Harvard University Organizational Psychology Professor J. Richard Hackman has spent a career exploring -- and questioning -- the conventional wisdom on teams. In the Harvard Business Review, he tackles three common fallacies:

• People generally think teams that work together harmoniously are better and more productive than teams that don't. But studying symphonies, he found grumpy orchestras played together slightly better than orchestras where all the musicians were quite happy. "That's because the cause-and-effect is the reverse of what most people believe: When we're productive and we've done something good together (and are recognized for it), we feel satisfied, not the other way around," he says.
• Bigger teams are viewed as better than small teams because they have more resources to draw upon. But he found that as a team gets bigger, the number of links that have to be managed among members goes up at an almost exponential rate. His rule of thumb: Don't allow teams to grow into double digits. In his courses, he limits teams to six students.
• Perhaps the most common misperception is that at some point team members become so comfortable with each other they start accepting one another's foibles, and performance drops. He hasn't found a shred of evidence to support that, except with R&D teams, where to maintain creativity and freshness a new person should be added every three to four years. Otherwise, the problem is not a team getting stale but in fact not having enough time to settle in.

On a recent plane trip where he happened to be seated beside a fellow consultant who focuses on not-for-profit organizations, best selling author Patrick Lencioni began to wonder why we make such a distinction between for-profits and not-for-profits. "Perhaps we've just allowed organizations on both sides of the profit aisle to choose their own areas of mediocrity and lower standards," he writes in The Table Group Newsletter.

He says many not-for-profits are allowed to accept lower levels of accountability, productivity and rigour around return on investment than their for-profit counterparts. The rationale seems to be that since they rely on volunteers and don't pay as much to staff members, they can't expect as much in return.

At the same time, many for-profits feel no need to tap into the passions and idealism of their employees, and give them a sense of mission. After all, their purpose is to maximize compensation for investors, and everything else is considered window dressing.

Instead, leaders should stop thinking of their organizations as for-profits or not-for-profits and start using a more meaningful and actionable criteria: Is your organization going to be a mission-driven one, or a performance-driven one?

And the best leaders, he stresses, will choose both. They will inspire their employees around something more meaningful than simply profit, and they'll drive them to standards of measurable performance regardless of whether the organization pays taxes at the end of the year.

Selina Lo had a reputation as an aggressive salesperson and sales executive. But when she became CEO of Ruckus Wireless, she realized that like many hard-driven executives she needed a personality makeover to remain successful.

One trick was establishing a group decision-making process that forces her to consider the opinions of others. When a disagreement arises, she quickly convenes a meeting of herself, her disputant, and one or two other people affected by the decision. "If they agree with me, he gets more data points about why I am correct. If they agree with him, I ask myself: Am I being blind or unfair?" she tells Inc. magazine.

And since she tends to be stingy with praise, she asked colleagues to help her recognize when someone needs kudos. At an all-hands meeting, for example, it's not uncommon for someone to recommend the CEO acknowledge a colleague's effort.

Most companies focus on marketing the features of their service, not the benefits. For example, selling business-to-business services, it's easy to get wrapped up in talk about the "new and better processes" you provide when the prospect only wants to know the benefit: Those processes will save them money.

But in a recession, consultant Paul Collins stresses on RainToday.com, you have to go one step further: A client's view of benefits shortens to one year -- not five years or even three, as they might not have a job then.

You must deliver the benefits this year. Even better, if possible, they would relish a guarantee of those benefits, by having your fee contingent upon success.

• Try to bring old projects to some kind of closure before new ones get on the list, recommends Harvard Management Professor Rita McGrath. (Source: Harvard Business Online)
• When most sellers try to sell to big companies, consultant Jill Konrath notes, they run into trouble by trying to tell prospects the full range of products or services they provide. That implies too much change for the prospect, and will usually result in a rebuff: "We're happy with our present suppliers." Instead, concentrate on solving a small or overlooked need your prospect is facing. Then when you have your foot in the door, you can try to expand to other products or services. (Source: Success-digital.com)
• Good To Great author Jim Collins says there are four stages of entrepreneurship. In stage one, you have a great idea. In stage two, you build a successful business. In stage three, you build a great company. In stage four, which he thinks is starting to become more common these days, entrepreneurs go from a great company to a great movement. (Source: Inc.com)
• Rather than starting the planning for your presentations with PowerPoint or other presentation software, Thomas Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt recommends beginning with OmniOutliner, which helps to collect and organize your material into hierarchies of main points and sub-points. (Source: Michaelhyatt.com)
• If you double a penny every day for 30 days, it will grow to more than $5 million. Similarly, says consultant Allyson Lewis, try to do one thing better every day -- it adds up. (Source: MorningstarAdvisor.com)

6. Q&A with 8020Info: Twitter        Top

Question: Should I be on Twitter?

8020Info President & CEO Rob Wood replies:

As some will know, Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates -- text messages of up to 140 characters, known as "tweets". As a one-to-many distribution technique, it is described by some as posting short emails or text messages to a list of "followers" who sign up to get your updates. Although it was started by a handful of friends to keep each other up to date on what they were doing, Twitter's growth has been explosive.

We've had calls from organizations who want to use social networking techniques only "because it's hot" (but without having any idea of how or why it might be of benefit). Others refuse to give it a look because they've heard Twittering is entirely about personal, often juvenile trivia. The dust is still settling on what works and what doesn't for organizations, leaders and managers, but it appears to have some real value when used in the right way.

The first test is whether you wish to communicate through a social network, rather than other communication channels, and whether the social network is actually interested in what you have to say. It worked very well for Barack Obama when followers tracked his latest campaign announcements, appearances or appeals for action.

We think it can work for dispersed project teams with members who need to keep up on the latest developments with the team. We've seen it work effectively for thought-leaders who pluck intriguing items from the data stream and post updates or links to the most relevant online articles, events, blogs and books. It can work for close-knit families (households or communities of interest). It can even be plain old fun.

The downside follows from Twitter's social networking nature: It takes a lot of time and effort to keep up with your contacts, whether face to face or on Twitter, Facebook and similar networks. And what you have to offer must be of real interest to your network of followers, which is more challenging than it might seem at first glance. (Before sending a "tweet", just ask yourself why your followers would ever care!)

Along with several clients, we are exploring the Twitter opportunity. We suggest you take a look and see if it might be right you.

At the University of Waterloo this past week, we had a chance to meet with close to 60 economic development officers and tourism leaders from across the country. We were there to present workshops for the Economic Developers Association of Canada on marketing/branding strategy, tourism development and cultural entrepreneurship.

Participants told us one of the most difficult challenges for communities is to create a sharp, distinctive focus for positioning what they have to offer visitors. Most communities offer more or less the same thing, and in a vague or tired sort of way.

Even with a crisp value proposition and meaningful destination profile, tourism-oriented communities must then address the daunting task of aligning local stakeholders behind that positioning. For example, it's tough to claim you're the friendliest town in Canada unless the evidence is apparent -- from warm and welcoming pedestrians on the street to friendly service from taxi drivers, hotel desk clerks and restaurant wait staff. You have to synthesize your aspirations with what you can reasonably expect to deliver.

8020Info helps teams develop, communicate and implement more effective marketing communications strategies. We would be pleased to discuss your needs and welcome enquiries at (613) 542-8020, or by email at watercooler@8020info.com.

"The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never dog it."

   -- Wayne Gretzky