MAKING TEAMS WORK - HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF TEAMWORKING

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.