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New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World
Portfolio
May 2015
On Sale: May 12, 2015
290 pages ISBN: 1591847486 EAN: 9781591847489 Kindle: B00KWG9OF4 Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
What if you could combine the agility, adaptability, and cohesion of a small team with the power and resources of a giant organization? THE OLD RULES NO LONGER APPLY . . . 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 trainingβbut none of that seemed to matter.
TEACHING A LEVIATHAN TO IMPROVISE Itβs no secret that in any field, small teams have many adΒvantagesβthey can respond quickly, communicate freely, and make decisions without layers of bureaucracy. But organizations taking on really big challenges canβt fit in a garage. They need management practices that can scale to thousands of people. General McChrystal led a hierarchical, highly disciΒplined machine of thousands of men and women. But to defeat Al Qaeda in Iraq, his Task Force would have to acquire the enemyβs speed and flexibility. Was there a way to combine the power of the worldβs mightiest military with the agility of the worldβs most fearsome terrorist network? If so, could the same principles apply in civilian organizations?
A NEW APPROACH FOR A NEW WORLD McChrystal and his colleagues discarded a century of conventional wisdom and remade the Task Force, in the midst of a grueling war, into something new: a network that combined extremely transparent communication with decentralized decision-making authority. The walls between silos were torn down. Leaders looked at the best practices of the smallest units and found ways to exΒtend them to thousands of people on three continents, using technology to establish a oneness that would have been impossible even a decade earlier. The Task Force became a βteam of teamsββfaster, flatter, more flexΒibleβand beat back Al Qaeda. BEYOND THE BATTLEFIELD In this powerful book, McChrystal and his colleagues show how the challenges they faced in Iraq can be relΒevant to countless businesses, nonprofits, and other orΒganizations. The world is changing faster than ever, and the smartest response for those in charge is to give small groups the freedom to experiment while driving everyΒone to share what they learn across the entire organizaΒtion. As the authors argue through compelling examples, the team of teams strategy has worked everywhere from hospital emergency rooms to NASA. It has the potential to transform organizations large and small.
 Media BuzzDaily Show with Jon Stewart - June 1, 2015
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