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  • California Management Review

No Team is an Island: How Leaders Shape Networked Ecosystems for Team Success

By: Inga Carboni, Robert Cross and Amy C. Edmondson
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Abstract

Today’s organizations rely on networks of dynamic systems of “agile” teams to get work done. Teams are distributed, transient, and loosely bounded in service of responsiveness and innovation. The key to this new way of doing work is managing the networked ecosystem in which teams are embedded. But in the context of leading multiple teams with fuzzy boundaries and shifting membership, the average overwhelmed manager quickly defaults to what is nearest in urgency: managing internal team dynamics and responding to internal customer demands. Drawn from field interviews with 100 top-performing team leaders, this article presents a framework-for-action to leaders who want to engage the networked ecosystem with intention and precision, including specific tactics for identifying and influencing high-leverage stakeholders.

Keywords

Cross-functional Teams; Teams; Interviews; Leadership; Groups and Teams; Networks

Citation

Carboni, Inga, Robert Cross, and Amy C. Edmondson. "No Team is an Island: How Leaders Shape Networked Ecosystems for Team Success." California Management Review 64, no. 1 (November 2021): 5–28.
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About The Author

Amy C. Edmondson

Technology and Operations Management
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More from the Authors
  • Rethink Your Employee Value Proposition: Offer Your People More Than Just Flexibility By: Mark Mortensen and Amy C. Edmondson
  • Executive Decision-Making at Zola By: Amy C. Edmondson and Michael Roberto
  • Building a Mishap-Free U.S. Navy By: Amy C. Edmondson, Herman B. Leonard, Michael W. Toffel and Michael Norris
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