【文章內(nèi)容簡(jiǎn)介】 es. Technological innovationplaces greater value on agility（靈活性） . John Chambers, chairman of Cisco Systems Inc., aworldwide leader in electronics products, says that we pete against market transitions（過(guò)渡） , not petitors. Product transitions used to take five or seven years。 now they take oneor two. Digital technology also makes it easier for people to coordinate their activities withoutresorting to hierarchy. The millennials （千禧一代） who will soon make up half the workforcein rich countries were raised from nursery school onwards to work in groups. D） The fashion for teams is also spreading from the usual corporate suspects (such as GE andIBM) to some more unusual ones. The Cleveland Clinic, a hospital operator, has reanised itsmedical staff into teams to focus on particular treatment areas。 consultants, nurses andothers collaborate closely instead of being separated by speciality （專業(yè)）and rank. The USArmy has gone the same way. In his book, Team of Teams, General Stanley McChrystaldescribes how the army39。s hierarchical structure hindered its operations during the early stagesof the Iraq war. His solution was to learn something from the rebels it was fighting: decentralising authority to selfanising teams. E） A good rule of thumb is that as soon as generals and hospital administrators jump on amanagement bandwagon （追隨一種管理潮流） , it is time to ask questions. Leigh Thompson ofKellogg School of Management in Illinois warns that, Teams are not always the answer— teamsmay provide insight, creativity and knowledge in a way that a person working independentlycannot。 but teamwork may also lead to confusion, delay and poor decisionmaking. Thelate Richard Hackman of Harvard University once argued, I have no question that when youhave a team, the possibility exists that it will generate magic, producing somethingextraordinary ... But don39。t count on it. F） Hackman （ who died in 2022） noted that teams are hindered by problems of coordinationand motivation that chip away at the benefits of collaboration. Highflyers （能干的人） who areforced to work in teams may be undervalued and freeriders empowered. Groupthink may beunavoidable. In a study of 120 teams of senior executives, he discovered that less than 10% of their supposed members agreed on who exactly was on the team. If it is hard enough todefine a team39。s membership, agreeing on its purpose is harder still. G） Profound changes in the workforce are making teams trickier to manage. Teams work best iftheir members have a strong mon culture. This is hard to achieve when, as is now thecase in many big firms, a large proportion of staff are temporary contractors. Teamworkimproves with time: America39。s National Transportation Safety Board found that 73% of theincidents in its civilaviation database occurred on a crew39。s first day of flying together. However, as Amy Edmondson of Harvard points out, anisations increasingly use team as a verbrather than a noun: they form teams for specific purposes and then quickly disband them. H） The least that can be concluded from this research is that panies need to think harderabout managing teams. They need to rid their minds of sentimentalism（感情用事） :the mostsuccessful teams have leaders who are able to set an overall direction and take immediateaction. They need to keep teams small and focused: giving in to pressure to be moreinclusive is a guarantee of dysfunction. Jeff Bezos, Amazon39。s boss, says that If I see morethan two pizzas for lunch, the team is too big. They need to immunise teams against groupthink: Hackman argued that the best ones contain deviant （離經(jīng)叛道者） who are willing todo something that may be upsetting to others. I） A new study of 12,000 workers in 17 countries by Steelcase, a furnituremaker which alsodoes consulting, finds that the best way to ensure employees are engaged is to give themmore control over where and how they do their work— which may mean liberating them fromhaving to do everything in collaboration with others. J） However, anisations need to learn something bigger than how to manage teams better: they need to be in the habit of asking themselves whether teams are the best tools for the job. Teambuilding skills are in short supply: Deloitte reports that only 12% of the executives theycontacted feel they understand the way people work together in works and only 21% feelconfident in their ability to build crossfunctional teams. Loosely managed teams can beehotbeds of distraction— employees routinely plain that they can39。t get their work donebecause they are forced to spend too much time in meetings or pelled to work in noisyoffices. Even in the age of openplan offices and social works some work is best left to theindividual. team leaders know exactly where the team should go and are able to takeprompt action. of authority was also found to be more effective in military operations. many panies, the conventional form of anisation is giving way to a work ofteams. of poorly managed teams are easily distracted from their work. is most effective when team members share the same culture. to a report by Deloitte, teamwork is being increasingly popular amongpanies. team members find it hard to agree on questions like membership and the