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New research on groups and teams from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including strategies to improve team performance, teaming in the twenty-first century, and how team leaders show support.
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How Teams Work: Lessons from the Pandemic

by Kristen Senz

How will COVID-19 change collaboration? Leslie Perlow and Ashley Whillans explore the tactics that helped and hindered newly remote teams in 2020. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Can Being the ‘Token’ Give Women and Minorities a Competitive Edge?

by Danielle Kost

Underrepresented professionals are more likely to choose predominantly male or white workgroups if it helps their ideas stand out, according to research by Edward H. Chang and colleagues. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

How a New Leader Broke Through a Culture of Accuse, Blame, and Criticize

Children’s Hospital & Clinics COO Julie Morath sets out to change the culture by instituting a policy of blameless reporting, which encourages employees to report anything that goes wrong or seems substandard, without fear of reprisal. Professor Amy Edmondson discusses getting an organization into the “High Performance Zone.” Open for comment; 0 Comments.

How Gender Stereotypes Kill a Woman’s Self-Confidence

by Dina Gerdeman

Researchers believe gender stereotypes hold women back in the workplace. Katherine Coffman's research adds a new twist: They can even cause women to question their own abilities. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Team Learning Capabilities: A Meso Model of Sustained Innovation and Superior Firm Performance

by Jean-François Harvey, Henrik Bresman, and Amy C. Edmondson

In strategic management research, the dynamic capabilities framework enables a “helicopter view” of how firms achieve sustainable competitive advantage. This paper focuses on the critical role of work teams, arguing that managers must leverage the knowledge generated by teams to support innovation and strategic change. It matches types of team learning to innovation activities.

Master the Team Meeting

by Julia Austin

Business meetings aren't always enjoyable, but they are key to moving a team forward. Julia Austin offers tips for making the most of your meeting time. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

How 'Teaming' Saved 33 Lives in the Chilean Mining Disaster

by Amy C. Edmondson

Teams composed of people from across expertise areas can create solutions beyond what any one agency can deliver, says Amy Edmondson. Just ask several dozen Chilean workers rescued from a mine collapse. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

7 Effective Ways to Lead Teams

by Sean Silverthorne

Managers of teams require communications skills, organizational capabilities, and a knack for judging how people might work together. Research from Harvard Business School investigates the challenges of team leadership. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Leading a Team to the Top of Mount Everest

In a podcast, Amy Edmondson describes how students learn about team communication and decision making by making a simulated climb up Mount Everest. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

‘Big Teaming,’ Audacious Innovation, and the Uncompleted Dream of a Smart City

by Sean Silverthorne

How do you organize a project that spans professions, industries, and even nations? A new book by Amy Edmondson and Susan Salter Reynolds describes the approach of 'big teaming' with a case study of a high-profile smart city. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Preparing the Self for Team Entry: How Relational Affirmation Improves Team Performance

by Julia J. Lee, Francesca Gino, Daniel M. Cable, and Bradley R. Staats

Despite their potential to perform at high levels and make decisions that are better than those of individual members, teams are often unable to capitalize on this potential. Two studies show the importance of affirming team members’ self-concept prior to team formation. This can help offset new members’ concerns for social acceptance as they negotiate their identity and expose their unique perspectives to other team members.

What's a Boss Worth?

by Michael Blanding

Quite a lot, it turns out. Good bosses can have a multiplier effect that ups everyone’s game, according to new research by Christopher Stanton. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Diversity and Team Performance in a Kenyan Organization

by Benjamin Marx, Vincent Pons, and Tavneet Suri

A key question in organizations is whether there is an optimal balance between diversity and sameness within teams of workers. Findings from a field experiment within a nonprofit research organization based in Kenya suggest much of the tradeoff between diversity and sameness may come from the different effects diversity has along different dimensions of organizational structure. Diversity along the organization’s hierarchy improves both effort and performance.

The Problem with Productivity of Multi-Ethnic Teams

by Michael Blanding

Ethnically diverse teams can be less productive than more homogenous teams, according to research in Kenya by Vincent Pons. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Become a Value Creator

by Dina Gerdeman

Managers who adopt a mindset to create value hold the key to becoming truly successful leaders, says Brian Hall. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

D’O: Making a Michelin-Starred Restaurant Affordable

by Carmen Nobel & Joanie Tobin

Under the leadership of Chef Davide Oldani, the Italian restaurant D'O balances Michelin-star-level quality with affordable prices. In the following story and video, Professor Gary Pisano explains how Oldani does it. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Should We Rethink the Promise of Teams?

by James Heskett

Summing Up: Teams that are properly structured and managed can support innovative thinking that depends on contributions from both extroverts and introverts, according to Professor Jim Heskett's readers. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.

Teaming in the Twenty-First Century

by Maggie Starvish

Today's teams are not well designed for getting work done in the twenty-first century, argues Professor Amy C. Edmondson. One starting point: learn the skill of "teaming." Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Better by the Bunch: Evaluating Job Candidates in Groups

by Maggie Starvish

The key to avoiding gender stereotyping in the hiring process lies in evaluating job candidates as a group, rather than one at a time. So says new research by Iris Bohnet, Alexandra van Geen, and Max H. Bazerman. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

The Importance of Teaming

Managers need to stop thinking of teams as static groups of individuals who have ample time to practice interacting successfully and efficiently, says Amy Edmondson in her new book, Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Economy. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.