This was a great read to help reinforce some of the others books I’ve read about habits. This book had a tram focus on habits which since I work on a team was very helpful and gave me some new tips I can apply in the workforce.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy to review.

In a market space replete with "simple" guidance that often proves less than practical, it is refreshing to find a book like Team Habits. Gilkey provides a truly simple approach based on recognizing what a team already has going for it. Gilkey's explanations start at a high level, then progressively peel back the onion with deeper analysis of why certain perspectives work, thoughtfully recapping key take-aways at the end of each block. Team Habits is a quick read, yet instills in its reader an infectious enlightenment on hoe to approach any situation or relationship. And since everyday is comprised of a series of personal interactions, in-person or remote, remembering the tenets of this book are the key to daily success in any forum. The book is as much a guide for team leaders and managers, as it is a self-help manual for young professionals and parents.

This was an interesting book. I liked the rocket practice and the chapter takeaways best of the book. While this book doesn’t really account for remote or hybrid work, I found a lot of ideas and frameworks that I feel I can implement in my own team. The decision-making and planning chapters were by far my favorite and I am really looking forward to using those chapters as reference in the future.

It didn’t take long for me to fall in love with this book as soon as I saw Gilkey’s citation of Amabile’s and Kramer’s book, The Progress Principle—a must read for any manager or leader. Of course, this book’s title “Team Habits” is also attractive since so much of business and organization life is conducted through habits (see The Power of Habits by Duhigg). We make a decision “once” and stick with it until there’s a disruption to our processes, policies, strategies, etc. Leaders and teams operate the same way. We conduct ourselves through routines that are hard to change, just like any habit. Gilkey’s book helps disrupt those “trances” by providing takeaways at the end of each chapter and, more importantly, practice ideas to implement and start creating new habits. A leader will do well to reinforce new behaviors and find ways to put obstacles in the path to “the way we used to do it” (ala the fable of Cortez burning his ships or sending them back to Spain, so that his conquistadors were forced to march forward and no chance to quit). For anyone who’s tried to create change in organizations, this is important and Gilkey provides a service to us all with his book.

Since decision-making is one of those habits that interferes with team performance/excellence and overall motivation (see Kohn’s Punished by Rewards in which he shows giving employees choice is important, and its iteration in Daniel Pink’s Drive), the author’s broad treatment of how teams and leaders make decisions is vital. I once had a CEO ask me how he could get his staff to be more empowered. I advised that his staff would continue to be “disempowered” as long as he continued to behave (i.e. handle decision-making) as he always has. The team would continue to defer to his judgment and look for his approval of ideas. He needed to decline attendance at meetings. If he did attend, he needed to put on his best “poker face”: no non-verbal cues as to his interest or dislike in any of the proposals, no raised eyebrows, frowns, sighs, smiles, drumming fingers, sitting back/forward, etc. Until he changed the decision-making process, the team was going to be stuck. Gilkey would teach this CEO about which decisions he needed to retain, which ones he should seek input before deciding and which ones the staff could decide. (What I have learned and taught as discerning when to tell, sell, consult and join your team in the decision-making. The differences are determined by urgency, responsibility and how much team ownership in the decision is evident or desired.) Gilkey’s material would also coach that team in how to make and implement decisions.

There is a lot more here than just decision-making, but I find it’s often overlooked in team-building materials. Gilkey also covers the “traditional” topics of team structure, team composition, team dynamics and so on.

Even team-building, team-leading veterans will glean something from this book.