The Secret of Teams: What Great Teams Know and Do, Sep/2011

Teams are the bedrock of every organization. Most of what gets done today gets done through teams. Departmental, interdepartmental, cross-functional, ad hoc, task-specific—teams do everything from planning the office party to setting the annual budget to establishing performance goals.

But it’s not news that getting people to work together to achieve exceptional, sustained results can be a challenge. What separates the teams that really deliver from the ones that simply spin their wheels? What is the secret of high-performance teams?

As he did in The Secret, Mark Miller here uses a compelling business fable to reveal profound yet easily grasped truths that can dramatically transform any organization. In fact, he even uses the same characters! In The Secret of Teams, Debbie Brewster, the heroine of The Secret, has been promoted and is now struggling with taking her team to the next level. She turns to her old mentor, Jeff Brown, the company’s CEO. Rather than tell her what to do, Jeff sends her out to visit some high-performance teams and find out what makes them tick.

Debbie and her team discover the three elements that all successful teams have in common. But that’s just the start. The devil is in the details, as the story of Debbie’s efforts to actually implement the three elements shows. You’ll learn how to change entrenched ways of thinking and acting, what leaders have to do to optimize each of the three elements of a successful team, how to measure your progress, and more.

Creating high-performance teams does more than just give your organization a competitive advantage. It can be a performance multiplier that significantly improves results while honoring and developing people. It may be the ultimate win-win-win that all organizations are seeking.

About The Author:

Mark Miller is a business leader, best-selling author, and communicator.  

Mark began his Chick-fil-A career working as an hourly team member in 1977. In 1978, Mark joined the corporate staff working in the warehouse and mailroom. Since that time, he has provided leadership for Corporate Communications, Field Operations, Quality and Customer Satisfaction, Training and Development, and today, he serves as the Vice President, Organizational Effectiveness. During his time with Chick-fil-A, annual sales have grown to almost five billion dollars. The company has more than 1,750 restaurants in thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia.  

Mark began writing about a decade ago. He teamed up with Ken Blanchard, co-author of The One Minute Manager, to write The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do. Recently, he released The Secret of Teams, which outlines some of the key lessons learned from a twenty-year study on what makes some teams outperform the rest. His most recent book, Great Leaders Grow: Becoming a Leader for Life, was released in February 2012 and was co-authored with Ken Blanchard. Today, almost 600,000 copies of Mark’s books are in print in twenty-eight languages.  

In addition to his writing, Mark loves speaking to leaders. Over the years, he’s traveled extensively around the world teaching for numerous international organizations. His theme is always the same: encouraging and equipping leaders. His topics include leadership, creativity, team building, and more.  

Mark has an active lifestyle. As a photographer, he enjoys shooting in some of the world’s hardest-to-reach places, including Mount Kilimanjaro, Antarctica, Everest Base Camp, and the jungles of Rwanda.