Chapter 7: The Alcoa Experience of Shared Virtual Leadership Through Parallel Global Teams

Alcoa, originally known as Aluminum Company of America which began operations in the late 1800s, is the world’s largest producer of aluminum. They have always been known for innovation—both technological and social. Today, they integrate the two through the deployment of parallel global virtual teams (pGVTs), a particularly interesting form of distributed shared leadership. More than 80 pGVTs have been launched since 2004, and the best practices that have been subsequently implemented are credited with generating significant increases in production output and saving millions of dollars in operating costs across the globe. Despite the overall success of Alcoa’s innovative approach, their early experience involved a steep learning curve as the teams discovered how to develop their shared leadership. We will cover details of the structure and process of these teams. And, we will show that it is the leadership of these pGVTs that is primarily responsible for their success or failure. We identify both the challenges facing pGVT leaders, and the actions those leaders can take to overcome these challenges and ensure their teams’ success.