The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization by Douglas Smith, Jon Katzenbach

Organizations are continually looking for ways to increase effectiveness, increase profit margins, and motivate employees so they can realize their potential. The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization by Douglas Smith provides organizations with a detailed guide to creating and sustaining high performance teams.

The book begins with Smith discussing the current state of leadership in organizations. He identifies several key elements of effective leadership, such as flexibility, relationship building, and trust. Smith then moves on to discuss the four characteristics of an effective team. These characteristics are commitment, skill development, communication, and collaboration. Smith outlines these characteristics and provides examples from organizations across the world.

After discussing these four characteristics, Smith then describes the key elements of successful teams. He identifies four things that make a successful team—trust and conflict management, strong project management, rigorous performance measurement, and knowledge capitalization. He offers strategies to maximize each of these elements, detailing how to build trust, manage disputes, build accountability and responsibility, measure performance, and capitalize on knowledge. Each of these topics is explored in depth and provides managers with clear guidance on how to create successful teams.

The core of The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization is Smith’s outline of the four steps needed to create a high performance organization. Smith identifies these steps as plan, organize, execute, and assess. Through these steps organizations can prepare to create teams that are effective, efficient, and profitable.

Throughout The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization, Smith provides organizations with tools for developing strong teams. He outlines a detailed process for creating and sustaining high performing organizations. He emphasizes the importance of planning and communication and outlines strategies for maximizing each element of team success. He provides case studies from organizations that have successfully implemented his strategies and provides examples of mistakes to avoid when developing teams.

The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization is a must-read for any manager looking to create an effective, efficient, and profitable organization. Smith provides organizations with a comprehensive guide for creating and sustaining teams that are high performing and have the potential to unlock organizational success. The book is full of examples, strategies, and case studies that can provide organizations with the necessary guidance to take their teams to the next level.