The Dicipline Of Teams

By Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith

The discipline of teams is a book that explains a lot on how teams are developed
and how Leinn intends to make a team, when I was reading I noded many times
because I was understanding why many thing were the way they were, It’s a really
good book to be this short, thet succeded in the simplicity rule, all that’s written is
necessary there’s not exces and that’s really difficult to get, but any way let’s see
the content.

The book tries to explain how teams work and how they develop by conducting an
study between many teams and work teams (50) in 30 different companies,
knowing the differences between this two. They found that there is a basic
discipline that makes teams work, they also found that you can’t have a team
without good performance and vice versa.

Differences between a working group and a team, a working group performance

work in function of what its members do as individuals and a team is both what you
do as an individual and the team results, what it’s called collective work products, It
is what two or more members do together. The team require both individual and
mutual accountability.

THE TEAM IS MORE THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS.

Team: A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are
committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for
which they hold themselves mutually accountable = COMMON COMMITMENT.

We as a team need to invest a tremendous amount of time and effort exploring,

shaping and agreeing on a purpose that belongs to us both collectively and
individually to become one of the best teams and have the drive to accomplish our
purpose.

A team should establish specific and measurable performance goals as a first step
to shape the purpose that has meaning for its members, specific goals that are
attainable to let the team feel they are succeeding.

Having specific gals help the team to have a clear vision on what they should and
shouldn’t do, this makes the process simpler and give the team steps to achieve
their objectives, so it’s a really useful way to achieve goals and to give meaning to
what the team is doing.
A small team tend to perform better than a large team, this due the size affect the
relationship, if the team is too big it’ll tend to divide in small groups. And it’s way
easier to be in the same channel if you are less in the team.

The team should have the ease to recognize these three self-evident categories:
-Technical or Functional Expertise, the team will need to have skills to match the
challenge or task they are facing.
-Problem-Solving and Decision-Making Skills, Teams must be able toidentify the
problems and opportunities they face, evaluate the options they have for moving
forward, and then make necessary tradeoffs and decisions about how to proceed.
These skills are likely to develop the best on the job, but they are really helpful tu
begin with.
-Interpersonal Skills, the team need effective communication and constructive
conflict to have common understanding. Risk taking, objectivity, active listening,
the benefit of doubt, helpful criticism and recognizing the interest and
achievements of others.

If a group is set to become a team since the beginning with the sole purpose of
becoming it it’s likely to fail.

We are a team that makes and do things.

Building Team Performance

There’s no guarantee guide to build team performance but in many high-

performance teams are observed many similar attitudes and ways of work that may
mean something for their performance, if you share some of these approaches you
may experience an augment in performance.

-Establishing urgency, demanding performance standards and direction.

-Pay particular attention to the first meetings and actions. Initial impressions always
mean a great deal.
-Set and seize upon a few immediate performance-oriented tasks and goals.
-Challenge the group regularly with fresh facts and information.
-Spends Lots of time together.
-Exploit the power of positive feedback recognition, and reward.