Stand for Something When I kick off product teams, one of the many things I do with them is play a game called Product Tree. Product Tree is a game created by Luke Hohmann (Innovation Games®) where you use a metaphor of a tree to envision the different aspects of a team or product. You start by drawing a big...

Are you part of a team at work? Do you want that teamwork to be more successful, or easier, or less stressful? Then put yourself to the test and see if you're ready to succeed in today's team-driven workplace. Succeeding with and through teams, partnerships, and other collaborations is paramount in today's workplace. Check the following 12 statements. See if...

Collaboration Is Not About Being Right or Wrong Some people exhibit such a need to be right that they can't stand evidence to the contrary. Do you work with someone like that? These are the folks who work overtime to prove others wrong and disparage anyone who has a different point of view. This type of communication stance makes team...

"Outcome interdependence" (i.e., linked fates or the feeling of being in the same boat together) -- not interpersonal attraction or the quality and quantity of communication -- is the number-one predictor of group cohesion and thus high-performance teamwork. In general, managers and leaders foster way too many feelings of negative interdependence in their organizations. That is an unintended consequence of...

If you care about adding value at work, invest  7 valuable minutes in this TED video... Some questions I'm asking... Is "agility" more about process and tools, or thinking and learning? Is "perfecting the plan" a learned assumption? And if so, what are the sources for this learning? How do you expose and challenge your hidden assumptions? I'd love to...