pmtallestred's review against another edition
5.0
I'm probably biased because I'm a sucker for books that combine usable guidance with especially exciting stories involving war (see my rating for "Extreme Ownership"), but this is a genuinely good read. There are a ton of great ideas that are immediately applicable to the business world and it doesn't feel quite as much like marketing material. I'm sure there are better ways to phrase that, but much business writing tries too hard to sound clever, while this feels much more to the point throughout.
melicamp's review against another edition
5.0
Probably the best book about management/leadership I have read so far. It’s about a transformation of the U.S. special force to become agile in order to have better chances fighting against Al-Qaeda in Iraq. So, the fight was between U.S. Joint Special Operations Task Force, which we could characterize as: highly efficient, using best practices, resourceful, hierarchical, robust, formed with “the best of the best” against Al-Qaeda which was: agile, resilient, using emergent practices, network shaped, but also: which had very little resources and its fighters had little to no training and experience. Even though Al-Qaeda was formed by individuals whose training could not be even compared to U.S. soldiers, the organization was kicking U.S. Task Force’s butt.
To win with Al-Qaeda U.S. Task Force needed to become a network and integrate closely with other U.S. agencies.
From this book you will learn about: why forecasting in complex environment doesn’t make a lot of sense, why best practices are not useful in complex environment, why being highly agile is better than being highly effective, why networks win against hierarchies, why empowerment in organizations is so important and many, many more.
A must read for anyone interested in leadership, management and agility in organizations.
To win with Al-Qaeda U.S. Task Force needed to become a network and integrate closely with other U.S. agencies.
From this book you will learn about: why forecasting in complex environment doesn’t make a lot of sense, why best practices are not useful in complex environment, why being highly agile is better than being highly effective, why networks win against hierarchies, why empowerment in organizations is so important and many, many more.
A must read for anyone interested in leadership, management and agility in organizations.
junyifong's review against another edition
4.25
Team development
Eventually, we all have to take a leap of faith and dive into the swirl. Our destination is a future whose form we may not find comforting, but which has just as much beauty and potential as the straight lines and right angles of the past century of reductionism: this future will take the form of organic networks, resilience engineering, controlled flooding-a world without stop signs. (249)
Eventually, we all have to take a leap of faith and dive into the swirl. Our destination is a future whose form we may not find comforting, but which has just as much beauty and potential as the straight lines and right angles of the past century of reductionism: this future will take the form of organic networks, resilience engineering, controlled flooding-a world without stop signs. (249)
kealajaye's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
This was really informational and taught me a lot not only about leadership, but of the war in Iraq and the great leaders of history, the majority of which I did not know. I’m not someone who is super interested in war books or self-help books, but I found this book incredibly interesting and amazingly well-written.
Content Warnings
Moderate: War and Violence
chrisxaustin's review against another edition
5.0
A useful story of the lessons learned while modernizing the US military to move towards a more agile methodology with decentralized command, increased transparency, cross-team relationships and sharing, and moving from an efficiency to an efficacy model.
The ideas aren't particularly new now since they've become popular in devops communities, but it's presented from a different angle and resulted in me rethinking some aspects of my role and how I prioritize things. It also reinforced a lot of my beliefs and provided more supporting evidence.
Definitely worth reading.
The ideas aren't particularly new now since they've become popular in devops communities, but it's presented from a different angle and resulted in me rethinking some aspects of my role and how I prioritize things. It also reinforced a lot of my beliefs and provided more supporting evidence.
Definitely worth reading.
nunelson's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed the perspective, stories, and personal anecdotes, to build a full picture of how a shift from a single specialized team to a team of teams can greatly improve efficiency and interoperability.
ivantable's review against another edition
4.0
Invaluable insights on information-sharing model of managing organizations.
bizlet's review against another edition
5.0
It feels weird to say that I liked this book given its subject matter, but I did. The real life examples of what his team experienced and the kinds of decisions that needed to be made grounded his theories in a reality that I can't imagine working in.
Trust and cooperation are hard enough when there aren't lives on the line, so I appreciated the window into their world to highlight how difficult this change was to make.
Maybe it helped that I generally don't look for how-to manuals and instead read books like this one to take some time in another person's world and see what I can glean from it. I pulled a bunch of insights and appreciate the different perspective I gained on leadership, cooperation, trust and engagement.
Trust and cooperation are hard enough when there aren't lives on the line, so I appreciated the window into their world to highlight how difficult this change was to make.
Maybe it helped that I generally don't look for how-to manuals and instead read books like this one to take some time in another person's world and see what I can glean from it. I pulled a bunch of insights and appreciate the different perspective I gained on leadership, cooperation, trust and engagement.