He's Coming; Traditional Planning is Failing; Denver Broncos; Washington's Team of Teams

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:

Do You Want Published on Fortune.com? -- "You are what you publish" as marketing guru David Meerman Scott exclaims. Fortune magazine is looking for entrepreneurs to publish pieces on the Fortune.com website - more info below, but first...

General McChrystal's Team of Teams -- I'm so appreciative (and thrilled) that General Stanley McChrystal has agreed to keynote the upcoming Fortune Scale-up Summit May 24 - 25, Atlanta! I named his book, Team of Teams, one of the top five biz books of the year. As noted in my Fortune column summarizing each book:

There's a revolution afoot in the military. The very organization that gave us the command-and-control structure is abandoning it in the face of new, quick-moving opponents. So should you if you want your business to survive 21st-century competition. Drawing on the model used by Navy SEALs, retired four-star general McChrystal will show you how to reorganize your company into teams of autonomous leaders capable of making the split-second decisions necessary to winning today.

The book is so well written and provides practical advice we can all use in our businesses to make better, faster, more impactful decisions - and to better engage our people. GazellesPro and book club members will receive a copy next week. This is a perfect read over the holiday season. Then come meet and hear the General next May at our Fortune Summit - and Scaling Up (Rockefeller Habits 2.0) user conference the following day.

Why Traditional Planning is Failing Teams -- a similar "team of teams" approach called "scrum" is in parallel revolutionizing project management and planning. In this 3 minute interview I did with with Jeff Sutherland, co-creator of scrum and author of the award winning book by the same name (Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time), he details why traditional planning is failing us. Projects falling way behind schedule and running over budget has to end - and the scrum process replaces the failed and ancient Pert/Gantt chart approach. Please take 3 minutes to watch this interview - the read (or re-read) his book.

Favorite Team Denver Broncos -- ...and wow, what a football game Sunday night watching my hometown team, the Denver Broncos, topple the undefeated and reigning Super Bowl champs in overtime!! The winning play is a perfect example of what Jeff Sutherland and General McChrystal are driving home in their messages - teams don't have time to send information up the chain of command and wait for instructions to come down. Quarterback Brock Osweiler (age 25), in only his second NFL start, notices that the New England Patriots defense has lined up in a way that will not be favorable to the Broncos running back to head to the right, the play that had been called in the huddle. So in "real time" he signals to the team to shift plays on the go and send the running back left. Everyone adjusts immediately and they score the winning touchdown! This is how the real time world we're living in demands a different kind of organizational decision making approach than we've had the past 100 years. Here's a link to watch the winning play.

Equally Amazing Team of Teams -- Kirk Cousins, who is an avid reader and the new winning quarterback for the Washington Redskins (my other hometown team), has his team at the top of the "loser" division in the NFL! This article details how Washington's three quarterbacks, who should be fierce rivals, have formed a team of teams to support each other in support and prayer. And the article lists the books Kirk Cousins is reading in-season. Leaders are readers!

Fortune.com Opportunity -- all answers to the question below will be posted - so you'll be published. Here's the request:

This week's question is: What's something you wish you knew before starting your business? Michael Maven, founder of Carter & Kingsley, says "As entrepreneurs, ideas are a dime a dozen, and just because you (or a small group of people) think you have a good one doesn't mean your idea will be popular. It might be easy for your vision, passion, and belief in your idea to drive you forward until you're ready to unleash your finished product, but this visionary passion often unwittingly kills companies since many founders end up building products people don't want or need." Read more from Michael here. Join this week's conversation on Fortune.com by writing your own 500- to 700-word answer and emailing it to: [email protected]

COACHING:

Have you ever wondered if your company would be a good candidate to work with an executive growth coach? Click here to watch Gazelles International President Keith Cupp describes the four most important attributes of successful clients.

TECHNOLOGY:

Align Software puts everyone on the Same Page - Literally! See, in real time every person in your organization and how they are progress on their priorities - alongside how these Align to the Company Priorities! Scale Up your Rockefeller Habits implementation with www.alignwithgazelles.com - on your computer and on your phone.

Better Book Club -- What's your team reading? Increase your books read per team member. Easy, Proven, and in the Cloud at http://www.BetterBookClub.com.