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"Certainly there are good books for compensation professionals on the technical aspects of designing incentive plans for teams, and handbooks that offer creative laundry lists of recognition ideas of individual contributors. But there are few sources for people on the firing line looking for practical advice coupled with real-life examples of how to design reward and recognition systems for teams, not individuals. This book provides practical advice and detailed examples of effective organizational unit (group) incentives, project team incentives, and recognition plans. It is for managers in organizations that have made a commitment to a collaborative culture and who want to create effective reward systems for teams...At the heart of this book are case studies of reward plans in companies large and small, in many industries, and of many cultures...Whenever organizations try to make teamwork the norm, many supporters become frustrated because the usual reward-and-recognition programs don't support it. In this book, the fictional BIZCOM Corporation and its managers show how frustration about teams can turn into success. BIZCOM's trials and tribulations are based on the authors' years of experience working with organizations" (from the Preface).In this context, Glenn Parker, Jerry McAdams, and David Zielinski:* describe BIZCOM, a fictitious company that wants to use a team approach to adress a critical business problem, and discuss team and organizational development issues such as vision, sponsorship, membership, stakeholders, launches, training, coaching, management style, and organizational support.* discuss reward and recognition systems, communications and performance feedback, and training and development tools for creating a team-based organization.* introduce an organizing model for rewards, and discuss organizational culture. At this point, they argue that "One general description of the whole organization's culture is possible, although organizations are made up of a number of suborganizational units, each with a slightly different culture. Accounting has a different culture than marketing. Manufacturing has a different culture than customer service. Hopefully, they are aligned with the overreaching organizational culture, with the differences simply reflecting the nature of the work they do". And they also argue that "One of the keys to success in improving organizational performance is to ensure that reward plans reinforce the desired culture, or at least attempt to reduce the gap between the existing and desired culture".* define six types of reward plans: (1) individual base compensation and benefits, (2) individual capability (competency), (3) individual incentives, (4) recognition, (5) project team incentives, (6) organizational unit incentives. (But throughout the book they mainly focus on the last three plans - more detailed examination of these plans in several companies and review of their experiences see Chapters 3-5).* summarize how you can best utilize project, recognition, and group incentive plans to improve teamwork and organizational performance as lessons from the trenches (more detailed discussion of these trenches see Chapter 6):(1). Customize the plan.(2). Align plans with business objectives.(3). Send the right message.- create many winners, few losers- involve employees in the selection process- trust the folks(4). Use noncash as well as cash awards.- noncash awards are not limited to recognition plans- give a few big awards and lots of small ones- pay the taxes on noncash awards(5). Communicate, communicate, communicate.- never assume people understand- tell people how they are doing - all the time- reinforce the messages- role modeling works(6). Create a smorgasbord of plans.(7). Budget for recognition activities.(8). Keep administration in mind.(9). Payoffs are in the eye of the beholder.(10). How plans are introduced and operated is paramount.Finally, they argue that "There are no silver bullets. There is a good will, faith in the value of employee contributions, good business judgement, and willingness to act on a strategy of teamwork reinforced by rewards and recognition plans. We've learned how to manage financial, fiscal, and customer capital. Leveraging human capital is the challenge for the next century. Reward and recognition plans designed to encourage teams and teamwork is one way to meet that challenge".I highly recommend this invaluable study to all executives and HR professionals.

Rewarding teams is an excellent book. It offers an easy to understand and powerful reinforcement model as well as a six different types of reward plans. It also has great real life examples to prove the model and illustrate the power of rewarding teams correctly. This book is helpful for both the team leader wanting to establish an effective incentive plan as well as for the professional looking to understand the nature of team rewards. Glen Parker has done it again. This book takes a great deal of complicated information and makes it easy to understand and easy to use. I highly recommend it.

For those of us helping to develop team-based work environments, this book hits the mark. I already know the theories. What I need are some examples of how to make it work in the trenches. It provides the kind of practical, down-to-earth examples that show what really works in the real world.This book isn't a simplistic, one-dimensional approach to recognition. It reviews all aspects of the development, care and maintenance of strong teams, and provides a clear understanding of the role that recognition and rewards play.The first chapter is a great primer on the right way to get teams up and running. Parker, et. al. throw in numerous tips for team leaders on how to get the ball rolling, and alert you to potential pitfalls and traps and how to deal with them. Chapter one puts team rewards and recognition in the proper context.I didn't realize how superficial my understanding of team rewards was until I read the book. For example, the book differentiates incentives from rewards, an important distinction that I have to admit was somewhat muddied in my thinking. It illustrates how rewards and recognition need to fit with the organizational culture, and show how this works in practice in organizations.The authors use a fictitious team start-up situation in the first two chapters to add another dimension to aid the reader in understanding the principles of team development from the team leader's perspective. I found myself wondering if the authors had worked in some of the companies I was in. They clearly have "been there and done that."Chapters three through five profile almost twenty companies to provide actual examples of how to implement the various approaches to team reward and recognition to address different situations and challenges. For example, the book goes into the rationale, philosophy, criteria and detailed administration of Chase Manhattan Bank's Service Star Program, as well as the organization's candid assessment of the program's strengths and weaknesses. Some companies are large, some small. Government, non-profit, and associations are also represented. Some use stock options, some cash awards. Some tie in team performance with individual performance reviews. Throughout, "successes and lessons learned" enable the reader to benefit from what others have done.This is an example of the improvements one company decided to make in its approach after the initial evaluation period: - Give plants more control in choosing and tailoring plan metrics. - Encourage employees to get involved in creating goals - Shift the burden of plan communication from the corporate level to the plantsThe final chapter summarizes the key principles and insights from the authors' work.I would highly recommend this book for executives who are responsible for creating the organization culture, operating managers and human resource staffs. It should be REQUIRED reading for anyone involved in forming, leading and supporting teams because it can prevent so many problems that affect team performance.

If you're reading this review you already get it -- you can't engage teams while only rewarding individuals. But how do you do it? The literature and seminars that purport to deal with team-based rewards are heavy on theory but lean on actual application. "Rewarding Teams", however, provides an outstanding, highly practical resource for executives, line managers and HR professionals. It builds on the reward systems model presented in Jerry McAdam's prior book, "The Reward Plan Advantage", presenting strategies that reposture compensation dollars from a cost of doing business to an investment in performance improvement. The many case studies in the book provide an extremely helpful framework for understanding the issues, alternatives and key success factors in designing team-based reward systems. The last chapter, a summary of "lessons from the trenches", is alone worth the investment in the book.

An easy read with real life examples and the resulting lessons. The identification of best principles is great. This goes beyond just saying what others are doing (best practices) to the principles under-pinning the practices. If rewarding teams is your interest, you will benefit from this book.