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Guiding from the Middle

 

Electronic Arts (EA) launched internal collaborative communities in 2008 across its globally distributed workforce. Its goal was to gain the efficiencies of a large enterprise without compromising local teams’ autonomy or creativity. The concept was based on an analogy described by EA’s CEO, John Riccitiello, that was used to communicate EA’s transformation to a new social organization as the difference between a swim meet and water polo match. At a swim meet, each group competes by having its swimmers compete individually in different events and by swimming in their own lanes with little interaction between teammates. ...

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