Committed Teams

This book offers a framework and a method to improve teams’ performance on the long term. The authors first observe that all teams, even the highest performing ones, suffer from a form of entropy. The commitment weakens when difficulties emerge, when bad habits take over, or when tensions appear between team members. To counter this phenomenon, the authors of Committed Teams propose a model: the « 3x3 framework ». It consists in setting three elements of stability for the team: clearly-defined objectives, norms and roles—then to add three elements of flexibility that maintain the direction while adjusting to the environment’s inevitable changes. The advice provided is sufficient to manage the wide majority of the problems teams are confronted with: How to define each member’s roles and responsibilities? How to manage decision-making processes? How to communicate the disagreements in a constructive manner? How to promote creative thinking in problem solving? But also, how to step back to successfully analyze one’s successes, and failures, and thus promote a continuous improvement state of mind? The second part of the book is dedicated to specific types of teams: virtual teams, start-up founder teams, boards, or innovation teams. Rich with both examples and suggestions easy to put in place, this book is a good roadmap for managers who are keen to reinforce the commitment and the performance of their team.