CSAF Leadership Library: November 2022
CSAF Leadership Library: September 2022
CSAF Leadership Library: July 2022
CSAF Leadership Library: May 2022
CSAF Leadership Library: March 2022
CSAF Leadership Library: January 2022
Veteran Chronicles: In Their Own Words
In Veteran Chronicles: In Their Own Words, Brig. Gen. Charles McGee reflects on his remarkable thirty-year career as one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen. Although Gen McGee passed away in January at the age of 102 after “a life well lived,” his courage and embodiment of the core values continue to buoy us into the future.
Warriors in Their Own Words: Colonel “Bud” Anderson, America’s last living triple fighter ace
Colonel Anderson’s autobiographical account in the Warriors in Their Own Words podcast is another enthralling and heroic personification of Airmen rising to the challenge to meet seemingly impossible tasks and defeat the enemies of their time.
To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others
How does a book about sales make better Airmen? Daniel Pink answers that question in To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others. We must sharpen our ability to develop and articulate a simple, easy to remember, and consistent message regarding our Air Force’s modernization imperative to key stakeholders as well as the Airmen we are privileged to lead.
Heroes of the Sky: The Mighty Eighth Air Force
This Memorial Day, we pause alongside fellow Americans in a day of remembrance for the fallen who died in service to our nation, and we recognize and honor their remarkable contributions. National Geographic's Heroes of the Sky: The Mighty Eighth Air Force tells the story of Airmen that made the ultimate sacrifice through an awe-inspiring campaign that transformed the arc of World War II.
Inclusify: The Power of Uniqueness and Belonging to Build Innovative Teams
Inclusify reveals the unexpected ways that well-intentioned leaders undermine their teams, explains how to recognize the myths and misperceptions that drive these behaviors, and provides practical strategies to become an Inclusifyer.
Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well
Thanks for the Feedback is the first book to address this tension head on. It explains why getting feedback is so crucial yet so challenging, and offers a powerful framework to help us take on life’s blizzard of off-hand comments, annual evaluations, and unsolicited advice with curiosity and grace.
The Legend: The Bessie Coleman Story
In 1921, aviation pioneer Bessie Coleman arose from the poverty of the Texas cotton fields to capture the hearts of the Black population of America.
#GenZ with Dr. Meghan M. Grace - Episode 35: Gen Z and Leadership
Today, a new generation of strategic thinkers and mavericks defend our nation. Dr. Meghan Grace’s #GenZ podcast reveals insights into the values and behaviors of Generation Z so that leaders at all echelons, myself included, can better relate to what defines and motivates our youngest cohort of professional Airmen.
The Silo Effect: The Peril of Expertise and the Promise of Breaking Down Barriers
Gillian Tett’s The Silo Effect: The Peril of Expertise and the Promise of Breaking Down Barriers illustrates how the principles of anthropology can help us break down barriers and promote a greater degree of interdependence. Our innovative success emerges not from formal organizational “silos,” but through informal and unplanned interactions across our departments, staffs, and disciplines.
Managing Generation Z: How to Recruit, Onboard, Develop, and Retain the Newest Generation in the Workplace
Managing Generation Z: How to Recruit, Onboard, Develop, and Retain the Newest Generation in the Workplace by Kat Clowes and Robin Paggi is a practical guide for leaders at all echelons to understand, recruit, train, and lead the next generation of professional Airmen.
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
Tomorrow’s Airmen face renewed 21st-century challenges of managing deterrence, preparing for near-peer conflict, and innovating an updated force design. Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness illustrates how to reframe these wicked problems by using “nudges” to avoid bias and recognize subtle cues to modify how we make decisions.
Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard
Transformation requires we aggressively overcome the organizational inertia of the status quo. Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard is a story-driven account that reveals insights into the heuristics of our rational and emotional minds and how they relate to each other. I need your help implementing Action Order-B Mod 1 to switch our organizational behavior to streamline decision-making, eliminate redundancy, and limit bureaucratic layers.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
What can a film about the crew of a British ship during the Napoleonic Wars teach us about Agile Combat Employment? In Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World the climate of mutual trust, shared understanding, and commander's intent under the military leadership of Captain Aubrey represents a textbook case of mission command. What is most interesting is that the crew's ability to be ready to execute the mission in unpredictable ways and rapidly respond to the adversary's moves by moving fluidly across a theater of operations represents the essence of the ACE operating concept.
Harvard Business Review's Should you Collaborate or Compete
Modernizing into the Air Force we need to support integrated deterrence is not without its challenges, particularly within Action Order B. Harvard Business Review's Should you Collaborate or Compete podcast observes workplace dynamics and challenges us to rethink how leaders manage their formations to strike a more effective balance between collaboration and competition.
The Mind of War: John Boyd and American Security
The Mind of War: John Boyd and American Security is as much the story of Boyd’s innovative spirit as his groundbreaking ideas on warfare. Alongside a tenacity for out-maneuvering bureaucracy, Boyd was a maverick, and had innovation baked into his DNA. Who is the “Maverick” in your squadron?
The Prince: Searching for Xi Xinping
The Economist’s The Prince: Searching for Xi Xinping podcast is a perceptive and compelling eight-episode narrative that lifts the veil behind the PRC leader’s early life and rise to power. By scanning the past for indications and trends, we minimize uncertainty about our present operating environment and use that knowledge help us manage strategic competition and gain competitive advantages.
Ukraine and Russia: From Civilized Divorce to Uncivil War
For our Air Force to ensure credible deterrence, build enduring advantage, and campaign, we must ensure every Airmen thoroughly understands the strategic environment. In Ukraine and Russia: From Civilized Divorce to Uncivil War, Paul D'Anieri reframes the crisis in Ukraine through a post-Cold War historical prism to challenge perceptions and re-examine competing goals and objectives.
Intelligence Matters: China's Ambitions in the World, and What They Mean to the U.S.
In this episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell moderates a conversation among three top experts on China's geopolitical ambitions and their implications for the United States. Harvard University Professor Graham Allison, Johns Hopkins Professor Hal brands, and George Mason University Assistant Professor Ketian Zhang discuss President Xi Jinping's near and long-term political objectives, the domestic challenges he may face, and how the United States should develop its own strategies for confronting or cooperating with Beijing.
Netflix docuseries Five Came Back
The idea of “why” is a timeless concept that motivates across generational gaps. The critically acclaimed Netflix docuseries Five Came Back is a mesmerizing examination of our nation’s “why” before and during World War II through the lens of five prominent Hollywood directors. Their stories will leave you with a renewed sense of awe for the Greatest Generation.
Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything
In Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything, game designer and futurist Jane McGonigal challenges us to unstick our minds, think the unthinkable, and imagine the unimaginable.
Winning the Next War: Innovation and the Modern Military
As we continue to Accelerate Change to the Air Force our Nation needs, we must be mindful of organizational lessons from the past. Historical analysis allows us to synthesize patterns in the character of warfare and incorporate them into our future Air Force design through initiatives like Action Order D and the Operational Imperatives. In Winning the Next War: Innovation and the Modern Military, Stephen Rosen analyzes military and technological innovations during war and peacetime and offers prescriptions for managing uncertainty.
Royal United Services Institute's Building the Oceans Podcast - What's All the RAUKUS About? The View from Washington
The Air Force does not fight alone, nor do we deter alone. Last September, the United States co-signed a groundbreaking trilateral security pact alongside Australia and the United Kingdom called AUKUS, representing one of the most significant security agreements in a generation. Royal United Services Institute's Building the Oceans Podcast - What's All the RAUKUS About? The View from Washington illustrates the magnitude of this agreement and the enormous opportunity it presents for the Air Force to Integrate by Design with our Allies and Partners in enhanced and novel ways.
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
The concept of Multi-Capable Airmen represents a foundational change in how we think, fight, and empower our Airmen to operate amidst multi-domain challenges in an expeditionary environment. David Epstein brilliantly characterizes this philosophy in Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by emphasizing a formula of breadth, cognitive diversity, and generalized experience.
The Last Warrior: Andrew Marshall and the Shaping of Modern American Defense Strategy
The story of Andrew Marshall in The Last Warrior: Andrew Marshall and the Shaping of Modern American Defense Strategy is a profound account of a virtually unknown, yet brilliant strategic thinker who was enormously influential in shaping American military thought for nearly half a century. Today, Marshall’s hallmark methodology, the “Net Assessment,” remains an essential diagnostic framework for understanding strategic competition through the lenses of capabilities, challenges, and perceptions.
