Never Split The Difference by Chris Voss

 My Rating: 4.8

Life is a series of negotiations you should be prepared for: buying a car, negotiating a salary, buying a home, renegotiating rent, deliberating with your partner. Taking emotional intelligence and intuition to the next level, Never Split the Difference gives you the competitive edge in any discussion.

This was a business book but the audio version has a great narrator. We read it in 'chunks' which made it easier but it was somewhat dry. That being said, we have implemented some of the techniques and I can tell you that THEY WORK!

Team of Teams by Stanley McChrystal

 My Rating: 4.9

When General Stanley McChrystal took the helm in 2004, America was losing that war badly: despite vastly inferior resources and technology, Al Qaeda was outmaneuvering America’s most elite warriors. McChrystal came to realize that today’s faster, more interdependent world had overwhelmed the conventional, top-down hierarchy of the US military. Al Qaeda had seen the future: a decentralized network that could move quickly and strike ruthlessly. To defeat such an enemy, JSOC would have to discard a century of management wisdom, and pivot from a pursuit of mechanical efficiency to organic adaptability.

I didn't want to read this book as I don't enjoy non-fiction books, I don't like business books and I expected it to be dry and boring. That being said, I really enjoyed it. I loved all of the background he gave as to how/why things came to be - in the military as well as in business organizations - and why it is outdated. It left me feeling very empowered.