Making Collaboration Work

Extracted 06JAN2012 fromhttp://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/06/six_common_misperceptions_abou.html

by J. Richard Hackman

Teamwork and collaboration are critical to mission achievement in any organization that has to respond quickly to changing circumstances. My research in the U.S. intelligence community has not only affirmed that idea but also surfaced a number of mistaken beliefs about teamwork that can sidetrack productive collaboration...

J. Richard Hackman is the Edgar Pierce Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology at Harvard University and a leading expert on teams. The misperceptions that are summarized in this post are explored in greater depth in his new book Collaborative Intelligence: Using Teams to Solve Hard Problems (Berrett-Koehler, 2011). He is interviewed by HBR in "Why Teams Don't Work" (May 2009) and is the author of Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances (Harvard Business School Press, 2002).