Teams can be a driving force for organizational performance--and managers can play a key role in teams' ultimate success or failure. Highlighting the latest research on team development and dynamics--and including hands-on tools for improving communication, resolving conflicts, promoting interdependence, and more--this guide helps managers at all levels to motivate teams to achieve higher performance.

Creating Teams with an Edge: The Complete Skill Set to Build Powerful and Influential Teams Teams can be a driving force for organizational performance-and managers can play a key role in teams' ultimate success or failure. Highlighting the latest research on team development and dynamics-and including hands-on tools for improving communication, resolving conflicts, promoting interdependence, and more-this guide will help managers at all levels to motivate teams to achieve higher performance. The Harvard Business Essentials series is for managers at all levels but is especially relevant for new managers. It offers on-the-spot guidance, coaching, and tools on the most relevant topics in business. Each book includes the critical information that managers need on a given topic-from budgeting to hiring to communication to strategy-and offers interactive tools and worksheets that translate advice into action. Providing ready answers to day-to-day issues, these guides make sound, trusted mentoring advice available whenever managers need it. Other Books in the HBE Series: Managing Change and Transition Hiring and Keeping the Best People Finance for Managers Business Communications Innovation Negotiation

TEAMS ON THE EDGE gives readers a front-row seat during challenging wilderness expeditions to remote locations in India, Mexico, Alaska, British Columbia, and the Yukon. Along the way, Shawn Stratton highlights the power of team dynamics and life-saving decision-making skills-skills that were put to good use as his group's navigated isolated mountain ranges, treacherous glaciers, and raging rivers. Stratton offers a behind-the-scenes look into his time as a former senior instructor with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). Juggling the roles of expedition leader, teacher, and medical care provider, he discovers that the secret to success lies in the strength of the teams around him. TEAMS ON THE EDGE shares valuable leadership and team- building lessons that can be applied anywhere, from the wilderness to the workplace.

From the co-author of the New York Times bestseller Team of Teams, a practical guide for leaders looking to make their organizations more interconnected and unified in the midst of sudden change. Too often, companies end up with teams stuck in their own silos, pursuing goals and metrics in isolation. Their traditional autocratic structures create stability, scalability, and predictability -- but in a world that demands rapid adaptation to a new reality, this traditional model simply doesn’t work. In Team of Teams, retired four-star General Stanley McChrystal and former Navy SEAL Chris Fussell made the case for a new organizational model combining the agility, adaptability, and cohesion of a small team with the power and resources of a giant organization. Now, in One Mission, Fussell channels all his experiences, both military and corporate, into powerful strategies for unifying isolated and distrustful teams. This practical guide will help leaders in any field implement the Team of Teams approach to tear down their silos improve collaboration, and avoid turf wars. By committing to one higher mission, organizations develop an overall capability that far exceeds the sum of their parts. From Silicon Valley software giant Intuit to a government agency on the plains of Oklahoma, organizations have used Fussell’s methods to unite their people around a single compelling vision, resulting in superior performance. One Mission will help you follow their example to a more agile and resilient future.

This book takes a revitalized look at how teams should work in today’s business is driving real growth in some of the world’s most innovative firms. Every manager desires to have great teams around them collaborating together and running with the mission. Unfortunately, most of these teams have been built around outdated practices made popular by companies that either no longer exist or haven’t been relevant in years. However, a new generation of teams has learned to do things differently--things like hiring the right person instead of the best person; focusing on one priority while leaving room to explore new ideas; creating an environment where people are comfortable dealing with the uncomfortable; and maximizing profit by not making it top priority. In Extreme Teams, take a peek into top companies and examine the teamwork experiments powering their results, including how: Pixar’s teams use constant feedback and debate to transform initially flawed films into billion-dollar hits A culture of radical “freedom and responsibility” helps Netflix execute on the next big thing Whole Food’s super-autonomous teams embrace hard metrics and friendly competition to drive performance Zappos fuels the weirdness and fun that sustains its success From marketing to design to technology to product demand, everything has changed in business and will continue to do so. Why shouldn’t the teams carrying out these changes undergo their own upgrades?

The best way for a business to succeed is through its people. While there are gains to be had from streamlining processes, reducing costs or making a strategic change, the biggest potential for success comes through how humans collaborate. Specifically, the greatest gains are achieved through high performing teams, and teams of teams. Containing more than 40 tools which can be used in a virtual or in-person coaching environment, Building Top-Performing Teams is a practical guide for leaders, HR professionals, coaches, team coaches and anyone with management responsibility. It covers how to motivate, develop, engage and reward a team of employees with different levels of experience and priorities to achieve outstanding business success. Building Top-Performing Teams includes essential guidance, tools and techniques that show how to promote team ways of working rather than individual-focused processes. It also includes guidance on managing internal team conflict and ensuring that teams are purpose-driven and working towards a shared business goal. Each chapter includes diagnostic questions and reflective practice exercises to allow readers to identify how to apply each element of team development to their workforce. Supported by the authors' experience in organizations such as the BBC, John Lewis, KPMG, Britvic, the NHS and BMW this is essential reading for anyone needing to unlock the value of teams to achieve greater business performance.

Generate faster, better results—using less capital and fewer resources! Toyota, Alcoa, Pratt & Whitney, and the U.S. Navy's Nuclear Power Program operate in vastly different worlds, but they have one thing in common. Each of these organizations generates constant, almost automatic operational self-improvements at rates faster, durations longer, and breadths wider than any of its competitors. Excellence in operational management is the single element separating industry leaders from all others. The High-Velocity Edge is a blueprint for fueling innovation and improvement at both the management and process level in your own company. It’s not magic, it’s not luck. It’s something that that can be taught, cultivated, practiced, and effectively applied to an organization. Spears explains how to: Build a system of “dynamic discovery” that reveals operational problems and weaknesses Attack and solve problems at the time and in the place where they occur, converting weaknesses into strengths Disseminate knowledge gained from solving local problems throughout the company as a whole Create managers invested in the process of continual innovation Apply the lessons of The High-Velocity Edge, and you will enjoy profitability, quality, efficiency, reliability, and agility unmatched by any of your rivals.

In the course of their 20+-year engineering careers, authors Brian Fitzpatrick and Ben Collins-Sussman have picked up a treasure trove of wisdom and anecdotes about how successful teams work together. Their conclusion? Even among people who have spent decades learning the technical side of their jobs, most haven’t really focused on the human component. Learning to collaborate is just as important to success. If you invest in the "soft skills" of your job, you can have a much greater impact for the same amount of effort. The authors share their insights on how to lead a team effectively, navigate an organization, and build a healthy relationship with the users of your software. This is valuable information from two respected software engineers whose popular series of talks—including "Working with Poisonous People"—has attracted hundreds of thousands of followers.

In the spirit of The One Thing and Start with Why, this guide provides the "missing link" for entrepreneurs to generate fast, sustainable growth, get out of the weeds, and build their A-teams from the inside out. “The People Part . . . starts with the first principles that most every other leadership book glosses over. This is a nutrient-dense book that will show you how to build a responsive and productive team.” — Jeff Walker, #1 New York Times best-selling author of Launch Success in business today means responding to change at an ever-increasing pace—due to factors such as competition, evolving technology, and increasing client expectations. Delivering more value with fewer resources is the name of the game. But even when a business is winning, the leaders and teams playing the game often feel like they are losing—plagued by overwhelm and burnout. Most business books try to address this problem with systems, structures, and values. What’s missing? The “People Part”—the often-misunderstood area of a business where leaders and team members do the actual thinking, interacting, and performing together. Drawing on Annie’s 30 years of working with humans in business, this dynamic and engaging book—available in paperback for the first time—outlines seven easy-to-implement agreements to build a high-performance team. You’ll learn how to: Lead in a way that supports others to perform at their best, by strengthening your own Self-Leadership Generate a leadership reputation where the best A Players seek to work with you, and stay for the long term Create psychological safety—the environment that empowers team members to collaborate at the highest levels Develop leaders and team members to take on responsibilities with the same commitment level as the owners Supercharge your team productivity If you’re an entrepreneur just starting out . . . a CEO trying to get out of the weeds to work “on” rather than “in” your business . . .a leader needing a breakthrough for yourself and your team . . . or a team member wanting to make your best contribution yet . . . then The People Part is for you.