I have previously written that one of the ten things effective teams have in common is norms. A few weeks ago, Wired magazine ran a write up of a study recently published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology that illustrates the power [...]

There are many reasons for conflict within a team or between teams. One way to simplify the source of the conflict is to examine whether the conflict is task-based or if it stems from a relational issue. This separation is often helpful because, generally speaking, task-based conflict is productive [...]

I previously wrote that purpose is one of the signs that your team is effective. Whether you are a leader of a company, a function, a department, a team, a family, or simply leading yourself, you are more effective when you have a sense of purpose. Purpose is having [...]

A crisis is an event that causes a threat to the organization, occurs by surprise, and allows only for a short period of deliberation time before a decision is necessary. A crisis can be caused by a natural disaster, a glitch in technology, human error, or an act of hostility.

When downsizing must happen, the emotional toll is heavy on everyone in the company as well as everyone close to it. Layoff survivors, those who are left after a round of layoffs, are in a stressful situation. In fact, those who still have their jobs experience similar anxiety and decline [...]

According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “loyalty is usually seen as a virtue, albeit a problematic one. It is constituted centrally by perseverance in an association to which a person has become intrinsically committed. Its paradigmatic expression is found in friendship, to which loyalty is integral, but many other relationships and [...]

Teams can do a variety of things, and the buzzwords can get heavy when talking about teams. Teams may coordinate projects, create products, deliver services, or provide advice and they all make decisions. Let’s lay out some common language and definitions in teamwork.

Operational Team

Upon entering a company, sometimes you are [...]

Making good decisions is considered a crucial centerpiece of excellent leadership. Just as productivity advice can vary with situations, so can decision-making. We are often tempted to include our entire team so we can tap the full variety of the technical knowledge and make everyone feel like their expertise is [...]