Fantastic book. Sure would like to see what McChrystal Group or CrossLead could do with leadership in education. I envisioned so many applications while reading this. ( )

Not even the military thinks classic command and control is an good way to work. ( )

In looking for ideas on how to improve relative to my work I read much on various management/leadership and technology topics. This was one of those searches for new ideas on which to build improvement. It came recommended to me by someone from work and seemed to begin with much promise, but I found I kept waiting for the ideas and new concepts to come. The first three-fourths of this book seems to focus on building the argument for the last fourth, and when I got to the solutions, I found them relatively stale and uninspiring. Some of the stories and examples in the book were entertaining, but I never uncovered anything of significant value. ( )

I picked up Stanley McChrystal's book, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World because I really enjoyed the message he shared when writing My Share of the Task: A Memoir. I was curious how he pulled it together and what lessons he had to share. More importantly, I was looking for ideas I could use for my small team and institution. I was not disappointed. This book helped to flesh out some points he made in his first book. Team of Teams focused on his operations in Iraq and the interworkings of countless agencies. I would be curious how the lessons could be applied for a business. Personally, I enjoyed the book; however, I think some would be put off on the heavy focus on military operations. Read more ( )

Team of Teams by Gen. Stanley McChrystal talks about organisational dynamics and leadership in the US army. Stanley McChrystal is a US General who lead Special Task Forces and had to modify his army’s organisation to better fight Al-Qaeda militants in Iraq. The book is a personal memoir of transforming Joint Special Operations Command. It describes how to adapt old hierarchical structures to fit the current complex world and create an agile organisation that can rapidly react to outside quick challenges. The book presents steps as well as strategies regarding resilience and adaptability with regards to confronting difficult situations. The aim of the book is to show that the strategy used in Iraq could effectively be applied to businesses as well as different institutions.

Anyway, McChrystal starts with Iraq where he found that the standard model of commanding the US army didn’t work. This was not a war of planning and discipline, but more agility and innovation situation. in the old model of business, planning was one of the most important keys to overall success but in the past, the world and industries weren’t changing as quickly as now. Of course, the planning process is still crucial, but now it’s about agility and innovation. The book says that today’s world is less about how to optimise for the known, the relatively stable set of variables. We should be rather looking for to innovate and change with the times.

Next, the book talks a lot about empowerment, care and relentless nurturing of competence and ability of your team. What innovation requires is a great team of people underneath you, the team that can come up with ideas. The author compares this process to gardening which needs your time and patience. When it comes to caring, McChrystal writes a lot about competition and even antagonisms between different units in the US army. Military culture has a sense of tribalism where different components see themselves as being better than others. Then he presents his approach to consolidate his teams and develop a way to establish links between them as teams whose members know one another perform better. Such teams can self monitor each other which save a lot of time regarding day to day supervision, of course, if needed. This also implies continuous communication at all times.

In addition to empowerment, McChrystal presents transparency as something extremely important in the lower military ranks. They watch the actions of their leaders and not only listen to what they have to say. Each member of the US army needs to feel they have a stake in the outcome, therefore, they need motivation and reward. As a manager, you have to remember that your team is made up of people who each have a certain role to achieve a specific goal. The funny thing here is that the author supports this thesis by saying that: “If you ask people what their vision is, it’s not: ‘Hey, I’m here cutting this stone.’ It’s: ‘I’m part of a team-building a cathedral.” I’ve used the same anecdote in my public speech 2 weeks...(if you like to read my full review please visit my blog https://leadersarereaders.blog/team-of-teams/) ( )