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Teams of Leaders (ToL) is an approach for rapidly building and effectively employing cross-boundary teams that are highly competent in making and executing decisions and in learning and adapting together. The ToL approach helps the leader-teams to gain a common understanding of the situation and requirements, develop shared purpose, trust and confidence, and reach a higher level of performance faster. Cross-boundary teams today consist of leaders from different organizations brought together to leverage the expertise, experience, and resources of their entire organization.
This approach has proven just as successful at improving performance in hierarchical (vertical) and in peer-to-peer (horizontal) teams as it has in cross boundary teams, i.e. across units or departments within an organization, across organizations, across regions or across countries.
ToL has three components. The core component is high performing leader teams. The other two components are enablers: information management (IM) and knowledge management (KM).
The IM component makes ToL virtual and networked, whether the team members are co-located or dispersed throughout the world. The KM focuses on the people and the operating procedures, business, and learning processes required of an advanced learning environment to build the critical shared skills, knowledge and attitudes - shared vision, shared trust, shared confidence, shared competence.
While technology is intimately intertwined with the people aspect of ToL, it is the synergy created when used with effective KM that makes it an integral part of this approach. Technology becomes an enabler of change and action rather than a fad or a necessity that is reluctantly faced. The identification, creation, organization and transfer of knowledge in a deliberate and meaningful way enabled through technology facilitates the formation and launching of the team and the development of critical shared skills, knowledge and attitudes.
Building shared skills (behaviors), knowledge, and attitudes drives high levels of adaptive leader-team performance. This leader-team development requires experiential learning based on repeated, coached and deliberate practice through Leader Team Development Exercises or LTDXs.
What makes “Teams of Leaders” different?
Teams of Leaders is radically different from currently used methods to build leaders within hierarchical organizational structures. ToL provides a deliberate approach to forming and launching cross-boundary teams and offers them easy to use techniques to improve communications and to facilitate and empower cooperation and collaboration.
ToL represents a completely new approach to leadership that is well suited to operations performed at a high tempo, in environments of increasing complexity, where uncertainty and unpredictably are the norm rather than the exception.
The Teams of Leaders approach has been developed by members of the US military to improve performance and action in US battle command units and to build strong relationships with long-standing allies and new relationships with emerging partners. The Teams of Leaders approach builds common understanding, and develops trust within these types of teams in the situation where a single authority and a single shared purpose is often not present.
ToL policies, programs and practices are equally applicable across military or civil, governmental and nongovernmental organizations. Originally developed to serve in the military world of joint, inter-agency, inter-governmental, multinational JIIM teams it is exceptionally well suited for the same type of global activities executed by agencies and organizations of civilian corporations.
OUR PROJECTS - OUR PARTNERS
Together We Can and the Center for Collaborative Leadership in Healthcare
Opportunities to Improve Performance
The Center for Collaborative Leadership in Healthcare is working with the Together We Can initiative of the Central Michigan
District Health Department to build the information management and technology platform to enable effective collaboration and information exchange across all participants and counties, and to provide guidance in planning and setting priorities to improve the health of six central Michigan communities.
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