333 N. Fairfax St., Suite 100 mcchrystalgroup.

com
Alexandria, VA 22314 contact@mcchrystalgroup.com

Team of Teams: New Rules of

Engagement for a Complex World

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

If you’re leading a group with a mission, you may feel

bombarded with advice, priorities, and judgment
from all sides.
“Steering the ship” or “keeping the plates spinning” In complex environments, each event is its own unique
or “fighting fires” are all trite metaphors for the occurrence – and will need to be solved that way.
often intangible effort of leading. Right now, we are While fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq, the “tried and true”
faced with important decisions amid drastic culture didn’t work because the shape-shifting adversary
changes, and the organizational system we previously slipped away and reformed. They never lost focus,
relied upon on are simply insufficient for the speed of even when they lost leaders. The task force needed
the information age. to adapt. McChrystal’s teams turned the tide, not
with increased firepower, but internal culture change:
A military leader might not be the obvious source of
sharing more information, building more trusting
business advice, but the book Team of Teams offers
teams, and letting people closer to the action make
novel ways of shifting large organizational structures
decisions.
to deeply improve them. Drawing on lessons from
leading the Joint Special Operations Task Force, Team of Teams is about optimizing networks for a
General McChrystal offers case studies on how teams common purpose, with insights about infusing our
across the world coordinated more effectively to fight teams’ efforts. With the lightning fast changes in
a constantly evolving enemy. It’s parallel to the daily technology, talent, and culture, we need simple steps
battle to keep our teams moving forward, despite new to strengthen our efforts.
and varied challenges every day. Too often, we wonder,
“Why didn’t it work this time?”
KEY TAKEAWAYS

The Deep Roots of our

Efficiency Obsession
Reference Chapter 2

McChrystal highlighted the influence of Frederick Winslow Taylor [p.6 & p.36], who
optimized manufacturing in the 19th century. Before then, tradespeople created “beautiful
contraptions” independently, with their own intricate processes. Taylor sought to find the
best way (what today we call “a best practice”) and broke down the components of every
job. Managers kept things in working order and maintained morale; laborers did tasks but
weren’t expected to understand anything more.

Many of our current business leadership principles, including the assembly line, information
silos, and management hierarchy, are based on this mental revolution: waste is wrong,
efficiency is the highest good. Constant vigilance comes at a cost, and that cost may be
that your team cannot handle anything non-standard (much less an emergency) without
you, or that communication between teams is sacrificed. It’s true, we have become highly
productive...until something unexpected happens, and those unexpected happenings are
coming fast!

COMPLICATED
Complex vs Complicated
Means Adaptability Wins
Reference Chapter 3

Facing problems with “different solutions on different

COMPLEX days” was fundamentally disturbing to the military’s
order, built on discipline and planning. It took time to
craft different kinds of responses, and that wasn’t
successful until deep changes happened in how
and when teams shared information. Factors of the
KEY TAKEAWAYS

21st century have shifted complicated systems into more complex ones, forcing us to
change faster to respond. Agility and innovation are now more valuable because efficiency
and discipline rely on linear, predictable operations. [Team of Teams case study Boston
Emergency Department pages 100-102]

Managers are skilled at handling a variety of problems....until there’s a truly new crisis
to manage: an unexpected departure, a breaking news story, a change in regulations.
Preparation for the unknown is postponed until “things calm down” and the cycle of
complexity continues, with the elusive state of “catching up” never attainable. When crisis
mode is the new norm, leadership can’t spend time preventing problems.

The Folly of Forecasting:

Data Creates Illusions of
Control

The evidence on the folly of forecasting is overwhelming…

frankly the three blind mice have more credibility than any
macro-forecaster at seeing what is coming”
– JAMES MONTIER

Complex systems present a range of possible outcomes, which prevent us from making
accurate predictions. Small things may have no impact or a massive one – and its
impossible to know which will turn out to be the case! The same advances that brought us
mountains of information have also created volatile communication platforms, adding more
complexity to every aspect of life. Decisions have moved from data-poor predictability to
today’s data-rich uncertainty.

Data can be wonderful for explaining how complex phenomena happened and how they
might happen, but they cannot tell us when and where they will happen. Even with all the
data we have on weather, or health care, or sports teams – we still live in unpredictable
environments. While there have been algorithmic breakthroughs, we rarely see the promised
clarity and certainty that we can act on.
KEY TAKEAWAYS

Instant Communication
Leads to Delays?

More information access, communication options, and video capabilities should allow us to
see what’s happening around the globe in real time. However, the task force identified that
instantaneous communication swamped senior leadership with requests for decisions.
Instead of adding speed, chain of command requests slowed decisions because it took
time to collect information, decide, and communicate – in turn, stifling the ability of soldiers
to move and adapt quickly. “Like ripe fruit left in the sun, intelligence spoils quickly.”

Robust vs Resilient:
How Do You Want to
Survive?
Reference Part II

Robustness is achieved by strengthening parts of the system; resilience is linked to

elements that can reconfigure in response to change. The Egyptian pyramids are robust
- they have successfully resisted the likely stressors: wind, rain, and time. But if an
unexpected stressor, say a bomb, blew a pyramid apart, the structure could not reassemble
itself. A coral reef, on the other hand, survives hurricanes not by being robust, but through
resilience.
KEY TAKEAWAYS

Training is important, but it involves actions useful only against anticipated challenges.
Education requires deep, fundamental understanding, which can be used to grasp and
respond to a nearly infinite variety of threats. Education is resilient, training is robust. In
organizations, this looks like standard operating procedure documents versus experience
– you can’t prepare for every scenario. You want your veteran team members to handle this
new situation with their skills and judgment, not searching for their training binders to see
how it’s categorized. [See the examples illustrating how this played out on two passenger
flights, pages 87-91]

Brains, Not Bodies:

People Power
Reference Chapters 8 & 9

“Cultures are more resistant to design change than bricks and mortar.” Our efficiency
obsession delayed investments in relationship building, but with productivity nearing
capacity (at least with human beings,) investing in people and their connections is what
builds resiliency for organizations. Informal networks are more powerful in the information
age because they cut through the noise and can deliver trusted insight that helps with
better decision making. [See the BUD/S example pages 94-98]
Team of Teams Core 4

A Common Purpose
The competitive advantage of high-performing teams is their ability to think and act as a
seamless unit. But people cooperate only if they see the interdependent reality of their
environment. Transparency is critical, not just in actions, but also in information sharing and
consistent familiarity with each branch of the organization. Everyone must be personally
invested in the outcome and focused on the shared mission.

Tips from Team of Teams: Looks like:

y Ensure that everyone can see more than y Using a U-shaped table for meetings, with
just their piece of the puzzle. Be more plenty of seats.
transparent than necessary, even if it’s y Changing office floor plans to be more open
uncomfortable. and promote interaction in certain areas.
y Reiterate the shared purpose often, even if y Asking teams to share their contributions,
you think it’s clear, with emphasis on the goal and what they think is the mission
and each teams part in moving towards it.

Trusting Teams
Small operational teams have a clear, shared sense of purpose, and if they are infused
with trust, they are much more potent. Like a sports team where cooperation becomes
instinctive over time, teams sharing honestly and cultivating emotional safety creates
lasting bonds. However, teamwork is a dynamic and delicate process. Building bridges to
other teams may seem inefficient, but McChrystal emphasized the need to create the
“messy connectivity” of small teams into more teams, and invest the time to do it.

Tips from Team of Teams: Looks like:

y Identify “blinks,” the choke points between y Asking good questions with a kind
groups. These cultural differences obstruct demeanor.
communication and need to be addressed. y Pausing when you hit a communication issue
y Normalize sharing and interactive discussion – to see what’s underneath it.
it’s okay to ask questions and it’s okay to not
y Encouraging frequent contact between
know all the answers – having a group work to
teams to break down the blinks.
solve these saves an incalculable amount of
time and builds trust.
y Send your best: a six-month exchange program
allowed operators to see how the war looked
from inside other groups. They learned how
to best help that team and built personal
relationships, despite some initial resistance.
TEAM OF TEAMS: 4 CORE CAPABILITIES

Shared Consciousness: Share Until You Think It’s Illegal

It’s a habit, particularly in parts of the military, to constrain information, partly due to security
concerns, but also the “need to know” mindset. Efficiency may dictate that knowing only
your “piece of the puzzle” is necessary -- but, due to complexity, there may be much more
that’s relevant. Shared consciousness demanded the adoption of extreme transparency,
and McChrystal’s Task Force began with a daily Operations and Intelligence briefing that
evolved into interactive discussion. Attendees saw problems being solved in real time,
and developed the confidence to solve their own similar problems – saving an incalculable
amount of time. People could see multiple views of the organization, where their work fit in,
and teams learned how other teams saw the same information in a different way.

Tips from Team of Teams: Looks like:

y Coach people on briefing skills. For example, y Interactive conversation rather than
a 4-minute slot should have a 60 second performance briefings.
update, then open-ended conversation. y Adding people to the CC line of emails if
y Encourage relationship building between there’s a chance it might impact them.
teams. Surprise moments of connection and y Taking calls on speakerphone for more
clarity happen with transparency. participation.
y Create a culture where questions are not
threatening – encourage and demonstrate
good asking and non-defensive answering.

Empowered Execution
The success of empowered execution is built on shared consciousness. More decisions
were made faster, based on good intelligence routed to the right people to act on it.
Bottlenecks were avoided, and leadership only handled decisions that they needed to make,
rather than what a past hierarchy might have dictated.

The common purpose, shared consciousness, and trusting teams led to an “eyes on, hands
off” leadership style. This is explained by McChrystal with the metaphor that a gardener
creates an environment in which plants can flourish, and works to maintain it. Creating and
leading a truly adaptive organization requires building, leading, and maintaining a culture that
is flexible but also durable. Read more about leading like a gardener here.

Tips from Team of Teams: Looks like:

y Say thank you frequently, show interest y Doing rounds without an agenda – offering
and enthusiasm. encouragement as well as advice, but
y Ask questions about recommended plans first observing and listening deeply to
of action. understand.
y Be a good role model and know that your y Practicing humility as well as vulnerability (“I
team is watching. made a mistake,” “I don’t know the answer,
let’s find out.”)
 McChrystal Group makes it possible to optimize your organization without
compromising performance. Forged in combat and proven across industries, we use our
Team of Teams® framework to transform how your people, processes, and technology
work together so you can optimize the organization on your terms.

Visit mcchrystalgroup.com for Team of Teams® films, case studies,

and the discussion guide.

©2024 McChrystal Group, LLC. All rights reserved. MKT01-0224-01 Rev. 02

Team of Teams® is a registered trademark of McChrystal Group, LLC.