Raising the Bar of BART
Although it was originally designed to withstand a strong earthquake, and did so admirably in 1989, the Bay Area Transit (BART) system was recently evaluated to determine its ability to...
Leadership and Management in Engineering
Leadership and Management in Engineering, a publication of the Committee on Professional Practice, examines contemporary issues and principles of leadership and management. The focus is on understanding...
Teams and Teamwork: The Potential
Deliberate efforts to develop teamwork in most work groups can clearly improve productivity, communication, schedule maintenance, cost control, work quality, individual satisfaction, and...
What Are Teams and Where Do We Find Them?
The word team may be defined as a group of people, each with different skills and often with different tasks, who work together toward a common project, service, or goal with a meshing...
Benefits and Value of a Team Approach
Many still equate teamwork simply with feeling good or being the right thing to do. Yet leaders who have made the effort to develop teamwork in their work groups have noticed some interesting...
Common Misconceptions about Teams
There are some widely held myths and misconceptions that can and do thwart leaders and groups who would like to be part of a team. Because these misconceptions set up false expectations,...
Leader and Team Member Roles
Groups may consist of people who have similar or very different roles or tasks. A group may not be required to work as a coordinated or integrated unit, such as a group of dentists, attorneys,...
Stages of Group Development
Most groups have a natural potential for growth and development over time toward becoming high-performing teams. Tuckman, Francis and Young and others have noted that groups may progress...
How to Develop Further as a Team
Once they understand that things can be different, many teams and leaders decide they'd like to see what's involved in developing further as a team. The drive...
Most Important Team Tools
One of the major reasons some teams do well and other groups struggle is that effective teams learn to use, and actually do use, a few tools that improve their problem-solving skills and...
How Not to Foster Team Development
I almost didn't write this chapter. But every week brings to light new situations in which executives, leaders, groups, and members, sometimes well intended, actually hinder...
Responsibilities of Individual Team Members
Price Pritchett has written a useful, practical, and compact handbook for team members that addresses a great need in the teamwork literature. As he says in Teamwork: The Team Member Handbook...
Team Development Through Feedback
Groups and teams need to be effective in whatever they're doing; they need to achieve their mission or purpose. Just as important, every team or group needs to be seen as...
Conflict: Handling Differences in Groups and Teams
Many group leaders and members say they have a terrible problem with conflict in their groups, meetings, and discussions. Conflict is indeed a significant problem in many types of organizations,...
Overcoming Separation in Time or Space
Groups such as project teams, practice networks, and marketing groups are becoming ever more dispersed and distributed. For example, on a current project for a major water utility, I'm...
Shared Leadership in Groups and Teams
The qualities needed for effective leadership have been argued for centuries. Many recent researchers and authors have made significant contributions worth having close at hand on your...
Teams Are the Best Development Vehicles
Any natural team or work group provides an excellent vehicle for learning and cross-training among group members and for development of individual members as well as the organization:...
Team Versus Individual Recognition and Rewards
Nothing about leadership and management is as complicated and unfathomable as rewards, both tangible and intangible. Many firms make large layouts of cash, year after year, for very little...
Project Team Leadership
In the research lab, design office, fabricating shop, or on construction site, it is the project manager (PM) who must pull diverse talents and personalities into a project team. Depending...
Precautions for Pitfalls and Pratfalls
While the team approach is neither fragile nor risky, there are some times and places where pitfalls may exist and precautions should be taken. In many cases, these pitfalls and precautions...
Return to search