X-Teams
March 10, 2008
How to build teams that lead, innovate, and succeed (By Deborah Ancona and Henrik Bresman, Harvard Business School Press, 272 pages, $29.95)
By Jane Bozarth
Overall Rating: 3 Stars
"Evidence now exists suggesting that team success at leading, innovating, and getting things done means managing both inside and outside the team."
Wait a minute! No team charters? No mascot? No group hugs/baseball outings/sleepovers? No singing Kum Ba Yah? What kind of team are you running, anyway? Well, for starters, maybe one that gets results. I have been waiting years for someone to say something new about teams, and authors Ancona and Bresman finally have done it. Even better, they found out the real reason many teams fail, and identified the traits that make successful teams work. They begin by describing the typical dysfunctional team, doing everything "right" yet managing to get no results. You've seen this team, with members so tightly bonded the team essentially has thrown up a wall between itself and the organization, allowing no interlopers—such as, oh, customers or critical new information—to get in. Ancona and Bresman define this common cause of team failure as a result of the team working from too strong an inward focus. The successful "X-Team" will learn to see beyond itself, scouting for critical external resources.
And the "X-Team" is not made up of a static, team-y bunch of members, but is a fluid organism with members moving in and out according to talents, knowledge, and changing project needs.
The authors offer plenty of in-depth examples from industry, such as the team success behind Motorola’s Razr phone, shored up by references to supporting research (Ancona is the Seley Distinguished Professor of Management at MIT's Sloan School of Business Management). There are extensive chapters on the factors supporting X-Teams, and excellent guidelines for choosing team members. A useful as well as interesting read, this is the only "team" book I have ever recommended.
Buy X-teams: How to Build Teams That Lead, Innovate and Succeed.
Jane Bozarth is learning coordinator, N.C. Office of State Personnel/HR Development Group, Raleigh, NC.
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