Quarantine Reading List - April 2020, Addendum

My intent was to only do one reading list per month, for each month that we find ourselves in quarantine, but I was recently inspired to write an addendum to April's reading list. I was recently confronted by a lieutenant colonel at work. He had a copy of a recent critique I published on the battle of Mosul in his hand and he patronizingly asked me if everything I wrote was so contrarian. I informed the gentlemen that what I write is the result of deep reflection and it is constructive criticism focused on improving the force. His question stuck me and caused me to reflect a bit.

Some reflection. And then the books. Coming out of high school and going into college, my dream was to be a college football coach. I wasn't all that great of a player coming out of high school, but I loved the game. I spent a season playing tight end at Butler University before finances caused me to hang up my cleats and transfer to a much cheaper school. It is challenging to get a college coaching job without college playing experience, but after a year coaching at a high school in Indianapolis, I landed a job coaching tight ends and long snappers at Butler University. By 23 years old, I had my foot on the door and I was well on my way.

Coaching football is a very analytical job. A good coach and a good coaching staff is always evaluating the opponent(s), but more importantly, they always self-analyze. A coach, a staff, or a program might have a set system, but within that system they're always asking if what they're doing is correct. Further, they may even question the utility of that system given evolving conditions. If the system doesn't work, they might throw that system out and adopt a new way of doing business. It is rare to see doctrinaires in the coaching profession, or at least it was then, because winning truly matters as a coach. As a coach, if you don't win and if you don't produce, you're fired. If you aren't always looking for ways to improve what you're doing, then you and your program stagnate, leaving you susceptible to other programs that are looking to improve. That analytical football coaching mind followed me when I left the football office and picked up the gold bar of a U.S. Army second lieutenant.

Beyond that, I always found the nuance of football offenses and defenses fascinating. Where did they come from? What makes one thing more useful than another? When I was in high school we played Seymour High School, who at the time ran the Run-and-Shoot. I was mesmerized by the offense. On the other hand, New Albany High School ran the Delaware Wing-T. The Wing-T's misdirection, traps, sweeps, and play-action passing always blew my mind. We ran a simple I-formation offense, so I always viewed the Run-and-Shoot and the Wing-T as exotic oddities. It didn't help that my coach called the Run-and-Shoot, the 'Chuck-and-Puke." Nonetheless, I was completely enthralled. In my senior year of high school I started picking up books and studying as much as I could about the history, variation, utility, and personalities associated with these different ways to play the game.

That sense of 'why' and 'what's the history of this' also followed me and can often be seen in many of the things I have written over the years and how I do my job. My wife can tell you that I've said more than once that I'm still just a football coach trapped in the uniform of a U.S. Army officer. With that background put forth, I'm providing a list of five books that either played a bit role in helping shape my thirst for knowledge, or have subsequently shaped that approach.

Coaching Run-and-Shoot Football, by Al Black

Al Black's Coaching Run-and-Shoot Football was one of the first coaching books I picked up. Al Black's book was exact what I was looking for when I began my study of 'exotic' offenses (this was the late 1990s and pass-happy offenses were not as prodigious as they are today). The book explained the theory and reasoning behind the offense, and then expanding the theoretical discussion into the mechanics of the system. When one watches a Run-and-Shoot team, they often get lost in the ball flying all around the field - I certainly did before I understood its their and concepts. The traditional version of the offense consists of five basic concepts, which can be modified by formation, motion, and adjustments at the line of scrimmage or after the snap of the ball. The traditional version of the offense, which Black outlines in this book, has a small number of complimentary run plays, screen passes, and play-action passes. The book was earth-shattering in its ability to clearly explain something that appeared so complicated to me. In later life I've found many parallels between books like Al Black's and those of Colmar von der Goltz, Antoine Jomini, Carl von Clausewitz, Liddell Hart, J.F.C. Fuller, Michael Howard, and Robert Leonhard.

I don't remember where I purchased the book, but I don't remember the book being all that pricey. That's not the case today. You can find the book on Amazon, but it is going to cost you a healthy sum of money.

Blood, Sweat, & Chalk, The Ultimate Football Playbook: How the Great Coaches Built the Today's Game, by Tim Layden

Tim Layden's Blood, Sweat, & Chalk is a fascinating trip through time, concepts, and the evolution of thought as it relates to the game of football. Before moving to Indiana, I spent the first 11 years of my life living in Norman, Oklahoma. As a child I caught one of the last great eras of OU football, watching Barry Switzer roam the sidelines in Norman. For those familiar with Sooner football at the time, I grew up watching the Wishbone and its associated triple options. Back then the Sooners' practices were open to the public so every so often my dad and I would head to the stadium and watch practice. I remember watching Jamelle Holieway methodically run the Wishbone. Even back then I found the systematic nature of the offense very interesting. While we sat there watching Holieway run the offense, my dad would explain to me what options Holieway had available and the associated reads he had to make in order to run the offense. However, if '1s' were practicing against '1s', he also had to be aware of Brian Bosworth ('The Boz') looming on the other side of the ball.

Later in life I moved to Indiana and got started on Big 10 football. I remember thinking how much different Big 10 football was from the triple-option dominated Big 8. Big 10 football was that whole '3 yards and a cloud of dust.' However, in the late 90s, Northwestern University began to change the landscape of the Big 10. They started running the shotgun, spread, zone read offense. Personally, I think Northwestern deserves a lot of credit for what most offenses run today, but they were doing it well before most other teams.

Fast-forward a few years and everyone runs some variation of the spread offense, and everyone blends in concepts from all sorts of offenses. The game has gotten a lot more vanilla because you no longer see the variation of offense and defensive approaches. But if you watch closely, you can find concepts that originated in other offenses. Layden's book provides an excellent snapshot of the historical context of each of the major offenses that have dominated the game, their lineage, their founding fathers, and where those individuals got the impetus for their ideas.

Similar to my comments on Black's book, this book has always been one of my favorites because of its historical and analytical examination of the game. Reading this book reminds me of digging into J.F.C. Fuller's The Foundations of the Science of War, or something along those lines. If you enjoy understanding and you enjoy thinking and you appreciate history, then Layden's Blood, Sweat, & Chalk is something worth investing in. You can find it here. For those in the military, you might be saying to yourself that there isn't utility in reading this. However, I contend that there is. The method and framework of thinking within this book is an extremely useful tool for thinking about concepts and doctrine. Take a read to expand your conceptual evolution.

The Chaos Imperative: How Chance and Disruption Increase Innovation, Effectiveness, and Success, by Ori Brafman and Juddah Pollack

Ori Brafman is better known for his book, The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations, but in my opinion, The Chaos Imperative is better and more useful. The Chaos Imperative essentially calls for organizations and organizational leaders to facilitate time for their personnel to reflect, but because reflection generates background cognitive synthesis, which in turn helps materialize complex thought. Brafman and Pollack argue that always being busy and the 'white noise' of day-to-day operations result in little deep-thinking, which often returns short-sided solutions and answers to the complex questions of today's work environment.

I've always appreciate this book and worked to support their recommendation. I appreciate the book because my brain works in a similar manner. I need time to reflect and think through things. I'm not a 'current operations' guy. For instance, when I was at Fort Leavenworth for the Command and General Staff College and the School of Advanced Military Studies, I could often be found sitting on a park bench on the Missouri River with nothing more than a cigar, a notebook, and a pen.

I've also found that a majority of work done around the office is work that justifies someone else's position in a headquarters, and is often a waste of time. Therefore, as a boss, I try and minimize the impact of those types of situations from a higher headquarters, and prevent it from happening at all within my own headquarters. Anyway, the book is terrific and a great read for any leader. You can find it here.

How Much Land Does a Man Need, by Leo Tolstoy

Back in college I studied quite a bit of Russian history and culture for my degree. I had a terrific professor for a number of those classes. Dr. Scott Seregny brought Russian history and culture to life in the classroom and he made learning about the subject very interesting. For instance, he always had traditional Russian music playing when you entered the classroom each day. Sadly, he passed away from cancer over the summer between school years my second junior year and my second senior year of college. However, his prowess as an educator stuck with me and helped develop my interest in Russian history and culture.

One cannot study Russian history or culture without spending a good amount of time with Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy was a fascinating individual in his own right. His writing always captivated me because of the way he was able to breathe life into the characters and problems within his stories. Moreover, his stories were always fascinating studies in moral behavior. My favorite Tolstoy work is How Much Land Does a Man Need. In the book, Tolstoy uses a land grab as a metaphor for greed. In short, a poor man (Pahom) inadvertently makes a deal with the devil - Pahom is told that he can have as much land as he can stake off before the sun rises the next day. Pahom, in his greed, goes too far and is forced to run back in order to beat the sunrise. In doing so, he falls dead at the start point. In turn, he is buried six feet below the surface of the ground, thus answering the question of how much land a man really needs.

I always loved this story and its carries forward with me today. I see a lot of utility in the idea too given that most of us find ourselves operating in resource constrained environments, in which hard constraints dictate what we can and cannot have. Further, it is also useful from a position of protecting one's boss from him or herself. Many folks have to present their boss with an "A" or "B" problem, but then the boss response that he or she wants both A and B. The tale of Pahom reminds us that we should always seek to protect greedy bosses from themselves because often their "both" answer robs others of resources they truly need.

Patton's Way: A Radical Theory of War, by James Morningstar

When looking at books on George Patton, it is tough to pick a favorite or one to recommend. It is tough to do so because so many are so good - I think that's more a result of Patton being a fascinating human being that it is the prose which captures his life. I went with Patton's Way because I think it does a good job of illustrating that originality, while sometimes uncomfortable for some folks, is vitally important to winning.

From an early age, Patton's fierce independence in thought and action alienated him, whether it be from his fellow cadets at West Point or his peers and supervisors when he worked on the Hawaiian Division's staff. This independence was a critical factor in World War II, as the Germans were always looking for Patton. While not a fan of 'what if' history, but the outcome of the Battle of the Bulge and 3rd Army's dash across Europe would have been decidedly different had a more cautious, conformist commander been in charge at that time.

Further, Patton's success has often been attributed to genius. However, Patton was not a genius. He was a professional. He study the theory, history, and doctrine of his profession and tangential things that could be incorporated into his profession. He had developed pattern recognition based upon his studies that allowed his mind to process what he was seeing or experiencing quicker than most others around him. He was a student of his profession. But perhaps more importantly, he was a critique of his profession, which is arguably the most important aspect of any professional. His continually questioning of concepts, theories, doctrines, and methods allowed him to develop his own way of warfighting which worked so well for his forces in North Africa, 7th Army in the Sicilian Campaign, and 3rd Army in Europe.

Organizations need original minds and original characters. Organizations need to reward, not push or brush aside, originality and nonconformity. Organizations need to cultivate originality and not scoff at it. Patton was certainly an original and many organizations would be better if they had more Pattons in them. You can find Patton's Way here.

Conclusion

Thanks for bearing with me on this addendum. I thought it was important to discuss a few books that highlight the usefulness of analytical and original minds in organizations. My recommendation is to cultivate analytical minds and originality. There are enough doctrinaires and company-men out there to protect the pre-existing sanctity of the organization. But what we don't have enough of are people that question the status quo and offer useful solutions to the problems of today and tomorrow. I hope you find these recommendations useful.