Who is the author of High-Impact Tools for Teams?

The authors of High-Impact Tools for Teams are Stefano Mastrogiacomo and Alexander Osterwalder.

High-Impact Tools for Teams Book Summary - High-Impact Tools for Teams Book explained in key points

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High-Impact Tools for Teams summary

Name: High-Impact Tools for Teams
Rating: 4.1 (173 reviews)
Author: Stefano Mastrogiacomo and Alexander Osterwalder

Stefano Mastrogiacomo Alexander Osterwalder

5 Tools to Align Team Members, Build Trust, and Get Results Fast

4.1 (173 ratings)

23 mins

Brief summary

'High-Impact Tools for Teams' by Stefano Mastrogiacomo and Alexander Osterwalder is a guide for team leaders and members, providing effective ways to improve collaboration, productivity, and communication within a team. It contains practical tools and methods to enhance team performance.

Topics

Talent Development Work Culture Effectiveness Focus Leadership Teamwork Strategy

Table of Contents

High-Impact Tools for Teams
Summary of 7 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 7

What’s in it for me? Discover a powerful and easy-to-use tool for project management.

We all want to have more productive meetings. And, during those meetings, we want to know that every team member is on board and on the same page. Alas, this isn’t always how things go. More often than not, meetings turn into rambling, chaotic messes. Team members, though uncertain or confused, may remain silent; they fear that they’ll look silly if they speak up. In the world of project management, such silence is all too common, even when problems arise.

Enter the Team Alignment Map – a tool that sets out to combat each and every recurring project-management problem. This simple chart can help you plan and check in on projects while letting team members be more active, empowered, and collaborative in the process. If you’ve ever had to lead a team project, this tool may be the game changer you’ve been waiting for.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

why so many meetings and projects tend to fall apart;
how the “backward pass” can resolve problems before they start; and
how you can empower your team by stepping out of the room.

There are common reasons why teams get poor results.

Everyone loves team meetings, right? Wait, what?! You don’t like meetings? You actually dread attending them and think they’re unhelpful, annoying time-wasters? Well, as it turns out, you’re not alone.

According to research conducted by the Atlassian software company, half of meetings are an unproductive waste of time; around 37 billion dollars’ worth of salaries are squandered in meetings by US businesses alone. This is partially because many teams are downright dysfunctional. According to a report in Harvard Business Review, only 10 percent of team members can even agree about who else is on their team. So is it any wonder that less than 30 percent of team projects turn out to be successful?

The writing is on the wall: meetings aren’t working. For teams to succeed, we need new tools and a new approach to project management.

The key message here is: There are common reasons why teams get poor results.

We need teams to be successful. The biggest and most important projects require effective teamwork – there’s simply no other way. To come up with a solution for better results, we first need to look at what some of the common problems are.

Let’s start with two of the biggest ones: unsafe team environments and activity misalignment.

It’s not hard to spot an unsafe team environment. This happens when people don’t feel comfortable speaking their minds, raising concerns, or disagreeing with others. Team members tend to feel unvalued, and there’s a sense that it’s all about competition rather than collaboration.

Likewise, there are noticeable red flags when team activities are misaligned. The most glaring example is when team members are confused about the roles other team members are playing. Then there are the countless meetings that never clear anything up. Priorities keep shifting, and no one communicates. Because of all the confusion, efforts get needlessly duplicated, and progress inches forward when it should be making leaps and bounds. Sound familiar?

Solving just one of these problems isn’t enough. In order to conquer highly complex problems, you need both a safe team climate and perfectly aligned activities. And that is where the Team Alignment Map – or TAM, for short – comes in. In the blinks ahead we’ll look at how the TAM can help you plan projects and make sure everyone feels confident and clear about how to work together to achieve amazing results.

The Team Alignment Map promotes clarity and provides SMART objectives.

Planning and assessment: both are crucial to any project's success. Planning involves laying out the mission, setting goals, assigning roles, and getting people on board. Assessment is equally important; it involves checking in, tracking potential problems, making adjustments, and sustaining morale.

The Team Alignment Map aims to help with both of these areas. It’s a simple chart that keeps everyone on the same page and gives everyone a voice.

The TAM empowers team members and tracks potential problems.

Now that you’ve established your Mission and Joint Objectives, everyone should have a good idea of the project’s purpose and how you intend to reach that goal. In the next column, Joint Commitments, you can start to break things down further by figuring out who will do what.

The key message here is: The TAM empowers team members and tracks potential problems.

Using the TAM can help you catch problems before they occur.

Let’s take a minute to run a scenario and see the TAM in action. In this example, we’ll look at what’s known as the forward pass, which is getting from the heading to the Joint Risks. Then we’ll see what’s known as the backward pass, which is when the final two columns inspire a reconsideration of the objectives and commitments.

The key message here is: Using the TAM can help you catch problems before they occur.

Spot and repair problems with rapid assessments.

As we mentioned up front, the TAM isn’t just an effective planning tool. It’s also great for conducting assessments.

Assessments are key to keeping projects on track. Too often, there isn’t a system for checking in, and members can spend too long going in the wrong direction; they think they have the right idea but are actually veering far off track. The TAM offers a way to perform rapid assessments while largely avoiding the need for long, ponderous meetings.

The TAM provides structure, engagement, and ownership in meetings.

Meetings can be dreadful wastes of time. But they don’t have to be. And here, too, the TAM can help.

Even if you’ve had disappointing results with meetings in the past, you shouldn’t underestimate the power of meeting and discussing things face-to-face. It remains one of the most impactful collaboration tools we have at our disposal. Problems tend to occur when meetings are unstructured and chaotic – when they leave too many questions unanswered. Fortunately, these are problems that can be easily fixed.

A team contract will discourage conflict and encourage a safe environment.

Putting together a team means mixing together different personality types and people who have different expectations about communication and relationships. As any experienced team leader will attest, this can result in some big-time conflicts. So why not try to nip those conflicts in the bud by creating a team contract?

The key message here is: A team contract will discourage conflict and encourage a safe environment.

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What is High-Impact Tools for Teams about?

High Impact Tools for Teams (2021) offers flexible tools for project planning, assessment, and creating an empowering environment for your team members. At the center is the Team Alignment Map, a simple chart that will transform the way you conduct meetings, track progress, and identify problems before they occur.

High-Impact Tools for Teams Review

High-Impact Tools for Teams (2019) is a must-read for anyone looking to improve team collaboration and achieve better results. Here's what makes this book special:

It offers a range of practical tools that can be easily implemented to enhance team productivity and effectiveness.
With real-life case studies and examples, the book demonstrates how these tools have been successfully applied in various team settings.
The authors' focus on practicality ensures that the book is not just theoretical but provides actionable insights for immediate application.

Who should read High-Impact Tools for Teams?

Leaders and project managers looking for better results
Anyone trying to get an ambitious project off the ground
Team members who long for a better work environment

About the Author

Stefano Mastrogiacomo is a management consultant who’s spent over 20 years leading projects, developing new tools, and working with international companies. His specialties include change management, psycholinguistics, and design thinking. He’s also a professor at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Alexander Osterwalder is an award-winning author, entrepreneur, and speaker. Considered one of the most esteemed management thinkers in the world, he’s been awarded the Thinkers50 Strategy Award. He’s the cofounder of Strategyzer, one of the leading companies for business tools and services.

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