TITLE : TEAM MANAGEMENT: PRACTICAL NEW APPROACHES.

In 1982 we started collaborating on Team Management. Both of us were intrigued as to why some teams were highly successful and yet others failed even though the abilities of the individuals in both types of teams seemed to be about the same. Some groups of people seemed to be able to work together and develop synergy whereas others seemed to 'blow themselves apart'. It was to find the reasons for this that we embarked upon our research programme.

We have already published much concerning our Team Management work. However many people have asked us to produce a book which has all of our team management ideas in the one volume - a volume that would be useful to both the human resources professional and the practising line manager.

There are many people who have helped us in our work and some of these are mentioned in the text. In particular, however, we would like to thank Rod Davies who worked with us for three years researching and validating the Team Management Index. He conducted a wide variety of psychometric assessments and also supervised the work of other researchers who have contributed to the validation of the Team Management Index. In all of these activities he has shown what a good 'linker' can do to improve team performance. Chapter 8 is based on his research.

Others who have contributed to the validation studies under Rod's leadership are Rob Connelly, Gerry Corcoran, Angela McDonnell, and Geoff Carter. They have all been valuable Assessor-developer and Controller-inspector members of our team.

In addition we thank those who took the time to understand and back our work in the early days. In particular, Gordon Wills of MCB University Press showed entrepreneurial flair by providing an outlet through his organisation. Jacques Dufrenne, Bruno Dalbiez and Daniel Jeanrenaud of Hewlett-Packard have all been great supporters and we thank them for their confidence.

More recently Sherril Kennedy, Graham Robinson and Christophe Muth have been active in promoting our work, as have Hansruedi Zellweger and Stephen Boethius.

In the USA we appreciate the support and entrepreneurial flair of Warren Wright and Curtiss Peck of the National Consulting and Training Institute. TheyShave taken our work and promoted it as an advanced tool to develop high-performance in US business teams.

In Australia, Barrie Ffrench has been an invaluable member of our team, promoting Team Management Systems to Australian business. In Touche Ross he has pioneered the use of the Team Management Index for recruitment and selection.

In New Zealand, Paul Robinson of Key Management Services has been an enthusiast for our work and has used Team Management Systems to help many New Zealand businesses. We also appreciate the managerial linking skills of Heather Burnett and Cathy Hick who have contributed so much to the business development and client service arrangements.

There are many others who, along the way, have helped with a word of advice here, a constructive criticism there. Most of these people have been line managers. We thank you all, for without your interest and feedback we would not have been able to produce what is now acknowledged as a powerful and systematic approach to understanding Team Management.

Finally, thanks to our own family teams who have supported us and had to manage without us on the numerous times we have had to travel in order to work with other teams.

Charles Margerison and Dick McCann February 1990