We learn most from those we work with. They make us the leaders we are. But what makes an effective team? Here is a list inspired by Peter Drucker’s eight practices for executives.

What makes an effective executive team

Great executive teams may be aggressive or conservative, intuitive or calculating, conflicted or harmonious. But every effective executive team follows eight practices:

1. The team members ask each other ”How can I support you?”
2. The team members hold each other accountable, while also allowing each one to show vulnerability.
3. The team practices open and authentic communication.
4. The team arrives at key decisions together through discussion, debate, and synthesis.
5. The team has fun.
6. The team members see success of the whole team as the best form of success.
7. The team operates at a strategic level and empowers the organization around them to make and execute operational decisions.
8. Each team member builds their own teams…

The concepts that govern our thinking about work are not just matters of the intellect. Our concepts structure what we perceive and what we think is possible. This is not something we are explicitly aware of. We simply think and act along certain lines.

We are used to understanding work as activities separated from other activities, as jobs. Organizational design has been seen as the planning and execution of a collection of activities forming the organizational system.

The industrial management paradigm is based on the presupposition that activities are the independent, governing factors and the scheme of interaction conforms to the planned division of labor as a secondary feature. The organizational structure comes first. Then an appropriate system of co-ordination and communication is put into effect. If the scheme of activities changes, even somewhat, the scheme of interaction should change too. As the two are mutually dependent, it means accordingly…