Creating Great Teams (2nd Edition) - Sandy Mamoli & David Mole

CoLab Book Club - July 2025

Our July #CoLabBookClub pick was a special one - Creating Great Teams (2nd Edition) by Sandy Mamoli and David Mole. It’s always a thrill when people you know and respect do something worth celebrating. Drawing on a decade of real-world experience, Sandy and David share how self-selection has evolved in today’s hybrid and scaled environments.

Some of us had read the first edition and several had first-hand experience running self-selection workshops. This book sparked more conversation than any book we’ve reviewed so far! Everyone had strong opinions and those new to self-selection brought plenty of thoughtful what-if questions.

What stood out most in this edition was the support it offers to leaders thinking about giving it a go, along with case studies tailored to specific frameworks. We were especially proud to see our own Ceedee Doyle featured in Chapter 8, sharing her experience of running self-selection within a LeSS environment. Go Ceedee! You can read her case study here.

Overview

The core idea from the 1st edition remains the same and has stood the test of time - when people choose who they work with, great things happen. This second edition covers all the practical how-tos, including how to prepare the room, brief leaders and facilitate the event. It then goes further, drawing on a decade of experience helping organisations of all shapes and sizes put the model into action. Whether you’re running fully remote teams, navigating cross-team collaboration at scale or just wondering if you’ve got the conditions right for self-selection to work - this book has something for you.

What Stood Out To Us

✔️ New advice for running remote and hybrid self-selection events
✔️ Fresh examples across frameworks like SAFe, LeSS, FAST Agile and unFIX
✔️ Ceedee Doyle’s case study!
✔️ Expanded stories that speak directly to leadership concerns
✔️ Stronger emphasis on the psychology of choice and motivation
✔️ Reassurance that reshuffling teams isn’t chaos, it’s a lever for cross-pollination and growth

Who is it For?

This is a must-read for leaders, coaches, delivery managers and anyone working across multiple teams or trying to move from rigid team structures to more adaptive ways of working. It’s especially valuable for organisations shifting to product models or tackling coordination at scale.

Thank you!

A big High 5 to Sandy and David - you haven’t just revisited a bold idea, you’ve built on it with the depth and practicality that only experience can bring. Thank you!

Thanks to this month’s #CoLabBookClub crew - Alfred Enslin, Angela Zuba, Ceedee Doyle, Dan Gauld, Elisabeth Stiller, John Allen, Pete Tansey (host!) and Peter Bink. It was a great turn out for our local heroes!

#CreatingGreatTeams #AgileLeadership #SelfSelection #TeamDesign #BookReview #AgileCoLab #Nomad8 #LeSS #ScalingAgile