Build Better Teams

 “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 effectiveness of your team, you should get a copy of the book for yourself and for other leaders in your organization.”

—Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, author of the bestsellers Never Go with Your Gut: How Pioneering Leaders Make the Best Decisions and Avoid Business Disasters (Career Press, 2019) and The Blindspots Between Us: How to Overcome Unconscious Cognitive Bias and Build Better Relationships (New Harbinger, 2020)

“George Karseras accurately identifies the key challenges faced by modern leaders in the new digital world and relates his methodology expertly to relevant anecdotes. This whole subject—made even more complex by the global COVID-19 pandemic with virtual meetings and the lack of face-to-face engagement—has exacerbated these challenges, put pressure on relationships like nothing else, and magnified the complexities associated with this form of leadership. Leading successful teams in this landscape requires an approach with clear methodology. In his book, Build Better Teams, Karseras proposes a novel approach which is logical, clear, and well-articulated. I commend this book to the modern-day leader as relevant and thought provoking, a must-read.”

—Corin Palmer, Performance Director, Ospreys Rugby

“George has created an astonishing book that grabs you from the first page with its storytelling skill. The absolute delight of this extremely readable book is it author’s witty and self-deprecating tone: I laughed out loud at points. The book contains one of the best examinations of the implications of Dx (the forthcoming digitalization of everything) I have yet read and goes on to reveal the twenty-first century model of teaming we have all been waiting for. From a positive psychological perspective, it’s great to see concepts like trust, positive emotions, and mental health being emphasized. If you are a leader or a member of a team (and who isn’t?) I can’t recommend this book highly enough as a thoroughly psychological-science based witty manual for making life better for you and your team.”

—Sarah Lewis, Appreciating Change, author of Positive Psychology at Work and post-graduate lecturer Singapore School of Positive Psychology and Anglia Ruskin University

“Build Better Teams and the code within it helps teams to understand and embed a core set of leadership qualities that defines them as teams. One of the key elements for me in applying the code was stabilizing the team in the ‘Get Set’ phase to enable us to then excel in the ‘Get Safe’ stage. This really did enable us to build a culture of trust via active listening and genuine learning—something that has enabled our leadership team to grow stronger together in an ever-changing complex environment.”

—John Chambers, Group Chief Information Officer, Lloyds Banking Group (FTSE Top 20)

“It is clear from the first chapter this is a stimulating read! George tackles the multiple issues faced in today’s workplace and society. Managing a team is now like psychological ‘fast and furious!’ A diverse workforce, an inclusive atmosphere, isolation, automation, and collaboration technology are each massively important. George tackles each of these topics by bringing together excellent academic review with up-to-date real-life examples and an amazing metaphor in an Amazon journey. He skillfully translates the academic qualitative research into digestible, interesting, and often humorous prose. This is the most interesting of reads.”

—Gus Macfarlane, Managing Director, Group Technology and Enterprise, Barclays, NED, and Board Advisor I WeAreTheCity Men in Gender Balance Rising Star Award Winner 2021

“Build Better Teams is an important book written for the new world in which we now lead. Previously tried and trusted leadership models of the past no longer necessarily work fully in a post-pandemic world where there are multiple diversities, uncertainties, ambiguities, and complexities. As many leaders are now unsure as to whether they are doing the right thing, this refreshed model of leadership has never been timelier. This book contains the code and tools to support both existing leaders and new leaders to consider the role of leadership through a different lens in this challenging new era.”

—Karen Geary, Non-Executive Director, ASOS plc, National Express Group plc, Sabre plc. Former Chief People Officer, The Sage Group plc (FTSE 100)

“George has worked successfully with my teams over nearly a decade. I’m pleased to see him extend his great work by finding an algorithm or code that others can now also apply. The codification of team building is no mean feat and I’m excited to apply this simple but highly effective code in the new post-covid world.”

—David Howell, CEO Pacific Life Re (Pacific Life Corp Fortune 500)

“George Karseras’s Build Better Teams is the most important team-building book in a long, long time. His modest title belies the fact that George has uncovered a fundamental code to unlock team performance and presents it in a clear useful structure upon which to hang your own experience. While intellectually rigorous, George always has a heartfelt appreciation of and good will towards people in all their diversity. He shows how teams draw out the best of their members and why successful teams are a demonstration of all that is best in human endeavor.”

—Christopher Connolly, author of How Teamwork Works MD Sycon Ltd

“Has George finally cracked the Holy Grail or code for high performance teaming? I think he may have. He cleverly brings the code to life by combining deep expertise in team performance and mountains of science with his unique straight-talking, brave, and self-deprecating style. A contemporary leadership read that is grounded in today’s increasingly high speed, complex, and uncertain digital transformation environment. Well done, George. (p.s. Look out for the cannibal story!)”

—Irvinder Goodhew, FTSE 100 Executive and Non-Executive Director

“This is a ‘must-read’ for both new and seasoned managers at all levels of an organization as we navigate these transitional times. The book release timing is important; George highlights the complexities from digitalization, the move to a more diverse workforce, and the impacts of more dynamic working fueled by the COVID lockdowns that require both a change in mind set and a much greater focus on team understanding. This publication, with its groundbreaking new code for us all to follow, will be very important for managers as we move our teams forward in this very changing world.”

—Nick Hutton-Penman, Deputy Chief Executive Officer Tokio Marine Kiln (Tokio Marine Holdings Nikkei 250)

“George Karseras in Build Better Teams provides a short, simple, practical sequenced model that any team managers and team leaders who need to improve the way their team works can follow with confidence. He has taken the principles of creating effective teams and made it available for managers at all levels. I thoroughly recommend it.”

—Professor David Clutterbuck, author of Coaching the Team at Work and MD the David Clutterbuc