MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Establishing High-Performing Teams: Lessons From Health Care

  • 7m
  • Emma-Louise Aveling, Michael Anne Kyle, Sara J. Singer
  • MIT Sloan Management Review
  • 2020

Why is it that teams following the same best practices can achieve different results? We studied new team formation to understand why some teams succeed while others struggle.

Effective teams can be significant drivers of innovations that enable broader quality improvements and efficiency gains across organizations. But despite the wealth of research and managerial expertise describing characteristics of effective teams, people and organizations still struggle to deploy teams that achieve their potential, regardless of individual effort and good intentions. Our research suggests that transitioning to effective teams depends on mutually reinforcing functional and cultural change processes. The way in which organizations combine these two key change processes is critical for success.

About the Author

Michael Anne Kyle, MSN, MPH, RN (@michaelannica) is a doctoral candidate in health policy and management at Harvard Business School. Emma-Louise Aveling, PhD is a research scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Sara J. Singer, PhD, MBA (@sarajeansinger) is a professor of medicine at Stanford Medical School and a professor of organizational behavior, by courtesy, at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Learn more about MIT SMR.

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  • MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Establishing High-Performing Teams—Lessons From Health Care