What is it?

A workshop designed around the insights from the book Team of Teams by General Stanley McChrystal. It draws from McChrystal’s experience leading the Joint Special Operations Task Force during the Iraq War.

Why is it useful?

This workshop is structured to be engaging, collaborative, and applicable to any team's real-world challenges to help them thrive in today’s fast-paced, complex world.

Objectives

• Understand Adaptability: Learn how to make your team more adaptable in a complex environment.
• Foster Shared Consciousness: Create an atmosphere where information flows freely across teams, leading to faster, better decisions.
• Empower Teams: Discover how to let teams make decisions without waiting for approval, balancing autonomy with alignment to the organisation’s goals.
• Build Trust Across Teams: Develop strong, trusting relationships between teams so you can rely on each other in critical moments.

Resources Required

• Time: 3.5 hours
• Number of People: 4-24 (split into sub-teams of 4-6 people)
• PowerPoint slides or a whiteboard for the presentation
• Paper, tape, string for icebreaker
• Flip charts or whiteboard for recording discussions
• Scenario handouts for exercises
• Marker pens

Process

Step 1: Welcome and Introduction (15 minutes)

1. Introduction: Briefly introduce the concept of Team of Teams and the workshop objectives.
2. Highlight: Importance of adaptability, shared consciousness, and empowered execution in today’s complex environment.

Step 2: Icebreaker: Trust Bridge (30 minutes)

Objective: Build initial trust between participants and highlight the importance of working together across teams.

1. Split participants into sub-teams.
2. Each team must construct a “bridge” using only office supplies (paper, tape, and string).
3. Catch: They need to collaborate with another team to align their bridges, as both sections must connect.
4. After 10 minutes, all teams come together to evaluate the success of their combined efforts.
5. Debrief: Discuss how communication and trust across teams influenced the outcome and introduce the idea of working together in a broader network.

Step 3: Exercise 1: Shared Consciousness in Action (40 minutes)

Objective: Encourage open communication and shared understanding across the team.

1. Present a hypothetical crisis (e.g., a new competitor enters the market, a sudden shift in customer needs).
2. Each sub-team works on solving a part of the crisis using the limited information given.
3. After 10 minutes, reveal the “twist”: they must combine their findings with another team to complete the solution.
4. Encourage teams to communicate openly, share insights, and integrate information.
5. Debrief: Reflect on the importance of transparency and sharing information across teams to form a cohesive, aligned response.

Step 4: Exercise 2: Empowered Execution Simulation (45 minutes)

Objective: Demonstrate the value of decentralised decision-making and empowered execution.

1. Provide each team with a unique challenge that requires rapid decision-making (e.g., deciding on a new product launch strategy).
2. Teams have full autonomy to make decisions and execute but must remain aligned with a broader company objective (revealed at the start).
3. Leaders rotate among teams to act as facilitators rather than decision-makers.
4. Each team presents its solution after 20 minutes.
5. Debrief: Discuss how decentralisation worked, how it felt to have autonomy, and how teams stayed aligned with the organisational mission.

Step 5: Discussion: Leader as Gardener (30 minutes)

Objective: Reflect on the role of leadership in creating an environment for teams to thrive.

1. In pairs, participants share how they see the role of leadership evolving based on today’s exercises.
2. Discussion: How leaders can “nurture” teams, remove obstacles, and empower rather than control.
3. Each pair shares a takeaway from their discussion with the larger group.
4. Debrief: Summarise key insights on the role of leaders as facilitators and supporters, not just command-and-control figures.

Step 6: Closing Reflection and Next Steps (20 minutes)

Objective: Reflect on the key lessons and decide how to apply these insights moving forward.

1. Ask each participant to reflect on one action they will take in their daily work to foster adaptability, trust, and collaboration.
2. Encourage participants to share these commitments with the group.