Virtuoso Teams: Lessons from Teams That Changed Their Worlds (Financial Times Series) (Hardcover)

To insure that virtuoso teams work, the authors share "a systematic process that can serve as a catalyst to higher team performance." (p. 164) They dub this process the "Deep Dive," having adapted a similar approach used by the design firm IDEO to help their clients design and develop new products. Boynton and Fisher refocus the IDEO process use by teams charged with designing the "best solutions possible within certain constraints, to do this fast and to offer sufficient novelty in (these) solutions so as to overcome otherwise intractable problems." (p. 167) To this reader, their process seems one that could be implemented relatively quickly by a talented and highly-motivated team.

Your organization may only need the kinds of transformational outcomes provided by virtuoso teams on rare occasions, but when such a need arises, here is a resource that should not be far from your desk. The creative and innovative among you might even be able to adapt some of their ideas to enliven the productivity of your on-going groups and teams.

Boynton and Fisher offer a new way of thinking about how major changes might be made in organizations. It was a pleasure to travel along with them on their journey through some of history's more remarkable virtuoso teams. I heartily recommend you climb on board.

1. Virtuoso team leaders drive the culture, vision, and action within the team context.
2. Virtuoso team leaders recruit the very best talent and never settle for what's available.
3. Virtuoso team leaders double-stretch the customer and the team to achieve ambitious goals.
4. Virtuoso team leaders spotlight the individual "I" within the team, and not the conventional "we."
5. Organizations cultivate a marketplace for talent within the organization to facilitate the creation of virtuoso teams.
6. Virtuoso team leaders actively span boundaries and act as powerful conduits of ideas.
7. Virtuoso team leaders stimulate idea flow by managing space, processes, and time. (p. 3)

To insure that virtuoso teams work, the authors share "a systematic process that can serve as a catalyst to higher team performance." (p. 164) They dub this process the "Deep Dive," having adapted a similar approach used by the design firm IDEO to help their clients design and develop new products. Boynton and Fisher refocus the IDEO process use by teams charged with designing the "best solutions possible within certain constraints, to do this fast and to offer sufficient novelty in (these) solutions so as to overcome otherwise intractable problems." (p. 167) To this reader, their process seems one that could be implemented relatively quickly by a talented and highly-motivated team.

Your organization may only need the kinds of transformational outcomes provided by virtuoso teams on rare occasions, but when such a need arises, here is a resource that should not be far from your desk. The creative and innovative among you might even be able to adapt some of their ideas to enliven the productivity of your on-going groups and teams.

Boynton and Fisher offer a new way of thinking about how major changes might be made in organizations. It was a pleasure to travel along with them on their journey through some of history's more remarkable virtuoso teams. I heartily recommend you climb on board.