Stadler / Berger The Team Secret

Accelerate your Business with Special Forces Principles
1. Auflage 2018
ISBN: 978-1-86842-875-5
Verlag: Jonathan Ball
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 248 Seiten

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!

KOOS STADLER served in the Special Forces for 24 years. He was a member of the Small Teams, a highly specialised group of soldiers who operated in teams of two or three behind enemy lines. In 2006 he founded the Special Forces School and established the unit as an accredited and highly successful training provider. He is the author of the bestseller Recce (25 000 copies sold in Afrikaans and English).

Autoren/Hrsg.

Stadler, Koos

Berger, Anton

Leseproben

1
THE SMALL TEAM CONCEPT Captain Jo-Jo Brown lifts his head slowly from the backpack on which his chin has been resting. He is careful not to attract undue attention through sudden movement or by disturbing the wildlife around him. He then tunes his ears to the sounds of the bush but cannot detect any noise aside from the shrill, monotonous screeching of cicadas. With measured, deliberate movements he scans the bush in his area of responsibility, the zone he has allocated himself after he placed his three other team members in an all-round defence when they established their hide at daybreak. Jo-Jo observes the thick brush directly in front of him. In a practised manner his eyes move from left to right, covering all possible entry routes and hiding spots. He then scans the middle distance, searching the bush in a similar way from left to right as far as the vegetation allows sight. All seems quiet and undisturbed. He glances at his watch, noting that it is 09:23, exactly 15 minutes before their scheduled radio call with the tactical headquarters. Jo-Jo turns his head to the left where he knows José da Silva should be. Their eyes lock. His team buddy is ready and waiting for his signal to prepare the radio. The antenna had already been positioned earlier that morning. Da Silva winks nearly unnoticeably before Jo-Jo moves crouched over towards the dark shadows of a tree with low-hanging branches outside their circle of defence – a position previously agreed on. From there he will listen out while Da Silva establishes comms (communications). Once in position, he gives a thumbs-up with his left hand, his right hand maintaining a firm grip on the AK-47 while his finger rests lightly on the trigger guard. Jo-Jo had prepared a message an hour before on the data entry terminal (DET), the electronic device that would be connected to the radio to transmit a coded message with their current position and future intentions to tactical headquarters. The high-pitched electronic clatter of the burst-transmission barely reaches his ears but he knows a trained ear would pick up the unnatural sound right away. Four minutes later the scheduled radio call is over, the radio has been stacked away in its runaway bag and the antenna detached, ready to be re-connected in case of an emergency. On Da Silva’s signal, Jo-Jo slowly gets up and, checking that the bush in front is still quiet, makes his way back to his position. Halfway back he freezes. Themo Rodrigues, the third member of their four-man team, has clicked his tongue. It was hardly audible but it made him stop dead in his tracks. Crouching low, Jo-Jo slowly turns his head in the direction of the operator lying with his back towards him, facing outwards. Themo twists his head towards him and shapes a word with his mouth. But Jo-Jo already knows what he is trying to convey. Themo’s left fist is up with a turned-down thumb … enemy approaching, close by. • This story – based on true events – portrays something of what it takes to operate as a successful Special Forces Small Team. The world over, Special Forces operations are conducted by carefully selected teams. As a rule, these teams are comparatively small – much smaller than the standard combat unit in a conventional military formation. Where the smallest sub-unit in a regular infantry battalion would be a section of ten, they would still form part of a platoon consisting of about 36 soldiers – a small headquarters element and three sections of ten each. In most modern armies three platoons form a company, again with an HQ element as well as a support weapons element. Three companies combined, along with their HQ and fire support platoon, would constitute a battalion. In conventional warfare terms, a battalion comprises a unit; anything smaller than that is considered a sub-unit or a sub-sub-unit. Conventional wisdom prescribes that sub-units must function within the support blanket of the battalion, in other words, within reach of its indirect support weapons and in most cases within range of the formation’s tactical radio (VHF or UHF) network. Naturally, in a conventional military campaign, the unit deploys within the geographical space the formation is responsible for, either to defend or to launch offensive action. This restriction is paramount if the defensive line or the attack formation is to be kept intact and so as to ensure that the enemy does not force a breach in the defensive positions or succeed in enveloping or encircling the formation. Special Forces teams, both in the South African context and across the globe, operate on different terms. Firstly, the battle space differs vastly because the majority of Special Forces missions are conducted behind enemy lines and not within the conventional sphere of operations. Secondly, the nature of the task is completely different since the team is expected to conduct a definitive task – a raid, a reconnaissance or a sabotage mission. Thirdly, team members are selected and specially trained for their task and have at their disposal all the means (in terms of logistics, support and transport) to execute their mission. Last but not least, the team is tailor-made for the job, which invariably implies a small but highly effective group. While the idea of small, highly effective teams is not unique to the South African Special Forces, the mould in which the two-man team concept was set locally differed somewhat from the more conventional approach. In the late 1970s operators from what was then 1 Reconnaissance Commando such as the larger-than-life Koos Moorcroft and legendary late André ‘Diedies’ Diedericks, introduced two-man teams for tasks previously performed by bigger teams. (Later, specialist reconnaissance sub-units known as ‘Small Teams’ were to form part of all the reconnaissance regiments with the exclusive purpose of conducting specialised missions using the two-man concept.) For reconnaissance and certain types of sabotage missions, the two-man team proved to be a highly successful vehicle. These teams deployed for extensive periods – sometimes in excess of two months – hundreds of kilometres behind enemy lines, operating independently and clandestinely. The aim was to collect information or to destroy critical enemy infrastructure. The reasoning behind this was that smaller teams could be inserted and extracted more easily and would be able to approach the target undetected since they would move quietly through the bush, hide away easily and leave fewer tracks. The lessons in this book are not exclusively derived from the two-man team concept but from the notion that smaller teams are highly effective for certain types of missions. In the Special Forces context smaller teams – as opposed to large groups – have proved to be more effective in missions of a specialised nature. We believe the same principle applies in the business world. Companies tend to use fairly big teams for anything from client services and projects to sales and business development. We will show that the principles on which a Special Forces Small Team operate and which make them such a success can be applied to teams working in small and major companies. The success of Special Forces missions can of course also be attributed to aspects such as greater motivation (due to the stringent selection process), specialised training and the use of superior arms and equipment. The strengths inherent to the team due to its comparatively small size should also never be underestimated. These inherent strengths include: •Small team members are more alert. There is comfort in numbers, so the moment the assurance of human support around the individual is removed, he ‘switches on’ by default and accepts responsibility for his own safety. •Small team members take ownership of their mission objective. Since there are fewer individuals to blame should the mission not be completed successfully, they have a tendency to take ownership of the success of the mission. •Small teams move with more stealth and can hide easily. Owing to the two aspects described above, team members tend to take greater responsibility to anti-track (not leave a clear spoor), move silently, apply strict patrol tactics and enforce self-discipline within their hiding spot. •Small teams move faster simply because it is easier to control a small number of people. •Small teams adapt more easily to new challenges and have greater flexibility when adjusting to unexpected obstacles. Special Forces’ modus operandi, its strategic approach and tactical application are contained in a comparatively small number of confidential publications such as the Minor Tactics Manual, the Small Team Reconnaissance Handbook and a higher-order directive simply called Special Forces Doctrine. As the commanding officer of the Special Forces School (2002 to 2005) and subsequently as senior staff officer responsible for training at the Special Forces Headquarters, co-author and former Special Forces operator Koos Stadler was closely involved in rewriting and publishing both the Minor Tactics Manual and the Small Team Reconnaissance Handbook in 2005 and 2006. The characteristics of Special Forces personnel, the very...