The authors use numerous and prominent corporate stories from recent history to illustrate ten principles common to "great groups"—people who have successfully collaborated for amazing and world-shaping results. Bennis and Biederman's book and our own come to complementary conclusions; their book gives more emphasis to the leader. For a preview of the Bennis book, see the next resource.

Bennis reviews the ten principles common to great groups and their supporting organizations. One of the world's established leadership experts, he sees groups from the leader's perspective. You will find the six Group Needs we identify lurking behind his ten principles.

Block sees small groups as the unit of transformation of the larger community. Community lives first in small groups and expands from there to larger collections of people. Where our book attends more to individual needs in relation to the small group, Block attends more to the small group in relation to the community. His book emphasizes conversation, accountability, commitment, questions, and the design of physical space, all to foster a deep sense of belonging. A provocative and inspiring book.

A fascinating website for deeper and alternative explorations of group wisdom. Many individuals have contributed to this pursuit of the deeper meaning of collective consciousness. They share a fascination with the important and invisible ways people join for common Purpose. Their exploration delves into how we humans are connected, how we collaborate to create—especially to create wisdom. You can join them at this Web site.

In 1996, we helped found this all-volunteer community organization in Seattle. CCP serves the not-for-profit community through consultation to improve organizations' effectiveness. Teams of volunteer consultants learn about consulting by consulting, each team backed by a senior consultant. And nine people at the center of CCP—the "Keepers of the Flame"—make this happen year after year. That small group's success inspired us to write this book. This Web site tells you more about how CCP has served seventy organizations over thirteen years.

Based on Cross's book, The Hidden Power of Social Networks (Harvard Business School Press, 2004), this article elaborates on the three informal networks vital to recognizing opportunities or challenges and delivering the necessary response. Where we write about groups within organizations, Cross writes of the elusive social networks that allow organizations to function—often in spite of the formal structure.

Step back to see this large, historic view of the human impulse toward collective celebration and revelry. Ehrenreich looks into communal celebration from the perspective of human biology and culture. Her experience supports our belief that our need to group is first of all instinctual. She gives special attention to the reasons joy has so often been suppressed, causing us to consider the small group in its larger context, the organization.

No listed author, publication date, or publisher. The book inspired the creation of the collective wisdom initiative Web site referenced earlier; it flows from surveys and interviews with over one hundred people. The core question: What exactly is this phenomenon when groups touch, or are touched by, the intelligence they need? That intriguing question leads to some surprising answers.

Godin brings tribes into the twenty-first century. His tribes would include our small groups and reach way beyond—to any group of people, large or small, connected to one another, a leader, and an idea. Godin also sees groups and tribes as part of our nature—and that new tribes, tribes of thousands, continue being formed through iPhones and Facebook and My Space.

"Hot Spots" show themselves in ready cooperation, great energy, innovation, and excitement. You will see the parallels between Gratton's work and our own; we are all curious about what allows creativity and productivity to emerge. As the title suggests, her book focuses on creating the event whereas ours attends to the needs of the team. Her book fits most closely with our eight indicators of extraordinary group performance.

We must deepen our understanding of Reality while we shape our collective future—this is just one of the more important points our two books share. This book, along with the Scharmer book described later, brings new perspectives to the study of leadership and change. Synchronicity speaks of the world quite differently from how we do in our book, and we find it easy to connect with our Group Needs model.

These Harvard professors reach back 200 years, add recent research from the biological and social sciences, and propose a unified synthesis of human nature. They believe human behavior is guided by four distinct drives: the drives to bond, learn, acquire, and defend. The first two relate directly to our model, and the remaining two we hardly touch upon.

Both Lencioni's books are built around team dysfunctions: Absence of Trust, Fear of Conflict, Lack of Commitment, Avoidance of Accountability, and Inattention to Results. In many ways, these dysfunctions are the dark mirror of our Group Needs model. He lets you know what you need to watch out for and helps you create the team you want. We give much less attention to what might go wrong and more to what could go right.

Another take on "Hot Spots," Sparks speaks to managers seeking maximum creativity from their groups. The book is rich in corporate examples and fits with themes we have written about.

The authors' work parallels our own with their recognition of humans' genetic predisposition to group. Our book speaks of groups of 2 to 20; their book speaks of tribes of 20 to 150. Our model fits nicely within their views on tribal culture and leadership.

Begin with seeing your world in new ways and new actions will flow from this. Scharmer's book is one of the better examples of seeing the world differently, and in ways that reveal what we have previously been blind to. His Theory U model does just that as it takes us into ourselves, into our willingness to act from what we know, and into our hearts to release solutions already inside us. Scharmer's ambitious perspective reframes how we think about ourselves and each other. A stimulating, challenging book.