Team of Teams

This is one of my favorite books: Team of Teams. It is highly relevant to business, but also very exciting. It is very well known in the US, but less so in Europe. Perhaps because it was written by the US general who was responsible for the War on Terror in Iraq.

Many of the anecdotes are about the War on Terror, but at its core, it’s about what makes successful teams and how teams work together successfully. It is therefore generally about organizations and the authors also provide numerous examples from companies.

For me, the most important insight from the book is that successful teams decide and act autonomously. Autonomy requires three things:

1. A shared consciousness of the set objectives and expected results as well as the correct and up-to-date information.
2. The necessary skills to translate the information into the right actions and to execute the actions.
3. The scope for action and decision-making to decide on and carry out the right actions.

Sounds a lot like Data Strategy, Literacy & Culture? Yes, and the book is also often about information technology and information management. So it’s a lesson in how business/military strategy and data & AI strategy come together.