Team Of Teams: New Rules Of Engagement For A Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal (U.S. Army, Retired) with Tantum Collins, David Silverman, and Chris Fussell

The title of this book really fooled me. I thought the title referred to General McChrystal's team being the pinnacle of a what a team should be. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it's about creating a team comprised of smaller teams.

General McChrystal writes extensively on the benefits of valuing adaptability instead of efficiency. It's a much larger concept that is well covered in the book, and too large to summarize here. But the following quote from the book pretty accurately sums it up, while at the same time perfectly illustrating why the lessons of this book are perfect applied to the fire service:

"...victory as defined by the squad - the primary unit of allegiance - may not align with victory as defined by the task force. The goal becomes to accomplish missions better than the team that bunks on the other side of the base, rather than to win the war. In other words, the magic of teams is a double-edged sword once organizations get big: some of the same traits that make an adaptable team great can make it incompatible with the structure it serves."

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