The Wisdom of Teams

Part Two

Becoming a Team

FIGURE II-1

The team performance curve

TTHE “TEAM PERFORMANCE curve” (Figure II-1) illustrates that how well any small group of people performs depends on the basic approach it takes and how effectively it implements that approach. Unlike teams, working groups rely on the sum of “individual bests” for their performance. They pursue no collective work-products requiring joint effort. By choosing the team path instead of the working group, people commit to take the risks of conflict, joint work-products, and collective action necessary to build a common purpose, set of goals, approach, and mutual accountability. People ...