Committed Teams Three Steps to Inspiring Passion and Performance

Build high-performing teams with an evidence-based framework that delivers results

Committed is a practical handbook for building great teams. Based on research from Wharton’s Executive Development Program (EDP), this concise guide identifies the common challenges that arise when people work together as a group and provides key guidance on breaking through the barriers to peak performance. Committed draws its insights from the EDP’s living lab: an intensive two-week simulation during which executive-level participants run complex global businesses.  The authors have observed over 100 teams collaborating and competing for over 100 combined years in this intense environment.  It has yielded fundamental insights about teamwork: what usually goes wrong, what frequently goes right, and the methods and techniques that will help you access your team’s full potential. These insights have been distilled into a simple, repeatable process that you can start applying today.

Getting teams engaged and aligned is hard.  Committed will give you the tools you need to deal with all of the familiar teamwork challenges that get in the way: organizational politics, delegation, coordination, and aligning skills and motivation.  Using vivid stories and examples from the worlds of business, sports, and non-profits, it will teach you how to:

• Understand the dynamics of successful teams
• Achieve peak performance using a research-backed methodology
• Gain expert insight into why most teams underperform
• Learn the critical points common to all great teams

Committed gives you the perspective you need to combine the right people with the right way of collaborating to achieve extraordinary results.

MARIO MOUSSA teaches in the Executive Education programs at The Wharton School of Business. MADELINE BOYER and DEREK NEWBERRY are lecturers in the Wharton undergraduate program. All three authors advise senior leaders at the world's top companies and organizations.

Preface ix

Introduction: “Can I Make My Team Work?” xi

Part One 1

1 Commit: To Know the Rules, You Have to Make Them 3

2 Check: What You Don’t Know Is Probably Hurting You 23

3 Close: To Bridge the Saying-Doing Gap, Act Like a STAR 49

4 Pay Attention:The Seven Common Mistakes You Are Probably Making 69

Part Two 89

5 Can You Hear Me Now? Making Virtual Teams Work 91

6 No Time for Teamwork? Lessons from Startups 107

7 Who Has a Good Idea? Insights on Innovation 123

8 Lead or Follow? Guidelines for Leadership Groups 139

9 Why Are We Here? Engaging Committees 157

Conclusion: The Future Is Teams 173

Acknowledgments 189

Notes 191

Resources 207

Bibliography 213

The Authors 217

Index 219

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