Put the Right People on the Team

Collaborative Intelligence: Using Teams to Solve Hard Problems, is an eleven-chapter book written by J. Richard Hackman, the Edgar Pierce Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology at Harvard University, and published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers in May of 2011. Although based on the latest scholarly research, the book is written for both the experienced and novice team leader, and can be used as well in academic courses that examine groups and teams. The work comprises three sections. The first, "The Challenge and Potential of Teams," explains the general structural components of a team and the benefits and pitfalls of each. The second part, "Six Enabling Conditions," elaborates in detail on six environmental conditions that can help to produce successful team collaboration. The third part, "Implications for Team Leaders and Organizations," discusses specific methods leaders have adopted, or avoided, to foster collaboration and improve the quality of their teams' work, including what the author calls the 60-30-10 rule. In Chapter 6 the author discusses the third of the six enabling conditions for effective teamwork: selecting the right mix of team members. This chapter provides techniques that will help leaders form the most compatible teams. The author turns to research exploring the effects of personal characteristics on group dynamics for help in selecting the appropriate members. Additionally, the importance of a team's composition, notably its size and mix, is discussed.

• Business communication
• Organizational behavior
• Management
• Fostering collaboration
• Teams
• Corporate strategy