Teams are the key to improving performance in all kinds of organizations. Yet today's business leaders consistently
overlook opportunities to exploit their potential, confusing teams with teamwork, empowerment, or participative
management. In The Wisdom of Teams, two senior McKinsey & Company consultants argue that we cannot meet the
challenges ahead - from total quality to customer service to innovation - without teams. Teams are turning companies
around. Motorola relied heavily on teams to surpass its Japanese competition in producing the lightest, smallest,
and highest-quality cellular phones. At 3M, teams are critical to meeting the company's well-publicized goal of
producing half of each year's revenues from the previous five years' innovations. And from Desert Storm to life-saving
surgeries, Kodak's Zebra Team proved the worth of black-and-white film manufacturing in a world where color was
king. The Wisdom of Teams includes dozens of stories and case examples involving real people and situations. Their
accomplishments, insights, and enthusiasm are eloquent testament to the power of teams. Katzenbach and Smith talked
with hundreds of people in more than fifty different teams in thirty companies to discover what differentiates
various levels of team performance, where and how teams work best, and how to enhance their effectiveness. Among
their findings are elements of both common and uncommon sense: commitment to performance goals and common purpose
is more important to team success than team-building, opportunities for teams exist in all parts of the organization,
formal hierarchy is actually good for teams - and vice versa, successful team leaders do not fit an ideal profile
and are not necessarily the most senior people on the team, real teams are the most common characteristic of successful
change efforts at all levels, top management teams are often smaller and more difficult to sustain, despite the
increased number of teams, their performance potential.