HOW TO BUILD WINNING TEAMS AGAIN AND AGAIN

This first installment of a business series focuses on creating strong corporate teams.

In this volume, Scouller, an executive coach, seeks to elaborate on the “array of subterranean psychological forces” that are at play in the formation and maintenance of corporate teams. He tells his readers to step back and wonder how intentionally they prioritize the subject: “Ask yourself, how much time have you and your colleagues spent on consciouslystudying, learning,” and practicing “how to build teams?” He insists that high-quality teams aren’t accidents; they can be built successfully by analyzing the author’s “Team Progression Curve,” which charts the possible developments of team-building. This curve starts with very basic gatherings called “task groups”—things like parish councils, social club committees, and charity boards that typically have “low unity and performance.” A task group can solidify into a “performance group,” which is usually expected to produce more chartable results under greater amounts of pressure. The path can then lead to “pseudo teams” or “real teams,” which represent the most effective but also most intense collaborations. Through a series of short chapters illustrated with charts, graphs, and many bullet points, Scouller lays out very clear and memorable outlines of how the respective strengths of all these steps on the Team Progression Curve can be shaped to engender better results. He’s also insightful about how surprisingly ignorant many senior executives can be about the different kinds of teams and groups the author describes. Readers who are fundamentally unconvinced that teams are the be-all and end-all of corporate life (or who are repulsed by the idea) won’t be on board with much of what Scouller writes here. But corporate team-builders will find this work a valuable aid to understanding the process.

A thorough, worthwhile, and accessible analysis of the formation and improvement of teams.