ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of what can be different in groups operating in decentralized environments, particularly those where there is more individual freedom in pursuing creative ways of performing work. It summarizes the resulting implications for leaders of decentralized organizations, especially those embracing organizational learning, as they envision planning for high-performance virtual teams of the future. Usually the traditional team constrains their discussion by focusing on only three aspects of what is relevant, i.e., the organizational structure/context, the issues, and the work. Nurturing the (re)establishment of guilds within a distributed organization may be a way of encouraging the sharing of information in a less threatening context. The key to successful organizational structures or restructuring in a chaordic complex world is a clear understanding of the talents, shortcomings, and motivations of as many of the people involved as possible.
