What Is an Effective Team?

Glossary

• emergent leaders - People who emerge as leaders in response to a particular set of circumstances.
• emotional intelligence - The ability to recognize your own feelings and the feelings of others.
• physical distance - The actual space between team members.
• premortem - A meeting at the beginning of a project in which team members imagine that the project has already failed and then list the plausible reasons for its failure.
• reliable promise - A commitment to complete a task by an agreed-upon time. In order to make a reliable promise, you need to have the authority to make the promise and the competence to fulfill the promise. You also need to be honest and sincere in your commitment and be willing to correct the situation if you fail to keep the promise.
• self-organizing team - As defined in Agile, a "group of motivated individuals, who work together toward a goal, have the ability and authority to take decisions, and readily adapt to changing demands".
• team - A "small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable".
• virtual distance - The "psychological distance created between people by an over-reliance on electronic communications".