TEAMS RESEARCH PROJECT - City LeadershipDr. Keith Sawyer, a professor of psychology and education at Washington University in St. Louis, is one of the country’s leading scientific

CITY LEADERSHIP TEAMS RESEARCH PROJECT

C I T YL EADERSH I PFORUM

C I T YL EADERSH I PCONSULT I NG

C I T YL EADERSH I PM I CROCONFERENCE

C I T YL EADERSH I PI N ST I T U T E

CMYK 0, 90, 100, 0RGB 239, 65, 35 WEB EF4123PMS 1788 C

CMYK 38, 27, 26, 9RGB 150, 157, 161 WEB 969DA1PMS 877 C

CMYK 0, 0, 0, 100RGB 35, 31, 32 WEB 00000PMS BLACK C

Table of Contents

1. Group Genius by Keith Sawyer.................................................................................................. 2

2. Power of 2 by Rodd Wagner and Gale Muller............................................................................ 5

3. Sticky Teams by Larry Osborne.................................................................................................. 9

4. Teams at the Top by Jon Katzenbach.........................................................................................16

5. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni............................................................. 23

6. The Orange Revolution by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton................................................. 27

7. Where Good Ideas Come From by Steven Johnson.................................................................. 32

8. Team Leadership the APEST Way............................................................................................ 37

The book summaries within this document were submitted by volunteers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of City Leadership. It is recommended that readers check the original source when utilizing a quote or statistic.

Group Genius

I. Bibliographical Information

Keith Sawyer. Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration. Basic Books: 2007.

II. Background Information on the Author

Dr. Keith Sawyer, a professor of psychology and education at Washington University in St. Louis, is one of the country’s leading scientific experts on creativity and innovation. After receiving his computer science degree from MIT in 1982, Dr. Sawyer began his career with a two-year stint designing video games for Atari. He then worked for 6 years as a management consultant in Boston and New York, advising large corporations on the strategic use of information technology. Dr. Sawyer entered doctoral study at the University of Chicago in 1990 and attained his PhD in psychology in 1994. He is best known for his studies of jazz and improvisational theater groups.

III. Overview

In the book, Group Genius, Keith Sawyer looks at the power of group genius and collaboration on creativity and innovation. Instead of relying on an individual genius, you should find the power and knowledge of many people in your organizations. With lots of examples, the author demonstrates how the power of collaboration increases the capability of the company to come up with more ideas, better ideas, and a culture of innovation.

IV. Evaluation

Group Genius is an excellent book because it combines ideas and practice with some practical steps. It is not just all ideas with only research and theories. The Author does a good job of showing the thought behind his ideas, and giving a number of actions that a team or corporation can do to become more innovative by finding the “collaborative genius” of a team or the company. He uses a lot of examples: improv actors, inventions like the mountain bike, large corporations, etc. The section on the “Collaborative Mind” is interesting but is really more focused on the individual and their creative capability. The sections on team and organizational collaboration are focused on how your groups can use the power of “collaboration” to be more creative, and better at problem solving. This is a good book for all, not just “groups.” The author talks about how even an individual never really arrives at an idea alone but with help from others and past experiences.

2

V. Questions

1. If you could recommend only one chapter from this book, which chapter would you recommend? Group Flow or Small Sparks

2. What is the author’s most important concept or idea? That true innovation always originates in collaboration.

3. What other books or individuals appear to have really influenced the author? Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

VI. Annotated Outline

Part 1: The Collaborative Team

Chapter 1:The Power of CollaborationThis chapter is on team collaboration, the author shows the power of improvisation as a method to improve problem solving and innovation.

Chapter 2: Improvising Innovation The author argues that too many rules and too much planning tend to “choke out” creativity and innovative problem solving. He provides several examples where groups were faced with significant challenges and had to improvise solutions on the spot.

Chapter 3: Group Flow The author proves that improvisation is sometimes inefficient, it sometimes can also lead to better ideas and better results. He brings up and describes “flow,” a concept that originates from research by Csikszentmihalyi. Flow is a “heightened state of consciousness” that occurs when:

• Your skills match the challenge• Your goal is clear• You get constant feedback on progress• You can fully concentrate on the task

Chapter 4: From Group Think to Group GeniusHere the author attacks the favored idea of a “brainstorming” meeting. He comes to the conclusion that unless brainstorming meetings are naturally and regularly the way one does business, don’t expect them to generate innovation.

Part 2: The Collaborative Mind

Chapter 5: Small SparksThis was a fun chapter. The author tells the stories of C.S. Lewis, J.R. Tolkien, and the 1st ATM. He outlines the 5 stages of creative sparks; throughout the rest of the chapter he challenges the

3

reader with exercises to help you to start “reframing” problems and to step away from your usual perspectives.

Chapter 6: Collaboration Over TimeAgain in this chapter the author uses stories to reveal his point. He tells the story of Morse code and Charles Darwin’s theories. He describes how these ideas and inventions took time to become what we know them to be now.

Chapter 7: Conversation and the MindWe learn that conversation is the engine that drives collaboration, along with “equivocality;” the act of reusing ideas and improvised innovation is the recipe for group genius.

Part 3: The Collaborative Organization

Chapter 8: Organizing for ImprovisationThe Author shares with us 10 secrets of a collaborative organization. Throughout this chapter he shows us that the most open and connected networks foster the greatest innovation.

Chapter 9: The Collaborative WebMany innovations come from networks outside the company’s walls, an invisible collaboration. The author tells the story of how the Monopoly game came to be what it is today through an invisible collaborative web.

Chapter 10: Collaborating with CustomersHere we see that customer webs are where real innovation comes from, and that every company should be working hard to collaborate with these “naturally forming organic” webs.

Chapter 11: Creating the Collaborative EconomyIn this final chapter, the author tackles this question: if everyone within the “web” could make some money from their participation would that drive greater innovation…? He hits on a couple of ideas and ways to try and make that a reality.

VII. Quotes and Statistics

• Even a single idea can’t be attributed to one person because ideas don’t take on their full importance until they’re taken up, reinterpreted, and applied by others (p. 15).

• Most people use the wrong criteria to evaluate their ideas; they think about what will work, about what worked before; or about what is familiar to them (p. 62).

4

Power of 2


Rodd Wagner and Gale Muller. Power of 2. Gallup Press: 2009.

II. Background Information on the Authors

Rodd Wagner is a New York Times best-selling author and a principal of Gallup. His writing focus has been on how human nature impacts business strategy, and he has influenced many senior executives both through consulting and writing. He and his family live near Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Gale Muller is vice chairman and general manager of the Gallup World Poll. He has had both national and global influence; managing a network of more than 300 consultants representing 40 cities throughout the world. He and his family live in Lincoln, Nebraska.

III. Overview

Humans are made for collaboration, but somewhere along the way in our “self-made” modern world we have lost the gift of knowing how to identify a great partnership. Wagner and Muller give insight on eight elements that they have recognized as existing in great partnerships.

IV. Evaluation

I loved the practicality and straightforwardness of this book. Although I did not leave the reading with “mind stretching thoughts,” what the authors wrote as their discoveries made sense, and made me reflect on my past and present partnerships. I left each reading assessing which of the elements existed and which of the elements were missing in my previous partnerships.

One criticism I have of the book is that sometimes the stories used to highlight the big idea of the chapter seemed to be too wordy. Often I felt that the point of the illustrations could have been delivered more succinctly.

5

V. Questions

1. If you could recommend only one chapter from this book, which chapter would you recommend? Chapter 4, “A Common Mission,” would be the chapter I would recommend. The insights regarding identifying the uniqueness that each partner brings to the mission and the necessity to redefine each new mission, led me to process those aspects of my past and present partnerships.

2. What is the author’s most important concept of idea? Isolation is bad for you. “Two are better than one.” The key is to be proactive in choosing your collaborator well and being sensitive to each of your unique abilities and weaknesses to accomplish the defined mission.


Chapter 1: Complementary Strengths

• The strength found in chemical mixtures as well as in human partnerships is in the combination.

• Strong partnerships prevail despite the cultural pressure to focus on individual achievement.

• The idea of the “well rounded” person is a myth. Doing a few things exceptionally well is a better path than spreading yourself thin among many disciplines.

Chapter 2: A Common Mission

• Working together well requires a common view of the mission “above and beyond simple shared task knowledge.”

• Once the objective is reached, a new mission must be agreed upon or the partnership dissolves.

• Great partnerships are characterized by both partners agreeing on the objective and bringing something unique to its achievement; otherwise the mission breaks into two individual pursuits.

• To experience maximum success both partners should agree on the mission; however, it is not necessary for both partners to have the same motivation for pursuing the mission.

6

Chapter 3: Fairness

• “Distributive justice” or fairness is more important and more basic in humans than we probably realize. Your partnership has little chance of success unless both of you believe it is fair.

• Feelings of being used are often at the heart of what destroys a working relationship. When these feelings surface, a partner will disengage and retreat.

• Partners need not divide the workload exactly evenly, however, workload and rewards must be proportionate (greater rewards for greater workload).

• To be a great partner, you must continuously consider how much of the work your counterpart is shouldering and what she is receiving for the effort.

Chapter 4: Trust

• No trust; no partnership.• Trust involves exposing yourself to the chance that the other person will fail to keep

her end of the bargain.• People are not purely selfish and calculating; they reciprocate--both positively and

negatively.

Chapter 5: Acceptance

• You form partnerships fastest and easiest with people who are most similar to you (the least amount of “social distance”). However, many of the collaborators you need most are most different from you and, therefore, more difficult to accept.

• Every collaboration is a combination of two imperfect creatures. Great partners learn to accommodate each other’s human failings.

• Be careful to not overextend your list of “unacceptable behaviors” in potential collaborators. A long list probably says less about the people you are unwilling to partner with and more about how difficult a partner you may be.

Chapter 6: Forgiveness

• It takes a partner with strong character to give a collaborator the “benefit of the doubt.”

• Fueling aggressive behavior by “venting” only causes more aggressive responses.• Partners who look for the “benefits” in the hurtful deeds of their collaborator are less

vengeful, less likely to avoid the offender, and more forgiving.

7

Chapter 7: Communicating

• The information exchange between two partners in conversation is less important than what goes on under the surface when counterparts communicate.

• Studies have shown that communication that is closer to human speech (as opposed to texting or computer generated voices) allows greater trust between two people.

• Communication must be free from ambiguity to avoid the dangers of assumption.

Chapter 8: Unselfishness

• The sacrifices people in excellent partnerships make for each other don’t make sense. They deny the evolutionary idea that the only reason to be unselfish is for instrumental reciprocity (if I can keep my partner happy, he’ll do what I need him to do for me).

• Humans’ highest ideas are fundamentally unselfish…. The Good Samaritan; The Golden Rule.

• Unselfishness changes everything about collaboration. If a person values his partner getting a reward as much as he does getting a reward for himself, the optimal solution is always collaborative.


• 25% of all employees state that they have NEVER had a great partnership.• Statistically, only 1 in four partnerships have a common goal or purpose. • “When people are going to a mountain they should forget the molehills. When they are

involved in a big thing they should have big hearts to go with it.” – Tenzing Norgay (Edmund Hilary’s Mt. Everest climbing partner)

• “Admiration, n. Our polite recognition of another’s resemblance to ourselves.” – Ambrose Bierce

• “Just as a hammer makes a poor saw and pliers make a poor paintbrush, any strengths can be faulted for their failings, and any person can be criticized for what she does not do well.” – Wagner and Muller

• When something serious enough to require forgiveness transpires, 85% of those in great partnerships forgive.

• “If you want to have great partnerships, be a great partner.” – Wagner and Muller

8

Sticky TeamsI. Bibliographical Information

Larry Osborne. Sticky Teams. Zondervan: 2010.


Larry Osborne is the lead pastor at North Coast Church in San Diego County, which is recognized as one of the most influential and innovative churches in America. He speaks extensively on the subjects of leadership and spiritual formation. In addition to Sticky Church, his books include 10 Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe and Spirituality for the Rest of Us. He and his wife, Nancy, live in Oceanside, California.

III. Overview

Larry Osborne writes from a conviction that healthy and effective ministry starts with the health and unity of its leadership teams. The premise is that most effective teams are “sticky.” They stick together, united in purpose through genuine love for each other, in spite of strong differences. Osborne believes that a pastor’s primary focus should be to develop and maintain depth and unity with staff, elders, and the congregation. He shares valuable strategies, suggestions, and insights for reaching this sort of unity from his years of church leadership and consulting experience.

IV. Evaluation

I think this book provides an excellent resource for those trying to navigate church leadership teams. As we are so often building our case for our own strongholds and silos, the author’s focus on unity is a fresh and challenging call. Osborne calls his book a “team building manual” and that’s exactly what it is. I had the opportunity to go through this book with the church staff that I currently serve with. The chapters covering staff roles and staff structures created very healthy discussion as we looked at how our roles and structures might promote or obstruct unity. It was an insightful exercise to test how “sticky” our team is and how that translates to our congregation. On a personal level, the areas of the book that pointed to counterintuitive leadership strategies were especially challenging to my normal defaults. I also gained significant insight from the chapters which focused on equipping our teams and promoting opportunities for new leaders. Osborne provides especially good insights for pastors in transition, moving into well-established church or leadership structures.

The one drawback that I found is that the book is written from the senior/lead pastor perspective. Much of the content is not directly applicable in my current context as a member

9

of a staff team. There were certain areas where I would like for him to have included a view from another position on the team. However, there is still much to glean from Osborne’s experience and wisdom. I expect to return to this book over the years as situations arise and my leadership context evolves.

V. Questions

1. If you could recommend only one chapter from this book, which chapter would you recommend? If I were to recommend one chapter it would be Chapter 5: Six Things Every Leadership Team Needs to Know. The six axioms that the author lays out are each counterintuitive and thought provoking. I found them to be challenging to me as they were each contrary to my typical thought processes.

2. What is the author’s most important concept or idea? Osborne’s most important concept in the book is that the health and effectiveness of a ministry hinges on the unity of its leadership team. He unpacks this in the beginning of the book and it remains the overarching theme as he deals more directly with issues and situations common within church leadership structures. His focus is that if we don’t have unity, nothing else matters.

3. What other books or individuals appear to have really influenced the author? Osborne’s writing appears to be heavily influenced and based on his own personal experiences as a pastor and the relationships he has encountered with fellow staff and elders.


Chapter 1: The Unity Factor; The One Thing That Can’t Be Left to Chance• Unity has to be worked for and must be a priority.• Creating an environment that is conducive to spiritual growth should be a pastor’s

first priority, ahead of other ministry efforts.• Fighting for unity pays huge dividends by clearing away the obstacles that keep

everything else from thriving.• Unity within church leadership can be defined by:

o Doctrinal unityo Respect and friendshipo Philosophical unity

Chapter 2: Why Boards Go Bad: Structured for Conflict• Problems within boards (elders) are often organizational rather than spiritual.• Systems and traditions can tear boards apart.• Five major roadblocks to unity

o Meeting in the wrong placeo Ignoring Relationshipso Not meeting often enough

10

o Constant turnovero Too many members

Chapter 3: Guarding the Gate: No Guts, No Unity• It’s hard to have a winning team with losing players.• One contentious or negative person on a team can mess up everything.• We should work hard to guard the entrance of our leadership teams because once

someone gets in it’s hard to get them out.• Don’t nominate, appoint, or hire the best person available. They must be the right

person for the job.

Chapter 4: What Game Are We Playing? How Growth Changes Everything• Different size churches require different organizational and leadership structures.• Growth changes everything.• The ways that staff and elders relate to a congregation as well as to themselves

change as a church grows.• Failure to recognize and adapt to these changes can be detrimental.• These changes parallel the changes an athlete goes through when changing from one

sport to another:o The Track Staro Golfing Buddieso Basketball Teamo The Football Team

• Indicators that the game has changed:o Number of people on the teamo Relational overloado Increased miscommunication

Chapter 5: Six Things Every Leadership Team Needs to Know: Axioms to Lead By• Ignore your weaknesses• Surveys are a waste of time• Seek permission not buy-in• Let squeaky wheels squeak• Let dying programs die• Plan in pencil

Chapter 6: Clarifying the Pastor’s Role: Why Leadership Matters• Everyone needs to agree on the pastor’s role.• A pastor’s role is vital to the church’s potential for growth.• People will want answers to the following questions before they are willing to turn

over the reigns of their church to a pastor:

11

o Is the pastor as committed to the church as I am?o Who is best qualified to lead, and why?o How can we prevent a strong leader from becoming a dictator?

Chapter 7: Clarifying Board and Staff Roles: Why Teamwork Matters• Healthy teams require teamwork and everyone must know their role.• Clarification of roles and an understanding that these role will likely change is a must.• Boards often go through the role changes of:

o Doing o Approvingo Reviewingo Setting directions and boundaries

• Staff members must also go through role changes as a church grows:o From generalist to specialisto From doing to empoweringo From My Silo to Our church

Chapter 8: Making Room at the Top: Why Young Eagles Don’t Stay• How is your church doing in responding to, protecting, or promoting young eagles?• Are they empowered and “plat-formed”?• Are young eagles in the loop or in the meeting?• Are you filling influential roles with whoever calls “Shotgun” first?• If you shut out young leaders, they will almost certainly move on to a place where

they will not be shut out.

Chapter 9: Equipped to Lead: Lobbying Isn’t Training• When information is presented too close to a decision-making process, most people

will view it as a lobbying effort, not a training exercise.• A pastor should share what he is learning with the leadership for the purpose of

equipping and training not lobbying.• Our leaders probably don’t need another devotional. What they do need is instruction

in how to do what God has called them to do: lead the church.• Often ministry leadership is counter intuitive to workplace leadership and we

shouldn’t leave this to chance.

12

Chapter 10: Board Alignment: The Power of an Extra “Shepherd’s Meeting”• The weightier things of spiritual leadership: seeking God’s vision, dreaming,

strategizing, evangelism, discipleship, and extended prayer are often neglected due to the structure and time constraints of board meetings.

• The author suggests the addition of an extra monthly meeting set aside to focus on these things:o Team buildingo Trainingo Prayer

Chapter 11: Staff Alignment: Plumb Lines and Assumptions• The author suggests the use of ministry “plumb lines” in order to make sure our

ministries line up with our core values and priorities.• Steps for effective plumb lines:

o Be specifico Be honest o Be different

Chapter 12: Congregational Alignment: Preempting Conflict• Our congregations need to know where we stand on issues before the conflict arises

not in the midst of it.• Five tools to keep congregational alignment:

o A Clear and Simple Mission Statemento A Front-loaded Pastor’s Classo The Drip Method of Preachingo Sermon-Based Small Groupso Short and Sweet Congregational Meetings

Chapter 13: Change Diplomacy: Minimizing Conflict and Chaos• Churches are resistant to change so move slowly.• Test the Waters.• Listen and respond to resisters.• Sell your idea to individuals before groups.• Lead boldly.

Chapter 14: Setting Salaries: Investment or Expense?• A pastor’s responsibility is to speak the truth even if it is uncomfortable.• Salary comparisons need to be apples to apples. Roles are much different at different

churches.• We should ask, “What would it cost to replace this person with someone of equal

skills and abilities?”

13

• Staff should be seen as an investment, not an expense

Chapter 15: Talking About Money: Assumptions, Facts, and a Savings Account• Churches are the only organization that prides itself on the leadership not knowing

where the money is coming from.• Many decisions are made by church staffs that are based purely on assumptions about

money.

Chapter 16: When Things Go Wrong: Telling the Truth When the Truth is Hard• Leadership will have to face tough situations, moral failures, financial problems, and

staff hires that don’t work out.• No one wants to talk about these things but we have to.• Telling the truth is always the right thing to do


“Sticky teams know how to deal with the issues at hand and still come out united in purpose and vision, with a genuine camaraderie undamaged by strong differences” (p. 19).

“I consider maintaining the unity of our board and our staff as one of my most important leadership priorities, far ahead of other goals – including evangelism, church growth, and community outreach – because without unity, everything else falls apart” (p. 25).

“It’s hard to have a winning team with losing players, which is why guarding the gate is one of the most important tasks of leadership” (p. 47).

“On inside hires, we had nearly a 100 percent hit rate, and the same for those that we recruited out of previous working relationships and friendships. But outside resume-hires were a different matter. Our success rate dropped to around 70 percent. Not bad for blind dates, but not too good when it comes to building a healthy ministry team” (p. 59).

“One denominational study found that a pastoral crisis occurs every eighteen months. Coincidentally, pastors from this same group moved on an average of every eighteen to twenty months” (p. 91).

“I see a larger church as being a lot like the USA Olympic basketball team. Every player on the squad is a superstar in his own right. But at the Olympic level, some of those players have to sublimate their individual skills and potential for the good of the team. They have to intentionally take on a role that is less than their best” (p. 111).

14

“One person’s emerging influence is always another person’s waning influence. That’s why making room for the young eagles is a hard sell, especially to those who already have a place at the table” (p. 114).

“When information is presented too close to a decision-making process, most people will view it as a lobbying effort, not as a training exercise” (p.128).

“Yet there I was spending all of my time trying to take the spiritual cream of the crop deeper in their walk with God, while ignoring the one thing they most needed instruction in: how to do the job God had called them to do” (p. 130).

15

Teams at the Top


Jon R. Katzenbach. Teams at the Top: Unleashing the Potential of Both Teams and Individual Leaders. Harvard Business School Press: 1998.


Jon Katzenbach is a Senior Partner of the New York office of Booz and Company. He founded and worked at Katzenbach Partners LLC for over 10 years. Prior to that, he was a director with McKinsey. Jon Katzenbach is a graduate of Stanford University with a BA in Economics and Harvard University with a MBA. Jon Katzenbach is a leading counselor of CEOs and corporate executives; he is the author of several leading articles and books.

III. Overview

Jon Katzenbach’s main thesis in this book is that “an integrated balance of a real team, individual, and single-leader working group performance is both possible and desirable at the top” (3). He advocates that it is neither one single model – but the integrated balance. The book is primarily aimed at top level executive leaders (especially the CEO). The reason for this is because most top level executives typically excel as single-leader working groups or individuals.

IV. Evaluation

My initial reaction to this book was, “Why another book on teams?” By the end of the book, however, I was highly impressed – even enough to reread much of the book a second time. At first, I did not understand why Katzenbach spent so much effort in clarifying definitions of team. However, I quickly saw that a lack of this clarity was one of the existing problems in discussions on teams. Overall, Katzenbach makes more than just a fair case for his thesis – he excels at it. This book was a highly enjoyable read!

Katzenbach does not just advocate a team approach for all scenarios and all organizations – he declares and shows by numerous examples that top leadership integrates a healthy balance of executive and team leadership.

16

V. Questions

1. If you could recommend only one chapter from this book, which chapter would you recommend? I would recommend Chapter 9—“Discipline, Alignment, and Balance” (the last chapter). This last chapter gives a balanced and healthy summary of the book, offers examples that inspire and motivate, and brings together a culmination of all of the other the chapters.

2. What is the author’s most important concept or idea? The author’s most important concept is his thesis - “an integrated balance of a real team, individual, and single-leader working group performance is both possible and desirable at the top” (3). He advocates that understanding rightly working teams at the top leads to higher potential of individuals and teams at top levels. He asserts that there are times when it is appropriate to employ each. Katzenbach makes very clear that he does not advocate an “always team” approach.

3. What other books or individuals appear to have really influenced the author? Jon Katzenbach formed Katzenbach Partners LLC with Niko Canner and Marc A. Feigen who all met while at McKinsey & Company. Jon Katzenbach is also the author of Why Pride Matters More Than Money, Peak Performance, Real Change Leaders, The Myth of the Top Management Team, Firing Up the Front Line (with Jason A. Santamaria), The Discipline of Teams (with Douglas K. Smith), Leading Outside the Lines (with Zia Khan), and The Wisdom of Teams (with Douglas K. Smith).


Introduction—The Spirit of Haida Gwaii

1. Thesis—“an integrated balance of a real team, individual, and single-leader working group performance is both possible and desirable at the top” (p. 3).A. This book is for those who already believe that real team behaviors with the

right people will produce optimal and increase overall performance (p. 3).

2. The “Team at the Top” is “seductive” because almost every CEO seeks to build his “team” (p. 4).A. This seduction exists because most CEO’s teams have a clear pecking order

and are more aimed at influence, image, and loyalty (p. 4).B. Team discipline is “a small number of people with complementary skills who

are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable” (p. 4).

17

C. These “teams” are really single leader groups with people brought together because of their formal position rather than their individual skills (p. 5).

3. A different mindset is needed towards a highly flexible, disciplined leadership team that utilizes both team and non-team functions (p. 5).

4. Strong Leader Myths (pp. 6-8)- The CEO determines whether a company wins or loses.- The CEO has to be in charge at all times.- It’s a team because they say so!- The right person in the right job naturally leads to the right team.- The top team’s performance is the corporate mission.

5. Real Team Myths (pp. 8-11)- Teamwork at the top will lead to team performance.- Top teams need to spend more time together building consensus.- CEOs must change their personal style to obtain team performance.- The senior group should function as a team whenever it is together.- Teams at the top need to “set the example.”

6. Three Major Messages (p. 11)- Best senior leadership groups rarely function as a team; however, they do and

can function as a real team when major, unexpected events come up.- Most can optimize their performance by obtaining a better balance between

team and non-team efforts.- Better balance lies in the integration of the discipline required for team

performance and executive/single-leader performance (not one or the other).

7. The difference in this book is that it advocates that discipline is more important than teams at the top (pp. 14-16).A. The three litmus tests for real team performance is—

- Mutual accountability for group results- Clear performance value- Sharing and/or shifting of leadership roles among leaders

Chapter 1—A Tougher Game at the Top

1. Real team efforts directly conflict with the culture and approaches of most senior leadership.A. Transitioning top leadership into a real team takes lots of time!

18

Chapter 2—Why “Non-teams” Prevail at the Top

1. Non-teams prevail at the top because single-leader behavior works most of the time (pp. 41-43).A. Real team discipline is less clear and more difficult to apply at the top.B. Top executives are more comfortable in the non-team mode

2. The mindset of senior leaders (and boards and shareholders) makes it almost impossible to form real teams (pp. 51-61)

Chapter 3—How “Major Events” Spawn Teams1. Typical pattern for top leadership teams (pp. 64-65)

A. CEO designates direct reports at executive council (team)B. Primary purpose is to set direction, mission, and policiesC. Meet regularlyD. CEO chairs meetings, controls agendas, and syndicates decisionsE. The group functions primarily as “an efficient, effective single-leader working

group.”

2. Major Events—- Mergers and Acquisitions- Major Refinancing- Leadership Shifts

Chapter 4—Two Disciplines That Conflict

1. There are three important aspects of resolving the issue of discipline for teams (pp. 89-90)- Recognizing that the conflict persists regardless of the environment- Understanding the conflicts and recognizing the sources of conflict- Seeking integration (rather than compromise or domination)

2. Contrasts that produce the conflict (pp. 98-99)A. Top executives are supposed to—

- Direct and lead large numbers of people (teams involve small numbers)- Exercise personal judgment (teams exercise collective judgment)- Assignment based on formal positions (teams make assignments based on

specific skills)- Responsible for broad corporate strategy (teams focus on specific

performance results)

19

- Leverage efficiency and management processes (teams are seldom the most efficient)

- Find individual executives to make critical decisions (teams make decisions based on a variety of ways)

- Establish clear, individual objectives (teams make joint objectives and collective work)

- Individually accountable (teams are mutually accountable)

3. Integrating team and executive leadership rather than compromising one for the other is the key (pp. 108-109).

Chapter 5—Collective Action Opportunities

1. Definition—“the tangible result of several members of a group applying different skills to produce a performance improvement not achievable by any one member alone” (p. 113).

2. A single-leader working group is different from a real team in that a single-leader working group is a simple combination of individual results.

3. Examples of collective work (pp. 115-120)- Resolution of key strategic issue- Redesign of a faulty management process- Changing the organization structure- Entry into a new market- Establishment of higher performance- Formulation of a communication strategy for major change

Chapter 6—Making Key Tradeoffs Consciously

1. The ability to shift into and out of different modes of configurations is essential to increasing team performance at the top

2. There are various tradeoffs for team performance (pp. 134-54)A. The Time Tradeoff

- Performance vs. SpeedB. The Capability Tradeoff

- Complementary Skill Mix vs. Formal Position InfluenceC. The Capacity Tradeoff

- Leadership Capacity vs. Leadership Clarity

20

Chapter 7—Multiple Roles for the CEO

1. CEOs that drive true team performance have varying and multiple roles; however, their style does not need to change (p. 156)

2. Role Options for CEOs (pp. 173-176)A. Team opportunity spotterB. Monitor team disciplineC. Political neutralizerD. Theme and initiative shaperE. Conflict integratorF. Skill mix monitorG. Pecking order killer

Chapter 8—For “Teams That Run Things” at Any Level

1. Rules for All Levels (pp. 192-194)A. Pick your team shots wiselyB. Consider each of your options carefullyC. Make the critical tradeoffs consciouslyD. Apply the discipline that fitsE. Learn different leadership rolesF. Set aside open-ended times for working together

Chapter 9—Discipline, Alignment, and Balance

1. A high capacity leadership group consists of discipline, alignment, and balance (p. 198).

VII. Quotes and Statistics- “Top executives are dedicated to the principles of individual accountability and

consequence management; team disciplines demand mutual accountability and collective work among team members. These are not natural bedfellows” (p. 26).

- “A collective work product is defined here as the tangible result of several members of a group applying their different skills to produce a performance improvement not achievable by any one member alone” (p. 56).

- “The world at large wants to label every leadership group a ‘team at the top,’ but it really does not want it to behave as a real team” (p. 63).

- “All elements of team basics must be adhered to rigorously—like Navy discipline, there is no margin for error” (p. 96).

21

- “The best leaders, however, make a conscious effort to apply [real team and single-leader discipline], recognizing that they will not always make the right call. Therein lies the challenge of top leadership” (p. 101).

- “Catalyzing real team performance at the top does not mean replacing executive leadership with executive teams; it means being rigorous about the distinction between opportunities that require single-leader efforts and those that require team efforts—and applying the discipline that fits” (p. 130).

- “Politics may be a world of murky and imprecise language, but when it comes to team terminology, the business world is equally murky” (p. 133).

- “True turnaround situations have precious little time for teams at any level” (p. 147).- “It turns out that, as long as the CEO truly believes in the power of team performance

relative to other options and is willing to play a number of different roles, he need not change his style—nor need he be the team leader!” (p. 156).

- “Team performance suffers as the leadership group increases in size, as the time constraints become more severe, and as the required interactions become more complex” (p. 191).

- “Any leadership group can function in a team mode if it learns to be realistic about identifying real team opportunities and rigorous about applying the discipline required for real team levels of performance” (p. 195).

- “High performance is a game of disciplined alignment—not one of processes versus teams” (p. 207).

22

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team


Patrick Lencioni. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Jossey-Bass, 2002.


Patrick Lencioni is the founder and president of The Table Group, a management consulting firm focusing on high-growth clients. Patrick Lencioni has consulted to Fortune 500 companies, churches, the military, hospitals, schools, and professional sports organizations. Prior to founding The Table Group in 1997, Lencioni worked for Bain & Company. He and his wife Laura live in the Bay Area and have four sons. The Wall Street Journal named Patrick Lencioni as one of the most in-demand business speakers and Ken Blanchard described him as “fast defining the next generation of leadership thinkers.” Lencioni is the author of books such as The Three Signs of a Miserable Job; Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars; Death By Meeting, and numerous articles.

III. Overview

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team is written as a leadership fable. The book weaves Lencioni’s thesis about teams within the story line of a fictional company and characters. The setting is a company called DecisionTech, located in Half Moon Bay, and it’s new CEO Kathryn Peterson. Throughout the story, Lencioni shares Kathryn’s and DecisionTech’s story to reveal “the five dysfunctions”—Absence of Trust, Fear of Conflict, Lack of Commitment, Avoidance of Accountability, and Inattention to Results.

IV. Evaluation

I first “read” this book by listening to the audio version (purchased through Audible.com). It wasn’t until later that I picked up a hard copy of the book and read it “for real.” The exceptional writing quality and story-telling skills of Lencioni made this book a joy to listen to (and later read). The first half of the book tells the fable; the second half gives more direct attention to the five dysfunctions. The fable gives you the ability to fit the model into direct application. Additionally, the motivation and inspiration from the fable gives you a sense of urgency.

This book is a must read for any leader at any level in any organization. Not only is it interesting but it’s very practical. Easy? Most likely not. Simple? Yes. Transformation? Without a doubt. This book is a book that I’ll return to over and over.

23

Additionally, I’d highly recommend a few of his other books that I’ve read—The Three Signs of a Miserable Job; Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars; and The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive.

V. Questions

1. If you could recommend only one chapter from this book, which chapter would you recommend? I would recommend the chapter titled “Understanding and Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions.” If you can’t read the whole book, this chapter will give you a summary of Lencioni’s model along with some practical tips on how to overcome the dysfunctions.

2. What is the author’s most important concept or idea? The author’s most important concept is to understand the five dysfunctions, which build and impact each other, and to proactively counteract them.

3. What other books or individuals appear to have really influenced the author? Patrick Lencioni mentions that he watched his father growing up and became fascinated with the world of work as his father described the dysfunction and chaos of the place where he worked for 40 years.


A. The Fable (pp. 1-184)

This fable centers around Kathryn Peterson, the new CEO of DecisionTech, a fairly new company located in Half Moon Bay. DecisionTech has some of the most experienced, most expensive executives; however, after an initial jump start of success, DecisionTech is struggling two years later. The former CEO and cofounder, Jeff, is now head of business development. Kathryn, a fifty-seven year old, former teacher has taken the reigns of DecisionTech.

Throughout this section, the story weaves the five dysfunctions through the story of Kathryn and DecisionTech. The story gives insights into the personalities and conflicts of DecisionTech’s executive staff—from sarcastic technology geeks to prideful marketing directors.

B. The Model (pp. 185-220)

1. An Overview of the Model (pp. 187-90)a. Dysfunctional Teams

24

- Absence of Trust- Fear of Conflict- Lack of Commitment- Avoidance of Accountability- Inattention to Results

b. Truly Cohesive Teams- They trust one another.- They engage in unfiltered conflict around ideas.- They commit to decisions and plans of action.- They hold one another accountable for delivering against those plans.- They focus on the achievement of collective results.

2. Team Assessment (pp. 191-194)This assessment is a diagnostic tool to assess a team.

3. Understanding and Overcoming the Five Dysfunctionsa. Absence of Trust

- Personal Histories Exercise- Team Effectiveness Exercise- Personality and Behavioral Preference Profiles

i. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)- 360- Degree Feedback- Experiential Team Exercises

b. Fear of Conflict- Mining—extracting buried disagreements- Real-Time Permission

c. Lack of Commitment- Cascading Messaging—review key decisions and agreements- Deadlines- Contingency and Worst-Case Scenario Analysis- Low-Risk Exposure Therapy

d. Avoidance of Accountability- Publication of Goals and Standards- Simple and Regular Progress Reviews- Team Rewards

e. Inattention to Results- Public Declaration of Results- Results-Based Rewards

25

II. Quotes and Statistics- “Trust is the foundation of real teamwork. And so the first dysfunction is a failure on

the part of team members to understand and open up to one another” (pp. 43-44).- “Great teams do not hold back with one another . . . They are unafraid to air their

dirty laundry. They admit their mistakes, their weaknesses, and their concerns without fear of reprisal” (p 44).

- “Every effective team . . . observed had a substantial level of debate” (p. 46).- “Remember, teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to

overcome our need for invulnerability” (p. 63).- “The ultimate dysfunction: the tendency of team members to seek out individual

recognition and attention at the expense of results. And I’m referring to collective results—the goals of the entire team” (p. 71).

- “If [you] don’t trust one another, then [you] aren’t going to engage in open, constructive, ideological conflict. And [you’ll] just continue to preserve a sense of artificial harmony” (p. 91).

- “When people don’t unload their opinions and feel like they’ve been listened to, they won’t really get on board” (p. 94).

- “Once [you] achieve clarity and buy-in, it is then that [you] have to hold each other accountable for what [you] sign up to do, for high standards of performance and behavior. And as simple as that sounds, most executives hate to do it, especially when it comes to a peer’s behavior, because they want to avoid interpersonal conflict” (p. 98).

- “And so, like a chain with just one link broken, teamwork deteriorates if even a single dysfunction is allowed to flourish” (p. 189).

- “If this sounds simple, it’s because it is simple, at least in theory. In practice, however, it is extremely difficult because it requires levels of discipline and persistence that few teams can muster” (p. 190).

- “Achieving vulnerability-based trust is difficult because in the course of career advancement and education, most successful people learn to be competitive with their peers, and protective of their reputations. It is a challenge for them to turn those instincts off for the good of the team, but that is exactly what is required” (p. 196).

- “All great relationships, the ones that last over time, require productive conflict in order to grow. This is true in marriage, parenthood, friendship, and certainly business” (p. 202).

- “Success is not a matter of mastering subtle, sophisticated theory, but rather of embracing common sense with uncommon levels of discipline and persistence” (p. 220).

26

The Orange Revolution I. Bibliographical Information

Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton. The Orange Revolution: How One Great Team Can Transform an Entire Organization. New York, NY: Free Press, 2010.


Adrian Gostick is Vice President of Publishing and Training at the O.C. Tanner Recognition Company. Chester Elton is an employee engagement consultant working with numerous Fortune 100 companies, and holds the acclaim of being the highest rated speaker at the Society for Human Resource Management’s annual conference. Gostick and Elton are coauthors of New York Times bestsellers The Carrot Principle and The Daily Carrot Principle.

III. Overview

In The Orange Revolution, Gostick and Elton share the characteristics common to many high-performing teams across a variety of industries. Citing examples that range from middle-school sports teams and the Blue Angels to a bottling research team at Pepsi or the customer service group at Zappos, the authors describe how certain shared principles can lead to enhanced performance while increasing engagement and satisfaction among team members.

IV. Evaluation

Gostick and Elton discuss many useful concepts in The Orange Revolution, including the importance of a shared vision, good communication, effective recognition, and how these concepts stimulate teamwork, enhance morale, and improve performance. The authors rely heavily on case studies, sharing insights drawn from stories of high-performing teams at well-respected companies that consistently rank high on “best places to work” lists. Unfortunately, the book as a whole is very disappointing on a number of fronts:

• While the main ideas presented in the book are important, the basic concepts are not new, and the authors do not add any significant insights. Vision, communication, engagement, commitment to excellence, etc… can be found in almost any book on people management.

• The authors go to great lengths to convince the reader that their conclusions are based on ground-breaking research. In nearly every chapter the reader is reminded multiple times that the recurring themes are gleaned from over 20 years of work in the field, and supported by the results of a recent study that included over 350,000

27

interviews. However, the actual research methodology and results are not even presented within the context of the book, but rather are included in a brief appendix at the end. The methodology employed for the research is not convincing, and the correlation between the results and the claims made throughout the book is not readily apparent.

• The stories that are included throughout each chapter (which probably account for more than half of the textual content) make for an easy read. But only a handful of these case studies actually describe good examples of high-performing teams. Rather, many simply present examples of fun work environments. Additionally, the authors’ repeated use of stories from Zappos throughout nearly every chapter quickly becomes annoying, as they do not demonstrate that the purposefully “weird” culture of the company leads to breakthrough teamwork and enhanced performance.

• The book often feels like one long advertisement for the authors’ other books and services, as they try to view everything through “Orange”-colored lenses.

V. Questions

1. If you could recommend only one chapter from this book, which chapter would you recommend? I would recommend Chapter 6 on communication. While most of the information is similar to what is found in other books on communication, the emphasis on “no surprises” and “broadcasting vitals” is helpful.

2. What is the author’s most important concept or idea? Being a part of an engaged team working toward a common goal that cheers for each member leads to enhanced performance and increased workplace satisfaction.

3. What other books or individuals appear to have really influenced the author? None are readily apparent, as references are to other books by the same authors.


Chapter 1 – Breakthrough Teams

Exceptional performance does not generally result from the work of a single-achiever, but rather

is typically achieved by collaboration in the context of a breakthrough team. Members of such

teams:• Demonstrate and expand personal competency• Clearly visualize the common cause• Follow the Rule of 3

o Wow – commitment to world-class performanceo No Surprises – accountability, openness, and honest debateo Cheer – supporting, recognizing, appreciating, and cheering others and the group

on to victory

28

Chapter 2 – The Common Cause

“Nothing else – not even bonuses or other perks – motivates like the opportunity to define and

unite behind a common purpose.”

Breakthrough teams establish transformational common causes in several ways:

1. They involve employees at all levels in establishing not only the cause, but the values to

get there.

2. They align the team cause with the larger goals of the organization.

3. They create a unique, concise cause statement that helps make the team stand out in its

industry.

4. They communicate the shared purpose clearly and frequently, holding it up like a rallying

flag.

5. They align goals, deadlines, and celebrations to the cause.

Chapter 3 – Competence: Back to the Basics (+ Recognition)For a team to achieve breakthrough results, team members must exhibit personal competency in

order to establish credibility and trust with each other. Competency includes not only job

proficiency, but also several “soft” traits the authors refer to as “The Basic 4 + Recognition.”• Goal setting• Communication• Trust• Accountability• Recognition

These leadership skills are not only critical for managers, but also for individual contributors

within a team. The authors’ research demonstrates a positive correlation between competency in

and use of these skills, and overall team member engagement.

Chapters 4 through 7 – The Rule of 3: Cultivating a Team“No matter what their collective commitments are called, the concepts are similar in the

breakthrough teams we studied. These basic ground rules hold sway in hundreds of teams

around the world. We have culled the best and have come to refer to them as the Rule of 3:

wow, no surprises, and cheer.”

Wow: Six Secret Ingredients to World-Class Success1. Dream

2. Believe

29

3. Risk

4. Measure

5. Persevere

6. Tell Stories

No Surprises: Mastering Orange Communication• Acknowledgement and respect• Availability• Accepting ideas• Responsiveness• Broadcasting vitals• Offering and asking for help• Creating face-to-face time

Cheer: Up “In the most productive team environments, employees are seen, supported, and praised as

human beings, not merely workers. And it is appreciation (or recognition) that is the key

cheering factor that unlocks commitment, loyalty, drive, and ultimately, success… The more

embedded cheering is in the organization’s daily life (through personal and group celebrations of

success), the more teamwork flourishes naturally.”

Chapter 8 – 101 Ways to Bring your Team TogetherIn the first half of this chapter the authors describe 101 ways to draw team members closer

together and to establish camaraderie. These suggestions are categorized into eleven areas of

focus:

1. Shared experiences

2. Shared symbols

3. Shared challenges

4. Shared rewards

5. Personal balance

6. Shared voice

7. Shared knowledge

8. Shared competitors

9. Shared fun

10. Shared environment

11. Shared relationships

30

In the second half of this chapter the authors address many common teamwork challenges,

employing an “objection” and “response” format. Examples of challenges addressed include “If

we give team members autonomy and empowerment, there will be no accountability,” and “We

rarely celebrate as a team. I think management believes we get enough recognition in our

paychecks.”

Chapter 9 – The Company Is a Team: Creating a Revolutionary Corporate Culture• Engage the people• Hire for competence and culture. Great skills are of little use when combined with a bad

attitude. Take the time required to learn whether the potential team member really

believes in the organization’s purposes. • Empower: “…performance really takes off when [competent team members] are trusted

by their leaders to make decisions that affect their work and their customers.”

Chapters 10-11 – An Orange Life: A How-To Guide for LivingThe basics principles of great teams apply outside the workplace in team relationships like

marriages, families, neighborhoods, schools, and churches. We should commit to vision and

goals, strive for “wow”, practice good communication, and cheer for each other in all areas of

our lives.

Appendix – The ResearchIn this section the authors briefly explain the findings of a study in which data from over 240,000 interviews conducted by the Best Companies Group during 2008-2009 was used to analyze the role team affiliation plays in creating a great workplace. Ten questions from the survey which aligned with the “Basic 4 + Recognition” rubric were demonstrated to positively correlate with team members who were considered to be “engaged” and “satisfied” with their workplace.

VII. Quotes and StatisticsThere are very few statistics presented in The Orange Revolution. These are included in the Appendix describing the research. Relevant quotes have been noted in the outline above.

31

Where Good Ideas Come FromI. Bibliographical Information

Steven Johnson. Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History Of Innovation. Riverhead Books: 2010.


Steven Johnson has written several books, including the bestseller, Everything Bad Is Good For You. He has graduate degrees in English Literature from Colombia University. He is currently a writer in residence at New York University

III. Overview

Steven Johnson believes that ideas do not just come from nowhere. Ideas and innovation at all levels, from complex cultural phenomenon to the evolution on the cell, generally follow a pattern and have certain characteristics. By understanding what environments lead to advancement, one can help create productive, creative environments. Currently, many things that corporations use to foster creativity and productivity are actually counter productive. The seven factors Johnson explains are The Adjacent Possible, Liquid Networks, The Slow Hunch, Serendipity, Error, Exaption, and Platforms.

IV. Evaluation

I had mixed feelings about this book. The majority of its good principles, about where ideas come from, seem to be based on the findings of cognitive and social psychology. I think most of the basic principles are very true and helpful. What I don’t like about the book honestly is that it makes many big claims and does little to back it up except provide anecdotes. I wanted at least one footnote. It seemed to be making big academic claims without providing the studies to back it up, and many of the studies are out there. I would have preferred it be a bit more academic research so that one could follow up on what Steven says.

I’ll also be honest and say that part of what left the book with a bad taste in my mouth is that the pinnacle good idea that Johnson lauds is Darwin’s conception of the origin on species. Johnson uses the principles of evolution and the idea of evolution as an example and support for his own ideas in every chapter. I think this is what gave me the feeling that I was being given lots of talk and theory, without much solid backing beyond the theoretical.

As far as teams go, there are many good principles in the book that could help an organization. But I think there are better sources (a social psychology textbook) that will say what Johnson is saying with a bit less speculation confused with evidence.

32

V. Questions

1. If you could recommend only one chapter from this book, which chapter would you recommend? I recommend chapter 3, The Slow Hunch. Johnson shows that many great ideas are out there, they just aren’t in a complete form that makes them seem great. We need to create environments where a good idea can run into other good ideas that will complete it. Otherwise we loose many fantastic opportunities because we let our good ideas die before they come to fruition.

2. What is the author’s most important concept or idea? Ideas are rarely truly brand new. Instead people use what others have done and build off ideas that are already available. Thus, in order to come up with something novel, someone must be in an environment or team where their own ideas can come in contact with other good ideas. YouTube can only be created when the tools it utilizes (Web, flash player) are already in place and available. In a sense, it was a team effort.

3. What other books or individuals appear to have really influenced the author? Darwin for sure. He is also very influenced by cognitive psychology and evolutionary psychology. He has also read a good deal about the history of major inventions of the past two thousand years.


Introduction: Reef, City Web· Coral Reefs, Cities, and the Web are all places where we see incredible diversity and

development.· In reefs, a huge number of diverse fish are concentrated. They live together, work

together, and thrive in this dense network.· Cities are some of the most productive places in the world, especially in the production of

ideas. · The Web is one of the fastest growing and innovating things on the planet.· What makes these things such fertile zones for evolution of ideas and organisms? The

following chapters will explore.Chapter 1: The Adjacent Possible· Ideas and things do not come from nowhere. In every environment, there are changes that

are possible and changes that are several steps away.· A carbon atom cannot become a human; it can become a fatty acid; fatty acids can create

membranes; membranes are parts of cells; etc.· At any given time, there is a certain adjacent possible of innovation that many people can

work toward.

33

· This is why we see many “multiples” in inventions, people coming up with the same idea in different places around the same time.

· “The telephone, telegraph, steam engine, photograph vacuum tube, radio—just about every essential technological advance of modern life has a multiple lurking somewhere in its origin story.” (35)

· If we can define what tools are available, and what exactly the problem is that needs to be solved, we can reach the adjacent possible in a much simpler way.

Chapter 2: Liquid Networks· Networks are one of the biggest producers of idea.· Carbon is such a useful element in life precisely because it can bond with many atoms in

many ways, and in a sense is made to create “networks” of molecules.· Productive idea networks are like liquids: they allow for a dense amount of connections,

but provide movement so that different ideas can collide with one another.· In one study, it was found that a group of molecular biologists were not most innovative

or problem-solving prone in the lab: their best ideas came in meetings where several people from different backgrounds could interact with an idea.

Chapter 3: The Slow Hunch· Before September 11, two different people in the FBI reported different evidence that the

eventual perpetrators of the attacks needed to be investigated. Why were the investigations never done and the attacks stopped? The ideas never collided. Both were two separate hunches that were not complete enough to seem worthy of an investigation.

· Often, ideas form slowly in our minds. They may seem insignificant because they are incomplete.

· If our incomplete ideas are in an environment where they can be completed by the ideas of others, innovation thrives.

· Closed systems, like the FBI, where ideas are kept secret and must go through a large hierarchy, are slow to act and innovate.

Chapter 4: Serendipity· There are times when our brains are functioning in a synced pattern. There are also times,

such as in dreams but also when we are awake, when our brains seem to be in a chaotic pattern of neurons firing. Science has shown that individuals whose brains fire randomly more often and longer are more creative and intelligent than those who spend more time with their neurons firing in sync.

· Chaos allows moments of serendipity, where fortunate events come together by chance and where fortunate ideas collide and create great ideas.

· How can these things connect? Go for a walk. Let the problem you are trying to solve collide with other thoughts from the environment. Similarly, take up a hobby.

· Allow your team to take a retreat, for example. Get them out of their normal environment so old ideas can collide with new thoughts.

34

Chapter 5: Error· Evolution can only occur if there is a possibility of error; if nothing every changed,

nothing would ever evolve. · Sexual reproduction is much better at producing organisms that can face difficult

circumstances, because there is the possibility for change and for adaptive traits to be passed on to new generations.

· Error is not a bad thing. Environments where many things can be tried and failure is possible are innovative environments.

Chapter 6: Exaption· Exaption is a concept from evolution, where something created for one purpose is

“exapted” and put to use for another purpose.· Birds evolved wings because feathers were adaptive for keeping warm. Feathers were

exapted and put to use for flying.· Many great innovations come from someone taking what was meant for one purpose and

using it for something very different.· The Web was created for academics to dialog. HTML has been exapted and put to use

for a multitude of other purposes. · Not only science, but also art sees exaption. People see something in a genre of art of

literature and use it for their own purpose to change the genre and advance it. · In order to create this in an organization, many diverse voices need to be heard at the

same time, such as at apple, where designers, engineers, and the manufacturers all communicate at all points in the development process. It’s messy, but innovative.

Chapter 7: Platforms· Often innovation occurs because a past large idea or structure allows that innovation to

take shape. HTML and Flash are platforms on which it is relatively easy to invent YouTube.

· In cities, small inventive organizations can spring up because larger corporations have in the past built the buildings that would have been too costly for a small start-up to build. The old company builds the platform; the new innovator takes the platform (i.e. empty building) and moves in to create something brand new.

· One reason Twitter has taken off is because the creators did not keep the platform to themselves. Instead, they opened twitter up for others to build upon, and third parties have made it what it is today.

· If teams are to be innovative, they must open up their platforms to be used by others.

35

Conclusion: The Fourth Quadrant· Honestly, where do good ideas and inventions come from?· Johnson breaks innovations down into four categories: market/individual; market/

network; non-market/individual; non-market/network· What history shows, if you put innovations into one of these four quadrants, is that

innovation tends toward the network/non-market environment more and more. Especially as ideas become more accessible to the general public, this area becomes by far the most innovative.

· Countries and companies are faced with a challenge: they want to be competitive and they want to profit from their ideas. However, the more tightly they hold on to their ideas, the less innovation will come from that idea.

· What is the appropriate balance that gives many people access to an idea, while giving the creator the rights to profit from the original idea? That is a question yet to be adequately answered, yet it is clear that many organizations, the FBI for example, would benefit from opening up their information.

36

Team Leadership the APEST Way


1. Darrell Guder, ed. The Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America. Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 1998.

2. Martin Robinson & Dwight Smith. Invading Secular Space: Strategies for Tomorrow’s Church. Monarch, 2003.

3. Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. The Shaping of Things to Come. Hendrickson: Peabody, Massachusetts, 2003.

II. Overview

Recently, in my quest to put together a team of leaders to ignite and spread a gospel movement in churches throughout Arkansas, I have run into men arguing for a return to the fivefold functions of leadership from Ephesians 4: apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd(pastor), and teacher. Many are referring to this by the acronym: APEST. This paper is thus not about any one book, but single chapters from three separate books addressing the need of the American church to be give full voice to all five functions of leadership listed in Ephesians 4 so that the body may be equipped to do the works of ministry to the building up of the body of Christ in a way that flows out into missional mobilization and multiplication.

III. Evaluation

I. All three authors make a good case that these five functions need to be expressed in every local church. Though not explicit in his chapter, I heard Alan Hirsch during a talk on APEST bluntly state that he has had no one refute his argument that APEST is biblical as well as necessary for the church to be the church, that is, the missional force that Jesus is leading. Thus, I recommend it to every church leader. Each leader needs to question what it looks like for them to be part of a team that is being faithful to Ephesians.

II. I would have appreciated a discussion concerning where the “leader among leader” concept fits in this discussion. Another weakness: they do not suggest which of the five leadership functions are necessarily the best fit to be the team leader.

37

IV. Questions

1. If I were to recommend one chapter it would be Chapter 10 of Shaping of Things to Come.

2. I think the most important concept revolves around the question as to why the church in America is not reaching its own country. We must ask whether part of the reason is that we have not valued and thus equally included all five leadership APEST functions into each local church.

3. I took away from these chapters a longing for self-awareness. I need to figure out which type of leader God has made me to be so that I can utilize those gifts for the sake of our team in order to empower our people for mission.

V. Annotated Outline

I. Chapter Seven, Missional Leadership, Equipping God’s People for Mission. (From the book, The Missional Church, A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America, edited by Darrell Guder.)

1. This particular chapter was written by Alan Roxburgh, former Professor of Evangelism and Mission at the McMaster Divinity School of the University of Toronto.

2. The purpose of leadership is to form and equip a people who demonstrate and announce the purpose and direction of God through Jesus Christ. Such leaders are to be called, character-filled, competent, and skilled in communal and spiritual development. For such communal development, leadership cannot rest in one man. It will require apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers to build up a healthy church which blesses those outside its borders.

3. Pastoral gifts are important but the North American church must learn to call forth and equip those with apostolic gifts. Currently, church here is akin to the “settled parish’ model, because most of the training is geared toward those with the pastor/teaching gifting.

4. The Apostle is needed to reestablish the reality and vitality of missional congregations. They are also the ones who create leaders, like Paul did on his missionary adventures. The Prophetic function is to “direct the saving word of God to the specific context into which a Christian community is sent.” The Evangelists voice must not be pushed out to nonlocal and the para-church arena. The authors ask, “What if the evangelists were given a voice in every local church to equip the body to reach their cities?” The Pastor-Teacher is essential to grounding and caring for the missional people of God within a community. But what if we began to lead out churches with a dynamic combination of all five leadership functions?

2. Chapter Seven, Alone at the Top of a Leadership Culture. (From the book, Invading Secular Space.)

38

1. The authors lament the weakness of leadership in Western institutions. They believe one of the main causes is the “man at the top” syndrome, whether he is called President, CEO or Senior Pastor. We are left to die the death of the strengths and weaknesses of the man at the top.

2. Regarding the church, they think this “man at the top” syndrome is not only ineffective but also inconsistent with the leadership structures set forth in the New Testament. They point out that Ephesians 4 sets forth the purpose of NT leadership, 1 Cor. 12 sets forth the structure of leadership, and Matthew 20 outlines the essence of leadership.

3. Ephesians 4 is set in the context of God having birthed the church, where the Holy Spirit is active in the life of every believer and the offices of elder and deacon give a basic structure to the life of the congregation, allowing for pastoral oversight and practical care.

4. What’s clearly missing is that of “the functions” performed by apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers. This fivefold function of leadership (called APEPT or APEST by Hirsch) must be present or at least accessible to each local church to avoid having a distorted church.

5. For too long the church has tended to focus on the gifts of pastor and teacher to the exclusion of the other three. Thus, by default, only pastors and teachers have been allowed to be the dominant leaders in their organization. This distortion has been around long enough to now feel natural. Such distortions have lead to discontentment and now we are seeing more biblically based diversity of Ephesians 4:11 functions, as well as a growing decentralization of church forms and leadership practice.

6. The authors found the leadership structures outside churches in the United States much different in part because they did not set out to plant mega-churches, but to extend the gospel into a people, nation, state, city, or neighborhood.

7. Pastor-teacher dominated leadership teams naturally care for people and truth, but think less about extending the mission to the lost around them in their own city and outside their city.

8. It is noted that Paul does not define these five functions, he merely sets forth the corporate effect of the five working together in building up of the body of Christ. Leaders together exist to empower all of Jesus’ people playing out their eternal purpose on their stage of time, in whatever context, culture or vocation God leads them to.

39

3. Chapter 10 The Genius of APEPT (From the book Shaping of Things to Come, Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch)

1. The authors are arguing for is a rediscovery of the fullness of Pauline teaching about Christian ministry. To them the connection between Ephesians 4 (APEST) and the church’s maturity and mission is direct and undeniable. Paul sees APEST Ministry as the very mechanism for achieving mission and ministry effectiveness. WIthout a fivefold leadership the church cannot mature. For example, they argue it has been to the detriment of the church that the evangelist has been marginalized and made itinerant rather than localized. More disturbing yet is that apostles and prophets have been ignored by mainstream churches altogether. The authors go so far to say that the pastoral and teaching types have ejected the other types from the system.

2. Below is a chart the authors include, with credit given to Dwight Smith.

APEST CHART

Role Definition Focus Myopia Impact

Apostle One who is sent

Urgency of Tomorrow

Demands of Today

Extension

Prophet One who knows

Demands of today in light of tomorrow

Demands of Today

Integration

Evangelist One who recruits

Urgency of today

Demands of Today

Expansion

Pastor/Shepherd

One who cares

Demands of today

Urgency of tomorrow

Nurture

Teacher One who explains

Integration Time Understanding

40

APOSTLES extend the gospel. As the “sent ones,” they ensure that the faith is transmitted from one context to another and from one generation to the next. They are always thinking about the future, bridging barriers, establishing the church in new contexts, developing leaders, networking trans-locally. Yes, if you focus solely on initiating new ideas and rapid expansion, you can leave people and organizations wounded. The shepherding and teaching functions are needed to ensure people are cared for rather than simply used.

PROPHETS know God's will. They are particularly attuned to God and his truth for today. They bring correction and challenge the dominant assumptions we inherit from the culture. They insist that the community obey what God has commanded. They question the status quo. Without the other types of leaders in place, prophets can become belligerent activists or, paradoxically, disengage from the imperfection of reality and become other-worldly.

EVANGELISTS recruit. These infectious communicators of the gospel message recruit others to the cause. They call for a personal response to God's redemption in Christ, and also draw believers to engage the wider mission, growing the church. Evangelists can be so focused on reaching those outside the church with the result that maturing and strengthening those inside is neglected.

SHEPHERDS nurture and protect. As caregivers of the community, they focus on the protection and spiritual maturity of God's flock, cultivating a loving and spiritually mature network of relationships, making and developing disciples. Shepherds can value stability to the detriment of the mission. They may also foster an unhealthy dependence between the church and themselves.

TEACHERS understand and explain. Communicators of God's truth and wisdom, they help others remain biblically grounded to better discern God's will, guiding others toward wisdom, helping the community remain faithful to Christ's word, and constructing a transferable doctrine. Without the input of the other functions, teachers can fall into dogmatism or dry intellectualism. They may fail to see the personal or missional aspects of the church's ministry.

41

Documents

TEAMS RESEARCH PROJECT - City LeadershipDr. Keith Sawyer, a professor of psychology and education at Washington University in St. Louis, is one of the country’s leading scientific