“Adopting a Team of Teams Leadership Framework requires collaboration and communication on steroids but is a game changer for organizations that do it well.”
– Lori Heffelfinger
We are facing a complex business landscape in 2024, and the traditional top-down leadership model is no longer enough to drive success. Organizations need to be adaptive and consciously create the conditions that allow for their teams' success, which begins with embracing a new approach to teamwork. The concept of "teaming" has evolved to encompass not just intact teams but also "teams of teams," incorporating internal employees and external partners. This expanded approach is a response to the increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) inherent in modern organizational ecosystems.
The Dynamic Nature of Teams
Teams are the basic building blocks of organizations; as such, they naturally form and reform to meet the needs of the workflow. Many organizations now have employees working across multiple teams simultaneously or moving from one team to the next as projects evolve. Teams form, dissolve, and reform, requiring employees to adapt and collaborate in new groupings continually. This fluid approach enables organizations to stay agile and make the most of their talent, deploying employees where their skills are most needed and can be most effective. It also allows employees to contribute across various teams, maximizing their strengths while enhancing the organization's overall flexibility.
What is the Concept of “Team of Teams”?
The "Team of Teams" leadership framework provides a flexible solution, allowing teams to form and reconfigure as needed to tackle evolving challenges. This approach encourages collaboration while empowering employees, suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders to work toward common goals. By breaking down silos and promoting fluid decision-making, the framework drives innovation, efficiency, and overall organizational success.
Designed to empower, engage, and align the workforce around a shared mission, the Team of Teams framework unlocks the full potential of the organization. It combines traditional bureaucracies' stability and scalability with networked teams' agility and innovation, creating a hybrid structure that fosters resilience and adaptability.
In this team-based approach, employees focus on solving shared challenges rather than being confined to rigid roles. Teams remain flexible, operating with distributed yet coordinated accountability and decision-making, where individuals often step outside their defined responsibilities to achieve collective goals.
Adopting this model requires shifts in both processes and behaviors, creating an environment where collaboration and agility thrive within existing systems. This enables organizations to leverage the strengths of a well-structured hierarchy while encouraging dynamic, cross-functional interactions that lead to improved performance and innovation.
Origins of the Team of Teams Concept
Beginning in 2008, the founder of Ashoka, Bill Drayton, began adopting a “team of teams” model for his workforce. Rather than adhering to a traditional structure where individuals work in fixed hierarchies based on their function or formal business units, the organization operates as a network of teams aligned around specific objectives.
At the core of this network is a coordinating executive team, while the makeup of each project team adapts over time to meet evolving needs. Team members collaborate in a flexible, ever-changing manner, with the model promoting decentralized autonomy, merit-based contributions, and a strong sense of partnership.
In 2015, retired US Army General Stanley McChrystal published a book titled Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World. McChrystal’s work shows that a decentralized model can be effective even in a traditionally hierarchical institution like the U.S. military.
Team of Teams organizational design:
The McChrystal Group's "Teams: 4 Core Capabilities" framework outlines essential capabilities that enable teams to thrive in complex and rapidly changing environments. These capabilities include:
A Common Purpose. The competitive advantage of high-performing teams lies in their ability to function as a cohesive unit, which is achievable only when members recognize their interdependence within the framework of a shared sense of purpose.
Trusting Teams. Operational teams with a foundation of trust are significantly more effective. Trust leads to strong interpersonal relationships and open communication and collaboration, enabling teams to work together efficiently.
Shared Consciousness. Shared consciousness requires embracing extreme transparency, which can foster meaningful connections and promote interactive conversations.
Empowered Execution. Empowered decision-making thrives on shared consciousness, enabling faster and more effective decisions by ensuring that the right information gets to the right people for action, thereby preventing bottlenecks and improving overall execution.
Together, these core capabilities empower teams to operate efficiently, drive innovation, and achieve collective success in dynamic organizational settings.
Ask Us How We Can Help Your Organization Adopt a Team of Teams Leadership Framework
At Heffelfinger Co., we help organizations embrace the Team of Teams leadership framework, empowering your workforce to thrive in today’s dynamic business environment. Our expert coaching in teaming and leadership development ensures your leaders and teams are equipped with the tools and mindset to foster collaboration, agility, and innovation. Whether you’re looking to break down silos, improve decision-making, or drive performance, we can guide your organization through the transformation required to succeed. Contact us to learn how we can help your teams work smarter to achieve lasting success.
Lori & James
Lori Heffelfinger & James Jackman
Sources:
William F. Meehan III and Kim Starkey Jonker. Team Of Teams: An Emerging Organizational Model. May 30, 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/meehanjonker/2018/05/30/team-of-teams-an-emerging-organizational-model/. Accessed 9/27/2024.
General Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins, David Silverman, Chris Fussell. Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World. New York, New York, Portfolio Books. May 12, 2015
