Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • Article
  • 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
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

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.
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Register to Read

About The Author

Amy C. Edmondson

Technology and Operations Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • September 2023
    • Administrative Science Quarterly

    The Dynamics of Team Learning: Harmony and Rhythm in Teamwork Arrangements for Innovation

    By: Jean-François Harvey, Johnathan R. Cromwell, Kevin J. Johnson and Amy C. Edmondson
    • 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Workplace Conditions

    By: Jill Maben, Jane Ball and Amy C. Edmondson
    • January–February 2023
    • Harvard Business Review

    Rethink Your Employee Value Proposition: Offer Your People More Than Just Flexibility

    By: Mark Mortensen and Amy C. Edmondson
More from the Authors
  • The Dynamics of Team Learning: Harmony and Rhythm in Teamwork Arrangements for Innovation By: Jean-François Harvey, Johnathan R. Cromwell, Kevin J. Johnson and Amy C. Edmondson
  • Workplace Conditions By: Jill Maben, Jane Ball and Amy C. Edmondson
  • Rethink Your Employee Value Proposition: Offer Your People More Than Just Flexibility By: Mark Mortensen and Amy C. Edmondson
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College