October 2013 Newsletter - How To Build Effective Teams

Corporations increasingly organize workforces into teams, a practice that gained popularity in the '90s. By 2000, roughly half of all U.S. organizations used the team approach; today, virtually all do.

There are several barriers to achieving great work from teams:

• Some individuals are faster (or better) on key tasks.
• Developing and maintaining teams can prove costly and time-consuming.
• Some individuals do less work, relying on others to complete assigned tasks.
• Team members aren't always clear about roles and responsibilities, and they sometimes avoid conflict in favor of consensus.

Despite these potential pitfalls, effective teams benefit from combined talent and experience, more diverse resources and greater operating flexibility. Research in the last decade demonstrates the superiority of group decision-making over even the brightest individual's singular contributions.

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