support team decision making in situations of varied complexity. Written as an applied resource for researchers and advanced students in particular, this book offers a guide to proven interventions that enhance the process of making team decisions and increase the chances of superior team results.

The myth of the genius programmer -- Building an awesome team culture -- Every boat needs a captain -- Dealing with poisonous people -- The art of organizational manipulation -- Users are people, too

"How any manager can turn a struggling team into business champs. In today's uncertain economic environment, teams are asked to do more with less. With resources stretched thin, turning around a struggling team has never been harder, and managers must work to identify and maximize whatever potential strengths a team already has. As sports fans already know, behind every great underdog story is a leader who roots out the competitive advantage that will propel the team to victory. In Team Turnarounds, Joe Frontiera and Dan Leidl share how this fine art of the turnaround really works, from how to inspire the team to the actual tools for change. Through interviews with team managers and turnaround masters in the NFL, MLB, and the NCAA, as well as managers at top global firms who have successfully reversed their fortunes, they show the six steps every team takes to make a 180 in their performance. Presents a six-step model for turnarounds in any organization, based on the authors' extensive research with owners and general managers of sport franchises in the MLB, NFL, and NBA. Features first-hand accounts of sport turnarounds, from the legendary worst-to-first story of Bill Polian and the Indianapolis Colts to Jeffrey Lurie's efforts to transform the Philadelphia Eagles. Offers behind-the-scenes accounts of effective turnarounds at major organizations like Dominos Pizza, Juniper Networks, iContact, and the Broadway play, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. No matter how bad the circumstances, how awful the performance, or how far shares have plummeted, Team Turnarounds shows how any organization can make the climb back up to the top"--

"Team Frames" is an experiential exercise designed to introduce students to the problem-solving skill of reframing by applying the concept to class teams. The activity also contributes to the development of more effective teams as students come to recognize the multiple realities and possibilities that they usually overlook in their task groups.

Although most business students participate in team-based projects during undergraduate or graduate course work, the team experience does notalways teach team skills or capture the team members' potential: Students complete the task at hand but the explicit process of becoming a team is often not learned. Drawing from organizational learning and group/team theory, this article presents a "learning team model" that emphasizes feedback at the team—not individual—level of analysis by establishing a team feedback tool that can be easily and regularly used to improve performance. In addition to the feedback tool, a structured process is presented in which students learn to become a team.

Impact of 1976 decision by then Director George Bush to form a non-CIA study group on Soviet capabilities and intentions. Formation of Team B to challenge Central Intelligence Agency estimates prepared by Team A.

This study examines the effects of two types of team diversity (functional and positional diversity) and team learning behaviors on the performance of cross-functional teams. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) system implementation teams were selected for investigation because of their cross-functional characteristics. The study results indicate that team learning behaviors had a significant and consistently positive effect on team performance. Functional diversity had a negative effect on team satisfaction, while the effect of positional diversity was positive. Task and relational conflicts were also found to be negatively associated with team performance, but the results did not confirm the hypothesized mediating and moderating effect. Recommendations are provided to improve the effectiveness of cross-functional teams.