Teams are the key to top performance. It's long been known that teams, more so than single individuals and large groups, are the best at solving complex problems and delivering results. Great teams enabled Motorola to build the lightest, smallest, and highest-quality cell phones before the advent of the iPhone; Ford to leverage its Taurus brand to become the world's most profitable car manufacturer; and U.S. coalition forces to claim victory in Iraq during the Gulf War. But many companies don't have a proper understanding of how to form, organize, and utilize teams, and how teams play a key role in increasing profits, entering new markets, and coming up with new products and innovations, among many other objectives. In The Wisdom of Teams, authors Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith reveal the traits that make great teams great. Based on conversations with hundreds of people in more than thirty companies, they describe how teams work best and how to enhance their effectiveness. They reveal: * The basics of when, why, and how to form a team * The most important elements in team success * Who excels at team leadership ...and why they are rarely the most senior people * Why meaningful, companywide change depends on teams Comprehensive and time-tested, The Wisdom of Teams is the classic primer on making teams a powerful tool for success in today's global marketplace.

Why teams? --One team : a story of performance -- Team basics : a working definition and discipline -- High-performance teams : very useful models -- The team performance curve -- Moving up the curve : from individual to team performance -- Team leaders -- Teams, obstacles, and endings : getting unstuck -- Teams and performance : the reinforcing cycle -- Teams and major change : an inevitable combination -- Teams at the top : a difficult choice -- Top management's role : leading to the high-performance organization epilogue a call to action.