The X-Team is much more than just the latest B-school theory -- it's a well-established, but often hidden, reality that's now being highlighted by this new book. Challenging the traditional notions of what makes a successful team, the authors' years of research support a new way of doing things. This new kind of team, dubbed X-Teams, has team spirit, but the team also projects upwards and outwards.

The group establishes cooperative relationships, seeks out key information from other teams and outside sources, evangelizes the team's mission to key stakeholders, and actively pursues support from management. The poorest-performing teams, on the other hand, focused inward. The book explains that X-teams not only are able to adapt in ways that traditional teams aren't, but that they actually improve an organization's ability to produce creative ideas and execute them -- increasing the entrepreneurial and innovative capacity within the firm..