Networks and Leadership

Working with a network view requires a new style of leadership and new leadership skills. Leaders need to be:

• Network-aware -- understanding how the networks in the organization are getting work done, how to activate and support a networked style of working
• Stewards of a complex style of work -- understanding that they cannot fully manage outcomes and results, but can provide a context for success for the networks they steward

Jessica is the CEO of NetAge. Frequently interviewed by the press, Jessica began her career as a reporter. She maintains Endless Knots, an active blog, contributes often to online publications, including The Industry Standard, and writes fiction and personal essays. In 2008, she began teaching blogging in a creative writing program and to professors in a post-graduate program. Among her distinctions: In 2000, she presented to Springboard 2000’s New England Venture Forum. In May 2001, she received the Muriel Snowden Leadership Award for her service to Freedom House (see below). From 1982 until the founding of NetAge, she was president of The Networking Institute, Inc., a consulting firm engaged by global organizations to develop their network strategies. When not writing, doing yoga, or knitting, she wastes inordinate amounts of time online.

For three decades, Jessica and Jeff have provided expertise and tools that allow their clients to collaborate more effectively. NetAge's pioneering initiatives are in use in companies, public sector organizations, non-profits, and religious denominations.

Jessica and Jeff’s research and practical experience have taken them around the world. Among their clients: American Management Association, Assurant, Apple Computer, AT&T Universal Card Services, BankBoston, Becton-Dickinson, The Brookings Institution, Digital Equipment Corporation, GlaxoSmithKline, General Electric, Fidelity Investments, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Kerr-McGee, Macy’s, Merck, Pfizer, NCR, PeopleSoft, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Roche, Royal Dutch Shell, Steelcase, Tetra Pak, Toyota Foundation, The United Nations, Unilever, the U.S. Army, U.S. Joint Forces, and Volvo.

Their six books, including Virtual Teams, The Age of the Network, and The TeamNet Factor (all Wiley), have been translated into many languages. Recent works include “The Virtual, Networked Organization,” the final chapter in The Handbook of High Performance Virtual Teams (Jossey-Bass, 2008); “The Strange Beauty of Virtual Teams” (Milestone Group Quarterly, 2007); “Communicate, Collaborate, Coordinate, Decide: How IT Achieves Strategic Leadership” and “The Easier Way to Work: Collaborating in World-Class Virtual Teams” (both Cutter IT Journal, November, 2008, and July, 2005); and “Can Absence Make A Team Grow Stronger?” (Harvard Business Review, May, 2004), the landmark article reporting on best practices in “far-flung” teams. In 2008, they also co-authored and edited “Teams of Leaders Handbook” for the U.S. Army under the Battle Command Knowledge Systems program.