One of the first steps to take toward increasing team effectiveness is to pay attention to how the team is formed. You can head off most of the problems that beset teams during the formation stage by setting a clear direction, building organizational support, creating an empowering team design, identifying key relationships, and monitoring external factors. When a team is formed with the five high-performance principles described in this guidebook, it has a head start on achieving success.

This series of guidebooks draws on the practical knowledge that the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) has generated, since its inception in 1970, through its research and educational activity conducted in partnership with hundreds of thousands of managers and executives. Much of this knowledge is shared-in a way that is distinct from the typical university department, professional association, or consultancy. CCL is not simply a collection of individual experts, although the individual credentials of its staff are impressive; rather it is a community, with its members holding certain principles in common and working together to understand and generate practical responses to today's leadership and organizational challenges.
The purpose of the series is to provide managers with specific advice on how to complete a developmental task or solve a leadership challenge. In doing that, the series carries out CCL's mission to advance the understanding, practice, and development of leadership for the benefit of society worldwide.

Kim Kanaga is the director of CCL's Greensboro Campus. He has an extensive background in teambuilding initiatives, which he has used to customize team effectiveness programs for many CCL clients. Kim holds a Ph.D. in communication from Michigan State University.

Michael E. Kossler is Manager-Custom Solutions for CCL-Europe and is based in Brussels, Belgium. He is also the manager of CCL's geographically dispersed teams research project. During the last ten years, Mike has worked with hundreds of manager- and executive-level teams. Mike holds an MA in organizational communication from the University of Akron and an MM in organization development from Aquinas College.