J. Richard Hackman > Quotes

“It is entirely proper for senior leaders to say, in effect, “This is the mountain we will climb. Not that one, this one. Although many aspects of our collective endeavor are open for discussion, choice of mountain is not among them.” And those who lead teams within an organization have a responsibility that extends far beyond merely accepting the direction set by more senior organizational leaders.”
― J. Richard Hackman, Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances

“Leadership involves moving a system from where it is now to some other, better place. It means that one often is at the margins of what people presently like and want, working close to the edge of what is acceptable rather than at the center of the collective consensus.”
― J. Richard Hackman, Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances

“launch the team well, and only then to help members take the greatest possible advantage of their favorable performance circumstances. Indeed, my best estimate is that 60 percent of the variation in team effectiveness depends on the degree to which the six enabling conditions are in place, 30 percent on the quality of a team’s launch, and just 10 percent on the leader’s hands-on, real-time coaching (see the “60-30-10 rule” in Chapter 10).”
― J. Richard Hackman, Collaborative Intelligence: Using Teams to Solve Hard Problems

“Well-timed coaching for a team is like preventive maintenance for an automobile: We often forget to do it, but it can prevent future breakdowns and costly repairs.”
― J. Richard Hackman, Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances

“Coaching that addresses effort is motivational in character; its functions are to minimize free riding and to build shared commitment to the group and its work. Coaching that addresses performance strategy is consultative in character; its functions are to minimize thoughtless reliance on habitual routines and to foster the invention of ways of proceeding with the work that are especially well aligned with task and situational requirements and opportunities. Coaching that addresses knowledge and skill is educational in character; its functions are to minimize suboptimal weighting of members’ contributions and to foster the development of members’ knowledge and skill.”
― J. Richard Hackman, Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances

“roster”
― J. Richard Hackman, Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances

“Developing innovative performance strategies involves two different activities. First, scanning both the team’s external environment and the state of its internal resources for emerging problems and opportunities. Second, generating and assessing a variety of ways the team might circumvent the problems and exploit the opportunities, eventually choosing the one that seems to team members especially suitable.”
― J. Richard Hackman, Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances

“Because work teams rarely have within their boundaries all of the knowledge, skill, and experience needed for optimum task performance, there almost always are some aspects of the work for which additional talent or expertise would be helpful. As we have seen, the educational system of an organization is critical in helping teams obtain such training or consultative support.”
― J. Richard Hackman, Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances

“The best ones provide members with a solid platform on which to carry out their collective work but also leave lots of room for them to develop their own unique ways of operating.”
― J. Richard Hackman, Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances