How to create the perfect business team?

In today’s business environment everybody is expected to achieve more with less. That has changed the way we conduct business in many ways. In the past there was time from the point when a suggestion was made and the letter went out or was faxed until the answer came back and could be reviewed. Today ideas are born, communicated, reflected upon and adopted or rejected within hours. Technology and the tools used in modern business is constantly evolving and accelerating. To accommodate these changes many organizations have introduced team work into the work process. This does not only apply to production processes, where work teams have been common since the start of the Model A on the Ford manufacturing line. These days’ teams gain a larger and larger role in the creative process within organizations. As a society that is moving towards the knowledge economy (Drucker 2001) the requirement to develop new things, new processes, and new ideas through teams is gaining momentum. In such a knowledge society, the individuals who become members of these teams are very intelligent and ambitious people. For a similar situation regarding the Manhattan Project Warren Bennis (1997) used the title “Organizing Genius” and compared the work of a leader of such a team with herding cats.

 This review is mainly concerned with the selection of the members of the team. In almost all literature regarding teams as well as all practical experience of the author the leader of a team is considered a member. Though there are differences in the determination process of the leader, there is typically one designated leader of the team and in some cases a deputy leader. The deputy leader can also be an informal leader or there might be an informal leader in addition to the designated leader and his or her deputy. How team members are selected, both for the leader and informal leader role as well as a regular member to fulfill a task or develop something new is the focus of this review.

I had the good fortune to participate in what could be described as the ‘perfect team’ twice in his life. Once it happened in a research project for the readiness verification of a brand new aircraft, and then a second time for an innovative, large scale development project for a training facility. While both occasions were very different in scope, duration, and goals, the one thing that stood out and made participation exceptional was the cohesion, the relationships and the performance of those individuals that were members of these teams. It was known that the selection occurred largely at random. This review makes an attempt to explore if there are established methods to select ‘perfect teams’ and what the current literature can teach us about this topic.

Initially the idea for the review was to find peer reviewed articles about team selection or teams in general whose results have been exceptional and who were designated by some measure as perfect teams, either for the performance or the composition of the team, or both. As it turned out, the search was much more tedious then anticipated. The term ‘perfect team’ is not used very much in peer reviewed articles, especially when the goal is to look at empirical research. The intent remains to find answers to the question: “How to build the perfect team”. This review is limited to the field of business. It will show the search process to identify the literature that addresses this question. A table will show the search results and the articles that have been selected for a more detailed analysis. The results of this analysis for each article will be presented followed by a short summary. At the end of the review, a conclusion will be presented and the references of the used materials are listed.