Page 98 - HBR Leader's Handbook: Make an Impact, Inspire Your Organization, and Get to the Next Level

88 HBR Leader’s Handbook

Your team of direct reports, however, is not likely to constitute the only
team in your scope of responsibility. Your direct reports may also have
teams reporting to them and so forth down the line. So the way your direct
team operates can create a model for the others.
Furthermore, your organization probably also has many cross-
functional teams for product development, customer service, systems in-
troductions, and the like. In addition, your firm might have occasional or
standing teams that include people from outside organizations, such as
open innovation forums or corporate social responsibility initiatives, and
you may run or participate in some of these. As a leader, you need to ensure
that the multiple teams that constitute your organizational ecosystem are
functioning together as well as possible. (See the box “The importance of
thinking horizontally.”)
New patterns of flexible and agile interactions between these kinds of
networks of teams have recently been reinforced by General Stanley Mc-
Chrystal, former commander of US Special Forces in Afghanistan (see his
book, Team of Teams). McChrystal emphasizes that traditional top-down
leadership is no longer effective in warfare when the enemy is a decentral-
ized network that changes strategies and tactics almost instantaneously.
Instead, troops on the ground have to understand the overriding mission
that they are to accomplish, have all the information and training possible,
and then have the freedom to make their own decisions in the context of
the mission. Moreover, these troops have to operate not only as effective
teams on their own, but also as teams of teams that can coordinate their
efforts with other units rapidly and flexibly.
These lessons apply to all types of organizations that operate in fast-
changing, unpredictable environments, which is almost every organi-
zation. As a team or department leader, you should:

• Encourage your team of direct reports to interact, share infor-
mation, collaborate, and support other teams beyond those
that report to them directly. Don’t assume that teams in differ-
ent silos will naturally collaborate with each other, no matter