Building Smart Teams: A Roadmap to High Performance

Building Smart Teams is an essential guide to creating a smart team fast. Based on research results from close to 2,000 individuals organized in more than 250 teams, Building Smart Teams identifies the three critical skill sets that teams need and shows how to transfer these skills to a group.  The authors′ research and experience shows that, by concentrating on these three critical skills sets, a group is almost certain to become a high performing team quickly.
 
High-functioning teams are increasingly important to organizational success, but just throwing a team together will not give the desired results. Building Smart Teams gives you the theory and rationale behind high performance teams, but, in addition, it is packed with exercises, diagnostic tools, tips, and techniques to use with groups. The exercises are time-tested with the more than 100 groups trained by the authors.
 
The approach is not to dictate the one best way for teams to behave, but, rather, to help team members build skills and implement processes to increase success. Within this model, there is ample room for teams to discover their own unique culture, performance strategies, and paths to success.
 
Key Features:

Team Effectiveness Model was developed from research into the factors that lead to team success―over 250 teams were studied
 
Provides both theory and tools to get smart, fast results
 
Identifies the three critical success factors for high team performance and provides a diagnostic tool to assess levels of team functioning for each

Many targeted processes and exercises that team leaders can apply to enhance team functioning
 
Provides both the road map for creating effective teams (the Team Effectiveness Model) as well as the vehicles for getting there (exercises and process tools)

Carol A. Beatty is a leading expert in the human and organizational issues that result from implementing change and has been teaching and conducting research in this field for 18 years. She is currently Director of the Queen’s University Industrial Relations Centre and Associate Professor at the Queen’s School of Business. She is a sought-after speaker, consultant, and trainer for a large number of national and international clients. Dr. Beatty recently completed a major study of high-performance work teams in several Canadian organizations. Through her research, she has identified three critical sets of process skills for building high-performance teams: good team management practices, problem-solving skills, and conflict-handling skills. Dr. Beatty contributes to many journals, including Business Quarterly, Sloan Management Review, and Human Relations. She is author of Employee Ownership: The New Source of Competitive Advantage (2001).

Brenda A. Barker Scott (Master of Industrial Relations, Queen’s University) is a faculty member, facilitator, and consultant at the Queen’s University Industrial Relations Centre and has been helping leadership teams plan and implement system wide change for the past 10 years. Barker Scott has rigorously field-tested the teams theory and practice with a wide variety of international clients. She designs the professional programs for the Queen’s IRC certificates in Human Resources Management, Industrial Relations, and Organizational Development, and she is an adjunct professor in the School of Policy Studies. Her current research projects focus on the characteristics of teams in complex work environments.