Establish Clear Norms of Conduct

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. Chapter 7 explores the fourth of the six enabling conditions for effective teamwork: establishing a code of acceptable group conduct, or what the author calls norms. Drawing from the results of his own studies on group dynamics, he argues that teams which explicitly define appropriate behaviors outperform even the most strategically assembled teams which fail to do so. He then explains how teams foster and sustain norms by focusing on two particular types of norms: those that help a group identify and most effectively tap members' skills and knowledge, and those that help a group develop and implement performance strategies.

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