Smart Teams
Book

Smart Teams

How to Move from Friction to Flow and Work Better Together

Dermot Crowley
Wiley, 2023
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Editorial Rating

9

getAbstract Rating

  • Comprehensive
  • Applicable
  • Well Structured

Recommendation

The growing deluge of email, incessant meetings, attention-demanding messages, and more seem to conspire against office productivity. Help is on the way. Author Dermot Crowley offers practical advice explaining how you can eliminate much of this “noise” and “friction,” and focus more on getting your work done effectively and on time. This is possible, Crowley promises, even while you take the time to communicate and collaborate with your team. He includes valuable tips on how team leaders can promote a culture of “superproductivity.” 

Summary

Maximum productivity requires coordination and collaboration.  

For a team to be productive, its members need the proper systems and processes in place. To achieve full productivity, they must come together and coordinate their efforts.

To build a “smart team,” its members must be able to “communicate, congregate, and collaborate.” They must understand that even one person’s unproductive behavior will have a negative impact on the entire team. Team leaders should promote a productivity culture within their team and their organization. To strive toward that goal, it’s helpful to understand culture as “a set of collective habits.”   

The all-important triumvirate of communicating, congregating, and collaborating proves particularly challenging for teams in hybrid or remote work environments. Team members based in scattered locations must remain aware of the necessity of connecting without creating noise. For example, as remote employees attempt to carry out teamwork from home, they tend to depend on email – a source of noise – for communicating with one...

About the Author

Dermot Crowley is a productivity author, speaker and trainer. He founded Adapt Productivity, where he serves as director.

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    A. B. 7 months ago
    There is something controversial between collaboration and hierarchy. If there is hierarchy in an organisation (leaders, managers, and team leaders) what you have is obedience, no collaboration.
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    J. G. 8 months ago
    Implementar estas ideas no requiere grandes cambios, sino pequeñas decisiones diarias con impacto acumulativo. Protejamonos del caos y trabajemos con claridad, ritmo y propósito. Qué tanto valor estamos generando y, sobre todo, qué podemos dejar de hacer para avanzar mejor.