Red Team: How to Succeed By Thinking Like the Enemy by Micah Zenko
Micah holds a BA in International Relations from University of Wisconsin-Madison, MA in Security Policy Studies at George Washington University, and PhD in Political Science from Brandeis University. He is the Director of Research and Learning at the McChrystal Group. He is also a Whitehead Senior Fellow at Chatham House and previously served as a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
Micah previously served at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the US State Department’s Office of Policy Planning, the Brookings Institution, and the Congressional Research Service. He is published in The Atlantic, The Guardian, Foreign Policy, and Business Insider.
Red Team is in fact, a very engaging read and should be almost mandatory for organizational leaders and their IT division. The key reason in fact is that Micah is providing the practice of inhabiting the perspective of potential competitors to gain a strategic advantage.
Whats old is now new
To no surprise, today cyber threats are driving our post pandemic world. Yet the key element in fact for organizational leaders is Micah’s introduction of Red teaming. This is not a recent concept. In fact, Micah traces the development of a red team dating back to the Vatican’s Devil’s Advocate. Readers may certainly recall the 11th century Vatican official first charged with discrediting candidates for sainthood. Today red teams are in fact, groups of skilled third parties, who use simulations, vulnerability probes, and alternative data analysis to discover various risks that organizations cannot see via Group Think.
Remember Nixon’s Watergate ?
Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon. Members of a group prioritize consensus over critical analysis and independent third party thinking. This certainly leads to decisions seen as irrational or even dangerous to organizations as the group’s members will suppress dissent, ignore facts, and fail to evaluate the consequences of their current-state position. The Nixon Administration’s Watergate crisis is a perfect example.
So, today Red teams are providing organizations seeking to better understand their rival’s interests, intentions, and capabilities. When understood and properly deployed, red teams certainly deliver results that provide an edge or advantage over their competition. Red teams also filter critical intelligence and also troubleshooting military missions in their planning stages which seek to reduce risk. The case studies from Micah are providing Red Teams a foundational base and insights on to leverage their information.
In conclusion, Red Team is very essential reading for anyone interested in organizational strategy, risk management, or security. Micah is providing deep insights into the value and limits of thinking like the enemy. Another book not to be missed.