The South African Special Forces achieved exceptional results with small groups of elite soldiers instead of larger, conventional teams. The Team Secret shows that the same principle applies in the business world – a small team has a much better chance of completing projects efficiently, on budget and on time. Teams, rather than individuals, form the DNA of many companies and they play a pivotal role in achieving strategic and financial success. Like Special Forces teams, they must function as a well-oiled machine firing on all cylinders. Koos Stadler tells in captivating detail about a real-life Special Forces operation and the lessons learnt about team dynamics and achieving the goal. His story, combined with anecdotes from Anton Burger's experiences as a team leader in different work environments, show the many lessons the business world can take from the Special Forces. The book identifies the key characteristics of an effective team, how to select the right team members, how to inculcate an ethos centred around team principles and how an effective team should be led. It speaks to both team members and team leaders across all managerial levels – from a team leader in a call centre to a project manager or CEO. In short: To fast-track your business, shape up your teams!

The Secret Team, L. Fletcher Prouty's CIA exposé, was first published in the 1970s, but virtually all copies of the book disappeared upon distribution, purchased en masse by shady "private buyers." Certainly Prouty's amazing allegations—that the U-2 Crisis of 1960 was fixed to sabotage Eisenhower-Khrushchev talks, and that President Kennedy was assassinated to keep the U.S., and its defense budget, in Vietnam—cannot have pleased the CIA. Though suppressed (until now), The Secret Team was an important influence for Oliver Stone's Academy Award-winning film JFK and countless other works on U.S. government conspiracies, and it raises the same crucial question today that it did on its first appearance: who, in fact, is in control of the United States and the world?

Teams are critical to the success of every organization. Departmental, interdepartmental, cross-functional, ad hoc, task-specific—teams do everything from planning the office party to setting the annual budget to establishing performance goals. But what separates the teams that really deliver from the ones that simply spin their wheels? What is the secret of high-performance teams? As he did in The Secret, Mark Miller uses a compelling business fable to reveal profound yet easily grasped truths that can dramatically transform any organization. Debbie Brewster, the heroine of The Secret, has been promoted and is now struggling with taking her new team to the next level. Her old mentor, Jeff Brown, the company’s CEO, sends her out to find the secret of teams. On her journey she learns from three very different teams—the Special Forces, NASCAR, and a local restaurant. Debbie and her team discover the three elements that all successful teams have in common. But that’s just the beginning. The devil is in the details, as the story of Debbie’s efforts to actually implement the three elements shows. You’ll learn how to change entrenched ways of thinking and acting, what you have to do to optimize each of the three elements of a successful team, how to measure your progress, and more. Creating high-performance teams does more than just give your organization a competitive advantage. It can be a performance multiplier that significantly improves results while honoring and developing people. It may be the ultimate win-win-win that your organization is seeking.

"Coaching remains an underused leadership style. This book offers a usable, practice-led guide to developing the skills to broaden your leadership repertoire. Phil draws on his years of experience as both a leader and a coach to provide insight into coaching successfully, not just with individuals but also with teams. A welcome addition to the expanding coaching canon." Andy Firth, Senior Consultant, Roffey Park Institute, UK "Phil Hayes is one of the best team facilitators and coaches I have ever worked with. If you want to know his secrets and exactly what you should do to get the same results - then read this book." Jenny Rogers, Management Futures Ltd, UK "This is a rich collection of astute observations, case studies, practical tools and signposting to resources offered by a skilled practitioner who writes as a seasoned peer rather than a learned academic. It is likely to appeal to team coaches thinking of working with senior management teams, particularly those who have gained underlying theory and perhaps been licensed in specialised instruments elsewhere, and who want to know what coaching at this level is really like at the coalface." Siobhan Soraghan, Director, Active Insight Consulting Limited "I found this book an excellent introduction to team related issues- be that leading teams, coaching teams or designing and delivering team training interventions. I particularly liked the way it deals with essential themes and skills that will be needed, providing excellent summaries of key principles, and providing additional resources for further research should the reader so desire." Martin Hill, ILM Level 7 Programme Tutor & Coach; British School of Coaching; Coaching Supervisor If you are a manager, coach or team leader and want to build a strong performing team of your own, this book is the one for you! Successful management and leadership of teams is a top business priority. With over 20 years of hands-on experience leading and coaching teams, Phil Hayes offers you a practical guide to team development. Using case studies from practice, the book gives team leaders and coaches advice on: Joining teams and being a successful team player Leading teams to enhanced performance Understanding the role and skill set of the professional team coach Further developing high performing - and poorly performing - teams Understanding and working with organisational culture Practical design tips for team events This is a must-read for professional coaches, facilitators, consultants, HR professionals and trainers as well as for managers and leaders.

Winner of the 2016 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing The true story of the game that never should have happened--and of a nation on the brink of monumental change In the fall of 1943, at the little-known North Carolina College for Negroes, Coach John McLendon was on the verge of changing basketball forever. A protégé of James Naismith, the game's inventor, McLendon taught his team to play the full-court press and run a fast break that no one could catch. His Eagles would become the highest-scoring college team in America--a basketball juggernaut that shattered its opponents by as many as sixty points per game. Yet his players faced danger whenever they traveled backcountry roads. Across town, at Duke University, the best basketball squad on campus wasn't the Blue Devils, but an all-white military team from the Duke medical school. Composed of former college stars from across the country, the team dismantled everyone they faced, including the Duke varsity. They were prepared to take on anyone--until an audacious invitation arrived, one that was years ahead of anything the South had ever seen before. What happened next wasn't on anyone's schedule. Based on years of research, The Secret Game is a story of courage and determination, and of an incredible, long-buried moment in the nation's sporting past. The riveting, true account of a remarkable season, it is the story of how a group of forgotten college basketball players, aided by a pair of refugees from Nazi Germany and a group of daring student activists, not only blazed a trail for a new kind of America, but helped create one of the most meaningful moments in basketball history.

Build high-performing teams with an evidence-based framework that delivers results Committed is a practical handbook for building great teams. Based on research from Wharton’s Executive Development Program (EDP), this concise guide identifies the common challenges that arise when people work together as a group and provides key guidance on breaking through the barriers to peak performance. Committed draws its insights from the EDP’s living lab: an intensive two-week simulation during which executive-level participants run complex global businesses. The authors have observed over 100 teams collaborating and competing for over 100 combined years in this intense environment. It has yielded fundamental insights about teamwork: what usually goes wrong, what frequently goes right, and the methods and techniques that will help you access your team’s full potential. These insights have been distilled into a simple, repeatable process that you can start applying today. Getting teams engaged and aligned is hard. Committed will give you the tools you need to deal with all of the familiar teamwork challenges that get in the way: organizational politics, delegation, coordination, and aligning skills and motivation. Using vivid stories and examples from the worlds of business, sports, and non-profits, it will teach you how to: Understand the dynamics of successful teams Achieve peak performance using a research-backed methodology Gain expert insight into why most teams underperform Learn the critical points common to all great teams Committed gives you the perspective you need to combine the right people with the right way of collaborating to achieve extraordinary results.

Just four months after Richard Nixon's resignation, New York Times reporter Seymour Hersh unearthed a new case of government abuse of power: the CIA had launched a domestic spying program of Orwellian proportions against American dissidents during the Vietnam War. The country's best investigative journalists and members of Congress quickly mobilized to probe a scandal that seemed certain to rock the foundations of this secret government. Subsequent investigations disclosed that the CIA had plotted to kill foreign leaders and that the FBI had harassed civil rights and student groups. Some called the scandal 'son of Watergate.' Many observers predicted that the investigations would lead to far-reaching changes in the intelligence agencies. Yet, as Kathryn Olmsted shows, neither the media nor Congress pressed for reforms. For all of its post-Watergate zeal, the press hesitated to break its long tradition of deference in national security coverage. Congress, too, was unwilling to challenge the executive branch in national security matters. Reports of the demise of the executive branch were greatly exaggerated, and the result of the 'year of intelligence' was a return to the status quo. American History/Journalism