Risk: A User's Guide

by Stanley McChrystal

"Retired four-star general Stan McChrystal has lived a life associated with the deadly risks of combat. From his first day at West Point, to his years in Afghanistan, to his efforts helping business leaders navigate a global pandemic, McChrystal has seen how individuals and organizations fail to mitigate risk. Why? Because they focus on the probability of something happening instead of the interface by which it can be managed. In this new book, General McChrystal offers a battle-tested system for detecting and responding to risk. Instead of defining risk as a force to predict, McChrystal and coauthor Anna Butrico show that there are in fact ten dimensions of control we can adjust at any given time. By closely monitoring these controls, we can maintain a healthy Risk Immune System that allows us to effectively anticipate, identify, analyze, and act upon the ever-present possibility that things will not go as planned. Drawing on examples ranging from military history to the business world, and offering practical exercises to improve preparedness, McChrystal illustrates how these ten factors are always in effect, and how by considering them, individuals and organizations can exert mastery over every conceivable sort of risk that they might face. We may not be able to see the future, but with McChrystal's hard-won guidance, we can improve our resistance and build a strong defense against what we know-and what we don't"--

Genres: Business, Leadership, Nonfiction, Management, Military Fiction, Psychology, Economics

366 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 5, 2021

About the author

Stanley Allen McChrystal (born August 14, 1954) is a retired United States Army General. His last assignment was as Commander, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A). He previously served as Director, Joint Staff from August 2008 to June 2009 and as Commander, Joint Special Operations Command from 2003 to 2008, where he was credited with the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, but also criticized for his alleged role in the cover-up of the Pat Tillman friendly fire incident. McChrystal was reportedly known for saying and thinking what other military leaders were afraid to; this was one of the reasons cited for his appointment to lead all forces in Afghanistan. He held the post from June 15, 2009, to June 23, 2010.

Following unflattering remarks about Vice President Joe Biden and other administration officials attributed to McChrystal and his aides in a Rolling Stone article, McChrystal was recalled to Washington, D.C., where President Barack Obama accepted his resignation as commander in Afghanistan. His command of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan was immediately assumed by the deputy commander, British General Sir Nicholas "Nick" Parker, pending the confirmation of a replacement. Obama named General David Petraeus as McChrystal's replacement; Petraeus was confirmed by the Senate and officially assumed command on June 30. Days after being relieved of his duties in Afghanistan, McChrystal announced his retirement.

In 2010, after leaving the Army, McChrystal joined Yale University as a Jackson Institute for Global Affairs senior fellow. He teaches a course entitled "Leadership," a graduate-level seminar with some spots reserved for undergraduates. The course received 250 applications for 20 spots in 2011 and is being taught for a third time in 2013.

McChrystal co-founded and is a partner at the McChrystal Group LLC, an Alexandria, Virginia-based consulting firm.

McChrystal's memoir, My Share of the Task, published by Portfolio of the Penguin Group, was released on January 7, 2013. The autobiography had been scheduled to be released in November 2012, but was delayed due to security clearance approvals required from the Department of Defense.

McChrystal is the son of Mary Gardner Bright and Major General Herbert J. McChrystal, Jr., and was the fourth child in a family of five boys and a girl, all of whom would serve in the military or marry military spouses. His older brother, Colonel Scott McChrystal, is a retired Army chaplain, and is the endorsing agent for the Assemblies of God.

McChrystal married his wife Annie in April 1977, and the couple has one adult son, Sam.

Reviews

[Kathleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I looked back on my review of One Mission - Stanley McChrystal's sequel to Team of Teams with Chris Fussell - as a benchmark for my impressions of this book. And despite having great anecdotes, both books struggle under the weight of too much upfront theory before delivering the practical insights that the average business reader is looking for.

For Risk, that theoretical framework comes in the form of 11 risk control factors, which are broadly defined and not mutually exclusive. I feel like the human brain can only handle a framework with a maximum of 5-6 dimensions, so an editor could have encouraged more precision or consolidation. Communication is the only discipline whose critical effect on the other risk factors is explicitly defined, which is in itself a sensible and useful insight about risk. I actually wondered why the book wasn't instead structured around the "Detect - Assess - Respond - Learn" framework; four parts, all action-oriented, mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive, and equally appropriate for relevant anecdotes and practical examples. I noticed that the McChrystal Group now runs a podcast, "No Turning Back"... if you have a broad, nebulous, and somewhat unwieldy theory of how to manage risk, why not explore it organically through a series of podcast episodes than try to contain it formally within a book?

To its credit, Risk does include colorful historical episodes and personal anecdotes of McChrystal's to illustrate each risk dimension in action, which help to spice up the otherwise textbook-esque tone of Part Two. But what was most interesting to me and got the short end of the narrative stick were examples of how the featured regional airline, FlyVA, implemented each of the 11 (yes, also 11) solution exercises to better identify and adjust the risk control factors. What those examples do that snippets of history do not is illustrate how the theory can be applied in practice, especially by organizations that are not going to war in the traditional sense. I got the same sense of relief in the back third of One Mission when the focus shifted to case studies of how Intuit, Under Armour, and Medstar had applied the theory in different ways to affect results within their businesses.

There's an important philosophical current throughout Risk that is captured well in the opening chapters: "While there's little we can do to avoid or eliminate many of the threats we encounter in daily life, our ability to effectively defend against external risks is something we can control." I agree its empowering to establish risk, rather than something external to be avoided, as something that can be internally managed through introspection and diligent preparation. I just don't think an 11-part risk control framework with 11 various treatments proves a very particularly actionable tool for simplifying that task.

Thank you to the McChrystal Group for providing an advance copy of this book for review.

[Rishabh Srivastava · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was expecting something packed with ideas (like the author's Team of Teams), but was left disappointed. Some interesting points – but this seems like it's written more for middle managers than for org designers

Key takeaways were:
- The components of risk are threat (external) and vulnerability (internal). Threats are often hard to control, but vulnerabilities are somewhat in your control

- Communication risk: if a system is blinking red, but is doing so on several different dashboards each of which has many flashing lights, it's hard to detect danger

- Narrative risk: narrative misalignment among stakeholders can cause existential risks. Symptoms include cynicism among team-members, the say-do gap, and muddle priorities

- Structural risk: offloading responsibility can cause moral hazards. For example: having a Chief Risk Officer can make individual traders think that worrying about their risk is not their job

- It's hard to avoid common information-sampling biases: spending energy and time on information that everyone already knows than information that is new and could be helpful

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a little puzzled by this book. I was expecting something more hard-hitting; the book is obviously timely because of recent catastrophes that might have taken more responsible risk-based approaches (such as the COVID-19 response). It's split into three parts, the first going over risk generally, the second describing a number of dimensions that can help to build up a "risk immune system" that makes systems more impervious to disaster; and then the third provides exercises that will test the risk immune system and possibly make it stronger. From what I can tell, the book makes very little reference to existing books on risk, and tends to make up its own terms. So, on p. 10, risk is defined as "threat times vulnerability." Well, maybe, except that a lot of people define risk as likelihood times impact. In fact, on p. 20, he does exactly that, showing a graph with probability posed against consequences. I don't really like this definitional fuzziness; for me, the book would be sharper if embedded in already-known vocabulary (or at least cite it and then provide some arguments for the fuzziness). Maybe I'm missing something.

The chapters in Part are is pretty self-evident: E.g., it is risky to have poor communications. It is risky when we don't have a narrative to guide us (or have one can't live up to); it is risky when a company is not structured to understand what's going on. And so forth. There are some good bits here and there: For instance, McChrystal says that a major flaw during the 2008 economic meltdown was that executives didn't have the technical competence to understand what their risk officers were telling them about the frailty of investment banks: This could have been a whole chapter (I'm thinking about CEOs who don't understand technology, for instance). In most cases, McChrystal's examples are provocative: For instance, in the chapter on "Timing," he talks about how sometimes slowing down can speed you up -- the case regards Ferrari's suprising victory in a 1998 Formula 1 race.

The third part -- the solutions/exercises -- is pretty basic. If you've never heard the terms "tabletop exercise" or "war game" or "red teaming," you'll get some value here, but it's quite light. Many of these solutions are anchored by how a fictional airline deals with risk, but in some cases the examples are pretty phoned in -- for example, there's really nothing detailed on how this fictional airline would actually conduct red teaming.

In short, as an introduction: Not bad. As an intervention that might change minds about how to deal with risk, or provide very strong guidance on avoiding failure: Not as much going here as in, say, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World.

One last thing about the book. It's a little coy. The book should strew some blame: The federal government didn't take advantage of knowledge it had already painfully accumulated through tabletop and war game exercises regarding a pandemic: I.e., the subtext of McChrystal's book is that we ignore what he is saying at our own peril. But the book doesn't slam failing institutions as it might. For that, you should read the revelatory The Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy.

[Scott Wozniak · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was good, but not particularly insightful or original. The ways to deal with risk included things like a good leader ship, coordinate between different teams, make sure you have a diversity in your conversation, etc. there’s no new insight on risk itself. However, this book is full of stories from business and for the military. So if you want to get some good stories, this is a fun read. But the teaching around the stories was nothing special.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 8th principle of System Engineering says “sh*t happens to us, so identify and plan for risk.” (Paraphrased). Engineers use ROMP (Risk and Opportunity Management Processes) to address this concern. While we approach risk mathematically, in practice our response is more instinctive.

In Risk: A User’s Guide, Gen. McChrystal (former commander of JSOC) provides a general framework, describing how organizations can become more resilient to risks, incidents, threats, and opportunities. The book uses the term “Risk” to mean both “a potential threat or bad thing that might happen” and “a realized risk, incident or issue.” Using a biological metaphor, he calls the capacity to deal with risks the Risk Immune System. The Risk Immune System has the actions called Risk Control Factors (RCFs), which leaders can dial up or down as needed to detect, assess, respond, and learn. This is an excellent book with a new take on risk management. McChrystal provides excellent examples from military history, COVID-19, and city governance. I recommend this book.

[J. Scott Frampton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this audio book and recommend that venue. General Mac reads a little slow, so you may want to speed things up to X1.2 or even X1.5. It reads more like a “grandpa war story time” around the kitchen table, but the lessons are good. The voice of experience and insight are always welcome on my reading list.

[John Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A refreshing reminder about how to tackle risk for leaders of any type of organization. General (R) McChrystal knows a lot about the topic and applies his lessons learned in the military and in the civilian world to teach how to build your risk immune system and mitigate these problems before they arise.

[CHAD FOSTER · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is mostly a drawn-out articulation of the obvious with a just enough useful premises and interesting stories sprinkled throughout to keep the reader somewhat engaged. The narrative rambles, leaving one to question during long stretches of the text whether the book is really about “risk” at all. Instead, it feels more like a patchwork of generalized leadership anecdotes that are only loosely connected to the subject matter suggested by the title. The final chapter or two feels like a frantic rush to tie the previous pages together, as if the author suddenly realized, “Oh, this supposed to be about risk.”

Once you wade through it, the fundamental idea that leaders must focus on the resiliency of their organizations (meaning their adaptability, flexibility, and readiness to responders threats) is important. This notion suggests a more proactive approach that gets one away from the impossible task of predicting the future. Anticipating possible threats is still important, of course, but the intent of this book (I think) is to recalibrate leaders toward what they can impact directly (and daily) in preparing their organizations for future crisis.

For me, the concept of a “Risk Immune System” seems to serve little purpose beyond providing a (not very) catchy tagline. The “Risk Immune System” analogy feels like a last minute add-on to the narrative to ensure that it had something original or groundbreaking to offer - which, by and large, it does not.

I’ve read McChrystal’s other books, and while this is one of the better ones, it delivers little that can’t be found elsewhere in a more compelling form. I usually don’t care for books by “celebrity generals,” but giving this one a try won’t hurt, especially if you struggle with an organizational approach to dealing with risk. However, I suspect that even moderately experienced organizational leaders will find no game-changers here.

[Chad Manske · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having spent the better part of the latter half of my 30-year Air Force career as a strategist, and, being a fan of GEN (Ret) Stan McChrystal’s post-military transition and work, I was very excited to see the title of this book as it was coming out. Risk, as a component of strategy and strategic planning, is vital as it reconciles the ever-expensive requirements and appetites an organization has with the budgetary reality of its coffers. Yet, at a deeper level, the understanding of risk and science of ‘buying it down’ through the art of the numerous and methodical approaches outlined in this user’s guide will go a long way in conserving precious resources—whether they be people or monetary or other; as well as reducing, mitigating, or eliminating surprise and concern from the planning equation.
Risk is the perfect topic to discuss right now in these times we all find ourselves. As McChrystal (and co-author associate Butrico) note early on the work, the book was written during the pandemic when the world was fumbling with what to do about it, mitigate its spread, develop a vaccine, and respond to myriad other cascading events. Admittedly, he notes, after a military career in combat dealing with risks, many would think he has mastered the subject, yet just the opposite is true. The more he faced risk and dealt with it, in addition to observing how others dealt with similar risk under roughly similar circumstances, it struck him how so many divergent approaches were taken to deal with them—and it intrigued him.
Thus, he set about to understand it to manage it better. Not really a work on different types of risk—he qualifies—but an explanation of “the factors by which we can strengthen our ability to respond to risk, and how we can turn the dials up and down to make our responses more effective.”(xix) And while McChrystal could have simply catalogued and cast his military experiences throughout the entirety of the book (which might have been a bit self-incriminating in some circumstances), they constitute but a small portion. A big strength of the book is that it covers examples across military, government, civil society, and business—ensuring a broad and appealing applicability to numerous audiences. His thesis is tackled in three parts.
Part one constructs a paradigm around a concept he describes as a Risk Immune System. Part two builds on this foundation by introducing ten Risk Control Factors (communication, narrative, structure, technology, diversity, bias, action, timing, adaptability, and leadership) “in identifying, analyzing, and ultimately controlling risk.” (xxi). Part three takes these factors and offers proven tools and exercises through plausible scenarios with a fictitious airline—FlyVA—to tease out the germane takeaways. This is another strength of the book in that rather than telling stories and providing tools, the reader can visualize through the various scenarios how those tools are used, which is something of great comfort to readers unaccustomed to really managing and dealing with risk.
One of aspects of this book that makes it a page-turner you won’t want to put down is the breadth and variety of stories and how they are woven into the DNA of the thesis. For example, not only does McChrystal draw examples from Pearl Harbor, the 9/11 attacks, COVID 19, he talks about Apple, the Alamo, Boston’s Big Dig, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Google, Hurricane Katrina, Microsoft, pandemics writ large, Operation Eagle Claw, Overstock.com, Ponzi schemes, China, Russia, Greta Thunberg, the World Wars, military services, and of course, special operations—just to name a handful! With uncanny pertinence, McChrystal weaves many of these topics throughout, applying the various tools to them in different circumstances such that the reader can evaluate them through multiple lenses.
Ultimately, in this reviewer’s humble estimation the thesis is supported. McChrystal narrowly defines his task and delivers a very readable and practical guide for all to better understand and deal with risk. Buying-down and understanding this risk whether it be when lives are at stake, or whether profit and loss is on the line, or whether organizational reputation hangs in the balance—the authors show readers that despite the greatest risk to us, is us, if we understand the inputs and factors inherent in a given situation, we can apply tools and measures and not be surprised by outcomes we wish to avoid, but can rather roll with them because of sufficiently adept planning and forethought.
However, there is a big elephant in the room that is neither addressed in this book, nor considered in passing. And so, for a reader—all readers--who should consider the context for why they might want to read a book should first reflect on what credibility an author has in writing it. The elephant is the author’s own error of developing and signing off on an unrealistic strategy for Afghanistan that flew in the face of certainty his troops faced on the ground. Risk, and a bit of hubris, conspired to create battlefield outcomes that led to the deaths of the likes of Pat Tillman. But of greater un-mention are colossal strategic shortcomings leading to the unfortunate deaths of numerous civilians—some even bordering on war crimes.
As well, the book is chock full of platitudinous bromides sprinkled liberally throughout, diluting the meaning behind many exceptional suggestions and useful tools. Readers see right through this filler. However, if these kinds of issues don’t knock your conscience and you can separate them from the pure content of the book, I think you will find it most useful. No stone has really been left unturned in that pursuit. And yet, I am still troubled a bit in that as a commander at the highest levels he personally risked nothing while enabling stalemate at best on the battlefield, if not contributing to losses on a grand scale.

[Oliver Fader · Rating 1 out of 5]

General McChrystal has some great books but this one does not live up to the previous ones. It seemed rushed and scattered. A first draft (of the concept) at best. The man led one of the most productive Task Forces “machine of war” with JSOC and was faced with a lot of political/social variables running ISAF - yet with that trove of examples to call upon - he uses FlyVa as the primary structure to articulate examples of principles being implemented? Really tough to give this a single star but if this was a movie project it would barely make it to home release. Very unpolished. Like a recording artist putting out a less than stellar release just to meet their label contract. Hopefully his next book is better. All that said - much respect and gratitude to General McChrystal for his service and sacrifice!🇺🇸♠️

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

From the man who charged in Afghanistan a few hundred kilometers behind the lines, here comes a book about risk. The man who lost the war in Afghanistan, and helped many Americans die, as well as countless local civilians, now has an excellent pension and good speaking arrangements, how's that about risk management?

[Gregory Cornelius · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you only have time to read one of Stan McChrystal’s books, opt for Team of Teams.

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very basic exploration of risk that remains at the surface level and doesn't introduce new ideas in the discipline. Largely, it warns against hindsight bias and then spends the bulk of the book looking back at real examples where warnings were ignored. You're left with a general sense of "if so-and-so had only acted sooner..." which is often true, but unhelpful without a corresponding discussion of the tradeoffs involved and something the General should be quite familiar with ... the fog of war.

The good: McChrystal invites us to "operationalize" our risk response muscles, which he dubs our "risk immune system." That's true -- it's far better to develop internal capabilities that will weather multiple types of risks than to hyper-focus on one single risk that may or may not develop. He also skims some exercises in the final chapter that serve as a basic checklist for organizations that may over-rely on one or another.

But certainly McChrystal has a lot more to say on risk than is written here. Instead of writing about his experiences of risk, uncertainty, and lessons learned, he second guesses decisions he wasn't part of, with a corresponding recommendation of what he would've done differently.

There are many books that better address what he tried to cover here. For general stories of situations gone wrong, instead read "Meltdown" by Clearfield and Tilcsik; for a discussion of decision making, instead read "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Kahneman; for a better book on how not to fool yourself, read "The Scout Mindset" by Galef.

[Begum · Rating 3 out of 5]

“While there’s little we can do to avoid or eliminate many of the threats we encounter in daily life, our ability to effectively defend against external risks is something we can control.”
•
Leadership, teamwork, and communication are essential competencies for the surgeon. It remains, however, difficult to define in a single way what it takes to be a good leader, as it is highly context dependent and different appropriate leadership styles exist. Still, some factors seem to be characteristic such as the ability to handle and mitigate risk.
•
In his book “Risk”, Stanley McChrystal, a retired United States Army General, draws upon his military experience to shed light on how leaders can navigate through complex and unpredictable environments. Risk is an inherent aspect of progress and innovation, and plays a key role in decision-making, adaptability, and resilience in the face of adversity. While McChrystal’s experiences are rooted in the military world, he translates different lessons into principles that also apply to leadership across government, civil society, and the corporate world. He proposes a theoretical framework in the form of 11 so-called “Risk Control Factors” that need to be taken into account by any organisation in order to limit adverse outcomes.
•
The book remains a bit superficial and I actually hoped for more detail on how leadership is taught and exercised within the military, especially in high-stress environments.

[Fivequotebookchallenge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Risk has many negative connotations often viewed in terms of what can go wrong, but risk can be positive. Risk is the uncertainty of outcomes. Good performance does not always result in good outcomes whether due to internal or external factors and therein lies the risk. The book highlights the need to control those risks which we can and have plans to respond to respond to those we cannot, advocating a proactive rather than reactive response.

The book follows a similar model as other books written around the formalisation of risk management approached in responses to past crisises. It takes it one step further directly prompting the reader to reflect on their own situation; questioning whether they are effectively managing their own risks. So in that sense it is very much a reference book and tool to be used.

Risk management is inate to the human experience, being as mundate as to whether to cross the road against a red no crossing signal or wait till it changes to green. What is new is the formalisation of risk management practices by organisations which is seeing greater risk awareness. The trap will be whether the breadth of awareness erodes quality practices as more people become involved.

Recommended business leaders and risk management staff.

Rating: 3.4 / 5

@fivequotebookchallenge

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very effective. It made me consider risk on my teams in a new way. First, that managing risk is not just something relegated to risk managers, but to all managers who want to be successful. And yet, as I looked at how my teams have worked, risk assessments have not been part of the planning process nearly enough. Too many approaches to risk are relegated to creating matrices of risk probability and consequence and an analysis that is far removed from the practicalities.

General McChrystal offers insightful and practical advice. He's not avoiding risk or sacrificing opportunity in favor of placid security. He's suggesting on every page that we think of risk in terms of preparing and practicing how to handle negative events and repeating that with experience so that we become experts in crisis.

He gives very useful tools and scenarios and demonstrates how they were (or sadly could have been) applied to well-known situations in history, from COVID to 9-11 to Hurricane Katrina and down to board rooms and situation rooms for companies and organizations.

Reading the book feels like having taken a class and I anticipate returning to my notes in the future.

[Jim Vaughn · Rating 1 out of 5]

The primary risk that Gen McChrystal failed to assess here was signing his name to the efforts of this book’s coauthor and editor. Was this their very first book? The content, structure and objectives were a shambles. “ At the end of the day…”. Really? As the book proceeded, it worsened. Virtually all chapters seemed stretched or repetitive - possibly the author has exhausted his book-worthy wisdom in his earlier efforts? The content was slim - and - the literary mechanics of this book were not good. Yikes.

McChrystal might be admirable for his service, his character and/or his intentions for writing this book - but there is nothing to admire here. The lone pearl of helpfulness appeared early:

Threat x Vulnerability = Risk

I’ll remember that - but I wish I’d have stopped there. Indeed - if it would be possible, I’d accept a refund on the price of this book…and I regret even more the loss of time I spent hoping this might improve…it didn’t.

What a colossal disappointment.

[Ell, Ess Jaeva · Rating 1 out of 5]

dnf-29% in, this chapter opens with Lehman Brothers failing b/c of all it's risky failed investments. LB risk mgt was obviously ish. This final disinformation was all i could bear. Precluded by propaganda being Hitler speeches, while forming a positive rallying narrative being the Alamo defense and "Army Strong" marketing. History showing that the Alamo narrative, compared to the historical evidence, and military marketing is also probably propaganda.

Many of the larger investment banks had risky failed investments. However, only LB failed outright, due to not getting a gov bailout like it's peers. Why?!? No one has publicly disclosed decision receipts. But it had piss to do with their risk mgt strategies concerning equities.

McChrystal provides no depth of analysis into the nuances. This risk guide is for those who get all their news from mostly right leaning tweets of the "story". History from a 'Merca perspective, right/wrong through an anti-revisionist gaze. 1/3 in and I have trouble understanding his point, knowing more about his examples than the drivel he's spewing.

[Jonathan · Rating 1 out of 5]

2/10

I don't think it's an overstatement to say that there is nothing useful in this book.

“You can’t live life in a spreadsheet.” Watch me.

It seems like McChrystal sat down with his publisher, who while pushing for a new book, settled on the idea of risk. McChrystal, having never really thought about it before, convinces himself that he knows enough to write a whole book. How hard can it be, give a couple canned definitions, some personal anecdotes, quote better peoples works, and viola, you have a book. The publisher must have been thrilled to recieve the completed book a week later, and McChrystal was hopefully happy to have it finished with so little of the risk he claims to know about.



Don't take risks, try to acquire information before making decisions, control what we can. That's the book.

“Here’s an analogy even an infantrymen could understand” what a jerk.

[David Knapp · Rating 3 out of 5]

General Stanley McChrystal is one of my favorite nonfiction authors. I've read and enjoyed his "Leaders: Myth and Reality" and - especially - "Team of Teams."

This latest work, coauthored by Anna Butrico, started off as enjoyable as those two works. But I found that it dragged a little as it went on. I was especially disappointed with Part Three: Strengthening the System, in which McChrystal and Butrico applied the content of the first two Parts. It just wasn't the application I was hoping for in terms of content and readability.

Still, I learned a lot about risk and risk management by reading this book. (I'm especially intrigued by Fusion Cells and want to do more research on them as tool for managing systems.) And I'm looking forward to hearing McChrystal speak at CU Boulder on Monday, February 28. I just wish this work had been as engaging as his prior books.

[Tian Foo Chou · Rating 3 out of 5]

"If three people are responsible for feeding the dogs - the dog is going to starve." - Major John Vines

Communication - Failure to transmit, failure to receive, lack of a pathway, misunderstood msg, overloaded comm, distorted/corrupted msg, intentional misinformation
Narrative - Cynicism, "Say-Do" Gap, Muddled Priorities, Tensions, Brand Damage
Structure
Technology - Unintended/Unknown Dependence, Vulnerability to Interruption, Uninteded Consequence, Speed Kills
Diversity
Bias - Common Information Sampling Bias, Confirmation Bias, Halo Effect, Status Quo Bias, Hindsight Bias, Plan-Continuation Bias, Ingroup Bias
Action (inertia) - reactive posture, contradictory effort
Timing - Hurry up and wait, Undercooked Cake, Jumping the Gun, Too little - too late, Creating more Work
Adaptability
Leadership

[Avi Poje · Rating 5 out of 5]

I try not to be impressed with military l adders thanking about leadership just because they’re tough guys. In this case, McChrystal’s impressive resume comes with real-world knowledge of assessing risk, so it’s worth paying attention to.

I find it interesting that the Project Management Institute considers risk as a neutral term—composed of threats and opportunities. McChrystal approached the word with a more traditional risk equals threat attitude. Risk is to be mitigated, not balanced with opportunity.

On the other hand, the advice he gave was solid and I think I can apply the general techniques on my job. I might need to think about the principles some more before they’ll become practical.

I loved the story of him throwing the portrait of General Lee in the trash after long consideration. That was the turning point for me liking him as a person.

[Fran Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

General Stanley McChrystal has written another excellent book. He addresses how individuals and organizations fail to mitigate risk because they focus on the probability of something happening instead of on how it can managed. He shows us ten dimensions of control that can be used to anticipate, identify, analyze, and act upon the possibility that things won't go as planned. He uses interesting examples from history and business and gives us realistic tools to improve resistance and build a strong defense. It is well written and presented in an easily read manner. I can't recommend this enough.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Risk is something that we all encounter and all must deal with. Are we as prepared as we should and could be?

Why I started this book: Enjoyed other McChrystal's books and so I put myself in the long line of holds at the library.

Why I finished it: Quick read... with an intriguing question at the beginning. Are we doing all that we can to mitigate the risks that we take as individuals, companies and nations? Too bad that book meandered from antidote to antidote instead staying focused on minimizing and understanding what controls and risks are worthwhile and which ones are just foolhardy.

[Bruce Lyman · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are lots of books on Risk but this one provides an engaging framework as a new way of thinking about risk. It's perhaps a little too convenient that the framework attempts to mimic the human immune system - McChrystal creates a Risk Immune System. Despite being suspicious about the general riding marketing waves it's quite a useful way to think about risk and it certainly avoids the boring mechanics of risk management design. A test of this sort of reference book is whether you can read it from cover to cover or whether you simply cherry pick the best bits or the most relevant bits. I read this cover to cover, possibly helped by being trapped in a 787-9 for 13 hours.

[Matt Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

I generally enjoy McChrystal’s books, and this one was no exception. I picked it up for some professional reading and really liked it.

This book was less technical than I expected. It isn’t so much about the nuts and bolts of handling risk, but more about examples and case studies about understanding risks.

There are lots of military and corporate examples and anecdotes that the authors use to share some concepts. They convey the principles and make the book move along more quickly.

This will certainly be a staple of professional reading lists for the next few years.

[Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read about risk. I did the audio book but will buy a hard copy for the list in the final chapter of ways to assess risk and seek mitigating actions. Although the caviats are military centric he does provide some good business case studies that articulate how risk has been assessed and then ignored to the parel of the company and consumer. COVID plays into the narrative and it is very interesting. Recommended for my planner and business friends.

[Jon Douglas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly a collection of college-level lessons about risk. I was hopeful to learn from the author’s experience and not just popular stories on risk that everybody knows. This book has so much potential that was cut a bit short with “lessons learned” about COVID-19 when it’s been too short to learn anything meaningful about risk from. I did enjoy the philosophy of leadership and the characteristics of risk. The symptoms chapter was very dry and felt like it belonged in another book entirely.

[Rogelio Martinez II · Rating 5 out of 5]

Risk - Don’t Fear it, Understand it, and Own it.

Excellent book - discussing Risk from a leadership and organizational perspective. Provides realistic ways to operationalize the concepts discussed in a way that allows the reader to create actionable actions when considering Risk.

Although I have never meet the author this book definitely makes me want to meet them in order to continue to gain further invaluable knowledge.

[Caleb McCary · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book has some solid points and illustrations. The biggest weakness is that so much of it was written using examples of responses to COVID-19 and, even since the book was released, consensus and opinion has continued to shift. Had the authors primarily used events a bit older, or not rooted in the pandemic response, the book might age better. As it stands, it is so dependent on a snapshot in time understanding of the COVID response that it may not stand up to historical scrutiny.