Build Better Teams

p class="MsoNormal" align="center"> “In *Build Better Teams, *George has tapped into a very simple and usable code to harness all the lessons of yesterday in order to prepare you to build the very best teams of tomorrow. George has cleverly brought this code to life with his stories and examples. He presents a modern day code that parallels a societal trend towards increased vulnerability, honesty and compassion. As I have grown to know George, it’s also written by someone with these very same characteristics, so it’s a book that has both depth and integrity.”

—Ed Stafford, British explorer, host of Discovery Channel’s Ed Stafford: First Man Out (excerpted from the foreword)

“Build Better Teams is an insightful book offering leaders a compelling and practical team building ‘code’ to optimize team performance. Starting with a riveting extreme case study of a team that hiked the entire Amazon, the book is refreshingly grounded in the academic research on what makes teams effective. The book illuminates the challenging relational work that drives great teamwork and provides a well-constructed way forward through this complexity.”

—Professor Amy C. Edmondson, Harvard Business School, and author of The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth

 

“As a fast-growing SME scaling organically over the past few years, I found myself reaching out to George and his team to better understand how to grow, gel, and retain my growing and diverse team. The code he gave us, with a simple method and the clear scientific base, immediately made sense. We soon found we were able to galvanize our team and even improve our recruitment model. The results are clear: under lockdown, we increased our team by 30 percent, doubled sales, and won a Queens Award for Enterprise. Implementing the code in this book has had a significant impact on this positive growth.”

—Adrian Thompson, CEO and Founder, image HOLDERS Ltd

 

“In an age where the solving of vital problems depends more than ever on teams of teams, we have in this a serious book that brings the field of group dynamics into the present. Not only does the book review other models of teamwork, but it builds effectively on them to provide a model that is ready to deal with the ever-growing complexity that organizations will face. Adaptive behavior will not come through great individual heroes but though effectively managed fluid systems of teams. This book is an important addition to the group dynamics literature.”

—Edgar H. Schein, Professor Emeritus MIT Sloan School of Management, and coauthor with Peter Schein of Organizational Culture and Leadership, 5th Ed. (2017), Humble Leadership (2018), and Humble Inquiry, Revised Ed. (2021)

 

“Build Better Teams is a hugely refreshing and inspirational addition to the practice of team-building, being strongly grounded in academic research, accessible, and fun. My personal engagement with the Code was seriously transformational, enabling me to mainstream the values that mattered to me and my team, and to capture and promote the diversity, the individual egos, and talents and create a thriving, single-acting team for which anything seemed possible. This complex and turbulent twenty-first century is an age for inclusion and collaboration, and this new work is a powerful tool. I recommend it to all teams and team-builders. It’s a book that will remain on my desk, not on my bookshelf!”

—Professor Mike Hardy MBE, Chair of the International Leadership Association and a visiting scholar at Yale University’s International Leadership Centre

 

“I absolutely loved reading Build Better Teams. It all made perfect sense to me as George Karseras and I have been very successfully using the code described in the book for a long time now. Karseras rightfully emphasizes in his book the importance of understanding shared goals and the importance of sub-teaming. In starting here with Get Set rather than initially focusing on the relationship stuff, he really does set up teams to succeed from the word ‘go.’ The speed of technology transformation and change now means we simply have to work more autonomously in sub-units, and the emphasis and help Get Better Teams provides here is notable. I recommend his book wholeheartedly.”

—Jackie Leiper, MD of Pensions, Stockbroking and Distribution, Scottish Widows (Lloyds Banking Group plc FTSE 100)

 

“Build Better Teams is an incredibly helpful book for leaders of small businesses who, like us, want their teams to win against the competition. The book provides an uncomplicated, entertaining, step by step approach to building the high-performing team. We know first-hand the code George provides really does work, and so we heartily recommend this book as a must-read for any ambitious small business owner.”

—Will Lewis and Dom Horridge, Directors of Obi Property Agency, Niche Agency Team of the Year Property Awards 2019

 

“I’ve used ‘the code’ within Build Better Teams with my teams and can confirm this highly readable book does exactly what it says on the tin—it helps build better teams to generate impressive commercial success. Build Better Teams offers a simple and effective way to avoid so many of the bear traps that executive level teams can fall into. I heartily recommend it to any leader of any team.”

—Adrian Grace, Former CEO AEGON UK (AEGON NV Fortune 500)

 

“There are over 5.2 million research papers looking at every aspect of team performance, leadership/management, and development. Sadly, many people don’t know what this invaluable research evidence says, all too often falling back on ‘gut’ feel, opinion, and consultants who engage in ‘creative’ hyperbole. What sets Build Better Teams apart is that it pulls together some of the most recent research evidence and presents it in an easy-to-digest, practical, and knowledgeable way. This book will help anyone who wants to use a more intelligent and evidence-based approach to developing better teams.”

—Dr. David Wilkinson, Editor-in-Chief, The Oxford Review

 

“As a coach, George is engaging, insightful, honest, eloquent, driven, and motivational. All these qualities come across in this gripping quest for a simple, memorable, and actionable code to give a team the greatest chances for success.”

—Roger Gray, former CEO, USS Investment Management; CEO, UBS Asset Management Switzerland, CIO Rothschild Asset Management

 

“In his book, Build Better Teams, George Karseras has impressively taken the dark art of building teams and simplified it into a proven scientific code. Having successfully worked with George for a number of years now, I can readily vouch for the order in which he builds teams, and especially the importance of Getting the team Set and building swift trust as the starting point. This book really is must-read leadership text for any actual or aspiring leader.”

—Mark Till, CEO and Executive Vice President, Unum International (Unum Group Fortune 500)

 

“It’s rare to see an effective blend of hard scientific data and pragmatic relevance for leaders on the ground. Build Better Teams pulls off this impressive feat and provides a scientifically validated, data-driven team development plan that any leader can easily adapt to their needs. I’ll be encouraging my clients to get a copy of this groundbreaking book. If you care about the effec…