**5. Complex adaptive systems**

Just as organizations are viewed as being complex adaptive systems (CAS) [19, 20], teams are also viewed as being CAS. We utilize the definition provided by Uhl-Bien et al. [21] for CAS:

*Neural-like networks of interacting, interdependent agents who are bonded in a cooperative dynamic by common goal, outlook, need, etc. They are changeable structures with multiple, overlapping hierarchies, and like the individuals that comprise them, CAS are linked with one another in a dynamic, interactive network.*

In this definition of CAS, neural-like networks represent teams while the interacting and interdependent agents represent individual team members. As one of the characteristics of a team involves having a common goal, this definition fits well for teamwork settings. The overlapping hierarchies represent components of shared leadership that takes place in teams, no one team member leads the whole team through all tasks. It is advantageous for teams to use the skills, experiences, and resources available to them when deciding who will lead the team during each stage of the team's goal. It could be that multiple team members take an individual leadership role before the team meets its stated goal, resulting in a self-organizing shared leadership function. Teams are dynamic in nature in that each individual member is working independently as well as interdependently on their own task as an effort to contribute to the collective's main objective.

Complex adaptive systems consist of six primary functions: they operate in open systems, they are self-organizing, they operate on the *edge of chaos*, they adapt to external changes, they require interactions among individual agents, ultimately resulting in a new emergent collective or product.
