Summary of General Stanley McChrystal's Team of Teams

Summary of General Stanley McChrystal's Team of Teams is an examination of the process he began of restructuring the Joint Special Operations Command management style, from a rigid command structure to a cooperative team comprised of smaller specialized teams. While fighting Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), General McChrystal noted how the United States and coalition militaries were efficient war-fighting machines, but they were not adaptable or effective against the seemingly disordered AQI. In 2005, after a particularly destructive terrorist attack at the opening of a sewage plant near Baghdad, McChrystal began considering whether the efficient structure was actually hindering the counterinsurgency, preventing them from responding to threats in real time and delaying the capture of AQI leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Modern military management originated at the 1900 World's Fair, when Frederick Winslow Taylor revealed his work in steel production efficiency. Taylor believed that there is a right way to do any given thing...