Supercharged Teams: The Book
Working in a team is harder than ever – work is faster, leaner and busier, and we forget that that teamwork needs work.
Work is changing, We are time-poor, attention-starved, pressured to work faster and better, more often working remotely and in different locations. It’s easy to feel overloaded, and doing great teamwork can be the last thing on our list of priorities.
The work teams have to do is also changing. New technologies and market disruption create complex challenges that can only be solved by experts working well together, whether they are in the same office or have to work across different departments and organisations. Not only is working better together the right thing to do but it’s the only way we will succeed on the complex issues we face today.
Supercharged Teams was Number 10 in the WH Smith business book charts in 2023
What this book will give you:
• 30 tools to supercharge you, your team and the way your team works.
• Techniques to rethink, challenge and evaluate your team at every level, whether you lead a team or belong to one.
• A clear understanding of how work is changing, and the best approaches to be an effective team in today’s work environment.
• Case studies and real-world examples from companies like Unilever, Diageo, Essity, AB InBev, Netflix, BAE Systems, Ipsos, WPP and public sector examples from local councils, charities and the voluntary and communitysector to bring the tools to life.
The good news is that everything that stands in the way of good teamwork can be overcome with the right tools. ‘Supercharged Teams: 30 Tools of Great Teamwork’ gives you the power to make sure your team succeeds in today’s challenging working environments.
Book Outline:
Chapter 1: Why supercharge your team?
Introducing Supercharged Teams from Supercharged Teams on Vimeo.
Chapter 2: Choose your team
We need strong teams more than ever before, and today’s working environment cries out for better teamwork. However, being in a team can be a default assumption instead of a conscious decision. Some tasks are great for teams to work on, but others are better done by individuals. Use these tools to assess the task, decide if a team is required, and choose the right team.
Chapter 3: Find more time
Being too busy is common at work, but having the time to participate properly in a team is key. Prioritising what your team spends time on is crucial to success. These tools will create more time and impact for your team.
Chapter 4: What goals do you want to achieve?
Success means different things to different people. A crucial stage in setting team ambition is to define what a successful outcome is early on. These tools will help to create a powerful vision of what success looks like, reframe and clarify project outcomes, and align your team with a clear direction from the start.
Chapter 5: Find your motivation
Working in a team can be hard and tiring, and sometimes it’s hard to find the motivation to keep going. However, if the work gives us a sense of purpose and helps us achieve a personal ambition beyond the project, it makes us motivated to achieve more together. Use these tools to enhance the meaning of your work for you and for the team.
Chapter 6: Agree what you will deliver, when
Agreeing on what the team will deliver, by when, is a first step in any team. Rather than making assumptions or accepting a directive without question, these tools help you to interrogate your task, project and journey early to make the best use of your team’s time.
Chapter 7: Ways to work together
The way a team works together should be conscious and agreed, not based on habit. When a team commits to specific behaviours and ways of working, they can hold each other to account and get the most from each other. Use these tools to agree how to work together and safely reset any ineffective team behaviours.
Chapter 8: Dealing with conflict
Relationships between team members can be difficult, and teams will inevitably face conflict. These tools help you to set roles and expectations to avoid conflict, manage it when it does arise, restore harmony, and deal with difficult behaviours in your team.
Chapter 9: Get support from leaders
The environment the team works in makes a big difference to how effective the team is. If the team is not sponsored by decision-makers and key influencers, or does not support the organisation’s direction of travel, the efforts of the team can be wasted. These tools help you get the support you need from the leaders who can support your teamwork.
Chapter 10: Engage your stakeholders
Every team works on behalf of a wider group, and keeping those stakeholders updated can be difficult. If you give them too much information, you can get thrown off track if they interfere, but if you keep information back, you risk not getting support or approval at later stages. Use these tools to give your stakeholders regular, useful and constructive updates that don’t hold your teamwork back.
Chapter 11: Change the culture
Any successful team needs to understand the culture they are working in. Whether understanding customers in a new way, or adopting new ideas, or working differently, teams often need to help people to change what they do. These tools give you some simple ways to help your project outcomes succeed rather than be rejected.
Chapter 12: What do teams look like in the future?
Our working worlds will continue to change; the technology, social, employment and economic trends of today will continue to grow. Successful teams will learn and adapt ever more frequently to stay effective. The ability to supercharge our teams is crucial to our teamwork now, and will be even more important in future.
Chapter 13: Using Supercharged Teams and 30 tools in your team
Use the 30 Tools of Great Teamwork to reset your team, with 3 different workshop approaches. Whether you are working in a small or large team, face to face, in the same building or across the world from each other, this set of tools will help you as a team member or leader to reset your ways of working and achieve your goals.
We now have the responsibility and the permission to supercharge our teams, and we can do this by deliberately resetting how our team works together, using these tools.
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