The X-Factor:
Six Steps to Leading High-Performing
X-Teams
DEBORAH ANCONA HENRIK BRESMAN DAVID CALDWELL
N E W T E A M S F O R A N E W W O R L D
The typical org chart fails to reflect the reality that in most organizations,much of the work is actually carried out by teams—teams that operate across the functions,divisions,geographies,product lines,and/or other dimensions portrayed by the org chart’s neat array of boxes and lines.To a great extent,it is in the teams that strategy is put into action,ideas turn into projects,and plans do(or do not)lead to results.
Today’s organizations and the teams they rely upon operate in an interconnected world in which new communication and information technologies have dramatically‘‘flattened’’and disrupted the competi-tive playingfield.To quote John Chambers,chief executive officer(CEO)of Cisco Systems,Inc.,in today’s world,‘‘It’s no longer the big that beats the small,but the fast that beats the slow.’’In this envir
onment,an organization depends more than ever on its ability to create and manage teams that can leverage all of its leadership capabilities and creativity—and in the pro-cess make the entire organization more agile,more responsive,and more innovative.
Unfortunately,all too many teams fail to achieve their objectives.There can be many reasons for this failure,not all of them within the control of the orga-nization or the team,but we believe that the problem often lies in our whole conception of what makes teams effective.
The traditional model of teams–described in best-lling texts and academic articles,and taught in myriad training cours infirms and universities–focus primarily on internal team process.The emphasis is on issues worked out within the boundaries of the team, such as goal tting,role definition,cohesion building, and conflict resolution.This internal focus can,however, insulate the team from the external environment,and in today’s interconnected world this can profoundly limit the team’s effectiveness.
We believe that what we call‘‘X-teams’’reprents a model better suited to today’s environment.As the name suggests,X-teams are externally oriented.From day one,their members reach across boundaries to forge den networks of connection,both inside and outside the organization.The co
nnections enable X-team members to accelerate their understanding of complex problems,and keep pace with changes in the competitive marketplace.They enable team members to orchestrate theflow of information and experti across the networks to check the feasibility of new initiatives,create new synergies,and take advantage of emerging opportunities.And,at a macro-level,the connections enable the team to better align its work with other teams and organizational units,making the whole stronger than any of its parts.
At VDS,the Vehicle Design Summit,a t of inter-connected X-teams has formed an international con-sortium to build a two hundred mile-per-gallon car. Why?Becau‘‘if the big car makers won’t do it,we will.’’While the X-team in India is busy getting data on market needs and manufacturing capacity,the X-team in Belgium is connected to a top university and is designing the car frame.In Torino,Italy,veral teams come together to create a prototype.Team members reach out to one of the top car designfirms in the world to help with design,and to anotherfirm to get space to work.There are trips to potential funders,as well as to a local university to learn about wind-tunnel technol-ogies.One day a t of team members go to an old factory and buy tires,ats and a steering wheel.They found the place while doing an Internet arch for parts.As one member commented,‘‘We go outside the team tofind solutions to problems,to get resources,and to discover th
e latest technologies. We work together tofigure out the interdependencies across teams.The structure shifts as new challenges appear.It’s a fast-paced work environment,but you really learn a lot.And who knows,we may really pull this off.’’
In the rest of this article,we will take a clor look at the traditional team model and some of its shortcom-ings.We will describe the core principles that underlie the success of X-teams.Andfinally,we will outline the leadership principles and practices that X-teams
Organizational Dynamics,Vol.38,No.3,pp.217–224,2009ISSN0090-2616/$–e frontmatter ß2009Elvier Inc.All rights rerved.doi:10.1016/jdyn.2009.04.003
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require,both at the team and the larger organizational level.
T H E T R A D I T I O N A L T E A M M O D E L
The literature and practice dedicated to teams has traditionally focud on what transpires inside the
boundaries of the team.In many organizations,this internal model significantly influences how teams are constructed,how they are led,and how they prioritize their activities.It encourages team leaders and mem-bers to look inward and focus primarily on the team itlf as they plan their mission,address their problems, allocate their roles,and move toward their goals.
Team leaders with this internal mindt have been trained to focus on building trust and cohesiveness, and on developing effective‘‘task,’’‘‘maintenance,’’and decision-making process.They have been advid to guard against team dysfunctions like‘‘solu-tion mindedness,’’‘‘groupthink,’’and a bias toward risk by advocating honest communications,devil’s advo-cates,and task conflict.
In and of itlf,there is nothing wrong with this internal focus.There is no question that effective internal process help team members bond,over-come the natural anxiety that comes with joining a team,and meld together into an efficient unit.At the same time,rearch and experience suggest that too great a focus on internal process can be counterpro-ductive.Numerous studies of consulting teams,soft-ware teams,hardware teams,manufacturing teams, product design teams,and top management teams have all shown that while internal process is related to team member satisfaction and lf-rated perfor-mance,it does not predict actual performance.
We believe strongly that the traditional focus on internal process can prevent teams from looking at a rapidly changing world with new eyes.As a result, teams built on this model are less likely to understand emerging technology and market trends,and less likely to be successful at creating innovative products that meet emerging customer needs.
T H E X-T E A M M O D E L
Many years of rearch watching teams in real world environments has led to the concept of X-teams.The central premi of the X-team model is that when innovation,adaptation,and execution are critical,suc-cess is cloly related to how the team interacts with outsiders.It is not simply the amount of outside inter-action that is crucial,it is the nature and pattern of tho interactions.
Three key principles define the character of X-teams.First,X-teams make external activity their modus operandi.From day one,X-team members reach out to forge den networks of contacts inside and outside the organization.Second,X-teams have a flexible membership and leadership structure.Third, X-teams move through three distinct phas:explora-tion,exploitation,and exportation.
E x t e r n a l O r i e n t a t i o n
The single most defining characteristic of an X-team is that its members actively engage with tho outside the team to develop a clear understanding of the environment(scouting),build support with key executives(ambassadorship),and coordinate with other groups that can contribute to their project(task coordination).
For example,one X-team that we studied at Micro-soft Corp.had been tasked with developing new soft-ware for‘‘netgeners’’—the demographic cohort born after1982and thus raid in the digital era.The NetGen team engaged in extensive scouting—rearching a wide array of products and market trends related to the target gment,and then conducting a deep study of a group of college students charged with creating a business plan.As the students worked on their project, the NetGen team studied videotapes,interviews,and text messaging transcripts to really understand how the students ud technology.
As their project rolled out,the NetGen team’s ambassadorship activities included working hard to win the support of key outside managers.Every mem-ber of the team mastered a brief‘‘pitch’’making the business ca for targeting netgeners as potential cus-tomers—and then prented it to managers in other parts of the Microsoft organization.To ensure that their work remained appropriately aligned with the company’s overall strategy,team members also made frequent prentations to top manage
ment.
Finally,the NetGen team members engaged in task coordination—actively recruiting the assistance of other Microsoft development groups,such as a group focud on creating photo management tools and a testing unit that could provide critical feedback as the team developed prototype applications.
农村用英语怎么说Another team formed to examine a particular approach to project management also engaged in high levels of external activity.One team member com-mented,‘‘Getting views from outside the team has significant benefits.People have strong opinions about this approach and have quite a bit to say.It’s clear that this is also part of the buy-in process.The external conversations have been particularly enlightening given the company tendency to value what is created inside the company.’’
F l e x i b l e M e m b e r s h i p a n d L e a d e r s h i p
Whereas traditional teams often define themlves, and protect their group identity,by maintaining a stable
membership,X-teams change membership easily.New members are added and subtracted as the w
ork changes.For example,whenever the NetGen team needed new engineering experti,new members were added.With the need to bring the netgen perspective ‘‘inside,’’developers from the netgen age group were brought on board.When the team moved from brain-storming to design,some members cho to move on becau they preferred not to work on this pha of the project.
Leadership is alsoflexible in an X-team.When the NetGen’sfirst leader became ill,her various responsi-bilities were absorbed by other team members.Even when half of the team got taken away to work on another project,new leaders stepped up to rebuild the team and carry the work forward.
E x p l o r a t i o n,E x p l o i t a t i o n,a n d
E x p o r t a t i o n
In completing their projects,X-teams move through three distinct phas:exploration,exploita-tion,and exportation.As the phas unfold,the issues the team faces change.During the exploration pha,team members try to understand their task, look at the world with fresh eyes,and map patterns and changes in technologies,markets,and competi-tion.In the exploitation pha,the task changes from generating alternatives to choosing the one thing that the team will focus on and produce.Here the team exploits its earlier work tofigure out precily what it wants to do and how to
合作作文600字do it.Rapid prototyping during exploitation enables the team to get feedback on its concept and further refine it.Finally,in the exportation pha the team works to transfer its excitement and experti,along with the completed project,to others who will ultimately‘‘own’’and leverage the team’s work.
IDEO,a product designfirm headquartered in Palo Alto,goes through three similar phas when creating new products.One team that was designing an emer-gency room for a hospital explored,by putting a camera on the patient’s head and letting thefilm roll. Team members discovered that most of thefilm con-sisted of views of the ceiling.So they exploited this information and redesigned the ceiling,and the wait-ing areas,and then exported the ideas by testing them with the client.
The structure provided by the three distinct phas helps the X-team harness its creativity,execute the task in a timely manner,and move its work out into the larger organization and most important of all,into the world outside the organization.
In our work with companies in a range of industries, we have en X-teams apply the three principles–external focus,flexible membership/leadership,and a workflow characterized by exploration,exploitation,and exportation–to accelerate product development, develop breakthrough innovations,and enhance inter-organization cooperation.
X-T E A M V E R S U S T R A D I T I O N A L T E A M:
A M I N I-C A S E S T U D Y
Two teams within a consulting organization were each assigned to provide rvices to school districts within different regions.From the outt,one team leader operated with the traditional,internal focus.While he clearly understood that his team would eventually need to engage deeply with their client school dis-tricts,he viewed this as condary to building trust within the team,figuring out how team members would work together,and sharing existing informa-tion about the districts.As the team leader explained,‘‘I’ll be a facilitator and support.My greatest task will be to open communications and to keep up the enthu-siasm of the group.’’
The other team leader followed an X-team approach.From the very beginning he pushed his team members out into their school districts.He explicitly cited the need to e the district’s needs with a fresh eye and build strong working relationships at the district level.‘‘I think thefirst requirement of the team is to become familiar with the region.We need to get them(the districts)to express their needs for rvices and then we will design something to address tho needs.’’
Over time the initial differences played them-lves out.Compared with the X-team,members of th
e ‘‘traditional’’team were more satisfied with them-lves as a team,but they had far less contact with their client school districts and with other units within their larger organization.In terms of actual perfor-mance,the traditional team suffered from a lack of feedback,client satisfaction was low,and eventually the team members turned against each other and performance plummeted even further.On the other hand,the X-team scored high in client satisfaction, creating a school evaluation tool that school super-intendents praid and the consulting organization’s president ud as an example of‘‘best practice.’’
T H E6S T E P S O F X-T E A M L E A D E R S H I P When we speak of X-team leadership,it is important to note that we do not necessarily mean that an X-team actually has one leader.While most of the X-teams we have studied did have a formal leader,the actual leadership functions tended to be both shared and rotated.
For example,it is often the ca that different team members emerge as the leader around particular activ-ities,such as nmaking about the external environ-ment,visioning what the team might be able to create,
relating to constituencies inside and outside of the organization,and inventing new ways of working t
ogether to facilitate innovation and execution.Simi-larly,different leaders emerge as the team moves through the various phas of exploration,exploita-tion,and exportation.On a more mundane note,the X-teams we have studied have no difficulty adjusting if a leader leaves for vacation or maternity leave;in such cas,other team members easily take over the various leadership functions.Even when a designated leader has moved on to another job,X-teams typically shift the leadership responsibility to someone el quickly and without stalling the team’s progress.
In short,the concept of X-teams replaces the image of the‘‘heroic’’leader at the top with that of a dis-tributed leadership model in which a core t of people provide different kinds of leadership at different times to guide the team along the path to task completion.In carrying out their leadership roles,the individuals typically follow the principles:
1:Choo team members for their networks.
Traditional team leaders try to staff their team with complementary personalities,learning styles,skill ts,etc.However,given the need for X-teams to create den networks inside and outside thefirm, X-team leaders need to also consider a person’s net-work.In other words,X-team members are chon in great measure for who they know—whether it be someone with a PDA(personal digital as
sistant)full of connections to experts within the organization, access to top management,or links to university rearchers doing work that could help the team leap-frog to a new technology.An X-team leader will want to do a preliminary mapping of key stakeholders and the team’s experti requirements,and then e if she canfind team members with connections to the groups.
For example,in the ca of an X-team charged with using a technology not found within the parent com-pany to develop a new drug,the team leader initially cho members with ties to university labs,big phar-maceuticals,and small start-ups to facilitate the arch for the necessary technology.Later,as the team moved on to testing the technology,the team leader brought in a new member with deep connections to another team that had done some similar testing.
2:Make external outreach the modus oper-andi from day1.
可以赚钱的
爱心鸡蛋Traditional teams often plan to get more externally oriented as their work progress,when they have a solution and want to get buy-in.Unfortunately,by then it is often too late.
An external focus at the start can help teams under-stand customer needs,engage other groups that will need to be involved downstream,prevent future pro-blems,and build links with top management that can ensure ongoing support and resources.In the teams we have studied,tho that took an ext
ernal focus earlier were generally better able to view their environment and their particular task with a fresh perspective,and ultimately they were better able to come up with innovative solutions.Tho that focud on developing their own ideas before‘‘going outside’’were generally less successful.
The degree to which a team is more internally or externally focud early on depends to a great extent on the leader.Team leaders who think that team building consists of tting goals and creating a safe environment by insulating the team from outside pressures will promote very different behaviors and outcomes from tho who push the team to immedi-ately examine key stakeholders and environmental conditions.While the former might have higher levels of satisfaction in the short term,the latter will have better performance and satisfaction in the long term.
Unless a team is highly trained in X-team activity, the propensity of its members is almost always to focus inward.To counter this tendency,X-team lea-ders should stress the priority of external activity from their veryfirst meeting with the team.They should quickly assign team members to interview customers, suppliers,competitors,and managers.In the inter-views,team members can ask about expectations for the team,what products others would like to e the team produce,what pitfalls the team might encounter, and what others have learned that might have rele-vance to the team’s task.The kinds of questions enable the team to map its terrain.Later,when mem-bers come togeth
次加心读什么er to pool the knowledge they have discovered,team building can take place with an updated view of the problems and opportunities that they face.Under the circumstances,the n of team may develop more slowly,but it does so without cutting the team off from critical engagement with the outside world.
3:Help the team focus on scouting,ambassa-dorship,and task coordination.
X-team leaders can reinforce the team’s external focus by mentoring team members on scouting, ambassadorship,and task coordination.They can help team members develop the ideas and the actual lan-guage they will u to establish relationships outside the team.They can help identify mission critical con-tacts,t up networking connections to help team members get to tho key contacts,and follow up to ensure that the outreach process is actually underway. And they can constantly check in with team members
tofind out what they are learning‘‘out there’’and to bring that knowledge into the team as a whole.
X-team leaders can also encourage the team to brainstorm better ways to engage in scouting,ambas-sadorship,and task coordination.And they can provide tools and process to help team members conduct the activities more consistently and effectively. The can be as simple as
checklists to make sure that team members have done their scouting with custo-mers,technical experts,competitors,universities,and company analysts.
4:Set milestones and deliverables for explora-tion,exploitation,and exportation.
One of the hallmarks of an X-team is that it goes through the three phas of activity.Moving through the stages helps the team to innovate,execute,and transfer its learning to others.Our obrvation of teams indicates,however,that teams often fail becau they spend too much or too little time in each pha.For example,in the ca of a consulting organization rving early stage client companies,one client complained to us that the team assigned to theirfirm spent too little time in the exploration stage and as a result did not understand the market dynamics that the company faced.On the other hand,another client indicated that their assigned team was so enamored of collecting data that they never did anything with it,and their recom-mendations lacked analytic strength.Similar problems were found for the exploitation and exportation phas.
14岁男孩标准身高Thus,one of the critical challenges for X-team leaders is to help the team do a thorough job at each pha,while simultaneously moving the process along through all of the phas in a timely fashion.Establish-ing realistic but demanding milestones can provide a temporal bar against which te
am members can mea-sure their progress and plan their activities.Similarly, establishing clear deliverables for each pha helps team members stay focud on the task at hand,while also forcing the team to shift gears at the end of the pha,as key deliverables are completed and the next t come into play.The deliverables also punctuate team activity and redirect it in the appropriate direc-tion.Of cour the world can often change unexpect-edly,in which ca milestones and deliverables need to be changed as well.
While an X-team at BP wrote almost comically about the‘‘Magic of Milestones and the Delights of Discipline,’’team members came to appreciate the checklists,milestones,and guidelines.‘‘We have en that there is creative power in clearly writing down instructions,giving context,defining deliverables and giving hard-edged time deadlines of delivery for everyone on the team to u and rally around.’’This process,‘‘made sure we really did take the time to dig deeply into our subject,test drive a lot of different tools and approaches,and broaden our network of input and infl’’
角的分类评课5:U internal process to facilitate external work.
初中语文教学论文
While the X-team model highlights the external activities often neglected in the traditional model of how teams should operate,it does not claim that inter-nal process are unimportant.If anything,inter
nal process is even more important when team members are externally active.With so much information being brought into the team from outside,X-team members need to be able to process the information quickly,apply it to the task at hand(even as the information itlf may alter the task),and make decisions quickly.Similarly, conflict resolution skills in an X-team can be even more important than in a traditional team,since team mem-bers who are externally engaged will often bring the conflicts found outside the team boundaries inside.
Three aspects of internal process are particularly important when a team has extensive external interac-tions:psychological safety,on-going reflection,and memory.Psychological safety means that members feel it is safe to engage in interpersonal risk taking without fear of being blamed.To foster this n of safety, leaders can ask others to offer opinions,let others take the lead,and react positively when other team members make points that disagree with their own.
In addition to psychological safety,teams need to engage in ongoing reflection if they are going to improve their internal process and learn over time.Leaders can foster ongoing reflection by encouraging debriefings after task completion to discuss what worked,what didn’t work,and what could be done differently going forward.They can also encourage team members to periodically reflect upon their own long-term goals.
Finally,successful X-teams need to promote ‘‘transactive memory,’’or knowing what others know. It is often the ca that a team member will posss knowledge that is critical to the task but not share that knowledge with other members.To bring together all the experti that the team needs–including knowl-edge of the external context–X-team leaders need to make sure that team members take the time to map the experti of others.Then islands of experti can be integrated into a system in which the right members work on the right tasks at the right time.
Creating a culture of psychological safety,ongoing reflection,and transactive memory can be facilitated by the team leaders’bringing everyone together fre-quently to share information,solve problems,and allocate tasks for the future.The integrative meet-ings should be established with norms of participatory decision making and transparency,as well as a data management system that enables the team to handle the external information that it must process.
