The Big Idea
Whether it is a Lone Ranger, Paul Revere, Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan, the myth of the triumphant individual - the lone hero - is deeply ingrained in the American psyche. But in a shrinking world of technological and political complexity, cooperation and collaboration are now becoming the order of the day. Most urgent projects require the coordinated contributions of many talented people.

"Organizing Genius" by Warren Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman presents insights on how and why a few groups rise to greatness, as a way of showing how to transform todays workplaces into Great Groups of collaboration and productivity. It presents 7 examples of Great Groups - Walt Disney, Xeroxs Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Apple, the 1992 Clinton campaign, Lockheeds Skunk Works, Black Mountain College, and the Manhattan Project, which invented the atomic bomb in World War II.


Warren G. Bennis is a Distinguished Professor of Business Administration at the Marshall School and Founding Chairman of the Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California. He served serveral years on the faculty of M.I.T. He has also served for many years on the faculty of MITs Sloan School of Management and as a faculty member at harvard University and Boston Universitiy.