Team Genius: The New Science of High-Performing Organizations

by Rich Karlgaard, Michael S. Malone

A groundbreaking book that sheds new light on the vital importance of teams as the fundamental unit of organization and competition in the global economy. Teams—we depend on them for both our professional success and our personal happiness. But isn't it odd how little scrutiny we give them? The teams that make up our lives are created mostly by luck, happenstance, or circumstance—but rarely by design. In trivial matters—say, a bowling team, the leadership of a neighborhood group, or a holiday party committee—success by serendipity is already risky enough. But when it comes to actions by fast-moving start-ups, major corporations, nonprofit institutions, and governments, leaving things to chance can be downright dangerous. Offering vivid reports of the latest scientific research, compelling case studies, and great storytelling, Team Genius shows managers and executives that the planning, design, and management of great teams no longer have to be a black art. It explores solutions to essential questions that could spell the difference between success and obsolescence. Do you know how to reorganize your subpar teams to turn them into top performers? Can you identify which of the top-performing teams in your company are reaching the end of their life span? Do you have the courage to shut them down? Do you know how to create a replacement team that will be just as effective—without losing time or damaging morale? And, most important, are your teams the right size for the job? Throughout, Rich Karlgaard and Michael S. Malone share insights and real-life examples gleaned from their careers as journalists, analysts, investors, and globetrotting entrepreneurs, meeting successful teams and team leaders to reveal some "new truths": Eye-opening, grounded, and essential, Team Genius is the next big idea to revolutionize business.

Genres: Business, Management, Leadership, Nonfiction, Professional Development, Self Help

304 pages, Hardcover

First published July 7, 2015

Reviews

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really strong insights in here. Research backed, logically structured... but so much of it is lost to very, very long winded anecdotes. It was hard to dig the point of each section out from the stories. Stories that, in the way they are told, convey the writers' idolisation of the people involved, but aren't really memorable for the reader - forgoing the potential for parabolic learning.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful, entertaining, anecdotal, enjoyable.

[Steve Brown · Rating 1 out of 5]

Please note that my reviews aren't really review, they are more like my cliff notes that I take while reading books.

Meh

Knowing when/how to kill a team is important and what to do with the team members

Companies thrive when employees are empowered to do their best work every day. Inclusive teams that value diverse perspectives and have passion for new ideas encourage continuous learning. 

Leadership has such an affect on the team's happiness.. People follow leader's lead.
Happy/bonded groups perform better



Team size matters

need for balance between creative and analytical skills 

Talked a lot about how one person like Gates needs to be balanced by someone like Paul Allen.

With all the technology, it's people's ability to adapt that makes a big difference.
cooperation may be the default tendency in human beings due to survival and those who don't are outcasts and often die on their own.

Teams, they suggest, consistently outperform, and are more likely to come up with new ideas, solitary inventors. Within teams, bringing together people with different perspectives, skills, and experience will tend to improve the performance of the team. As the authors note, "diverse teams need to be actively managed,"

Thought they droned on too much about the different types of pairs

• The right team size is usually one fewer person than what managers think they need.
• The greatest question facing good teams is not how to succeed, but how to die.
• Good "chemistry" often makes for the least effective teams.
• Cognitive diversity yields the highest performance gains—but only if you understand what it is.
• How to find the "bliss point" in team intimacy—and become three times more productive.
• How to identify destructive team members before they do harm.
• Why small teams are 40 percent more likely to create a successful breakthrough than a solo genius is.
• Why groups of 7 (± 2), 150, and 1,500 are magic sizes for teams.


What's the minimum we need to have to collaborate and fill each other's gaps.
Need one strong driver of initiate for each team. Who are the spark plugs?
Which team members can handle a problem and drive it.
Who fills the gaps for the spark plugs.
Then figure out who can backfill for each lead.
Test this and do in the background and then scale
Define ownership of product and line vs quality.
Need to own the while streamline. Take pride in solving the problem, not just owning the code.

Just because I don't agree with you doesn't mean I don't like you.

Short term goals, like people for rent vs team. Offset long term goals.
What do people talk about

[Swaraj · Rating 4 out of 5]

The authors are clear about their experiences and often find themselves giddy to compress the wealth of knowledge, observations, and wisdom they have from their years of interactions with different kinds of teams. This would be a good book to read if you want to expand your thinking on teams and the vast array of factors affecting their performance and other characteristics.
That being said, do not expect it to be a bible on teams. Consider it an introductory manuscript, a peek into the world of psychology and science that has researched, more so very recently, teams. The authors themselves often state that they have to skip certain things because it might be out of the scope of the book, and sometimes I agree with them. Other times I am left starving for different kinds of insights.
Even though, regrettably, there is a lot more that could be provided, as is in any science, I do give them due credit for changing my perception about teams from being a collection of individuals to a collection of organs to form an organism, with each organ being very similar but serving a distinct, purpose in the team - all of them contributing towards the birth, prosperity/destruction, and eventual death of the team.
TL;DR: Go for it! Disappointing but Worthwhile.

[Betty Yang · Rating 2 out of 5]

I appreciate how this book breaks down relationship dynamics in the workplace, and all the different ways in which partnerships and groups can be successful - playing to the strengths of each individual and the goals of the group. However… the sports analogies are very long winded, boring and not particularly helpful in illustrating the concepts - and there are a LOT of them. And some of the ideas feel pretty dated and problematic… for example:

“Needless to say, older man-younger woman relationships carry with them a unique set of dangers, not least the biased or jealous perception by others regarding what the young protege is doing to get to the top. But the reality is that few of these relationships end in romance. Rather, most seem to be the product of a very different drive: that between a father and daughter. This might suggest that this type of mentor relationship could become rarer as the number of women in senior executive positions increases.”

Too many things in this short quote for me to fully unpack…

[Robert Bogue]

How do we get productive work out of a group of people? Team Genius: The New Science of High-Performing Organizations seeks to answer this complex question. Instead of focusing on the big picture corporate strategy like Strategic Management, which seeks to organize the big picture of the organization, Team Genius seeks to focus on the level that work gets done. Like Richard Hackman in Collaborative Intelligence, the focus is on the way that small teams get work done. But unlike Hackman, Team Genius starts with having the right number of people.

Read more

[Monkey33 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listen to this book on audio, which was great to get through. Pretty easy read through audio. And I do recommend it for anyone that’s leading teams on a regular basis. However after listening to it on audio, I recommend purchasing a hard copy of the book to highlight some key areas to refer back to. If I ever got back to leading teams on a regular basis, I would purchase a hard copy of this book to do just that. I would recommend it overall. I have some good points in it. But nothing earth shattering or revolutionary.

[Jun Yang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many useful study results and worth of reading

The author provides many many study results regarding different teams, which sounds pretty useful to me. I can compare my current team with the "standards" or "models" in the book and see if how healthy my current team is. The reader can always skip the parts they feel not very useful and go to the "dry stuff" that can be really informative. Good book!

[Ngoc · Rating 4 out of 5]

khoảng già nửa quyển sách mình thấy khá ổn vì có những phân tích về hình thức nhóm cặp đôi chi tiết và rõ ràng. Ví dụ của phần này cũng khá gần gũi với mình.
Phần còn lại về nhóm 3, 4 người hoặc nhóm lớn hơn, mình chưa có kinh nghiệm nên cũng chưa hình dung ra.
Về cơ bản quyển sách này cũng khá có ích với mình

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

You have to be a team player, this book allows you to understand which ones will work best for you.

[Melany Sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it for school. Excellent book but very long examples

[Zhenia Vasiliev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great focus on team aspect of organisation study, albeit principally build on desciption of cases and not so much on discusion of the underlying theory

[Kevin]

to-read

[Hạo Phan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cuốn này siêu hay, nói về cấu tạo của đội nhóm và sự kết hợp. Có những triết lý rất hay

[Joe McFadden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read full review/summary here: https://joemcfadden.org/2016/07/08/te...

Not all teams can accomplish something great but they can be great

Team Genius, a splendid example of team achievement, lays out what you need to know about a subject that’s becoming more important than ever to an organization’s success. While this book is not written with a church setting in mind; there are many implications in this book especially for church leadership and actually many of the concepts may be easier to use when forming various teams in a ministry setting than in other settings because of the ability to create short-term teams of various sizes for various projects.

Team Genius helpfully walks the reader through team life spans, from birth to maturity to break up. Indeed, sometimes it’s wise to break up a team that has successfully completed its task. For one thing, recruiters will be after certain team members, and teammates will be expecting promotions. Thus, wise management may be able to take strong members and put them in charge of new teams.

One of Rich Karlgaard and Michael Malone’s key insights is that work really gets done by informal teams rather than by standing committees or groups assigned to formal projects of finite duration. Think in terms of high-impact collaboration that is often spontaneous and improvisational rather than initiated and supervised by senior management.

Those who engage disciplined collaboration “take their organizations to higher levels of performance…know where the opportunities for collaboration exist and when to say no to lesser projects…avoid the trap of overestimating benefits and over-collaborating…tear down the barriers that separate their employees…set powerful and unifying goals and forge a value of teamwork…cultivate T-shaped management…help employees build nimble, not bloated, networks…look within themselves and work to change their own leadership styles…And in cultivating collaboration in the right way, they set their people free to achieve great things not possible when they are divided.”

There are some interesting insights the reader can gain from this book in contemplating teams of different size and structure especially in regards to size and personality compatibility of team members.

As a group’s size increases, adding people yields diminishing returns on individual contributions.

I wholeheartedly agree with Rich Karlgaard and Michael Malone’s concluding remarks: “The teams in which we work, and the teams we lead, may not change the world. But they can make the world a better place, make our company (and everyone who depends on it) more successful and secure, and give ourselves and our teammates a more rewarding and fulfilling career. And most of all, we can increase the odds of our team’s success. Given all of that, why shouldn’t we want to apply the latest discoveries and experiences about teams to our own lives and careers? Why wouldn’t we want to create and be part of a team of genius?”

Every organization of which you are a part is composed of teams, and every one of those teams is currently at some point in its life cycle. Some of these teams are clearly dysfunctional; others are suboptimal in their performance; and still others are approaching the end of their usefulness.

Even great teams aren’t always being challenged to do all that they are capable of doing.

At the foundation of Team Genius is this very simple truth: To miss the importance of teams is a costly mistake and an avoidable one. Thanks to the latest research by sociologists, anthropologists, neuroscientists, cognitive researchers, historians, and behaviorists, we have a better understanding of how teams are created, composed, and operated than at any time in human history. These discoveries are waiting to be put to use. Smart organizations will put them to use.

[Darren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Teamwork and team participation is often one of those things that is spoken warmly about at seminars and various briefings yet conveniently forgotten later when individualism and the me-me-me- culture comes to the fore. Maybe this book, which aims to show the vital importance of teams within companies, will finally convince the sceptical or inherently lazy.

The authors mix theoretical research and case studies to show how a functional team can be a winning team, possibly leading to the difference between success and failure and obsolescence for a company. It is more than just rearranging the assets as a one-time process. A good team might need rebalancing, incentivising and refocusing regularly and this book promises to show how to monitor performance and proactively act when necessary. Naturally, the nuts and bolts of team formation and management is covered!

This is a fairly lightweight, easy-to-read book that can really drive home the message to those of an open mind. Some of the examples given are obvious when you think about it, yet how many of us do? Take the start of the book and part of the introduction: “Teams are as old as life itself. Consider the plant kingdom. Even the most primitive life forms exhibit forms of teamwork, from individual cells combining in the complex structures of slime moulds to the unlikely partnership of fungi and green algae in lichen to the highly sophisticated symbiotic relationships found in different species of flowering plants.” So true and it can be fascinating to sometimes look at the seemingly abstract and discover it is a lot more closer and relevant than you might have first thought.

The authors warn about teams becoming too big and unwieldy. One might believe that there can be diversity and benefits from a larger team working in unison, yet it is argued that many of the most successful endeavours have been from the smallest possible team – a pair. Of course larger groupings can work, up to a point, but it can be important to get the right balance between team members and it is not just a question of measurable skills or experience.

This is one of those books that you can form an instant connection to. You just feel that the authors are operating on “your” wavelength and thus the information flows effortlessly into a receptive mind. Maybe putting it into practice is the more difficult job, but that’s outside the scope of the book and the authors’ responsibility. Nonetheless, this found a good little niche to establish itself into, providing a wealth of actionable, interesting knowledge to the reader, even though there is hardly a shortage of books promoting team working.

Between the authors and the perceptive reader, a great team can be formed…

Team Genius, written by Rich Karlgaard and Michael S. Malone and published by HarperBusiness. ISBN 9780062302540, 304 pages. YYYY

[Jim Razinha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm in a year-long management seminar and this was our assigned executive book summary reading. If I have time, I like to read the original source to compare, so... As with the last book, the summary was much better. And by design, shorter. Which is what these authors should have striven for. This book spends entirely too much time classifying types of teams. And the "science"? Tenuous connections to anecdotal stories, questionable deductions (the authors cite 2.3 million year old hominid remains of "what appears to be a hunting party [...] suggesting that teams existed even before the members were fully human" - rather a reach for go from "what appears to be" to "teams"), reliance on a suggested limit - Dunbar's number - as explicit evidence to support their specious conclusions...and citing Daniel Goleman as a "noted psychologist"? Okay, just because I think Goleman is a hack, shouldn't impact my reading. And it really didn't. That the authors mentioned Steely Dan, though???? Nah.

Nutshell: Teams should be diverse, but not too diverse. Big enough, but not too big. Creative, but not too creative. Experienced, but not too... You get the picture.

Overly long and self-important. There are much better books out there. Not recommended.

[Charissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

The book started off really slow for me which is the main reason why it took me so long to finish. But, after getting about halfway into the book, things started getting more practical and in turn more interesting to me. I think this book was great to read for anyone who is involved in teams in any aspect of their lives, not just managers or leaders. This book gave me great insight into how to also be a better team player myself. It opened my eyes up to the different ways to handle multiple types of personalities. The only thing that I felt was lacking in this book is, among all the references to great pairs or teams, VERY few women were mentioned. Then near the end, I was even more disturbed when a small shimmer of a reference to a woman was presented, it was when you are evaluating whether to keep "her" after being on a failing team.

Final conclusion: definitely worth reading.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Team Genius takes a scientific approach to dissecting "teams" and finding out what types of teams are the most effective. Does your project really only need two outstanding people, or will a group of 7 be more effective? I never thought about the importance of teams and the size, personalities, and purposes and how they can positively impact the goals for that team. After reading Team Genius, I will never look at teams the same.

This book is great for businesses to be more effective and it can also be applied to your personal life.

I recommend this book to anyone who has to deal with teams in any manner... be it work, home, sports, etc. It will help you analyze what your needs are, what the goal is, and how to put together the right team to make it come to life.


***I received this book through GoodReads Member Giveaway. The opinion is solely my own.***

[Mohamed Marwan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is very scientific when it comes to the analysis of teams; quite innovative. The first chapters were really good and insightful especially the ones about the human tendency to form teams and the root causes for this tendency. Same applies for the Dunbar numbers overview. The chapters about Pairs were not interesting, long and lack any global flavour; its based on almost 100% American examples. The whole book could have been much shorter. Overall, the title can be misleading because it does not focus how High Performing teams or organisations work or should be structured in the current complex global setup of teams. Focus on virtual teams could have been extended with more insights and research.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I did pick up some useful information and was challenged in a few places to think differently about a topic than I otherwise would have, a good part of the book read too much like a research paper for my reading style.

[Kris · Rating 2 out of 5]

The amount of useful information in this book would fit on about 2 pages.

[Sandra De Kock · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you picked this up to read American baseball analogies then you may enjoy it, if you thought you may learn something new about team work and leading teams you will be disappointed.

[Chris Dyer]

Great book

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good book for a novice like me, encouraging me to see and notice teams in the world and in my reading, but not very much about group dynamics which I expected it would cover.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

With many insights and useful tips

[Erwin Geeraerts · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's funny how simple numbers pin down seemingly very complex interactions.
The book clearly is based on research.
Instead of hammering all the time on the same nail it tries to connect with different underlying fields of science, sociology & psychology to explain why.
Team building is indeed much more complicated then hiking 2 days in the bushes, chopping wood and dancing "the haka" round the camp fire.