Teams Books

What a fabulous book! The author does a great job in providing helpful tools and tips for assessing needs and facilitating team building sessions and it's done in a way that is easy to understand. I highly recommend this book to supervisors and HR professionals, or anyone else that is interested in building high performance teams!

The "Team-Building Workshop" has proved to be a fantastic resource in our organization. This how-to book is a great tool that can be utilized by either Managers or HR Professionals, and is great for beginners in team building, as well as those that are more experienced. This book has provided our HR organization with the strategies and techniques to conduct team building sessions in both proactive and reactive situations, large and small without having to outsource. I highly recommend this book.

This book offers a terrific balance of "principles and practicals." I found the author's grasp of workplace teams and their purpose (as well as when not to use them) to be very "real-world." As a seasoned corporate trainer, I am always on the look out for impacting resources, and this definitely tops my list in the Team-Building category. If you are new to workplace teams, or a veteran team-builder, you will find real gems in this volume. Ms. Payne uses an easy-to-follow format for each chapter: introducing the idea, discussing its value, giving concrete examples, and, most important to me, providing a template to get you started using the idea in your workplace situation. She even includes an Appendix with all the major tools and ideas laid out for overheads. This book will be helpful to HR personnel who need to provide guidance to team leaders in their organization; trainers seeking fresh ideas and tools for their team-building offerings; and managers who are looking for the practical steps one must take to create and sustain a high-performance work team. In this era of workplace collaboration and cooperation, The Team-Building Workshop, is a welcome resource for anyone trying to achieve more with and through others!

There's an enormous amount of reading material on teams and teamwork and this book is one of the best. Its highly rational approach condenses studies of high performing teams. The authors found eight common characteristics and explain in enough detail why they are important. They include excerpts from the leaders and teams they have studied. They also state that the two most common reasons for team failure are politics and personal agendas. They include a quote from Duke Drake: "The minute the politicians take over and start worrying about what's in it for me, you're dead in the water."

Larson and LaFasto put their outstanding research into easy-to-understand language. The book is foundation reading for executives and team members who want to understand the key variables that spell success for teams. And it's an easy-reading 138 pages presented so anyone (5th grade reading level!) can understand their findings. I know the authors, and have the utmost respect for their scientific methodology and experience. We use the matching team/ leadership assessment and training program to help client organizations plan, build, and fix their teams. Really an excellent reader, and a foundation of our consulting practice.

These authors studied all different sorts of teams (everything from a Mount Everest expedition and a Notre Dame championship football teams to the group that invented Chicken McNuggets) in order to determine what they had in common. The book is highly readable and describes eight common principles that could be implemented to improve the function of any team. It is also full of interesting comments and stories from the study. I highly recommend the book for any team member (not only managers) since the book also clearly describes how the individal can influence the success of the entire team.

This is a great book that depicts the entire 2006 New Orleans Saints football season. The pictures are wonderful and the story was written very well. I bought it as a birthday present for my husband and he LOVED it.

Excellent book. Great item to remember the Saints amazing 2006 season for years and years to come. I look forward to next year's book about the Saints Super Bowl Championship.

This book was awesome!!!! I have been a Saints fan for many years, through the good and the bad. The 2006 season was awesome. This book is a great recap of a wonderful season for the New Orleans Saints. It has a week by week analysis of each game of the 2006 season. This is a great gift for a New Orleans Saints fan.

Geaux Saints!!!!!

Big House was one of the first persons I met when I was a freshmen at WSSU. Reading this book brought back some great memories. This is an Outstanding read that anyone would enjoy.
K.B.

very compelling Book about Big house and His legacy which has him as One of the winningest Coaches Ever in College Basketball. but this Book reflects on the struggle and Bridiging the gap socially and spiritually. Humor keeps things into perspective in the Book,but what Big House had to deal with in Jim Crow America,etc... is no laughing matter and this book pulls no punches,but it speaks directly about the game on the court and the game of life and so much else in between. very Powerful.

Big House was a great coach - the fifth best in history of college basketball but more importantly he was a guy with a sense of values and a good sense of humor. He knows basketball as well as anyone in the country and has some candid comments about how to improve the game. But his real commitment was to the students he coached. He experienced the bitter bite of segregation - working for an HBCU called Winston Salem State - but his memoir is better than a rant - it is a reflection of his insight and integrity.

THIS BOOK IS ABOUT THE ALL-TIME TIGERS TEAM, POSITION BY POSITION. I REALLY ENJOYED READING ABOUT GREATS LIKE PRINCE HAL, KALINE, GIBSON, GREENBERG, LOLICH, COBB, CASH AND MANY MORE. THERE ARE SOME GREAT PHOTOS AND ALOT OF NOSTALGIA. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS FOR THE TRUE BASEBALL FANS WHO REALLY HAVE FOLLOWED BASBALL OVER THE YEARS. THESE TIGERS COVERED IN THIS BOOK EARNED THEIR STRIPES, INDEED. SOME GREAT GREAT MOMENTS RELIVED IN THIS BOOK.

Our national pastime is the one constant reminder that everyone kid can grow up to play in the major leagues. I have been a long time Philadelphia Phillies fan and as such seldom read books about other ball clubs. After finishing this book I will have to rethink that policy as the Detroit Tigers are one of the most storied franchises in baseball history.

Starting off with the greatest ballplayer to ever put on spikes, Ty Cobb, the book begins to tell more than a story about the Tigers but also about the fans in Detroit. Men like Charlie Gehringer, Sparky Anderson, Hank Greenberg, and Al Kaline, Alan Trammel ands many others are all in the true baseball fans collector book.

The book had Kirk Gibson in the outfield over the great Harry Heilmann and while I wouldn't have made that choice the writers do make a fairly convincing argument for the selection. I enjoyed the inside look into Al Kaline and his often tumultuous relationship with the people of Detroit.

Finally the book is more that the best Tigers it also includes the near misses, the ones that should be there as well and even the weird and funny characters of the teams. Overall a great book for those interested in the game as well as the "true" Tiger fan.

This is a very good book about all of the great Tiger players. They name their all-time team and have stories about some of their great pitchers. Several of their great managers are also included. McLain, Lolich, Newhouser, and Trout are some of their better-known pitchers.

Book was is good condition and came promptly.

If you do, than this book is for your team or your life.

This book is GREAT for group study or just for personal reading for personal growth. The chapters included: how to keep your passion alive; five relational skills every artist needs; coping with rejection and failure; working through relational conflict; how to develop a genuine "can-do" attitude; cultivating confidence; dealing with your "stuff"; how to survive as a leader in the church; rising above our artistic differences; how to fall in love with your church...and stay there.

Each chapter starts out with a scenario of a real life situation and then uses that example throughout the chapter to help illustrate - very effective and engaging. The scenarios alone have provided hours of disucssion amoung our team members, in an out of class.

Do you ever find yourself in a confrontational situation and don't know what to say? Do you ever find yourself the victim of harsh criticsm; hurt and fuming about it for months or years? Do you ever just wish you could quit and go somewhere else where there aren't so many "issues?" Are you tired of listening to someone's constant negative and critical attitude? Are you struggling with feeling like you can never be good enough? Are you deeply hurt because you were turned down, yet again, for the part that you really wanted? This book will identify with you, lift you up and help you develop a plan and strategy on what to say and how to act, and most importantly, guide you to scriptures that will keep you going.

Even though this book can be well understood in its own standing, the predecessor of this book, "The Heart of the Artist" might be the best place to start. Generally, it defines and teaches on many of the foundational issues relating to character development that cause a lot of the problems described in this book.

If you purchase this book, actually read it :) and apply the scriptures it will lead you to, you will NO DOUBT experience greater success and peace in your ministry and in your life in general.

My artistic team is going through this book right now. It has practical insights, discussion questions and personal action steps. The book has helped my team become more of a team while enriching their Christian journey. We also went through Heart of the Artist by the same author. It is equally good.
There is not much out there for Christian Artists that is practical. Thanks Mr Noland.

This little book reminds me of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations in that it is very concise but makes important points which make perfect sense but are often overlooked, ignored, glossed over, or given up on. Alignment is essential for any team of any kind to function at an optimal level, but is very rare. This book will impress upon you the high level that is achievable if desired, and instruct you about a process to attain it.

This little book makes three huge contributions to leadership development by:
1. Spelling out how senior executives can operate as a team
2. Defining alignment as "a relationship to decisions whereby you own them completely"
3. Cogently making the case that successful execution of organizational strategy is dependent upon achieving 1 and 2.

I have spent the last 15 years helping top executive teams become successful. Working at MIT Sloan school on leadership, delivering programs with Harvard Business School professor Mike Beer that have turned into HBR articles on helping top teams be successful and having a long list of executive teams that I work with, there are no new creative ideas on helping executive teams. WRONG...Miles Kierson has delivered a ground breaking view on a new model that when applied has a significant impact on how a executive team work. Miles has a view on what an Aligned team means that really is transformational. "Alignement is a relationship to decisions where you own decisions as if they were yours, even if you don't agree with the decision"... Now there is lots more but few small books add as much punch as this one.

My final comment...I have sent Miles book to all the CEO's I work with. Not something I do very often...

As any fan of the USC Trojans knows, the football program has a very long and storied history. No college football fan would deny that USC has a place among college football royalty, alongside the likes of Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Alabama, Miami, Michigan, Ohio State, Nebraska and Texas. Of course, getting to that level involved winning games - lots of them - and important ones at that. But of USC's hundreds of victories, which were the most important in contributing to USC's status as a former and current powerhouse?

In this book, Barry LeBrock examines ten of the most momentous victories in USC football history. From the early days in the 1920's when Howard Jones' Thundering Herd took on Knute Rockne's Notre Dame teams and forged a tremendous rivalry that has produced some of the greatest players and plays in all of college football history, to the modern day, when Pete Carroll forged his reputation as the most gifted USC coach since John McKay - the top 10 greatest victories in USC history are included. Of course, there might be some controversy involving the ten games included, but I think almost all USC fans would agree that the ten that are listed in the book are indeed milestones in Trojan history. For instance, USC's 2001 victory over UCLA (a 27-0 shutout) is a curious inclusion, given that USC's 2001 season was a mediocre campaign, with only 6 wins against 6 losses, but it was this game that really set the bar in Los Angeles that USC was back, and UCLA was no longer the big dog in town.

Each of the ten chapters involves a description of the game itself, but with ample background information so the reader can understand what was going on in the world of college football at that point in time, and what the stakes involved in the game were. The descriptions of the players and coaches and atmosphere of the game are truly engrossing. This is a wonderful, enjoyable read for any Trojan fan (or for those who just want to know what USC football is all about) and I would highly recommend it.

I have been following USC football for about twenty years and I thought I knew most of the stories about the Trojans. But this book was full of stories that I had never heard before. He quotes everybody -- from guys who played in the 1920's to OJ to Garrett, from Marcus to McKay, and Leinart and Carroll.
Definietly worth reading if you are a Trojan backer. Excellent.

While Barry LeBrock's "The Trojan Ten," as the title suggests, focuses on what he considers to be the ten most significant victories in the long and celebrated history of USC football, the book is actually an historical compendium of a program that stands at the top of the gridiron pedestal alongside Notre Dame, USC's oldest and most competitive rival.

Currently the Trojans and Irish have each secured 11 national championships. They are also even in the Heisman Trophy department with each school boasting 7 winners.

LeBrock explains how graduate manager Gwynn Wilson of USC, realizing that legendary playing Notre Dame under famed coach Knute Rockne could be the springboard toward a Trojan surge into the top ranks of collegiate gridiron teams, was able, with the assistance of his wife doing a good sales job on Mrs. Rockne, to get the famous Notre Dame to okay the series.

LeBrock also reveals how, when USC fired football coach Gloomy Gus Henderson, Rockne lent the Trojans a helping hand in recommending that they consider hiring Iowa's coach Howard Jones. It was a 16-14 come from behind victory by USC over Notre Dame at South Bend in 1931 with Jones as coach that prompted the school from the West to catapult into the same elite circle with ND. This, understandably, was LeBrock's first choice as he chronologically presented his choices of the ten most significant victories in the school's history.

Two other victories over Notre Dame also fell into the elite ten category, the others being 1964 with a 20-17 upset over the number one ranked Irish and the benumbing 55-24 victory over the Irish after the men of Troy overcame a 24-0 deficit and appeared ready to sustain a humiliating defeat.

While the title scheme and a certain amount of emphasis on LeBrock's part extend to the ten victories selected, the book has much more. He leads into those classic games by giving shape and perspective to the Trojan program during the periods in question before and after the classic victories then reveals the aftermath of the impact on the school's overall program.

For instance, in analyzing the great 1931 triumph solid emphasis is given to the winning mentality developed by Howard Jones in establishing a juggernaut that provided national titles in 1928, 1931, 1932 and 1939.

We then see a passing of the dynastic baton almost one generation after Jones's death from a heart attack following his final season in 1940 to the advent of witty and jovial John McKay, the architect of the 1964 and 1974 storybook wins over the Fighting Irish and the molder of four USC national champions in 1962, 1967, 1972 and 1974.

Another game put in LeBrock's top ten was one of the most memorable of McKay's career, when USC battled crosstown rival UCLA for the 1967 national championship. The Bruins featured the quarterback who would win the Heisman Trophy that season in Gary Beban. The game's deciding touchdown in USC's exciting 21-20 win was scored on a 64-yard romp by O.J. Simpson, the Heisman winner to be in 1968.

Once that the McKay years are completed LeBrock segues to the era of Pete Carroll, the next and current USC dynasty coach. His first top ten selection concerning Carroll was a 27-0 shutout of UCLA in 2001 in what he sees as a milestone game in which the Trojans made significant inroads into the future and the recruiting war with the Bruins.

One of my favorite elements of this book is the way that the author explores the USC winning tradition based on the productive careers of three coaches, providing an important insight into winning psychology. Given that there are a lot more people to interview concerning the McKay and Carroll dynasties, this psychological element involving a dynastic football program can be explored at greater detail than in the case of Jones, the great coach who built an impressive Trojan foundation in the twenties and thirties.

Current USC athletic director plays a major role in the development of this book. In addition to writing the foreword, he was recruited by McKay and became USC's first Heisman winner in 1965. As athletic director he was responsible for hiring Carroll over the vociferous objections of many L.A. sports media figures and prominent school alumni, who were proven wrong by Carroll's enormous success.

Virtuoso Teams is a great book. Not only for its very insightful lessons of history but moreover for its truly stimulating content: When discussing this book with colleagues and friends, everyone had at least one example of a virtuoso team to which they once belonged.
And this probably is the greatest asset of this book, that it will trigger you to once again create the conditions to a virtuoso team and to relive that great successful experience!

Marnix Mali

Boynton and Fisher have produced a small gem of a book that provides a refreshing, and some might say a revolutionary view of how to staff and manage transformational teams. They support their non-traditional perspective on to build virtuosity into collective endeavors by offering brief, but thoroughly engaging histories of seven such remarkable teams. Sharing the ins and outs of such diverse collaborative efforts as the production of West Side Story, the Manhattan Project, the light bulb, Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows, Amundsen's successful voyage to the South Pole, Miles Davis' revolutionary jazz recordings, and Norsk Hydro's crisis management approach, Boynton and Fisher discern seven lessons for how virtuoso teams can drive transformational change.

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.

Too often books on teams take case studies from sports teams. This book draws real life examples of teams who had breakthrough experiences - from TV script writers to Antartic exploration, to oil reserves. The last section of the book has a very practical "how to do it yourself" guide to apply it to your own business or community challenge. As a buisness owner and Chairman I will be using these ideas with my people. The step by step guide on how to build your own Virtuoso team and do a "Deep Dive" is easy to follow and I believe would make sense in all cultures ( I have 10 different nationalities in my business) . It is a useful addition to the body of literature on teams - highly recommended

I put down Prelude to War to start Brian Jensen's book. It's a great book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a terrific human interest story and it's interesting for Yankee fans, Yankee haters and non-sports fans alike.

Plain and simple, this book is just a lot of fun to read. While some of the stories of what happened to these once great ball players had me near tears, others had me laughing out loud. And still others had me shaking my head, wondering how some of these guys made it to the ballpark on game days. Jensen's easy-to-read style and dry humor that leaks through now and again makes Where Have All Our Yankees Gone a must have for any sports reader who wants to know what life is like once the lights go out.

The Yankees are a metaphor for America. They are the best of all time. People who do not like them feel that way just because they do not want one single team (or country) to be so much better than everybody else, which does not change the fact that they are. People who grow up in New York and still hate the Yankees are like liberals in America who still hate their country.

STEVEN TRAVERS
AUTHOR OF "BARRY BONDS: BASEBALL'S SUPERMAN"
STWRITES@AOL.COM