,Developing TeamWisdom for Personal
Success
DO YOU SHARE responsibility with others to get work done but don’t have authority over
them (and they don’t have authority over you)? If your answer to this question is “yes,” like
millions of other people trying to sort through the structure and dynamics of the new workplace,
you can benefit immensely from the ideas and tools in this book.
Are you tired of hearing, and maybe even saying, “I got put in a bad team?” I know I am. This
is the most common excuse for non-performance I hear as a business advisor, and it usually comes
from highly skilled professionals! Finding oneself in a bad team is not a pleasant experience. But
being in a bad team is to completely miss the point. It doesn’t matter whether your team
is naturally effective or ineffective. More and more frequently people are finding that in the new
workplace they have to get their work done through a team regardless of whether that team is good,
bad, or somewhere in the middle. The point here is that people need to know how to make teams
work for them. This book aims to show you how.
For these and many other reasons that I will share as we go along, I firmly believe that teamwork
should no longer be considered a group skill. Instead, teamwork must be considered an1
2individual skill and the responsibility of every individual in the organization. Why? Not treating
teamwork as an individual skill and responsibility allows otherwise highly skilled employees to
justify their non-performance by pointing fingers at others. This is an especially critical issue for
highly capable professionals seeking to remain employable in the future.
So, who are these workers who share responsibility for getting results but don’t have control
over their colleagues? Here’s my far from exhaustive list:
Individual contributors who must rely on the work of others in order to get their own work
done: engineers, scientists, analysts, planners, marketers, sales-people, accountants,
technicians, administrators, and many others.
People assigned to work in teams: developers, designers, creative people, coders,
specialists, engineers, and scientists.
People assigned to lead teams: program managers, product managers, project managers,
team leaders, matrix managers, and technical exerts.
Managers and executives who wish to empower people within and across their direct
authority.
This book is for anyone who works in an environment of shared responsibility. It does not matter
whether the shared responsibility occurs in a formal team, in a hierarchical environment, or as the
,result of a management role. It does not matter whether the shared responsibility occurs in a public,
private, profit, non-profit, or large or small organization. To sum up for a moment, I don’t know
anyone who doesn’t work in an environment of shared responsibility. The truth is everyone can
benefit from what I call “TeamWisdom™.”3
What Is Team Wisdom?
TeamWisdom refers to all the individual mental skills and behaviors that lead to highly
responsible and productive relationships at work. The idea is based on my definition of “team”: A
team is a group of individuals responding successfully to the opportunity presented by shared
responsibility. Thus someone with TeamWisdom takes responsibility for ensuring that the group
rises to the occasion, and in the process, makes sure his own work gets done and done well.
Why should you take personal responsibility for the performance of every team in which you
serve?
You don’t need me to tell you that we live and work in an age of increasing reliance on teams,
partnerships, collaborations, horizontal processes, value chains, and webs and networks for getting
things done. Your ability to create high quality, productive relationships is fast becoming the most
important factor in getting your work done at all. It once was management’s job to dole out
individual work and then integrate the pieces. Now, organizations are doling out the work in larger
chunks to teams and expecting the teams to divide and integrate the work in a manner that is most
effective and efficient for them.
TeamWisdom Can Help You…
Get More Done with Less Time and Energy
I have no interest in helping you learn to be a good and compliant team player. I consider that
term to be an insulting label that connotes someone whose primary characteristic is compliance.
Instead, my interest is in helping you make maximum use of a team of which you are a member.
Use the team to get your work done and get your work noticed. Instead of thinking of yourself as
a component in a team, I want you instead to think of yourself as being served by the team,
which4 is a lever for you and your abilities. That’s right, my invitation is for you to learn to see
your relationships at work as opportunities to leverage your talents and get results.
In my experience, people who approach every work relationship with the intention that they are
going to take 100-percent responsibility for the quality and productivity of that relationship
actually get more done with less effort.
, How is getting more from less possible, you may ask? Synergy. Synergy is an overused term
that few people accurately understand, but people with TeamWisdom understand it. The reason
you can get more done with less time and energy is because any relationship that operates highly
has far greater output than the individual input of the collaborators. This occurs because team
members in high performing relationships do a much better job of applying the unique
perspectives, information, and abilities that each member brings to the collaboration. Now,
wouldn’t you like to consistently do more with less and reap the extra rewards? I am convinced
that if we all understood synergy better, we would be much happier when working
interdependently because we would actually see that our reward can consistently be greater than
our effort.
…Earn More
If you know how to produce synergy in a relationship, you can create employment situations
where you are consistently producing more value. You know how to leverage your own value
through a team (and you know how to leverage your teammates’ value too).
I believe that we are not very far from the day when most professionals will be measured not on
individual deliverables and output, but on how their teams perform and on how well they are able
to get their work done.5
…Attain Satisfaction
People who take 100-percent responsibility for creating quality, productive relationships at work
tend to struggle less with bureaucracy and politics. Instead, they are more interested in getting
work done. Responsible relationships invite people to use their expertise in the most efficient way
possible. Such relationships reward your psyche and spirit, and allow you to make an impact and
be acknowledged.
…Transform Your Workplace
By implementing the ideas in this book, you can help your organization and its members by
helping yourself. Imagine a place where people do not blame others or make excuses when things
go wrong. Imagine a place where agendas are aligned instead of hidden and where everyone can
Success
DO YOU SHARE responsibility with others to get work done but don’t have authority over
them (and they don’t have authority over you)? If your answer to this question is “yes,” like
millions of other people trying to sort through the structure and dynamics of the new workplace,
you can benefit immensely from the ideas and tools in this book.
Are you tired of hearing, and maybe even saying, “I got put in a bad team?” I know I am. This
is the most common excuse for non-performance I hear as a business advisor, and it usually comes
from highly skilled professionals! Finding oneself in a bad team is not a pleasant experience. But
being in a bad team is to completely miss the point. It doesn’t matter whether your team
is naturally effective or ineffective. More and more frequently people are finding that in the new
workplace they have to get their work done through a team regardless of whether that team is good,
bad, or somewhere in the middle. The point here is that people need to know how to make teams
work for them. This book aims to show you how.
For these and many other reasons that I will share as we go along, I firmly believe that teamwork
should no longer be considered a group skill. Instead, teamwork must be considered an1
2individual skill and the responsibility of every individual in the organization. Why? Not treating
teamwork as an individual skill and responsibility allows otherwise highly skilled employees to
justify their non-performance by pointing fingers at others. This is an especially critical issue for
highly capable professionals seeking to remain employable in the future.
So, who are these workers who share responsibility for getting results but don’t have control
over their colleagues? Here’s my far from exhaustive list:
Individual contributors who must rely on the work of others in order to get their own work
done: engineers, scientists, analysts, planners, marketers, sales-people, accountants,
technicians, administrators, and many others.
People assigned to work in teams: developers, designers, creative people, coders,
specialists, engineers, and scientists.
People assigned to lead teams: program managers, product managers, project managers,
team leaders, matrix managers, and technical exerts.
Managers and executives who wish to empower people within and across their direct
authority.
This book is for anyone who works in an environment of shared responsibility. It does not matter
whether the shared responsibility occurs in a formal team, in a hierarchical environment, or as the
,result of a management role. It does not matter whether the shared responsibility occurs in a public,
private, profit, non-profit, or large or small organization. To sum up for a moment, I don’t know
anyone who doesn’t work in an environment of shared responsibility. The truth is everyone can
benefit from what I call “TeamWisdom™.”3
What Is Team Wisdom?
TeamWisdom refers to all the individual mental skills and behaviors that lead to highly
responsible and productive relationships at work. The idea is based on my definition of “team”: A
team is a group of individuals responding successfully to the opportunity presented by shared
responsibility. Thus someone with TeamWisdom takes responsibility for ensuring that the group
rises to the occasion, and in the process, makes sure his own work gets done and done well.
Why should you take personal responsibility for the performance of every team in which you
serve?
You don’t need me to tell you that we live and work in an age of increasing reliance on teams,
partnerships, collaborations, horizontal processes, value chains, and webs and networks for getting
things done. Your ability to create high quality, productive relationships is fast becoming the most
important factor in getting your work done at all. It once was management’s job to dole out
individual work and then integrate the pieces. Now, organizations are doling out the work in larger
chunks to teams and expecting the teams to divide and integrate the work in a manner that is most
effective and efficient for them.
TeamWisdom Can Help You…
Get More Done with Less Time and Energy
I have no interest in helping you learn to be a good and compliant team player. I consider that
term to be an insulting label that connotes someone whose primary characteristic is compliance.
Instead, my interest is in helping you make maximum use of a team of which you are a member.
Use the team to get your work done and get your work noticed. Instead of thinking of yourself as
a component in a team, I want you instead to think of yourself as being served by the team,
which4 is a lever for you and your abilities. That’s right, my invitation is for you to learn to see
your relationships at work as opportunities to leverage your talents and get results.
In my experience, people who approach every work relationship with the intention that they are
going to take 100-percent responsibility for the quality and productivity of that relationship
actually get more done with less effort.
, How is getting more from less possible, you may ask? Synergy. Synergy is an overused term
that few people accurately understand, but people with TeamWisdom understand it. The reason
you can get more done with less time and energy is because any relationship that operates highly
has far greater output than the individual input of the collaborators. This occurs because team
members in high performing relationships do a much better job of applying the unique
perspectives, information, and abilities that each member brings to the collaboration. Now,
wouldn’t you like to consistently do more with less and reap the extra rewards? I am convinced
that if we all understood synergy better, we would be much happier when working
interdependently because we would actually see that our reward can consistently be greater than
our effort.
…Earn More
If you know how to produce synergy in a relationship, you can create employment situations
where you are consistently producing more value. You know how to leverage your own value
through a team (and you know how to leverage your teammates’ value too).
I believe that we are not very far from the day when most professionals will be measured not on
individual deliverables and output, but on how their teams perform and on how well they are able
to get their work done.5
…Attain Satisfaction
People who take 100-percent responsibility for creating quality, productive relationships at work
tend to struggle less with bureaucracy and politics. Instead, they are more interested in getting
work done. Responsible relationships invite people to use their expertise in the most efficient way
possible. Such relationships reward your psyche and spirit, and allow you to make an impact and
be acknowledged.
…Transform Your Workplace
By implementing the ideas in this book, you can help your organization and its members by
helping yourself. Imagine a place where people do not blame others or make excuses when things
go wrong. Imagine a place where agendas are aligned instead of hidden and where everyone can
