I belong to a country full of know-it-all generals, who think they have the cure for all ills, and like to patronize people with their glorious luminations amidst grandiose screw-ups, so I have disdain (pinch of salt) for their counterparts in other countries. Appreciation has to be beaten or bombed into me, I guess. It’s something that Gen. Dempsey has much experience in, as the commander of the CENTCOM, commander of TRADOC, joint chiefs of staff, chief of staff of army, a Knight of the British Empire, and a U.S. army general. Of course, he came to understand the ‘capabilities and limitations of military power’ only between 2003 and 2013.

The book uses age-old leadership / marketing concepts (take people along, innovate, understand) and gives it a new name (radical ‘leverage’, exclusive inclusion) as a talking point in the ‘post-truth,’ ‘fake news,’ ‘digital echo,’ ‘super-charged emotional people,' Trump world, summarily checking off all important postings of the general’s life. Also, it comes across as a ham, long-winded way to show-off how far the general has come in his military career instead of anything educational. For e.g. the general admits that Tsarnaev brothers didn’t belong to a terrorist network (were basically lone wolves - the only term he doesn’t pluck) and became radicalised by watching terror videos (!) Well, the general takes this line of thought to a totally different one: how many views a single video gets and it’s impact on big business and Toyota and Prius etc.! (So how does one stop Tsarnaevs of the world from becoming Tsarnaevs of the world? How does viewing a video a single or ten times make one more susceptible to be a terrorist? Isn’t someone tracking videos and internet activity, if not library check outs? He has no answer).

It takes either a very bright general or a very dumb one to admit to - in public - in print - and to a nun - that way back in 1975, as a young Lt. in command of a ‘frontline’ yet ‘remote’ military (outpost) base (platoon) in Germany - five miles from ‘Iron Curtain’ - that some of his soldiers, who are on active duty, in the middle of a base, far away from home, and in the middle of a war (albeit Cold War) - are ‘not his best soldiers.’ He never gives up on them, even if they give up on the army.

General Dempsey had 32,000 soldiers in Baghdad between 2003-4. According to the book, ‘their job was to provide a safe environment in which Iraq’s political leaders could restore confidence in their government and restore basic services like sewage, water, electricity and trash collection.’ - All that ‘restoring’ was required because everything had been bombed by U.S.! And U.S. contractors made a lot of money in the ‘restoration’ period too. And what was ‘restored’ remains to be seen even fifteen years later! But of course, Gen. Dempsey only remembers the fallen soldiers - because that’s his job. He does not say whether a follower should question the leadership, because the book is about selective inclusivity. After reading this book, or just this passage (page 91), someone should send a million-plus two-by-four laminated cards with pictures of fallen Iraqi civilians and agitators! With a ‘Taps’ CD of course. Better yet, the good general should volunteer his services to Iraq and work as an electrician, plumber, trash collector and see how long he lives in the place his country and soldiers ‘restored’. In fact that’s what every military man should do - work in an area he bombed or killed people in. He should ‘make it matter’ to them for a change. His advice at the end: ‘In our fourth try at Iraq (and to combat ‘ISIS’) we go in for support, not control.’ “Makes sense,” says the gurnnery sergeant. “Will it work?” “I honestly don’t know Gunny,” the general replies.

I have yet to read a U.S. security analyst’s book that does not have one Palestinians-are-terrorists anecdote - and of course, Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan. Here China is ‘assertive’, Iran is ‘insidious’.

There’s a 198,000 acre installation in Louisiana where simulated operations take place to train soldiers.

Memorable: The Starfish and the Spider analogy to networks (by the 28-year old captain on the eastern edge of Afghan border/ base) and that army needs to be like a starfish. The author of that book, Ori Brafman, is the co-author of this book, because Gen. Dempsey took that advice and called him in to talk it over. But the book does not mention how Gen. Dempsey employed Ori Brafman’s ideas into military practise in Afghanistan and beyond.

In 2015, MacDonald’s CEO joined a vegan food company Impossible Foods (!) (Even though Meat-And-Potato Readers, if you need a biochemist to prepare your food, to create its taste and texture, mimicking a top-frade beef burger, drop it!)

Saudi Arabian then-crown prince Abdullah bin-Abdul Aziz is called ‘an astute reformer and compassionate leader.’ And Gen. Dempsey in 2003 was in charge of the modernization program of the Saudi National Guard (their army). The crown prince advises the general, who was about to begin the Iraq duty: ‘Do not alter the face of Islam’. (The general writes: ‘As the competition between Sunni and Shia for the soul of Islam fuels the violence that persists today in ME and .... attempt to introduce democratic principles alter the balance...and these two sects of Islam thrusted the region into decades of violence.’)

‘The instability in the ME, South Asia, North Africa, affects us, our partners and allies. This instability (terrorism, migration, arms trafficking and drug smuggling) is because of loosely affiliated radical Islamist groups and can be defeated only by a broad and inclusive coalition, a coalition with the capability, resources and staying power to collaborate on the whole problem: security, governance, reconstruction, economic development, and humanitarian relief’. (Basically the coalition should use military power, destroy cities and liberate people, but also help restore institutions, goods, services but countries ‘in the region’ should ‘own it’ and outsiders like U.S. should be willing to ‘relinquish control as and when needed.’) How is this revelation any different from Operation Desert Storm or Iraqi Freedom etc. etc.?

Prince Charles recites verses of Major-General's song from The Pirates of Penzance opera (though the author does not mention which ones).

The most that readers can take away from this book is to avoid Albert Einstein Medical Centre in Philadelphia where NURSES WERE NOT WEARING GLOVES FOR GOD KNOWS HOW LONG, AND WHICH DIRECTLY RESULTED IN DEATHS - PREVENTABLE DEATHS - OF PATIENTS (WHO CONTRACTED ANTI-BIOTIC RESISTANT STAPH INFECTION BECAUSE OF NURSES NOT WEARING GLOVES!) This book suggests that nurses now wear gloves, and this HAS REDUCED PATIENT DEATHS TO LESS THAN 70% IN A SINGLE YEAR(!) (the chapter is titled ‘If the Glove Doesn’t Fit’ - which refers to the small sized-hands of the nurses or the standard-sized gloves which didn’t fit them, WHICH IS GIVEN AS A REASON FOR THEIR NOT WEARING GLOVES). I mean what in the name of hell?? And the General says IT IS LIKE OTHER HOSPITALS IN U.S. which also suffer from rampant staph infection (MRSA)! The janitor (high school dropout and Vietnam Vet) mentioned the lack of gloves in the trash bins! That hospital’s head of infection control and nurses should have been fired and the hospital sued. Did I mention that the hospital is named after Einstein?!

I tried to read this recently for my GBOE review, and I could not access the title any more. I tried to contact the publisher, but I was not able to get a response in time. Not sure why it is listing it on NetGalley in my recent books. But now, unfortunately, my calendar is full for 2018 titles.

I only gave a star review because it would not let me send the note without it - I did not read the book.

It seems like most of the leadership books that I am reading lately stress the importance of improving leadership effectiveness through developing stronger reliance on group intelligence -- as well as the importance of the impact of the rapidly increasing complexity of our times.

Frankly, I'm getting a bit tired thinking about all the cognitive overhead required for dealing with the rapidly increasing complexity.

The first half of "Radical Inclusion" was more solidly a leadership book -- it discussed practical concepts and case studies. I especially liked the information about the transition of "message" into "narrative" -- beyond the control of the point of origin in the medium of the Internet.

The second part of the book seemed like it had too many long semi-autobiographical sections about General Dempsey's military career -- and were not nearly as useful or interesting as "Turn This Ship Around" (but not as dry as some State Dept/Government leadership books I've read).

The Dempsey section of the book seemed less well integrated with the concepts presented in the first half -- and I got tired of the overuse of the "digital echoes" phrase. It didn't seem very meaningful to me -- and I wish that the focus of that part of story of inclusion had been more on the personalization of narrative in the context of organizations (vs the decentralization of message into narrative in a diffuse setting such as the Internet). Also - I'm not convinced that this is so much a "Post 9/11" related book -- as much as it is a "rapid technological change/social media" and antidote to disenfranchisement book. I think the use of 9/11 in the subtitle is a bit misleading.

The bottom line:
"Inclusion is harder and can be slower, but it is a necessary precondition for achieving effective, efficient, and enduring solutions to complex problems."

My bottom line: short book, read the first half -- or check out my notes on Goodreads.

<i>Radical Inclusion</i> is a short guide to successful leadership in the age of competing narratives and increasingly complex networks. Gen. Dempsey and Mr. Brafman provide concrete examples of how they learned to make better leadership decisions by 'radically' including more people in the process. The clear presentation alone makes this guidebook worthwhile. My only complaint is that the conclusion seemed a bit too redundant.

<i>Thanks to NetGalley and Missionday for the digital ARC. All views are my own.</i>

An Engaging and Thought Provoking New Approach to Leadership

“Radical Inclusion acknowledges complexity and seeks to mitigate the risks inherent in the era of digital echoes. Failure to recognize and adapt to this new reality, failure to deeply embrace inclusion, would be the defining leadership failure of the twenty-first century.”

These are the concluding words from the authors of Radical Inclusion: What the Post-9/11 World Should Have Taught Us About Leadership written by Martin Dempsey and Ori Brafman. Brafman is a professor at UC Berkeley and Dempsey is a retired US Army general. The story of how they came together to write this book is a fascinating read in and of itself. It’s included in the content of the book so I’ll let you read it to discovery this gem for yourself.

While on the surface the two might not seem to have much in common, it’s obvious from reading the work that the two men who serve in different contexts have experienced much of the same changes in those they have led along the way. The proposed new way of inclusion as a leadership strategy is a result of the very successful way they have adapted and learned from those they led. Many of us are familiar with articles on Facebook or other social media sites that belittle this generation of young adults called the Millennials because they do not act or react like previous older generations. In Radical Inclusion the authors may have provided a gold mine of information that great older leaders can profit from to incorporate the younger leaders and older enterprises.

The concept of the digital echo and it’s affects on organizations is worth the price of the book and the time it takes to read it. As someone who works with and has worked with college student leaders for the last 30 years, the clarity of that expression is incredibly valuable for me. Their prediction that the time will come when it will become hard to know which source of information is telling the truth and that it really doesn’t matter to most is not only timely it’s the current state of news and our lives. Understanding how this works for leadership will increasingly become one of the most important skills for those who desire to lead others in the digital age.

The authors provide 6 leadership tools and three leadership instincts that they believe will make the reader a better leader in this new age if applied in conjunction with the others. Individually applying one without the other might provide somewhat helpful but taken together they form a new paradigm of leadership. The pragmatic approach to leadership is a result of their desire to produce pragmatic results. This resource isn’t meant to be a discussion piece for the next round of leadership classes in colleges and universities, although I think it will be used that way. Given the fact that both authors now teach at Universities on the left and right coasts of America, I can’t imagine that the ideas included in the material won’t be helpful for academia. However, the real value of the book will be helping those who lead businesses, corporations, governmental agencies, and non-profit groups navigate the changing landscape of leadership in the digital age. Especially for those who are older and leading organizations right now where most of their subordinates are under the age of 35.

I found the principles to be challenging and anecdotally verified in my 30 years of work with 18-22-year-old leaders. It is where they live and how they want to be led. Don’t be thrown off by the title. It’s not really a politically charged theory although it does have some politics in the material given that Dempsey was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It’s about making sure to bring everyone in your organization along with you on the journey to success. I think so much of this book that I’m going to require my leadership team to read it over the summer. I highly recommend you do the same!

This is one of the best leadership books I've read in awhile. The ideas that Brafman and Dempsey write about are not practiced by a lot of leaders today. Their insights into narratives vs. facts are brilliant, and I plan on using them to frame my own outlook on current events. I highlighted multiple passages in each chapter of this book, and will purchase a hard copy when it is released.