THE LAST PART OF THIS BOOK explores the implications of what has been covered for those who create or lead teams that have hard problems to solve, for those who manage the operational contexts within which such teams operate, and for those who seek to help the broader intelligence community better accomplish its overall mission.
After a brief review of the conditions that foster team effectiveness, the penultimate chapter (“Leading Intelligence Teams”) examines how intelligence team leaders allocate their time and attention—what they actually do to help their teams succeed. It turns out that their focus often is misdirected, giving relatively more emphasis to real-time management than to creating the conditions that would enable their teams to competently manage themselves.
An alternative strategy might be to follow what I call the 60-30-10 rule. That rule suggests that 60 percent of the difference in how well a team eventually performs depends on the quality of the prework the team leader does. Thirty percent depends on the initial launch of the team. And only 10 percent is determined by what the leader does after the team is underway with its work. When more attention is given to prework and launch activities, teams are far better able to manage their own work processes—relying more on peer coaching for learning and course corrections than on directives from the team’s designated leader.
The final chapter (“Intelligence Teams in Context”) is framed as a series of assertions made by intelligence professionals with whom I have talked over the last few years. Each assertion points simultaneously to an obstacle that impedes the accomplishment of intelligence work and to an opportunity for constructive change in the community as a whole. Although I do not for a moment imagine that the obstacles embedded in these assertions (for example, the denigration of expertise, or over-reliance on competition for motivation, or the thoughtless over-use of teams) can be overcome in the near term, I do believe that they merit attention and reflection by intelligence community leaders.