“Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World” by Gen Stanley McChrystal

And the book of the week is “Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World”, by General Stanley McChrystal.

Why the Military had to change their organizational structure? Because the old way didn’t work in certain situations. What is the new situation the Army had to battle? The social media campaign.

Imagine your enemy is funded by crowdsourcing. If you defeat some 10 individuals, they win, because the real target is audience. It’s filmed, shared. More people are engaged, send money, travel to Iraq and Syria. Like a thousand simultaneous TV reality show, this 10 individuals don’t behave like a traditional enemy. There’s no real training, just a weapon and will to share experience. How this ends?

In Military, the tradicional is a well established hierarchy. Wait for the orders, execute, comply. This doesn’t work when the situation change every time. What’s worse: in the complex world, thousands variables, you work with a lot of teams, with different skills, resources and cultures. How make things happen? You need fast answer, working together with lot of teams, in new situations that requires learn before.

In tradition hierarchy, the leader don’t make mistake. But in complex world, you need to try, learn, by making mistakes. A lot of them. Will you follow a someone who doesn’t know the direction in the middle of war? He mistakes, you die. Not a good leader.

But what is the alternative when nobody knows — for sure — the right direction? This is the subject of the book. How to work together when asymmetric struggle is the normal.