Michael E. Kossler

One of the first steps to take toward increasing team effectiveness is to pay attention to how the team is formed. You can head off most of the problems that beset teams during the formation stage by setting a clear direction, building organizational support, creating an empowering team design, identifying key relationships, and monitoring external factors. When a team is formed with the five high-performance principles described in this guidebook, it has a head start on achieving success.

Despite all of the attention and accolades that organizations place on teams, they are not always the most efficient way to meet a business challenge. It's expensive and time consuming to launch a team, and it's a full-time job to lead a team toward achieving organizational objectives. This guidebook was written to help managers determine if a team is the right tool for meeting a business goal, and explains potential obstacles and challenges to forming a team that can operate at its full potential.

Dispersed teams have members in different countries, cultures, and time zones. Such teams share some important characteristics with local teams, but they also present unique challenges. Organizations need to prepare for and support them properly to realize their full potential.