Red Teaming Review @duffythewriter

Red Teaming was an idea born in the military and focusses on thinking like the enemy, spotting threats before they do and causing disruption. I was looking for some business inspiration and had my eye on Red Teaming, but for some reason, I kept shuffling it down the TBR pile.  Finally, after a couple of weeks I got to it and tried to give it a red-hot crack.  I really did try.

The first couple of quite a lengthy intro and scene setting chapters were very heavily geared toward military tours and to be honest, it turned me right off. You know those books where the words just swim over the page and not into your head? Yeah, that. I understood there needed to be some explaination, but it was just too long and too heavy for me.

Strategy can be taken from military operations into the boardroom and behind the concept, but Red Teaming as a book just didn’t resonate with me. Your average middle manager might have a team of so-so workers or a project that never seems to end, and they may be looking for some practical tools to well, sort the sh*t out, and Red Teaming may well get picked up and bought in the thousands, but will it be really useful?  It’s not all bad. There are some quality tips in here and some good models for picking and managing your Red Team, with a strong focus on challenging the status quo and being objective with your business plan; A real change or die approach which made sense, but nothing groundbreaking to me.  Chapters start with some great inspirational quotes from the likes of Winston Churchill and Steve Jobs with some interesting case studies and examples from big brands such as Apple, Google, and Toyota, but I had to skip a substantial part of the book to get there.

Red Teaming – Final Thoughts

The problem is that Red Teaming gets to the good stuff eventually, but by the time it did, I had pulled the parachute cord and jumped.

2 out of 5 from me – Hopefully it’s just me that didn’t click with the book!