Teamwork Is an Individual Skill

Learning to work with others is the most important skill in the knowledge economy and this guide reveals how to be successful on any team.

Knowing how to work effectively in groups may be the single most important skill anyone can develop in today's collaborative, team-based workplace. Unfortunately, all of the resources available on teamwork put the emphasis on group process and ignore the role of—and benefits to—the individual. But effective teamwork isn't only a group skill set; it's an individual skill set as well.

Teamwork Is an Individual Skill shows readers how to develop the skills to thrive on any team, under any circumstances. No longer will readers find themselves complaining, “I got assigned to a bad team.” Instead, they'll know what to do to make any team work for them.

Drawing on over twenty years of experience successfully developing professional teams in product development, R&D, and high-tech environments, Christopher Avery and his co-authors use brief thought-provoking essays, personal and teambuilding exercises, case studies, and insights from business leaders to teach readers how to build responsible and productive relationships at work. The authors show how and why your ability to assume personal responsibility-for your own work on a team and for the team's collective work—is the most important factor in ensuring a productive team experience.

Teambuilding, the authors point out, is essentially a series of conversations between people who share responsibility to get something done. Teamwork Is an Individual Skill describes the way these conversations typically progress, and shows the reader how to predict and direct these conversations so that they can maximize the benefits to both themselves and to their team.