Extreme Teams: Why Pixar, Netflix, Airbnb, and Other Cutting-Edge Companies Succeed Where Most Fail

Description

This book takes a revitalized look at how teams should work in today's business is driving real growth in some of the world's most innovative firms. Every manager desires to have great teams around them collaborating together and running with the mission. Unfortunately, most of these teams have been built around outdated practices made popular by companies that either no longer exist or haven't been relevant in years. However, a new generation of teams has learned to do things differently--things like hiring the right person instead of the best person; focusing on one priority while leaving room to explore new ideas; creating an environment where people are comfortable dealing with the uncomfortable; and maximizing profit by not making it top priority. In Extreme Teams, take a peek into top companies and examine the teamwork experiments powering their results, including how: Pixar's teams use constant feedback and debate to transform initially flawed films into billion-dollar hits A culture of radical "freedom and responsibility" helps Netflix execute on the next big thing Whole Food's super-autonomous teams embrace hard metrics and friendly competition to drive performance Zappos fuels the weirdness and fun that sustains its success From marketing to design to technology to product demand, everything has changed in business and will continue to do so. Why shouldn't the teams carrying out these changes undergo their own upgrades

Robert Bruce Shaw helps business leaders build companies and teams capable of superior performance. He holds a PhD in organizational behavior from Yale University and is the author of highly regarded books on leadership and organizational culture.

..".great insight...gives ideas for those firms that would like to hire the best employee and motivate them to perform at the highest level they can." --PM World Journal ..".takes a very balanced, shockingly brutal look at the benefits, costs and potential pitfalls of utilizing high-performance teams...one of the few books that I have seen to directly address teams realistically." -PM World Journal ..".provides a very informative look into the processes that make teams at firms such as Pixar and Alibaba so successful." --Choice "Teamwork requires more than the occasional pizza party or rock-climbing expedition. Extreme Teams looks at the team-building practices of high-performing companies to identify what works best." --Accounting Today