RETAIL EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP PROGRAMS (RELP) 
Session: Leading Teams

J. Richard Hackman, Ph.D., Professor, Harvard University

J. Richard Hackman is Edgar Pierce Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology. He received his bachelor's degree in mathematics from MacMurray College and his doctorate in social psychology from the University of Illinois. He taught at Yale for twenty years and then moved to his present position at Harvard.

Hackman teaches and conducts research on a variety of topics in social and organizational psychology, including team performance, leadership effectiveness, and the design of self-managing teams and organizations. His most recent books are Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances, which in 2004 won the Academy of Management's Terry Award for the most outstanding management book of the year, and Senior Leadership Teams: What It Takes to Make Them Great (with Ruth Wageman, Debra Nunes, and James Burruss).

He has received the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association's division on industrial and organizational psychology, and both the Distinguished Educator Award and the Distinguished Scholar Award of the Academy of Management. He serves on the Intelligence Science Board of the Director of National Intelligence and on the Board of Trustees of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

BOOKS 

Title: Collaborative Intelligence: Using Teams to Solve Hard Problems
Author: J. Richard Hackman
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Intelligence professionals are commonly viewed as solo operators. But these days intelligence work is mostly about collaboration. Interdisciplinary and even inter-organizational teams are necessary to solve the really hard problems intelligence professionals face. Tragically, these teams often devolve into wheel-spinning, contentious assemblies that get nothing done. Or members may disengage from a team if they find its work frustrating, trivial, or a waste of their time. Even teams with a spirit of camaraderie may take actions that are flat-out wrong.

But there is also good news. This book draws on recent research findings as well as Harvard Professor Richard Hackman’s own experience as an intelligence community researcher and advisor to show how leaders can create an environment where teamwork flourishes. Hackman identifies six enabling conditions – such as establishing clear norms of conduct and providing well-timed team coaching – that increase the likelihood that teams will be effective in any setting or type of organization.. Although written explicitly for intelligence, defense, crisis management, and law enforcement professionals it will also be valuable for improving team success in all kinds of leadership, management, service, and production teams in business, government, and nonprofit enterprises.

Title: Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances
Author: J. Richard Hackman
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
Teams have more talent and experience, more diverse resources, and greater operating flexibility than individual performers. So why do so many teams either struggle unpleasantly to an unsatisfactory conclusion--or, worse, crash and burn shortly after launch?

J. Richard Hackman, who has studied group and organizational dynamics for many years, argues that the answer to this puzzle is rooted in flawed thinking about team leadership. It is not a leader's personality or management style that determine how well a team performs, but how well a leader designs and supports a team so that members can manage themselves. In Leading Teams, Hackman identifies the five key conditions that any leader can put in place to increase the likelihood of team success--regardless of his or her preferred style of operating. They are: a real team (rather than a set of people who are a team in name only), a compelling direction, an enabling team structure, a supportive organizational context, and the availability of competent team-focused coaching.

These five conditions, Hackman shows, set the stage for great team performances. Leading Teams lays out in concrete detail what leaders can do to create them and to help team members take full advantage of them.

Title: Work Redesign
Author: J. Richard Hackman, Greg R. Oldham
Publisher: FT Press
A member of the AWL OD Series! Work Redesign is a comprehensive, clearly written study of work design as a strategy for personal and organizational change. Linking theory and practical technologies, the book develops traditional and alternative approaches to work design that can benefit both individuals and organizations.