Flash Teams

Melissa Valentine is Associate Professor of Management Science at Stanford University, where she codirects the Center for Work, Technology, and Organization. She has been awarded an NSF CAREER award, and her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Wired, Fast Company, and Financial Times.Michael Bernstein is Associate Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, where he is a Bass University Fellow. His research has been reported in venues such as The New York Times, Wired, Science, and Nature, and he has been recognized with an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, UIST Lasting Impact Award, and the Computer History Museum’s Patrick J. McGovern Tech for Humanity Prize.

“An engaging, practical guide to building the teams and tech of the future—no coding skills needed. A management expert and a computer scientist reveal how to design and manage on-demand, flexible groups. If you’ve ever wished you could assemble your version of The Avengers at work, this book will help you make it happen.”—Adam Grant, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Think Again and host of the podcast Re:Thinking“The brilliant authors of this compelling new book know more than most about the power and possibility of Flash Teams. Combining their unique and considerable expertise in the dynamics of teamwork and the remarkable potential of new technology, Valentine and Bernstein have put together a groundbreaking guide to how to make flash teams work for you.”―Amy C. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership, Harvard Business School; author of Right Kind of Wrong“Flash Teams is a breakthrough guide to the future of work—where expertise is on-demand, collaboration is fluid, and innovation moves at speed. Through their brilliant fusion of management science and computer science, Valentine and Bernstein have created something game-changing: a way for leaders to assemble high-impact teams and unlock the capability of others in minutes, not months.”—Liz Wiseman, New York Times–bestselling author of Multipliers and Impact Players“Flash Teams is the definitive guide for everyone from founders to leaders of big companies to nearly instantly create high-performing teams. You need not be left behind by the rise of artificial intelligence and remote work. This gem shows you how to blend these modern tools and global experts with old-fashioned management skills to design, launch, and guide productive and innovative temporary teams where members love to work.”―Robert I. Sutton, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University; New York Times–bestselling author of The No Asshole Rule, The Friction Project, and Good Boss, Bad Boss “Flash Teams offers a bold, forward-thinking model for leveraging AI to enable the next generation of management. AI is not just a technological transformation; it will reshape our teams and organizations. Valentine and Bernstein offer both a crisp vision of how that transformation will play out and a playbook for navigating it.”―Dr. Fei-Fei Li, Sequoia Professor of Computer Science and Co-Director of the Institute for Human-Centered AI, Stanford University; author of The Worlds I See and one of TIME’s “100 Most Influential People in AI”"Flash teams are elastic computers for human talent. Just as the cloud transformed access to computing power, the methods in Flash Teams let organizations quickly find, assemble, and coordinate experts on demand. By dramatically lowering the cost of building and managing high-performing teams, they unlock new possibilities for innovation, speed, and scale."―Eric Colson, former Chief Algorithms Officer, Stitch Fix; former VP of Data Science & Engineering, Netflix“Anyone serious about harnessing the combination of remote work, online platforms, and AI to transform the future of work must read Flash Teams. Through analysis based on hands-on experiences with real projects, Valentine and Bernstein have produced a book that serves as both an intellectual inspiration and a practical guide, covering technical, social, business, and ethical issues involved in getting real work done in this new mode.”―Alex Kass, Fellow and Principal Director, Accenture Labs

• DedicationIntroductionVisions of Better TeamsOut of Reach?Lessons from Flash TeamsLesson One: Your Bench is Much Deeper Than you ThinkLesson Two: Your Team Can Become Much More Adaptive Than You ThinkLesson Three: Your Team Can Improve When In the Loop With Data and AI; But Expect That Reflection and Repair Matter MostA Future We’d Want Our Children To Grow Up In?Lesson One: Your Bench is Much Deeper Than you Think; But You’ll Need Different Tools to Engage and Deploy These ExpertsExperts Everywhere, All The TimeThe Forgotten Power of Role ClarityRapid Response: The Tactics of Hiring and Onboarding In A JiffyGetting The Right Team At The Right TimeLesson Two: Your Team Can Become Much More Adaptive Than You ThinkDesigning Teams to Dynamically AdaptMobilizing Hierarchy for Dynamic AdaptationConnecting the Dots: Mobilizing Hierarchy as Network for ChangeIn Search of the Dream Team: How AI Can Enhance Dynamic AdaptationLesson Three: Your Team Can Improve When in the Loop With Data and AI; But Expect That Reflection and Repair Matter MostAI Augmented Flash Team DesignLearn from Ratings: But Mind the Community NormsLearn the Social Art of Collaborative RepairTraining Your Team With AIHow Do We Get to AI-Augmented Management (Not AI-Managers)Can This Be Good for Society?Our Society is Organized around… OrganizationsConclusion: An Incomplete Remote RevolutionAcknowledgementsBack ParagraphNotesBibliography