In the knowledge economy, teams are the principle means by which work gets done and organizational value is created. In this groundbreaking book, Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson draws on her 20 years of research on teams in a variety of organizational settings to show how and why organizational success or failure is dependent on a team’s ability to “team”―to learn and adapt to their environment and to each other.

Using illustrative examples from such leading organizations as Intermountain Healthcare, Prudential, Toyota, IDEO, the IRS, and both Cincinnati and Minneapolis Children’s Hospitals, the author describes the basic teaming activities and conditions that determine how work gets done, how leaders help make it happen, and how a safe interpersonal environment frees up people to focus on innovation. Throughout the book, Edmondson’s guidelines offer a supportive framework for understanding and responding to the dynamics of collective learning. Designed as a practical resource, the book is filled with ideas, solutions, and strategies appropriate for all types and sizes of organizations.

Teaming is broken into three parts so that leaders and practitioners can easily find topics and identify the core activities that fuel teaming efforts. Part One answers basic questions about teaming, such as: How does it work? What does it take for people to learn how to team? What do people do when teaming? How does teaming produce organizational learning? Part Two looks at four leadership actions that enable teaming and learning, providing an up-close look at how people work together in a wide variety of organizational contexts. Part Three shows how to implement teaming on an organizational level and offers three case studies that examine different potential learning outcomes, including process improvement, problem solving, and innovation.

Teaming shows how any organization can figure out how to learn in order to remain competitive and relevant in today’s complex and global organizational landscape.

“Amy Edmondson’s Teaming is an instant classic―a brilliantly conceived, beautifully written, and highly informative guide to the critical but often mismanaged process of collaboration. Whether in hospitals, factories, or space shuttles, she shows how rapid adjustment and learning produce success, and why failure is just a step along the way.”
―Rosabeth Moss Kanter, professor, Harvard Business School; author, Confidence and SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profit, Growth, and Social Good

“Health care is in transition from a hierarchical, industrial age model centered on appointments with physicians to the information age where inputs are more complex and people are more connected. In order to create patient-focused, information-enabled solutions, we need to be guided by Edmondson’s teachings about learning, collaboration, and teaming.”
―Jack Cochran, executive director, Kaiser Permanente, The Permanente Federation, LLC

“As hierarchical decision making breaks down in the on-demand information age, I believe enlightened team leadership is the key to success. Edmondson understands this and offers compelling new paradigms for team performance in the 21st century.”
―Douglas R. Conant, retired CEO, Campbell Soup Company; author, New York Times bestseller, TouchPoints

“I have admired Amy Edmondson and her work for over two decades. Now it is your turn. Her clarity about how we work when we work at our best, her simple yet penetrating ways to show the how as well as the what―the method as well as the magic―together beautifully evoke and explain what human beings can actually accomplish together. As our problems get more complex and urgent, few domains will be more important than teaming.”
―Peter Senge, founding chairperson, SoL; senior lecturer, MIT; author, The Fifth Discipline, Presence, and The Necessary Revolution

“Amy Edmondson has created the most complete and compelling book I’ve ever read on what makes great teams tick―and how to build and sustain them.”
―Robert I. Sutton, professor, Stanford University; author, New York Times bestseller, Good Boss, Bad Boss