The Age of the Network: Organizing Principles for the 21st Century

praise for The Age of the Network

"A very stimulating, visionary account of how networks and networking are organizational structures and processes of the future."—Edgar H. Schein, Sloan Fellows Professor of Management Emeritus, MIT, Sloan School of Management

"Networking — practical, down-to-earth, easily understood descriptions of how others have obtained a competitive edge." — William R. Johnson, General Manager, Networking Hardware Division, IBM

"Collaborative advantage is the wave of the future; Lipnack and Stamps show how to catch that wave and ride it triumphantly. With memorable wit and wisdom, their book provides numerous valuable lessons for the challenging changes ahead: how to see further by sitting on boundaries, organize teams that really get something done, and loosen hierarchies without losing control."—Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School, Author of When Giants Learn to Dance and The Change Masters

The Age of the Network shows how organizations can break through mental and bureaucratic log jams and open up new opportunities by creating links both inside and outside themselves. With numerous, real-world examples, authors Lipnack and Stamps demonstrate how to form interlocking, boundary-crossing teams and thus build a truly networked enterprise. Focusing on five essential principles of "teamnets" (networks of teams), this forward-looking book reveals ways organizations can use these networks to realize their full potential and sustain this new dynamic well into the future.

JESSICA LIPNACK and JEFFREY STAMPS are the president and co-founder, respectively, of The Networking Institute, a consulting and publishing company specializing in organizational networks. Their clients include Vice President Gore's National Performance Review, the United Nations, AT&T, and British Petroleum. Their other books include The TeamNet Factor: Bringing the Power of Boundary-Crossing into the Heart of Your Business, The Networking Book, and Networking.