Teaming - by Amy C Edmondson (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Continuous improvement, understanding complex systems, and promoting innovation are all part of the landscape of learning challenges today's companies face. Amy Edmondson shows that organizations thrive, or fail to thrive, based on how well the small groups within those organizations work. In most organizations, the work that produces value for customers is carried out by teams, and increasingly, by flexible team-like entities. The pace of change and the fluidity of most work structures means that it's not really about creating effective teams anymore, but instead about leading effective teaming.

Teaming shows that organizations learn when the flexible, fluid collaborations they encompass are able to learn. The problem is teams, and other dynamic groups, don't learn naturally. Edmondson outlines the factors that prevent them from doing so, such as interpersonal fear, irrational beliefs about failure, groupthink, problematic power dynamics, and information hoarding. With Teaming, leaders can shape these factors by encouraging reflection, creating psychological safety, and overcoming defensive interpersonal dynamics that inhibit the sharing of ideas. Further, they can use practical management strategies to help organizations realize the benefits inherent in both success and failure.

• Presents a clear explanation of practical management concepts for increasing learning capability for business results
• Introduces a framework that clarifies how learning processes must be altered for different kinds of work
• Explains how Collaborative Learning works, and gives tips for how to do it well
• Includes case-study research on Intermountain healthcare, Prudential, GM, Toyota, IDEO, the IRS, and both Cincinnati and Minneapolis Children's Hospitals, among others

Based on years of research, this book shows how leaders can make organizational learning happen by building teams that learn.

From the Back Cover

"Amy Edmondson's Teaming is an instant classic--a brilliantly conceived, beautifully written, and highly informative guide to the critical but often mismanaged process of collaboration. Whether in hospitals, factories, or space shuttles, she shows how rapid adjustment and learning produce success, and why failure is just a step along the way."
--Rosabeth Moss Kanter, professor, Harvard Business School; author, Confidence and SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profit, Growth, and Social Good

"Health care is in transition from a hierarchical, industrial age model centered on appointments with physicians to the information age where inputs are more complex and people are more connected. In order to create patient-focused, information-enabled solutions, we need to be guided by Edmondson's teachings about learning, collaboration, and teaming."
--Jack Cochran, executive director, Kaiser Permanente, The Permanente Federation, LLC

"As hierarchical decision making breaks down in the on-demand information age, I believe enlightened team leadership is the key to success. Edmondson understands this and offers compelling new paradigms for team performance in the 21st century."
--Douglas R. Conant, retired CEO, Campbell Soup Company; author, New York Times bestseller, TouchPoints

"I have admired Amy Edmondson and her work for over two decades. Now it is your turn. Her clarity about how we work when we work at our best, her simple yet penetrating ways to show the how as well as the what--the method as well as the magic--together beautifully evoke and explain what human beings can actually accomplish together. As our problems get more complex and urgent, few domains will be more important than teaming."
--Peter Senge, founding chairperson, SoL; senior lecturer, MIT; author, The Fifth Discipline, Presence, and The Necessary Revolution

"Amy Edmondson has created the most complete and compelling book I've ever read on what makes great teams tick--and how to build and sustain them."
--Robert I. Sutton, professor, Stanford University; author, New York Times bestseller, Good Boss, Bad Boss

About the Author

Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, where she teaches courses in leadership, organizational learning, and operations management in the MBA and Executive Education programs.