Team of Teams
I just finished reading a book written by Stanley McCrystal, who retired from the Army as a Four Star General. He wrote this book along with three other individuals.
I may have mentioned before that our Leadership Council has what essentially is a book club, where we pick and read one book per quarter then we discuss as a group what we learned and can apply either to our work or our personal lives.
Of all the business oriented books I have read over the course of my life (and that I can remember!) I think this one is my favorite. For anyone who may be interested, I would encourage you putting it on your list.
The essence of the book is lessons from the military applied to management and leadership in modern day society. More specifically, it makes the point that as complexity increases in all parts of our lives, including in the healthcare field and at HSS, the old ways of doing things — rigid management structures, command and control decision making and the resulting silos that are created — will no longer suffice for organizations who expect to thrive.
My copy of the book is filled with ink from underlining and marks next to parts that had the most impact. It will be difficult for me to share the details of this book in any comprehensive way so I will give you some highlights as I flip back through the marked up pages:
- “Technology has been both a cause of our challenge and a tool for our success. But it was the culture change in the organization that allowed our success”.
- Towards the end of the book there was a good lesson for me, and all of us…”if I looked bored or was seen sending emails or talking (in a meeting) I signaled lack of interest. If I appeared irritated, notes such as -what’s bothering the boss- would flash across the chat rooms. I learned that simply removing my glasses and rubbing my temples was an action that was interpreted on several continents”. Basically this is saying our actions speak louder than our words, and what we all do is interpreted by our colleagues and patients at every moment.
- A story earlier in the book about how the star-packed men’s basketball Team USA (‘The Dream Team’) suffered one of their biggest loss in 2004. The end of the story concludes that teams can be either far less or far more than the sum of their rosters.
- I wrote something in the margins as I was reading and it is similar to one part of our Epic tag line… One HSS
We are all individuals, we all have our own views, we all have specific jobs, we all work in specific departments, we all have our own knowledge and our own skill set. We have to protect and value this. Yet at same the same time, we all have the same job and the same mindset, that is, to work together as a team…or as a Team Of Teams…to allow HSS to continue on its journey as THE leader in our area of specialty. We are in a very competitive environment and to borrow from another book, we need to continue to “make the competition irrelevant”. We can do this by being One HSS.
Go Team!
One Response to “Team of Teams”
Thank you for sharing. The post reminds me that as we become more global, we will be held accountable in how we negotiate and interact with others, from business partners to our patients bedside. Being grounded in the moment and showing an interest, both verbally and non-verbally, is a powerful cross-cultural tool.