X-Teams, Revised and Updated: How to Build Teams That Lead, Innovate, and Succeed

An essential work on teams—now updated with new research and tools and a new preface— X-Teams shows how an externally focused team model is the key to fueling innovation and your organization's success. You build a team around top-notch talent. The team members work well together; they're committed to the mission and are highly motivated to perform. Yet the results are disappointing. You're not seeing creativity and flexibility. You're not getting breakthrough ideas. "Good" teams build camaraderie, confidence in their abilities, and a solid process for working together. But these internal dynamics—while positive in themselves—can create a wall between the team and the outside world. And that wall can prevent the team from adapting to change and delivering value to the organization. In this updated, streamlined edition, with a new preface and practical tools, Deborah Ancona and Henrik Bresman describe an externally focused team model—the x-team—that is even more relevant today than when it was first introduced. With their distinctively flexible membership and leadership structure, x-teams continuously reach outward to fuel the innovation process. With new examples and research from organizations such as Microsoft, Takeda, and the Museum of Modern Art, Ancona and Bresman show you how to build x-teams that: Keep pace with shifts in markets, technologies, cultures, and your competition Innovate by moving quickly from generating ideas to executing and diffusing them throughout your organization Employ "distributed leadership" to unlock crucial information, expertise, and new ways of working together—wherever these qualities reside, whether within or outside your company In an increasingly complex and ever-changing world, where adaptability and creativity are paramount to an enterprise's success—and even its survival— X-Teams is your handbook for winning. "You build a team around top-notch talent. The team members work well together; they're committed to the mission and highly motivated to perform. Yet the results are disappointing. You're not seeing creativity and flexibility. You're not getting breakthrough ideas. 'Good' teams build camaraderie, confidence in their abilities, and a solid process for working together. But these internal dynamics-while positive in themselves-can create a wall between the team and the outside world. And that wall can prevent the team from adapting to change and delivering value to the organization. In this updated edition with a new preface and new research, Deborah Ancona and Henrik Bresman describe an externally focused team model-the X-team-that is even more relevant today than when it was first introduced. With their distinctively flexible membership and leadership structure, X-teams continuously reach outward to fuel the innovation process. With new examples and research from organizations such as Microsoft, Takeda, and the Museum of Modern Art, Ancona and Bresman show you how to build X-teams that: Keep pace with shifts in markets, technologies, cultures, and your competition; innovate by moving quickly from generating ideas to executing and diffusing them throughout your organization; and employ 'distributed leadership' to unlock crucial information, expertise, and new ways of working together-wherever these qualities reside within or outside your company. In an increasingly complex and ever-changing world, where adaptability and creativity are paramount to an enterprise's success-and even its survival-X-Teams is your handbook for winning"-- Provided by publisher Contents 8 Preface to the New Edition 10 Introduction 20 Part 1: Why Good Teams Fail 38 Ch. 1: Avoid the Downward Spiral 40 Ch. 2: An Exponentially Changing World 58 Part 2: What Works 70 Ch. 3: X-Team Principle 1 72 Ch. 4: X-Team Principle 2 96 Ch. 5: X-Team Principle 3 110 Part 3: How to Make It Work 128 Ch. 6: X-ifying the Team 130 Ch. 7: From One Team to Many 156 Ch. 8: Crafting an Infrastructure for Innovation 172 Notes 194 Index 200 Acknowledgments 210 About the Authors 212