Dream Teams

The best groups are more than the sum of their parts - but why does teamwork so often fail to fulfil this promise?

Award-winning entrepreneur and journalist Shane Snow takes us on an extraordinary tour of the hidden science of team dynamics, revealing the counterintuitive reasons that some groups break out while far too many break down. Examining history-making groups like the Wu Tang Clan and the Russian national hockey side alongside teams whose failures have had lasting impact, Snow uncovers the secrets behind successful collaborations and what the rest of us can learn from the rare teams that achieve the impossible together.

In this stimulating, pacey adventure through history, neuroscience, psychology, sports, and business, Snow explores the key factors that separate thriving teams from struggling ones. You'll discover:

• How ragtag teams - from soccer clubs to startups to gangs of pirates - beat the odds throughout history
• Why DaimlerChrysler flopped while the Wu-Tang Clan succeeded, and the surprising factors behind most failed mergers, marriages, and partnerships
• What the Wright Brothers' daily arguments can teach us about group problem solving
• The true stories of pioneering women in law enforcement, unlikely civil rights collaborators, and underdog armies that accomplished the incredible together
• The team players behind great social movements in history, and the science of becoming open-minded

Provocative and entertaining, Dream Teams is a landmark work that will change the way we think about progress and collaboration. It challenges conventional wisdom and opens our minds to the power of unlikely alliances and the true potential of human teamwork.