Team of teams - Stanley A. McChrystal

From theNew York Timesbestselling author ofMy Share of the TaskandLeaders, a manual for leaders looking to make their teamsmore adaptable, agile, and unified in the midst of change.

When General Stanley McChrystal took command of the Joint Special Operations Task Force in 2004, he quickly realized that conventional military tactics were failing. Al Qaeda in Iraq was a decentralized network that could move quickly, strike ruthlessly, then seemingly vanish into the local population. The allied forces had a huge advantage in numbers, equipment, and training-but none of that seemed to matter. To defeat Al Qaeda, they would have to combine the power of the world's mightiest military with the agility of the world's most fearsome terrorist network. They would have to becomea "team of teams"-faster, flatter, andmore flexible than ever.

InTeam of Teams, McChrystal and his colleaguesshow how the challenges they faced in Iraq can be rel-evant to countless businesses, nonprofits, andor-ganizations today. In periods of unprecedented crisis, leadersneed practical management practices that can scale to thousands of people-and fast. By givingsmall groups the freedom to experiment and share what they learn across the entire organiza-tion, teams can respond more quickly, communicate more freely, and make better and faster decisions.


Drawing on compelling examples-from NASA to hospital emergency rooms-Team of Teamsmakes the case formergingthe power of alarge corporation with the agilityof asmall team to transform any organization.