Best Practices In Building More Effective Teams

The ongoing technological revolution and democratization of capital markets around the globe continue to redefine what is possible for humankind to achieve. At the intersection of capability and opportunity, human ingenuity has produced unprecedented advances in areas such as robotics, fusion-based energy, space-flight propulsion, nanotechnology, genomic-testing, and synthetic biology. Unfortunately, the current on-demand business environment is also characterized by hyper-competition, rapidly evolving ambiguous situations, imperfect solutions, information overload, and intense time pressure (Orasanu and Salas, 1993). Organizations must acknowledge and navigate these challenges in order to fulfill the promise of their mission. The almost unlimited upside of modern operations in conjunction with the severe consequences of error in this environment have prompted a renewed focus on leveraging human capital as a sustainable source of competitive advantage. One manifestation of the emphasis on maximizing the value of talent can be seen in the increasing use of teams as a performance arrangement to structure work. Organizations rely upon teams to navigate their complex challenges because collectives can draw upon a wider range of capabilities and social networks to be more adaptive, productive, and safer than individuals (Stagl et al., 2006). Despite the inherent advantages of teamwork, teams of experts often fail to evolve into expert teams (Salas et al., 1997). It is thus meaningful to consider the conditions, processes, and practices that can be instituted to cultivate effective team performance and thereby organizational profitability and viability