WHY TEAMS DON'T WORK

THE NEW WHY TEAMS DON'T WORK

What Goes Wrong and How to Make It Right

by Harvey Robbins & Michael Finley
Copyright © 1998 by Harvey Robbins & Michael Finley

Winner, Best Management Book, The Americas,
Financial Times/Booz Allen & Hamilton
Global Business Book Awards, 1995

Download The Why Teams Don't Work Workbook in its entirety

Includes all the text of the award-winning book. Mike will send you the file by return e-mail. Simply click here:

"WHY TEAMS DON'T WORK is a great business book because it looks up from the bottom, not down from the top, as most do. They describe in winning terms the tensions and anxieties that keep organizations from achieving worthwhile goals."

Michael Treacy, co-author, The Discipline of Market Leaders

"We all want to be part of authentic teams. How do we go about it? Finley and Robbins set us on a compelling journey to teams success by helping us see and embrace the secrets we often hide from ourselves and our teammates."

Richard J. Leider, author of The Power of Purpose and Repacking Your Bags

"Michael Finley and Harvey Robbins, despite the title of their book, are the most pro-team guys you'll ever read. What they have done is to bring our consideration and discussion of teams out of the classrooms and boardrooms and into the trenches of the workaday world. The message is that teams CAN work but just not in the way we may have been led to expect. Robbins and Finley not only set us straight on the real world of teams but also tell how to make them work for our organizations."

James A. Autry, author of Confessions of an Accidental Businessman

"Teams generally fail not because managers don't manage, but because there is something wrong with the mindset of the team. An entitlement attitude, secret agendas, glory-hogging, and hiding under the covers are sure ways to drag a team down. WHY TEAMS DON'T WORK hits it on the head."
Judith M. Bardwick, author of Danger in the Comfort Zone

"This is an immensely helpful book. Finley and Robbins show that that the secret of great teams isn't found in buzzwords or gimmicks, but in bringing out the best in every individual. Their suggestions are compassionate, yet tough-minded and practical. Read this book, heed its wisdom, and experience the simultaneous pleasure of feeling better about yourself and seeing your team's performance and productivity rise."

"Too many books on teams focus on the how-to technicalities. It is rare to find a contribution where the personalities of the team members occupy central place. THE NEW WHY TEAMS DON'T WORK, an extremely enjoyable book, takes on this challenge, and by doing so provides a highly original view on team behavior."

Manfred Kets de Vries, Raoul de Vitry d'Avaucourt Professor of Human Resource Management. Professor of Leadership Development, INSEAD

"Robbins and Finley make a compelling case that the reason teams fall short is less a management issue than a failure of the soul of the team. This is a book about group intelligence, challenging us to understand one another in our rich human complexity ... I like it a lot."

Danah Zohar, author of "Rewiring the Corporate Brain"
and "SQ: Spiritual Intelligence"

"THE NEW WHY TEAMS DON'T WORK is that rarest of beasts: a book of truths. Using language that is remarkably entertaining, honest, and brief, Robbins and Finley dissect the hackneyed assumptions about teams to explain why so many companies that switched to teams "have not been experiencing the organizational bliss they counted on."

Jim Kane, Linkage, Inc.

"Serves well any manager's interest in maximizing productivity and quality improvement with teams. Recommended for all quality professionals!"

Quality World

"This book is a masterpiece of explanatory journalism."

John Bicknell, New Orleans Times Picayune

"With its slant on the psychological, this one's a gem."

Soundview Executive Summaries

"This book is for the millions of workers who either volunteered or were enlisted by a team, gave their honest best to the cause, and then wondered why."

Library Journal

"The title tells it all -- if you believe in teams and want to make them work for your organization, this book is for you.

Pete Nelson, Thomson Learning

"For all public library business collections."

Library Journal

"Robbins and Finley are provocative writers... the read is fast, funny, and highly stimulating."

Business Book Review

Reading The Wisdom of Teams without also reading THE NEW WHY TEAMS DON'T WORK is like making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without bread. You may very well end up with a sticky mess! THE NEW WHY TEAMS DON'T WORK is a wonderful excursion through the minefield that threatens to destroy the best team intentions. Robbins and Finley explain that teams are not the answer to every problem and that a blind devotion to team structure is a recipe for disaster. Teams are a very specialized and carefully created entity, and there are a hundred and one ways that teams can be suboptimized and rendered ineffective.

Dan R. Dick, director of Quest resources, general Board of Discipleship

Get your signed copy of
The NEW Why Teams Don't Work
by Mike & Harvey Robbins
from Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Just click on the book cover!
A fully revised second edition of this award-winning classic
by Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley
Paperback
"The American business approach to workplace teams is filled with powerful subtleties and is also quite different from the Japanese. The phrase, "How come all this quality stuff don't work," nicely sums up the challenge making teams work in America. Authors Robbins and Finley present practical solutions to the problems with and misconceptions about teams that will be valuable to any organization inclined to assign teams to work on legitimate operational issues. Pragmatic team tips covered here include team decision-making, communication skills with teams, reward and recognition ideas, the importance of effective team leadership, and the fundamental factor of organizational culture that could help or hinder team success. The authors swap narration of chapters, enlivening this useful handbook on how to make the commitment to teams a success. Serves well any manager's interest in maximizing productivity and quality improvement with teams. Recommended for all quality professionals." -- Quality World
Winner, Financial Times/Booz Allen & Hamilton Global Business Book Award, Best Management Book - The Americas, 1995