Teamwork has become the management panacea for organisation ailments.
The language of the sports coach has infiltrated the business environm
ent to make us all develop teams-cross-functional teams, virtual teams
, project teams. This article exposes some simplistic myths and provid
es hard-earned practical lessons in how best to tap some of the 70% of
people's capability typically unused by our major companies, through
working together. It focuses on a particular project-based UK defence/
electronics company, which was faced with a downward trend in financia
l performance, driven by a cost-plus consequence-free culture and demo
tivated staff. The company had the potential to be world class, with t
echnological capabilities second to none, and leadership in core marke
ts. They needed a radical rethink of their ways of working, based on t
eams.