Stanley McChrystal > Quotes

“The temptation to lead as a chess master, controlling each move of the organization, must give way to an approach as a gardener, enabling rather than directing. A gardening approach to leadership is anything but passive. The leader acts as an “Eyes-On, Hands-Off” enabler who creates and maintains an ecosystem in which the organization operates.”
― Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“Purpose affirms trust, trust affirms purpose, and together they forge individuals into a working team.”
― Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“There’s likely a place in paradise for people who tried hard, but what really matters is succeeding. If that requires you to change, that’s your mission.”
― General Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“I would tell my staff about the “dinosaur’s tail”: As a leader grows more senior, his bulk and tail become huge, but like the brontosaurus, his brain remains modestly small. When plans are changed and the huge beast turns, its tail often thoughtlessly knocks over people and things. That the destruction was unintentional doesn’t make it any better.”
― Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“The crew’s attachment to procedure instead of purpose offers a clear example of the dangers of prizing efficiency over adaptability.”
― Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“A leader’s words matter, but actions ultimately do more to reinforce or undermine the implementation of a team of teams. Instead of exploiting technology to monitor employee performance at levels that would have warmed Frederick Taylor’s heart, the leader must allow team members to monitor him. More than directing, leaders must exhibit personal transparency. This is the new ideal.”
― Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right thing.”
― Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“Efficiency remains important, but the ability to adapt to complexity and continual change has become an imperative.”
― Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“Education is resilient, training is robust.”
― Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“describe resilience as “the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and still retain its basic function and structure.”
― Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“There’s a temptation for all of us to blame failures on factors outside our control: “the enemy was ten feet tall,” “we weren’t treated fairly,” or “it was an impossible task to begin with.” There is also comfort in “doubling down” on proven processes, regardless of their efficacy. Few of us are criticized if we faithfully do what has worked many times before. But feeling comfortable or dodging criticism should not be our measure of success. There’s likely a place in paradise for people who tried hard, but what really matters is succeeding. If that requires you to change, that’s your mission.”
― Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“Our actions, particularly interventions, can upset regions, nations, cultures, economies, and peoples, however virtuous our purpose. We must ensure that the cure we offer through intervention is not worse than the disease.”
― Stanley McChrystal

“Eventually a rule of thumb emerged: “If something supports our effort, as long as it is not immoral or illegal,” you could do it. Soon, I found that the question I most often asked my force was “What do you need?” We decentralized until it made us uncomfortable, and it was right there—on the brink of instability—that we found our sweet spot.”
― Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“You can’t roll up your sleeves while you’re wringing your hands,”
― Stanley McChrystal, My Share of the Task: A Memoir

“Organizations must be networked, not siloed, in order to succeed.”
― Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“We do these things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
― Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“Today’s rapidly changing world, marked by increased speed and dense interdependencies, means that organizations everywhere are now facing dizzying challenges, from global terrorism to health epidemics to supply chain disruption to game-changing technologies. These issues can be solved only by creating sustained organizational adaptability through the establishment of a team of teams.”
― General Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“Success is rarely the work of a single leader; leaders work best in partnership with other leaders.”
― Stanley McChrystal, My Share of the Task: A Memoir

“In popular culture, the term “butterfly effect” is almost always misused. It has become synonymous with “leverage”—the idea of a small thing that has a big impact, with the implication that, like a lever, it can be manipulated to a desired end. This misses the point of Lorenz’s insight. The reality is that small things in a complex system may have no effect or a massive one, and it is virtually impossible to know which will turn out to be the case.”
― Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“Setting oneself on a predetermined course in unknown waters is the perfect way to sail straight into an iceberg.”
― Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“fuse generalized awareness with specialized expertise.”
― Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“As Mark Twain was supposed to have mused: “What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.”
― Stanley McChrystal, On Character: Choices That Define a Life

“the rules and limitations that once prevented accidents now prevented creativity.”
― Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“If I told you that you weren’t going home until we win—what would you do differently?”
― Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“The teacher who awakens and encourages in students a sense of possibility and responsibility is, to me, the ultimate leader.”
― Stanley McChrystal, My Share of the Task: A Memoir

“Building holistic awareness and forcing interaction will align purpose and create a more cohesive force, but will not unleash the full potential of the organization. Maintain this system for too long without decentralizing authority, and whatever morale gains were made will be reversed as people become frustrated with their inability to act on their new insights. Just as empowerment without sharing fails, so does sharing without empowerment.”
― Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“Today, a staggering 93 percent of those who work in cubicles say that they would prefer a different workspace.”
― Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

“As the demands of the positions differed, and as I grew in age and experience, I found that I had changed as a leader. I learned to ask myself two questions: First, what must the organization I command do and be? And second, how can I best command to achieve that?”
― Stanley McChrystal, My Share of the Task: A Memoir

“In a leader I see it as doing those things that should be done, even when they are unpleasant, inconvenient, or dangerous; and refraining from those that shouldn’t, even when they are pleasant, easy, or safe.”
― Stanley McChrystal, My Share of the Task: A Memoir

“sharing information would help build relationships and the two together would kindle a new, coherent, adaptive entity that could win the fight.”
― Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World