Team Building

Creating, Focusing, & Energizing Teams

By: Deaver Brown

Narrated by: Deaver Brown

This audiobook emphasizes that teams are not silver bullets or panaceas for solving problems. The author describes the classic pitfall Harvard Business School professors let students fall into when confronted with a problem: call a meeting; create a team or taskforce. Then the professor says, "And do what, exactly?" That is the team-building challenge: what do you do, exactly? Some listeners have commented that the author doesn't "like" teams. The author doesn't like or dislike teams. He believes, as Harvard professors state, that teams are often created as a stop-gap measure and not thought through properly.

This audiobook attempts to clear away that clutter and move to the essential steps to create an effective team. In the Introduction, the author emphasizes that teams are inherently powerful and can be a tremendous force for change and accomplishment if created and nurtured properly. The author warns that this is an expensive and time-consuming process though, so the leading manager has to determine if the end result will justify the effort.

Tom Peters applauds skunk works because they are a small "swat team" with a defined mission on a limited budget. This author shows how to build such a team, the eight criteria for selecting members, and how to have a trial run with limited objectives - much like training camp before the season starts - before attempting a large-scale mission. This is a must listen for all people considering team building, because it has warranted skepticism as well as practical, useful tips and strategies to accomplish team goals.

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Not about team building

This was not about team building. This author seems to feel that teams are a bad idea. He seems to feel that most people are lazy and perhaps stupid. Team Building, for him, is about being a strong and forceful leader who tricks the lazy people you're forced to work with into doing work. The author makes it quite clear he does not like teams, does not think they are effective most of the time, and should be an absolute last resort.

I surmise that if you are looking for books on team building, you are not looking for books on how to suffer the fools that surround you and how to be an overbearing, "I'll make all the decisions around here", manly-man leader.

Not helpful at all!

This is clearly not about Team building; rather this is about how to get rid of team members when they don't seem to work out. Basically, Deaver Brown rambled about an hour without any key points or strategies/tips to build a team. It was not helpful at all!