ABSTRACT
Well-constructed and well-balanced teams have a good chance of succeeding in the modern world. But success is not ensured, however well the team functions. A common problem lies with the environment of the team. The team may be mature but the organization may not be. Hierarchies run organizations. They tolerate teams but are loath to see teams as alternatives to hierarchical decision-making, as the evidence cited in Chapter 7 indicates. Close analysis shows that, whatever utterances may be made to the contrary, hierarchies are prone to furnish teams with tasks rather than with real responsibilities. Here teams compare unfavourably in this respect with committees. Committees are commonly overloaded with members, they are often presented with matters of marginal or no interest to some of those present, they overrun the time-slot envisaged when the agenda was formed and invitations despatched, they are profligate wasters of time. Yet that is where key and binding decisions will be made. How is it then that committees, so operationally ineffective in many instances, carry more guns than effective teams in terms of weight and influence?
