Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

A manual for leaders seeking to build more adaptable, agile, and unified teams during periods of change. When General Stanley McChrystal took command of the Joint Special Operations Task Force in 2004, he found that conventional military tactics were ineffective against Al Qaeda in Iraq, a decentralized network capable of rapid movement and quick strikes. Despite advantages in numbers, equipment, and training, allied forces struggled to counter this threat. To succeed, they needed to combine large-scale military power with the flexibility of a nimble network—becoming a "team of teams." McChrystal and his colleagues demonstrate how the challenges faced in Iraq apply to businesses, nonprofits, and organizations today. During periods of crisis, leaders require management practices that can scale across thousands of people quickly. By granting small groups freedom to experiment and share learning across the organization, teams can respond faster, communicate more openly, and make better decisions. Drawing on examples from NASA to hospital emergency rooms, the book argues for merging the power of large organizations with the agility of small teams to transform any organization.