Making the Team: A Guide for Managers

Conclusions

When we revisit the team failures described in the opening of this chapter, it is clear that for teams to be effective in their work, they need to have a shared knowledge base. The knowledge base allows teams to more efficiently process and encode relevant information and then act upon it in a thoughtful and appropriate fashion. However, the shared knowledge base that governs a team is only as adequate as the team communication system. Communication among team members is a collaborative effort. Natural biases in communication can play havoc for effective teamwork, as it did in the Vincennes decision, the Avianca Airlines crash, and the Martin Marietta satellite deployment. In all three incidents, teams were operating within a faulty ...