Short Summary & Thoughts
"Command and control" micromanagement of teams does not work in the modern world. To defeat Al Qaeda, Gen. McChrystal built an effective team with 1) Shared Consciousness (centralized forums to bring all corners of organization together, radically democratizing information) and 2) Empowered Execution (decentralization of power that pushes authority to the edges of organization). Building a "team of teams" requires reinforcing a shared goal and giving individuals the opportunity to interact with with members of other groups - together, breaking down the silos that have been the cornerstone of efficient management for the past 100 years.
My Notes & Summary
Part I: The Proteus Problem
Chapter 1: Sons of Proteus
Chapter 2: Clockwork
Chapter 3: From Complicated to Complex
Chapter 4: Doing the Right Thing
Part II: From Many, One
Chapter 5: From Command to Team
Chapter 6: Team of Teams
Part III: Sharing
Chapter 7: Seeing the System
Chapter 8: Brains out of the Footlocker
Chapter 9: Beating Prisoner's Dillemma
Part IV: Letting Go
Chapter 10: Hands Off
Chapter 11: Leading Like a Gardener
Part V: Looking Ahead
Chapter 12: Symmetries
Chapter 1: Sons of Proteus
- Al Qaeda (AQI): Fundamentally different style of war
- Global interconnectedness
- Changing terrain underscores importance of relationships
- No hierarchy in chain of command for AQI
- Give subordinate leaders autonomy by giving shared goal
- Minimize micromanaging that depends on fragile communication
- LimFac: limiting factor (not skill or qualifications, but leadership management)
Chapter 2: Clockwork
- Principles, Standardization, Uniformity, Discipline, and Drills of classic armies only work for Predictability
- Standardization thought to be important for bigger armies/corporations
- Taylor’s Scientific Management
- Small inefficiencies get multiplied and become consequential at scale
- Maginot Line: crafting solution to avoid embarrassment of past failures (doesn’t take into account new way of world)
- French concrete fortifications to deter Nazi German forces, they go around
- False sense of security for Allied forces
Chapter 3: From Complicated to Complex
- World has more data, but become less predictable
- Butterfly Effect: small change in one place has humongous down stream impact
- Interconnected world makes it both complicated and complex
- We cannot forecast accurately(!) as much as we try to with reductionist frameworks
- Protection from known threats not enough
Chapter 4: Doing the Right Thing
- AQI was flexible and resilient because of network
- Optimizing a system for a “predictable” outcome makes it more susceptible to shocks
- Goal is to make resilient systems... able to roll with punches of unforeseen events
Part II: From Many, One
Chapter 5: From Command to Team
- Team members need to understand the objective... sense of purpose
Chapter 6: Team of Teams
- MECE: Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive
- Fix the “blinks”
- Bottle necks that are created when one team believes all info must flow through them
- Need to create trust between teams with a shared vision/purpose for info to be synthesized and useful in real time
- Need to create recognizable face on other teams... seal team and army team need can’t be divided into us vs them
Part III: Sharing
Chapter 7: Seeing the System
- Organizations care more about protection info than effectively sharing it
- It’s about the integration of teams who are independent experts
- shared consciousness is key
- Context is key
- Efficiency from silos outweighed by the costs of interface failures
- Emergent intelligence of small groups can be copied in larger groups when people allowed to talk to each other
- Education vs training
- Education is resilient... flexible and adaptable understanding
- "Training" is robust... but only for known problems
Chapter 8: Brains out of the Footlocker
- At Headquarters, get everybody thinking in ONE space
- Environment of transparency
- Everybody knows there role in the larger picture
- Form follows function (think of office buildings, designed with MECE structure in mind)
- Put executive in middle of org chart, get rid of all “executive suites”
- Silicon Valley open plans acknowledged we don’t know what serendipitous encounters will be valuable
- Radical sharing of info... you can never predict who will benefit from the info (second or third order consequences)...
- Extra CC on email
- Speaker phone convos
- O and I meetings... 7,000 people on phone call military debriefs
Chapter 9: Beating Prisoner's Dillemma
- Stronger ties, more cooperation
- “Embed” (Rotational) program gives people a short insight into other teams, create relationships
- Learn from other teams
- Lynchpin Liaison Partner (LNO) - strongest representatives
- “Embed” (Rotational) program gives people a short insight into other teams, create relationships
- Tit-for-tat: start with cooperation, punish for selfishness, quickly reward pro social decision (no holding grudge!)
- Shared Consciousness
- Extreme participatory transparency (holistic awareness)
- Internal connectivity (mirror trust of small teams, across teams)
Part IV: Letting Go
Chapter 10: Hands Off
- Getting rid of permission through beauracracy
- UNODIR: unless otherwise directed
- Subordinate informs boss of plan, and goes ahead unless told other course of action
- Perry Principle?
- Micromanage
- Empower subordinates to make own decisions (“Empowered Execution”)
- McChrystal communicates how he thinks about situations and let’s others decide
- He recognized he didn’t add value by being the funnel to all decisions
- If something supports our effort and it’s not immoral or illegal, you can do it
- Wisdom of those at top is a myth
- You’re invested in the decision you make yourself!
Chapter 11: Leading Like a Gardener
- Leaders are curators of culture... not necessarily experts on everything
- Just because a leader can make a decision, doesn’t mean they should... deploy responsibility
- Leaders lead by behavior
- Gardeners tend to garden, not forcing things to grow
- Thinking out loud... repeat/synthesize understanding of briefing (vulnerable bc leader might not fully understand but important)
- Say thank you to subordinates, greet them with first name, show active listening
- Eyes on, hands off enabler for org to operate
Part V: Looking Ahead
Chapter 12: Symmetries
- Shared consciousness - centralized forums to bring people together
- Empowered execution - decentralized way to push authority to edges of organization
- Mental models are limiting factors to complex problems we face going forward because they rely on understanding of how things used to be