There is no foolproof scientific formula for designing and maintaining an effective team. If there were, it would have been discovered by now. In some ways, a team is like the human body: No one knows the exact regimen for staying healthy over time. However, we have some very good information about the benefits of a lean diet, exercise, stress reduction, wellness maintenance, and early detection of disease. The same goes for teamwork. Just as we rely on science to cure disease and to advance health, this book takes an unabashedly scientific approach to the study and improvement of teamwork in organizations. There is a lot of misperception about teams and teamwork. Intuition and luck can only take us so far; in fact, if misapplied, they may get us into trouble. In the next chapter, we undertake a performance analysis of teamwork, asking these questions: How do we know a healthy and productive team when we see it? What are the biggest “killers” and “diseases” of teams? And, more important, what do we need to do to keep a team functioning effectively over time? In Chapter 3, we deal with the question of incentives and rewards for good teamwork. Part II focuses on internal team dynamics, and Part  III focuses on the bigger picture—the team in the organization.