Mark de Rond of Cambridge Judge is honoured with the School’s Research Impact Award for how his work on high-performing teams impacted other organisations.
Mark de Rond, Reader in Strategy & Organisation at Cambridge Judge Business School, has been honoured with the School’s Research Impact Award for how his research on high-performing teams impacted non-academic organisations.
Mark’s fieldwork into the social dynamics of high-performing teams has looked at such issues as psychological safety, leadership, team selection and empowerment, and has had a “tremendously positive impact” on how other organisations collaborate, Cambridge Judge Dean Christoph Loch said in announcing the award on 14 June.
Among other organisations, Mark has worked with financial services firm Stonehage-Fleming, Cambridge University Boat Club, a leading broadcaster, a Formula 1 racing firm, and several magic circle law firms. Mark participates regularly in courses run by Executive Education at the School, and also teaches students in other Cambridge Judge programmes.
Leaders of organisations that have benefitted from Mark’s insight said that Mark had “really shifted our culture,” had an “immediate and lasting impact” and has had a “profound effect” on how their organisations and teams are run.
Mark studies teams of high performers by living with them full-time, under the same conditions. His fieldwork has included military surgical teams in Afghanistan, elite rowers, biochemists, and improv comedians. He also rowed the length of the river Amazon to study collaboration and joint problem solving under difficult conditions, winning a place in the Guinness Book of Records.
This year is the second year of the Research Impact Award at Cambridge Judge. The recipient is chosen by the School’s subject group heads on the basis of the reach of the faculty member’s research and the degree to which the impact of the research influenced or changed the policies, opportunities, perspectives or practice of non-academic stakeholders.