I highly recommend that you read Obama’s Seven Lessons for Radical Innovators. Written by Umair Haque, it is a truly astute look at the organizational excellence of the Obama team. Haque identifies seven areas of performance where the Obama organization excelled:

• The Obama organization was self-organizing: Though disciplined and structured they had an extended organization that created opportunities for growth and wealth generation without the need for direction.
• The organization was highly elastic and resilient: I would say it was, at times, downright aiki. When attacked by the McCain camp, it used the attack to generate positive value and wealth generation.
• They minimized “strategy”: Rather than the cunningness or cleverness that often comes with strategy (especially political strategy) they let principles, meaning and hope lead the way.
• They maximized purpose: (I love this quote) “yesterday, we built huge corporations to do tiny, incremental things - tomorrow, we must build small organizations that can do tremendously massive things.”
• The Obama team unified markets: Forget demographic segmentation. Embrace demographic unification. Simply, stand for hope.
• Obama wields thick power: The Bush administration wielded the coercive power of fear. Thick power leverages the capacity to create inspire, lead and empower
• Obama understands the asymmetrical power of ideals: Competitive advantage assumes you’re playing by the same 20th century rules. (Here comes another great quote!) “In the 21st century, there is nothing more asymmetrical - more disruptive, more revolutionary, or more innovative — than the world-changing power of an ideal.” 

That’s the short of it. Now go and read the article and decide what you think. 

FYI: An interview with McCain last August had him saying that the winner of the election and his team will be praised as brilliant strategists and a great high performance team. While the loser, McCain said, will be recriminated for having a dysfunctional, ineffective strategy and team.

Read more on The Capacity Evolution blog which I also write