Why are common objectives so uncommon in top management teams?

Clear and shared goals are seen as important to the effectiveness of teams. Yet evidence from the authors’ team development workshops for teams of directors and chief officers in local government is that these groups are almost all dissatisfied with this aspect of team working. Reports on the authors’ findings using Woodcock and Francis’s “Nine Building Blocks” questionnaire and discusses the reasons why these teams face difficulty with goals and objectives. Concludes with discussing several practical approaches to helping teams to clarify an agreed set of goals.