X-Teams, Updated Edition, With a New Preface

Advance Praise for the Updated Edition of X-Teams:

“The authors succeed in conveying the importance of wide-ranging exploration and teamwork as essential for innovation.” — Financial Times

“The authors dive into the nitty-gritty details of engineering a better team.” — Time.com

“X-teams are the answer to performing in today’s turbulent world. They enable organizations to move from strategy to implementation and from bureaucracy to innovation, creating value and profitable growth. The key is to combine external outreach to all stakeholders with an internal focus on creating a safe, disciplined, and learning culture.” — Alan Mulally, former CEO, Boeing Commercial Airplanes; former CEO, Ford Motor Company

“When X-Teams was first written, Ancona and Bresman were prescient, well ahead of their time. They understood the changing landscape of teamwork and what it meant long before it was clear. Now, this terrific book is even better: well-researched, packed with engaging stories, and immensely practical.” — Amy C. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, Harvard Business School; author, Right Kind of Wrong

“A game-changing book. X-Teams provides a compelling case for the importance of combining a sharp external focus with robust internal processes to overcome inertia and unlock transformational outcomes. The authors’ practical framework is both insightful and actionable, and their real-world examples demonstrate the power of this approach.” — Elcin Barker Ergun, CEO, Menarini Group

“While strong internal cohesion and alignment are key to team success, it’s crucial for team leaders at every level to have the humility and vigilance to look outward. X-teams spread leadership across the organization and facilitate learning and coordination within and across boundaries. This is a must-read for anyone trying to accelerate innovation.” — Jerry Ng, founder and Chairman, Bank Jago

“There are teams and there are x-teams. X-teams combat our inward-facing tendencies, opening our minds to the diversity and power of the world around us. They have helped us at Takeda R&D to increase our external learning and partnering. Use them as a tool to transform your organization.” — Andrew Plump, MD, President, Research & Development, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company

Deborah Ancona is the Seley Distinguished Professor of Management at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and the founder and former faculty director of the MIT Leadership Center. She received her PhD from Columbia University.

Henrik Bresman is Professor of Organizational Behavior at INSEAD and the former faculty director of the INSEAD Global Leadership Centre. He received his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.