To enable our global team to function with maximum efficiency, elegance and interdependence, VDS will leverage the X-Teams paradigm to provide a common unerstanding and approach to team activities. While every group is absolutely encouraged and supported in their efforts to maximize local strength, we believe this set of working principles provide a solid foundation from which to leverage our collective wisdom, insight and expertise. VDS is indebted to Prof. Deborah Ancona, the MIT Leadership Center, and the work that has gone into development of the X-Teams framework. For more information on X-Teams than we will provide here, see the book X-Teams: How to Build Teams that Lead, Innovate and Succeed by Debora Ancona and Henrik Bresman.

X-Teams leverage all available resources to innovate and leverage change. They are dynamic, brilliant, and robust. They are both internally and externally developed. They are VDS teams. The following few pages outline specific activities we expect of all VDS teams as they develop their subsystems, documentation and team structure.