Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement in a Complex World. Portfolio, 2015. $30.

Author
A well-known United States general - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_A._McChrystal

Benefit
In this book, McChrystal outlines a philosophical argument for creating a team of teams that can be dynamic enough to respond to unpredictable outcomes produced from complex challenges. McChrystal argues that the traditional organization of businesses and the military only work in response to complicated systems that have predictable problems. Therefore, the organization can respond slowly, and the people at the top can micromanage and the workers at the bottom don't need to react in real time, thinking on their own.

 McChrystal observes that CEOs of winning companies that can compete in a changing marketplace have adopted unconventional structures that place new value on employee input according to a shared vision. In order to respond to the unpredictable nature of the Iraqi insurgency, McChrystal had unparalleled success because he revolutionized the ways that his staff collected, interpreted, and acted on intelligence, and his methods will prove valuable in today's business.