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[Encore release] General Stanley McChrystal was born into a military family: three generations of men in his family were officers in the armed forces. He followed the family tradition and eventually rose up the ranks to become a General in the Army. While serving as the commander of Allied Forces in Afghanistan in 2010, he was forced to resign after he was quoted making disparaging remarks about President Obama. It was in the wake of this moment that General McChrystal learned the full value of leadership. In this conversation from 2020, the General reflects on the very specific lessons of leadership he learned, and evolved, throughout his time of military service.
Retired General Stanley McChrystal has made a name for himself in business after applying his military expertise to the world of leadership. He is joined on the Aspire to Inspire Podcast by Staffbase Chief Revenue Officer Dan Farkas to explore his leadership insights drawn from over three decades of military service and 14 years in leadership consulting. General McChrystal served as the Commander of U.S. and International Forces in Afghanistan and the Leader of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) before retiring from the military and taking his team-building acumen to the business world. Discover how lessons from elite military teams can be applied to drive success in business today, as well as the challenges of risk management in a rapidly changing world and how to balance innovation with caution when leveraging AI.
In this episode, Carlos interviews General Stanley McChrystal, a distinguished military leader with 34 years of experience commanding at a four-star level, including significant roles in Iraq and Afghanistan. They discuss General McChrystal's career, including his extensive awards like the Defense Distinguished Service Medal. General McChrystal shares his post-military endeavors, including founding the McChrystal Group and teaching leadership at Yale. The conversation delves into General McChrystal's books, particularly 'Leaders' and 'Team of Teams', exploring how writing these books shaped his views on leadership. Key themes include: - understanding the complexities of leadership; - the interplay between leaders, followers, and context, - and the role of character and self-discipline in effective leadership. The episode also covers practical insights on managing and transforming organizational cultures. General McChrystal shares personal anecdotes and reflections on leadership mistakes, personal development, and mentoring. 00:00 Introducing General Stan McChrystal 01:26 General McChrystal's Career Evolution and Achievements 01:48 Discussion on Leadership 07:15 The Three Myths of Leadership 09:58 The Role of Followers and Breaking the Cycle 13:15 Leadership Evolution and Organizational Dynamics 16:58 Challenges in Leadership and Adaptability 20:52 Team Dynamics in Startups and Large Organizations 23:40 Adapting Leadership Styles and Overcoming Mistakes 30:09 Commander's Dilemma: Vehicle Maintenance and Leadership Challenges 31:48 Leadership in Counter-Terrorism Operations 32:35 The Importance of Character in Leadership 35:42 Defining and Reflecting on Character 39:43 Personal Development and Daily Routines 45:26 Mentorship and Learning from Mistakes 55:54 Military Traditions and Cultural Questions 57:37 Conclusion and Final Thoughts Show Notes: General Stan McChrystal - linkedin.com/in/stanmcchrystal Carlos Espinal - linkedin.com/in/carloseduardoespinal mcchrystalgroup.com seedcamp.com General McCrysyal's books - mcchrystalgroup.com/about/books
Many leaders believe this is the key to becoming fully immune to all future risks—but evading risk forever is just unrealistic. Risk plays a big part in commercial real estate. To thrive, it's crucial to adopt a proactive approach to manage risks effectively. So how can commercial real estate investors thrive in a time of such incredible volatility, change and blindness? How do we thrive amid constant uncertainty and exposure to risk? On this new episode of the AFIRE Podcast, AFIRE CEO Gunnar Branson sits down with General Stan McChrystal (Ret.), CEO and Chairman of the McChrystal Group, to discuss the risks facing investors during this time of heightened uncertainty in commercial real estate. As a retired four-star general in the US Army, General McChrystal translates his military training to educate leaders in commercial real estate on how to employ a proactive approach to managing risks instead of steering clear of possible failures. There's this “unwillingness to be realistic about risk,” says McChrystal. “As a consequence, when you try to mitigate risk to zero, it takes so long that you've priced yourself out of the option.” In this riveting conversation about risk, General McChrystal walks us through what's considered effective communication, how avoiding mistakes amounts to the first blunder, and how to fight back against our inclination to avoid risk. https://www.afire.org/podcast/202403cast
Join us for an insightful conversation on ambition, grit, and resilience with General Stanley McChrystal, as he shares valuable lessons from his distinguished military career and transition to civilian life. From facing adversity on the battlefield to navigating the challenges of entrepreneurship, General McChrystal offers profound insights into cultivating a culture of perseverance and teamwork. Don't miss this engaging episode of "Ambition & Grit" hosted by Dave Liniger.==========================Connect with Dave:===========================Website ➡︎ https://daveliniger.comFacebook ➡︎ https://facebook.com/DaveLLinigerLinkedIn ➡︎ https://linkedin.com/company/davelinigerofficial/Instagram ➡︎ https://instagram.com/davelinigerofficial/
Bio Brant Cooper is The New York Times bestselling author of The Lean Entrepreneur and his new popular book Disruption Proof. He is the CEO and founder of Moves the Needle. He is a trusted adviser to startups and large enterprises around the world. With more than 25 years of expertise in changing industrial age mindset into digital age opportunity, he blends agile, human-centered design, and lean methodologies to ignite entrepreneurial action from the front lines to the C-suite. As a sought-after keynote speaker, startup mentor, and executive advisor, he travels the globe sharing his vision for reimagining 21st century organizations. Bringing agility, digital transformation, and a focus on creating value for customers, he helps leaders navigate the uncertainty brought on by increased complexity and endless disruption. Interview Highlights 01:30 Background 03:40 First startup 05:30 Learning from failure 06:50 The Lean Entrepreneur 07:30 Empowering employees 15:40 Learning through observation 19:00 Disruptions 22:00 Output vs Outcome 30:45 Working in teams 35:30 Aligning priorities 41:00 Disruption Proof 52:00 Take risks Social Media · LinkedIn: Brant Cooper · X/Twitter: @brantcooper · Email: brant@brantcooper.com · Website: www.brantcooper.com · Website: www.movestheneedle.com · YouTube: Brant Cooper Books & Resources · Disruption Proof: Empower People, Create Value, Drive Change, Brant Cooper · The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development: A cheat sheet to The Four Steps to the Epiphany, Brant Cooper · The Lean Entrepreneur: How Visionaries Create Products, Innovate with New Ventures, and Disrupt Markets, Brant Cooper, Patrick Vlaskovits, Eric Ries · The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development: A cheat sheet to The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Brant Cooper, Patrick Vlaskovits · Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts, Brené Brown, Brené Brown · Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, General Stanley McChrystal Episode Transcript Intro: Hello and welcome to the Agile Innovation Leaders podcast. I'm Ula Ojiaku. On this podcast I speak with world-class leaders and doers about themselves and a variety of topics spanning Agile, Lean Innovation, Business, Leadership and much more – with actionable takeaways for you the listener. Ula Ojiaku So I have with me Brant Cooper, who is the author of the books Lean Entrepreneur and his latest one, Disruption Proof: Empower People, Create Value, Drive Change. He also is the CEO and Founder of Moves the Needle. Brant, it is a pleasure and an honour to have you as my guest on the Agile Innovation Leaders Podcast. Brant Cooper Thank you so much for having me. I'm glad to be here. Ula Ojiaku Now Brant, as I start with all my guests, we want to know a bit more about you. So could you tell us about yourself growing up, your background, are there any experiences that have made a great impact on you that have led to you becoming the Brant we see today? Brant Cooper Yeah, so born and mostly raised in California, which seems to be somewhat unique these days, but also did travel around a bit. My dad was a Navy man. I don't know, I guess I was always a little bit different. I think a lot of us describe ourselves that way, but when I went away to school for college, most people were focusing on one major or maybe two majors because that was sort of the state of the world. It's kind of, this is a little while ago, but supposedly what you needed to do is go and get narrow expertise and then that was what was going to launch your career. But to me, that was boring. And so I wanted to take a little bit of everything. So chemistry and calculus and sociology and psychology and history and creative writing and literature. So I was sort of all over the map and I guess it's kind of funny, you can look back on your life and find these little threads that weave through everything. When I left college and got my first job, I remember specifically, I was in Washington, D. C. and I was sitting on the stoop of the house that I was living in and I was all like, really, is this it? Is this the rest of my life, is it working 9 to 5 doing, you know, what people are telling me to do. Wow. That doesn't seem like the bargain I thought it was. So I actually dropped out and wrote a novel, which was very sophomoric, because unless you're a genius, most 20-something year olds really don't know that much about the world. But anyway, it was sort of a, this empowering moment when I just sort of had faith in myself that I would always be able to take care of myself and figure things out. And so it's really one of these moments where the moment you feel like you can just leave a job, you get a tremendous amount of power from that. Most people go through their lives feeling like they have to do what their boss says and they have to live that life and it becomes, your choices obviously become quite limited. So I ended up crossing the country back to California, moved up to the Bay Area, worked in a few jobs there, tried unsuccessfully to sell my book, and then I joined my first startup. So this is the, you know, dot com era, the nineties, and it was really there at this startup that I caught wind of the fact that there were actually these jobs where you weren't supposed to just do what you're told, that your responsibility was to figure things out, to exercise your own creativity and your own intelligence, and nobody was going to sit there over your shoulder, that you were going to be held accountable to what you were doing or what you weren't doing. But you are literally sort of on your own and that was, again, sort of the second moment of feeling the sense of empowerment. And it's funny, because up to that point, I really, maybe I wasn't an A player as the startup likes to talk about the startup myths, you know, you have to go hire all those A players. Maybe I just wasn't an A player, but I used to be passed around like a hot potato between all of these managers because nobody really wanted to manage me because I really didn't do what they said. I did what I thought was best. But anyway, so the startup sort of launched this new type of, so then even in the startups, I worked at a bunch of different jobs. So instead of again, specialising, I was in IT, and then I ran the professional services group and then I went into product management and then I took over marketing, you know, sort of helping out salespeople. So I, again, I sort of traverse the whole, all of the different functions inside the company. And I guess I think that that was also a big learning moment for me, and so I lived through that, you know, tried a couple of my own companies that failed and others that succeeded crazily and others that, you know, ramped up their sales, but then they tailed off and I was on the management team trying to figure things out. And it's funny, because I used to, you always learn more from failures, and I think that the last one, the way I talk about it is that the sort of the company strategy was dictated every week by whoever was the best arguer. Like, so it was just like a management team free for all. And whoever won, that would set the strategy. And so I sort of won for, you know, a year and a year and a half, and we grew like crazy and I had, you know, allies on the team and then they kind of changed their mind and got rid of me and got rid of my allies. And then they went back and did whatever they wanted to do, the founders. So it was all again, it's sort of this learning moment where maybe that's not the best way to make decisions, but so the dot com bust happened and I was actually writing and blogging about, well, what makes successful startups better, what makes them successful compared to all of the ones that fail and what is it about, you know, sort of this idea of learning and empowering people to learn rather than just execute. And so I was blogging about that stuff and got turned on to Steve Blank and to Eric Ries and I ended up writing the first book that talked about lean startup and product market fit. And then that kind of launched this whole other career where at first we're focused on startups, but eventually, I wrote The Lean Entrepreneur and formed Moves the Needle to start taking some of these principles to large enterprises over the world. So around the last 10 years we've been helping some of the biggest brands in the world try to adopt some of these principles of exploration, so learning mode and, yeah, that sort of takes us to where we are today. I am still doing that work in addition to some other things, but primarily it's focused on empowering employees to exercise their creativity and their inspiration and to drive impact. And then, you know, helping the leadership understand that they get more out of their people if they enable that, and take a step back, and then they get to be more proactive and more strategic in their own world, and it's sort of empowering to them as well. And I think really, post pandemic, we've sort of seen this shift where that's happening more once people are remote workers, you know, workers being burned out and frustrated with work is when they don't get to do that sort of work. So yeah, it's sort of an interesting time and really the rise of, you know, sort of Agile reaching the next level and Design Thinking reaching the next level and Product Management and all of these things happening because the world is turning digital, makes this a pretty exciting time to apply a lot of these principles. Ula Ojiaku You have a fascinating background, Brant, and there are some things that you said about your background that had me nodding, because I identify with it and maybe in terms of, I love variety. And yes, I studied Engineering, but I also kind of liked to know a bit more about economics, psychology, you know, the other subjects outside my normal domain and someone I was having a conversation with someone I can't remember his name again, I think it was Dr. Steve Morlidge at a conference and he was saying life is all integral really, it's just us as human beings trying to make sense of the different aspects. We've created the disciplines, but in the truest sense, there aren't any distinctive lines, and it's all integral, and it helps, I've noticed, you know, at least for me personally, just knowing a bit about other subjects outside my core area just helps me to be more well-rounded and more strategic, if I, for lack of a better word, in how I approach issues. Brant Cooper I agree with that. It provides a larger context, right? I mean, so if you can understand what the colleagues are doing in the other function, you can also see the bigger picture, which makes a lot of sense. Ula Ojiaku Yeah, yeah. And you mentioned something about not liking to be told what to do. Is that the definition of an entrepreneur or could there be something else? Brant Cooper Well, I mean, I think it is, yes, I think it probably is similar to most early stage entrepreneurs, but, you know, you won't succeed as an entrepreneur if that's the only way you are. And so, you know, we all kind of grew up a little bit and we, you know, we have to mature in a way that we can still hold on to our creativity and all of these, our instinct or whatever it is, but we also have to be able to listen to others and to recognise when ideas are better than ours and change our minds based upon new indications. And so there's a flexibility that has to be built into there as well. It can't just be that you're going to stick to your guns. And as a matter of fact, I get a lot of entrepreneurs saying like, oh, well, it's all about the conviction of your idea. And I go, sure, if you want to fail, that's great. But you know, if you really want to change the world, as opposed to focus on a particular idea, then you have to be flexible. And I think that it's a, you know, people always point to Steve Jobs and his genius and I'm all like, yep, it took him a long time to get out, you know, the product that really was putting a computer in everybody's pocket, which is kind of what his dream was in the beginning. It took him a long time to get to the iPhone, and that what was revolutionary about the iPhone actually was opening up the app store to third party developers because that turned the phone into a platform and yet he opposed it even with all of his advisors telling him he had to do that, he didn't allow it the first year and so it wasn't until the second year when he changed his mind that things really took off and so I think it ends up being Steve Jobs is a great example, but not for the reason you think. Ula Ojiaku We could go into that but I think we would be going off tangent a bit. So what makes a lean entrepreneur? Because one of your books is titled, The Lean Entrepreneur, how visionaries create products, innovate new ventures and disrupt markets. Brant Cooper So I think fundamentally, it's somebody that can admit when they're wrong or when they don't know. I mean, so the lean part of lean entrepreneur is about reducing waste. It's not about being small or not spending money. It's about not wasting money and not wasting time and resources and even your own passion and your own inspiration. And so how can we work to understand our customers more deeply? How can we work to understand the market better? How can we run experiments that bust through our assumptions? How do we even identify assumptions? And then how do we cut through our own biases and all of these things that are very human but could be holding back the success of what we want to build or what we want to bring to the world. And so to me, that's the lean entrepreneur, is you have to be able to admit when you're wrong, admit when you don't know, and go out there and learn and hustle and explore and figure things out before you spend the time and money and resources executing on a particular idea. Ula Ojiaku So what I've heard you says is being willing to change your mind when you are faced with, you know, some evidence that your original assumptions are wrong, and also being mindful about how you use your resources. You're not wasteful, you're using it to learn and discover and learn what your customers want so that you're better able to provide that to them. Brant Cooper That's correct. Yep. And so if you're, you know, if you sit down and you build a product for six months, and then the product's wrong, or even, you know, just a lot wrong, you know, then there's a lot of waste that went into that. And when you're understanding customers, that doesn't mean ask your customers what they want and do what they say. It means understanding why are they saying what they're saying and what is their environment and what are their aspirations and what are their real needs. It's up to you as the, you know, sort of as the product person or the solution provider, to come up with what is the best way for me to address those needs, but the only way you can really truly understand those needs is to dive as deeply as possible in understanding the customer and their environment. Ula Ojiaku Are there any, like, specific examples of how as a lean entrepreneur, I can dive more into knowing what the customer does or needs? Brant Cooper Sure, I mean, I think that, you know, Steve Blank's customer development stuff was always really about understanding customers more. I think it was like, in my opinion, a little bit shallow compared to some of the techniques that are used in human centred design or design thinking, where you're getting down to emotional levels and you're getting down to, you know, empathy and really understanding, and you're kind of zooming in and zooming out. You can zoom in and interview, that's fine, but you can also zoom out in trying to figure out, well, what does it, what would this mean to them if they were successfully doing what they wanted to do? Would they be able to take their family to Italy in the summertime? Is that what they aspire to? Do they want to be a better mother? Do they, like, what is actually driving individuals to make the decisions that they're making? You know, observation is a great way to learn about that. That's, you know, often used in human centred design when you're even in, you know, business to business, business type of solutions, is you go watch people do the work that they're doing in their environment and you can start picking up on all sorts of issues that they're constantly having to overcome or, you know, conflicts or, you know, things don't work in a particular environment or IT does not allow this, you know, I mean, there's all sorts of things that can educate you about what you're trying to, the needs that you're trying to address. Ula Ojiaku Yeah, I completely agree. And for you, would you say that, you know, being a lean entrepreneur, is it just for individuals who set up their own startups or early growth companies? Can it also apply within a large established organisation with, say, thousands of employees already? Brant Cooper Yeah, no, I think that it's a good question. I think that the example that I give is if you look back to Henry Ford's Model T, right? You build a factory and then you build a whole company around this highly optimised, efficient assembly line that can produce the same vehicle, you know, he sort of famously say, you can have a Model T in any colour you want, as long as it's black, right? That's the only thing that he's going to produce. And so he optimises the flow of resources through the manufacturing, and then he builds the rest of the company based upon functions, this whole linear fashion, everybody do what we've already proven needs to be done. Then you can produce a car that the middle class could buy, which was a new thing and opened up this crazy new market. So that's very well understood. Everything is really, there's not a lot of uncertainty, but if you look, fast forward to the digital age, there's tons of uncertainty, right? All of the products and services that are produced have multiple models and multiple options on each model and hundreds of colours. And there's a lot of choices for consumers to choose one over the other. So consumers don't have the same brand loyalty that they used to. They can change their minds overnight. And again, this is true in the business world, not just consumers. But so there's so much uncertainty there, that you actually have to then understand the niche desires of all of these different market segments out there. Well, the only way to do that, so if you imagine that organisation that is only allowed to do what you're told to do based upon how it used to work, then you're the one that's going to miss out on all those opportunities based upon creating exactly the model or the options that the customer wants. How do you know what it is that those customers want. Well, you have to be out and interact with them. So even the biggest companies in the world have to figure out how they're going to start learning from the environment that they're in. So that's number one. Big companies have to do it and they are doing it more and more. Design and product management and all of these things are, these practices are emerging in these companies to do that exactly. And I think that the other point is, is that the world is so interconnected now, and this, again, has been brought upon by the digital revolution, and so what that causes is that all of these disruptions that we've just, you know, experienced here in the last four or five years, things like the pandemic, inflation, supply chain shocks, reverberations from the war, you know, just on and on. All of these things sort of ripple across our economies. They used to be, they could be isolated in different pockets of the world without affecting the rest of the world. Now everything affects everything. It's like the, you know, the butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon or something like this. You know, it creates this chaos. And so what that means is, is that things, disruptions, not as bad as the pandemic, but disruptions like ransomware attacks that cause disruptions, or again, supply chain issues, all of these things ripple across the economy and they actually change the market. So if you worked on your marketing plan and your selling plan the day after the pandemic hit, you're not in execution, you're just flailing. You have to actually be able to readdress, what is our situation currently based upon the current environment? How do we change our work in order to adapt to this new environment? And that is just a skill that everybody needs and everybody has to develop. And those are, startups do it naturally, big companies need to try to figure out how they're going to build that in and this is sort of the, the rise of Agile, right? I mean, so I think that the way I describe Agile, or the way I picture it for people without getting into all of the jargon is like a meerkat. So, a tribe of meerkats, every once in a while, come out of their hole and they pick their heads up and they look around and they take in new information and they're going to decide what to do based upon that new information. So, if you're a big corporation, you need to pause your work, which would be like a Agile sprint. You look up from the work. What has changed? Are we making the right progress? Right? Check within our customers. We check with our stakeholders. How do we improve our work as a team so that our output is better? So you take that moment to pause regularly, you can make your Sprint lengths anything that you want, I really don't care, it depends on the type of business that you're in, but you're pausing the work, you're re-evaluating, you're taking in new information, and maybe the answer is you don't have to change your work at all, you can just go back, but there's likely, sometimes, changes that have to be made so that you're getting to the desired outcome more efficiently, so we can't be like the assembly line, you know, Ford's assembly line, where output was a proxy for outcome, i.e we're going to be successful if we can produce the car at this cost. Now, it's like, we have to focus on efficiency of outcome and not efficiency of output and that means that it's actually more efficient to pause and make changes during the course rather than only after failing at the very end. Ula Ojiaku There's a question, you know, lots of things you've said that I resonate with, and one of my favourite questions to previous guests and you would be the next one I'm asking this, is what would you define as outputs versus outcome? So, what's an output to you versus what's an outcome? Brant Cooper Yeah, so like the Henry Ford example is the easiest. Output is the car is being done, is being produced. So the car has been manufactured. That's output, and for decades, even still today, businesses and economists using old antiquated models like Larry Summers does, are focused on the efficiency of output and what those are serving to do is being proxies for outcome. So if you, outcome would be, we've successfully sold those cars to happy customers, so they're going to buy again from us, and maybe they're going to get service from us, and maybe they're going to get financing from us, right? So, we want to keep them satisfied, and also we get to generate income and we pay our workers and we actually pay our shareholders. So, everybody gets sort of these outcomes or these desired results from successfully selling the car, which is dependent upon the sufficient production of output. But now, again, today, if you buy all of what else I've said, you can't, output is not a proxy of outcome. So output is, still could be the number of cars that are produced, but if they're not sold and the customers aren't happy, then you're not going to be able to pay your shareholders and you're not going to keep loyal customers, and you're not going to pay your workers, and so we have to now look at the efficiency of outcomes because the world is so complex. So that applies to, I think, any product. Obviously, when you go into the nuances of a corporate hierarchy, not everybody is focused on the final outcome, and so they actually have to have their own outcomes. But even in that regard, you know, outcome is increased user satisfaction. Output is, you've built X by a certain date. Outcome is, you know, a thousand people have opened your newsletter, you know, 75 percent of people opened your newsletter, output is we sent the out the newsletter to 10,000 people. So, the output is very focused on ourselves and the tasks that we're doing, usually over time period. outcome is, what are we getting out of those tasks? And it's best to measure that actually from who the beneficiary's experience. So if I'm producing a, you know, just a super simple example, if I'm producing this newsletter and people are opening it and spending time reading it, then that is a desired outcome. If nobody opens it, then that's sort of a, you know, there's a variety of issues that might be involved there, but you haven't achieved the outcome despite your output. Ula Ojiaku Thanks for that explanation. And somebody else said something that stuck with me as well, which is that, you know, outcome would signify some sort of change in behaviour, or in noticeable behaviour from the perspective of whoever the customer is, or who's consuming the results of your work. Brant Cooper Totally agree with that, and way more succinct than what I said. And the focus really is, it's on, that's what I sort of refer to as the beneficiary, because sort of inside of an organisation, your beneficiary of the work that you're doing are maybe internal people, not directly to the customer. So customer, sort of in scare quotes. But I love the fact that they, that person mentioned behaviour, because that's what actually allows us to measure it. And so even in The Lean Entrepreneur book, there's a section called the value stream discovery, which is focused on, what is the behaviour that I'm trying to get from my customer for everything that I'm doing as a business, and how do I measure that that behaviour is happening? And one of the benefits, of course, of the digital world is that you can measure a lot of that stuff. And so if you're trying to measure whether people are satisfied with your product, one proxy for that might be not just running surveys, but how often are they using the product? What are they actually doing with the product? It's not that they downloaded the app, it's that they downloaded the app, they installed it, they create an account, and they come in and they look at, you know, these different screens and interact with them four times every week. Okay, that's what a satisfied customer looks like. How many do we have? What's the growth of satisfied customers year over year or month over month? So it gives us all of this way of starting to measure what the behaviour side is, that becomes very powerful whenever we're doing our work. Ula Ojiaku And it's all about evidence based, it helps with evidence-based decisions, so that helps you because back to your explanation or, well, I say your talk about Agile and how it should help with, you know, organisations and leaders with just periodically you do a bit of work in a Sprint, but you look up and look around and know, okay, what we're doing, is it really moving us? Is it moving the needle? No pun intended. Is it moving the needle or is it pushing us closer to where we want? Are we likely to achieve those outcomes instead of focusing on how many widgets or gadgets we've produced within a Sprint? So based on that, what are the things, can you give examples of, you know, challenges you've observed, maybe in organisations or startups with being able to apply this sort of iterative development mindset, and still managing it with the needs to plan in, you know, longer time, across longer time horizons, because some organisations, especially if you're, for example, publicly traded, you still have to have a long term, you know, mid-term and short term view. So how can you, what are the challenges you've experienced with them, balancing all these? Brant Cooper I think that, yeah, I think it's, you're planning outcomes and so I think that the difficulty is that when people look at the outcomes, like, well, we need to grow 5%, you know, quarter over quarter, or something like that, the difficulty ends up being when they have to translate those outcomes into what is the work that people need to do. And so we, at some point in that progression from the top leadership down to the to the ground floor, those outcomes get translated into output. And so we lose this connection between, is what we're working on actually going to achieve the desired outcomes? And this is what causes all the reorganisations that happen every couple of years, because they don't, they don't match up, and then the Board or the C-Suite needs to do a reorganisation because it's sort of their admission, their tacit admission that they failed in organising the output to match the outcome. And so they get to have a reset. And so they fire a bunch of people and they reorganise and then they go do it again. So, I think the biggest challenge is that it's really a ground up type of change that has to happen. And so a lot of the, I'm sure you're very familiar with a lot of the, you know, the corporate implementations of Agile tend to be very process-heavy and very, you must do it this way, and you've lost all of the Agile principles and the ethos that got you to want to do it in the first place. And instead it has to be very ground up and it's really around, in my opinion, putting people on teams, so I don't think there's any individual inside of a company that should not be on a team. The team sort of will hold people socially accountable to their work. And if not, then there's still HR that can deal with it, but rather than have managers kind of leaning over and trying to get everybody to figure it out, you know, sort of the, the classic Agile self-organised team, where those teams have to be held accountable to the outcomes, but are empowered to figure out the work in order to achieve those outcomes. And then you practice that behaviour. That behaviour has to be practiced. It's not about, like, giving an order that now you have to work self organised, you actually have to practice that behaviour and you build in some of these other empathy techniques as well as running experimentation and you create an environment where, like, as a leader, you admit when you don't know, and when you've made a mistake, so you're kind of demonstrating vulnerability and that we're actually living in this complex, uncertain world so that you are empowering individuals to also behave the same way. And so you're starting to create this learning exploration balanced with execution type of organisation, and I think inevitably you start seeing impact of that type of work, and that's really, I think, how you can start driving the longer term change that has to happen. It's really by taking pockets of the organisation, teaching the behaviour and practicing it. And then it's teaching and practicing leaders how to manage people that are working that way, which is different as well. I sort of view it as perhaps a little bit idealistically or even utopian is, it's sort of cascading missions. And so the very top mission statements are around those things that you're promising Wall Street. Here's what our growth is going to be, here's what we're going to achieve next quarter and two quarters from that. And then in order to achieve that, here's the different things that our business unit must achieve, the outcomes. And that drips all the way down in terms of outcomes, to the point that you're assigning teams, here is your outcome and you know how to do the work or we'll help you figure out to do the work or you could figure it out yourself. I mean, depends on kind of the quality and the nature of those teams, but it's a way of organising work where I think, in the end, the company doesn't necessarily look that differently than it does now, but it's just not built sort of arbitrarily on function like it is now. And so, by building sort of this mission-oriented way, whenever there's uncertainty, you can put people on that mission that can help overcome the uncertainty. And so you get sort of the cross functional and interdisciplinary nature, when it's required. If it's not required, that's fine. You know, all manufacturers, they're working on that team. That's great. They know what their outcome is and they're going to produce that outcome. But if it's uncertainty, how are we going to go into this new market? Okay, well, there's a lot of things that we know, but we should test those things that we don't know. It's a different, it's a different makeup of that team. Whereas now, if you're trying to do exploration work, when the teams are organised by function, you have to sort of force that cross functionality, and it's very difficult and it doesn't last long. If you don't keep the pressure on, everything kind of falls back into whatever their functional role is, as opposed to continuing to adopt and apply missions to these teams, then they get the resources that they need in order to accomplish a particular mission and then that should rise up to the level of whatever the company objectives are. Ula Ojiaku It's really interesting, and it seems like you're a mind reader because you did say initially, you know, it has to start from the ground up. And I was going to ask you if there was any place at all for, you know, the bigger North Star vision mission to trickle down and influence what they, the people on the shop floor are doing in the coalface, as some people would use the term. And you've kind of answered it. So it's more of trickling down the mission such that it gets, once it gets down to the teams actually doing the work, they understand what they're doing and how it's helping in their own way, how they're helping to achieve the bigger objective of the organisation. Brant Cooper Yeah, exactly. And I think that that's what, again, going back to sort of the big quit and workers being burned out, I think that a lot of them, like whatever survey I've seen, even those produced by the big consultant firms, pretty much say that workers don't feel aligned. They don't feel aligned with what the priorities are, like they don't even know what they are, and they don't feel like they're driving an impact, and then that makes human beings feel like they're not making an impact in their own life, and it starts this downward spiral, whereas we can create a fortuitous spiral if we actually allow these people to see the impact that they are making. Ula Ojiaku And the benefit of working in an Agile manner. Now, I do have my reservations about some people who have peddled Agile as you know, like an elixir, you have a headache, Agile will cure it, or you have a tummy ache, Agile will cure it. Actually, it has its purpose, it has its remit and it has, just like you'd have multiple tools in a toolbox, Agile is really about, you know, you sense, you respond, you know, you build, you put it out there, you get feedback, quick feedback, and then you make adjustments as required, and then move, you know, take the next step. So, from that perspective, taking an Agile approach to, will I say developing or building on, or implementing strategy. How can, do you have any thoughts on how organisations can be more effective at it? I know you've talked about the ideal of cascading missions and then building up. But what else do you think organisations or leaders and organisations can take into account? Brant Cooper Yeah, I think that the, I agree with you, it's not, it's just, you know, one view into it. And so I think that there's, I'm sure there's other ways of tackling it. I think that, I guess I think that it's this idea of teams, like, I think that there's everybody could start forming a team now, and it doesn't have to be permanent. Like, if there's a bunch of things that need to be done, find one part of uncertainty and form a team and give them the responsibility of solving that uncertainty. And so I think that it's, it ends up then being well, they don't need to necessarily learn Agile or Design Thinking. I really think that if we measured the right things, human beings sort of know how to optimise what they're being measured for. And so I think that if you were to sit down with a group of your people, and you were to say, listen, this is some, here's a business challenge that we have, I would really like you four or five people to go figure it out, I'm here to give you whatever help you need along the way, I'm here to mentor you, give you my own advice, do whatever. But I need you all to try to figure this out. And here's what the outcome is that we want to get from that, what do you think? And, you know, maybe there's a little bit back and forth, but I think that that's actually more important than any of the frameworks that, you know, even I talk about a lot, and so I think Agile was originally developed sort of around that concept, just very specifically for software development teams. And so I think that it's thinking about the principles that can apply pretty much anywhere as opposed to the actual practices. I just also happen to think that there's a bunch of practices that can be beneficial. Things like the idea of what is the length of time you're going to put your head down versus, you know, when you look up or how you're going to share your work or all of those type of things. But I think that it's essentially if we just gave a group of people a business, a challenge, and said, I'd really like you to help me figure this out, that you would see them rally around that idea. And I think that that's kind of the nugget of what we're trying to create here, and then hopefully spread because it makes those people happier, and when they solve something, that's impact that can be shared with other people. And I think that you see in companies that really have been successfully innovative are those that actually have inspired that to the point that the core business is then, you know, want some of that energy, like, we want that here, because we know that we have to be faster and move quicker and adapt and all of those type of things. We know we have to be truly customer centric and not just, you know, sitting around a conference room table, imagining we're the customer, so it's really kind of really more about finding that and it also may vary, you know, based upon company culture, even positive company cultures. And it's like, what is that little nugget that actually empowers people to, as a team, let's work together and figure something out. Ula Ojiaku Thanks for that very, very insightful response, and there's something you said about uncertainty. You know, it's really about trying to make sense of the unknown, and this brings me to your book, your latest book, Disruption Proof, full title Disruption Proof: Empower People, Create Value, Drive Change. What led you to writing that book and what is it all about? Brant Cooper Yeah, so I think it really is, it's really all about what we've just been talking about the last few minutes, where it really is sort of looking at how the organisation can structure people and work, such that the natural output of it is more, it's actually the way I put it is more efficient execution based upon exploration work, and so how do you build that into the organisation, so it doesn't feel like it's a cannibalisation, you know, sort of the whole old school Clayton Christensen stuff. I know everybody's going to be like, what do you mean old school, but it's like, it's not about disrupting yourself, it's not about this other organisation is going to come in and disrupt you. It's not that you actually have to eat your own tail as a snake. It's about finding this emerging behaviour that then will sort of flower from within and takes over the organisation because that's what the circumstances require. And so I think that the, I don't know, I guess I think that the book was trying to show examples of businesses that have done that, either large scale, or pockets within these organisations that have brought people together, cross-functional where necessary, interdisciplinary. Hey, this is a new opportunity, how do we actually engage the business units as opposed to, to me what that old school way of doing it is like, here's your little innovations, you know, silo over here, you guys go figure out what's going to happen in 10 years. I think that's like, largely failed. And I think that what we need to do, is figure out how there's, from the beginning there's buy-in from these other parts of the organisation. So that's really what the last book is about, really all of these things that we've been talking about. Ula Ojiaku And I believe it's available on Amazon and other major book sellers. Brant Cooper Anywhere you can buy a book. Ula Ojiaku Awesome. Well, I haven't read it yet, but I have made a note, it's on my reading list, definitely. Brant Cooper Well, thank you for that. Ula Ojiaku Definitely. No, my pleasure, I look forward to digging into it to learn a bit more about the concepts you've just shared and the insights as well as the examples with organisations that might have failed or succeeded in some aspects of the concepts. Brant Cooper Yeah, that kind of describes everybody to a certain level. Ula Ojiaku Do you have anyone you could share at this point? You know, maybe an example from your book? You don't have to name names. Is there anyone that comes to mind? Brant Cooper Well, I think in terms of, I guess what I would call lean innovation transformation, I think ING is a really good example, the bank in Europe, they did a full on Agile transformation as well, like organising the whole company based upon really more like based upon missions than functions, and I think that that always has its challenges, but I think that what, in the end, they kind of brought these two different endeavours together. One being this Agile transformation and this other being what we call lean innovation. And so they really started practicing the empathy and the exploration work and the experiments. And those things ended up sort of combining. And I think it's always interesting when, you can theorise about this stuff, but when do you actually get to see the results? And so a lot of this, most of this work was all done pre-pandemic. And then some of the stories that came out of different pockets of the organisation during the pandemic were really quite extraordinary in ways that they were able to adapt to, you know, finding yourself suddenly in this world, that they could point back to these lean innovation practices, being the, you know, being the impetus for being able to change like that. So I love those stories where you're actually able to see that, okay, we applied all of this. Here's like this major, you know, environmental change brought on by the pandemic, how did the company respond. And so that's a, I wrote a couple of stories about that stuff in the book Disruption Proof. And so there's a couple of other examples in there, but that's the one that really comes to mind because they just committed to it at a larger level than I've seen other organisations do. Ula Ojiaku Sounds awesome. So in addition to your books, The Lean Entrepreneur, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development, Disruption Proof, what other books have you found yourself recommending to people who want to know more about, you know, Lean Innovation, Agile, or maybe it doesn't have to be on the subject of Lean Innovation or Agile, but just generally because you felt they were impactful to your life. What other books have you recommended to people and why? Brant Cooper Yeah. So I think that, you know, people have recognised change in the world quite a bit over the last, you know, 10 years or so, or five or six years, pandemic is making me lose all track of time. But, so the ones that I keep coming back to are not specifically Agile or lean innovation. So I would say Brené Brown's Dare to Lead, and I think that this is a just an example of what we mean by empathy, you know, you don't really have to go hug your customers, you don't have to hug your employees. It's not, you know, but it's understanding how you apply those principles in a business environment and the ability, like I mentioned earlier, for leaders to demonstrate vulnerability by admitting when they don't know and when they're wrong, that this is really important in changing. The other thing I'll throw out there that I love that Brené Brown talks about is this idea of rumbling. Again, we're not talking about some, you know, kind of kumbaya moment here. It's really around bringing evidence to the table and having forceful discussions about what is actually happening and what you need to do next, but it's based upon this evidence and I kind of call it respectful rumbling, because rather than like my startup example I gave in the beginning of just arguing, it's really around, you know, as a team of leaders even, it's great to respect each other, but we also have to be direct and honest and have real conversations and not just sort of let everything go hunky dory and then go back to your office and whine about stuff. So it's, I think that there's this, I don't know, I sort of enjoy this ability to sit around with people and, you know, kind of debate ideas and really try to get to the crux of things. And I think that we need that, and Brené Brown writes about that in Dare to Lead. I think that the other one, it's General McChrystal Team of Teams. And I think that, I'm not sure he ever realised it, but I think he was writing about Agile. But what he describes, of course, is the US military in Iraq, and the difference between facing a traditional force versus a, you know, sort of this ad hoc network, new, modern military force and Al Qaeda, and the changes that he then needed to do to the military to be able to respond to that. And I think that it's really quite extraordinary in the sense that, you know, unfortunately, in my opinion, the military is often the first thing for an organisation to learn about all of these things happening in the world. But it is a result of the digital revolution that now what you have are this interconnectedness that never existed before that allow little ad hoc network entities to pop up everywhere. And this is the same thing that's happening in business, and it's the same thing that happens in the market and Agile actually is a response to that, and so then we have to go back to how do we implement Agile so that that's actually part of the organisation. It's this interconnectedness and this ad hoc nature of forming teams and missions to accomplish goals, whether they're long term or short term. And so it's really super, an interesting analogy to, I think, what business requires. Ula Ojiaku So you've mentioned two books, Dare to Lead by Brené Brown and Team of Teams by General McChrystal. Okay, well, thank you. Brant Cooper They almost seem like polar opposites, but it's sort of interesting. Ula Ojiaku Well, they are interesting. I haven't read Brené Brown's Dare to Lead, but I have listened to the audio version of Team of Teams, and I do agree there are some interesting insights, which one can, basically, something that you said about principles, again, that principles, you know, you can draw from General McChrystal's narration of their experience in Iraq and how they had to adapt and all that, which you can apply to the commercial world or, yeah, so I completely agree was a very interesting book for me. So can the audience engage with you, and if so, how? Brant Cooper Yeah, so I'm Brant Cooper on all social media, really, but, you know, maybe primarily LinkedIn and I encourage people to reach out. I'm brant@brantcooper.com is my email and I respond to, you know, I respond to everybody. My company's website is movestheneedle.com and we're launching some online courses that hopefully make learning some of these new behaviours a little bit more scalable. So I invite people to check that out, but yeah, you know, happy to engage with any of your listeners. Ula Ojiaku Sounds great. Well, thank you for sharing those, and this would also be in the show notes. And would you have any final words for the audience, any ask? Brant Cooper I don't really have, I don't think any ask. I think that, I don't know, I guess one other little story that that summarises part of my life was this idea that I forget every once in a while that change happens because you as an individual decides to make a change. And I think that, like, some people, I think that just comes naturally to it and they live their whole life that way. I'm not that way, I'll sit back for a while and kind of look around and go like, well, who's going to fix this? And then I realise, oh, well, you have to do it. And so I encourage other people to maybe actually look at themselves in that way, and sort of that own self awareness goes like, oh, well, guess it's me. And, you know, I think that it's easy to be scared of the risks supposedly, but I also think that generally the risk is in doing nothing. And so you might as well go for it. Ula Ojiaku Go for it, take risks. Thank you for those words. Brant Cooper Based upon evidence. Ula Ojiaku Okay, go for it, take evidence-based, calculated risks. How does that sound? Kind of made it very clinical. I think I've rephrased it in a way that takes off the oomph, but thank you so much, Brant. It's been a pleasure meeting you and recording this episode with you. So thank you again for your time. Brant Cooper Thanks for having me. Fun, fun discussion. Thank you. Ula Ojiaku That's all we have for now. Thanks for listening. If you liked this show, do subscribe at www.agileinnovationleaders.com or your favourite podcast provider. Also share with friends and do leave a review on iTunes. This would help others find this show. I'd also love to hear from you, so please drop me an email at ula@agileinnovationleaders.com Take care and God bless!
General Stanley McChrystal is a retired four-star general, the former commander of US and International Security Assistance Forces in Afghanistan, and former commander of Joint Special Operations Command, America's premier military counter-terrorism force. General McChrystal is also the founder of the McChrystal Group, a senior fellow at Yale University, and the author of several New York Times bestselling books including Leaders: Myth & Reality and his most recent book Risk: A User's Guide. On this classic episode of the Elevate Podcast, General McChrystal joined host Robert Glazer on the Elevate Podcast to discuss how to assess risk, core qualities of leadership he looks for, propaganda, the conflict in Ukraine and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What does leadership look like in the middle of a war zone—one of the most dynamic, agile, and consequential environments on the planet? General Stanley McChrystal knows intimately what it's like – and is committed to teaching his hard-earned leadership insights to others. Heading up the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), he led the U.S. military's most elite special ops teams against Al-Qaeda in Iraq, and from there was commissioned to command the war on terror in Afghanistan.That mission in itself is treacherous… and General McChrystal also crashed head-on with a political controversy – one that led to the end of his military career but opened the door to teaching leadership at Yale university, authoring multiple bestsellers, founding the McChrystal Group (his well-known management consulting company) and even being portrayed by none other than Brad Pitt in the movie War Machine.What General McChrystal teaches isn't about battlefield maps and tactics, it's about building a team that's informed, committed and focused. And even when the mission isn't immediately successful, it's about teaching the importance of risk, failure, and ultimately marching forward.It's a fascinating discussion, rich with gems and insights. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.With Fire, MG-----Order my book, "The First Rule of Mastery" HERE!WATCH this episode on our YouTube channel.Connect with us on our Instagram.For more information and shownotes from every episode, head to findingmastery.com.To check out our exclusive sponsor deals and discounts CLICK HERESee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Todd Mahler is the Chief Product Officer at Edmentum. For over 25 years Todd has led the development of educational technology products for the nation's leading publishers and is proud to have impacted the lives of millions of students. As Chief Product Officer for Edmentum, Todd drives product strategy for Edmentum, ensuring their solutions meet the needs of the educators and students they serve. Prior to Edmentum, Todd served as Chief Product Officer for Apex Learning and has held senior leadership positions with McGraw Hill Education, Redbird Advanced Learning, and Six Red Marbles. Todd holds a Master's degree in Education from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Science in Astronomy & Astrophysics from Villanova University.Dr. PJ Caposey is a dynamic speaker and a transformational leader and educator. PJ began his career as an award-winning teacher in the inner-city of Chicago and has subsequently led significant change in every administrative post he has held. PJ became a principal at the age of 28 and within three years was able to lead a small-town/rural school historically achieving near the bottom of its county to multiple national recognitions. After four years, PJ moved to his current district, Meridian CUSD 223, as superintendent and has led a similar turnaround leading to multiple national recognitions for multiple different efforts.PJ is a best-selling author and has written 10 books for various publishers. His work and commentary has been featured on sites such as the Washington Post, NPR, CBS This Morning, ASCD, Edutopia, the Huffington Post, and was featured in a Global Leaders Forum thinkpiece alongside the likes of General Petraeus and General McChrystal. He works in the Education Department of three universities, including within the Ivy League, and in a myriad of capacities with the Illinois Principal's Association including Principal Coach and author of the first complete stack of MicroCredentials offered in Illinois.Recommended Resources:Academic I - Ground Rules on AI by EdutopiaInstitute for Educational Innovation
In this episode of The Mentors Radio, Host Dan Hesse talks with General (Ret.) Stanley McChrystal about his career, leadership, building teams, risk response and more. A one-of-a-kind commander with a new perspective on organizational dynamics, Ret. General Stan McChrystal is known for helping elite teams tap into the potential of their people to better compete in a complex and interconnected world. Few can speak about leadership, teamwork, technology and international affairs with as much insight can he. Ret. General McChrystal is the former Commander of U.S. and International Forces in Afghanistan, former leader of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and co-founder of The McChrystal Group. His exceptional and innovative understanding of organizational dynamics has led to remarkable achievements in both military and business applications. McChrystal is the author of several best-selling books on leadership, building teams, engagement and risk management. After retiring from the U.S. Army as a four-star general, General McChrystal turned his expertise to the business world. He is the Founder and CEO of the McChrystal Group, which helps Fortune 500 Companies strike the right balance between hierarchical and decentralized team mindsets and structures. He and his firm focus on the power of network analysis and machine learning to strengthen how companies connect, internally and externally. As the author of several best-selling management books, General McChrystal offers a battle-tested system for detecting and responding to risk. Listen to episode below, or on ANY PODCAST PLATFORM here. BE SURE TO LEAVE US A GREAT REVIEW on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and share with friends and colleagues! SHOW NOTES: GENERAL (RET.) STANLEY A. MCCHRYSTAL: BIO: https://www.mcchrystalgroup.com/people/stan-mcchrystal/ BOOKS: My Share of the Task: A Memoir, by Stanley McChrystal Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, by Stanley McChrystal Leaders: Myth and Reality, by Stanley McChrystal Risk: A User's Guide, by Stanley McChrystal WEBSITE: www.mcchrystalgroup.com/
Join The Voices Of War at https://thevoicesofwar.supercast.com/. Can't afford the subscription? Email me for an alternative solution. Universities and educational institutions can always reach out for full access to episode files. **** In today's episode, I sit down with Dr. Jonathan French Flint, an Inamori Research Associate at Case Western Reserve University with a focus on military ethics and strategic theory. Dr. Flint has a background in teaching in the UK and has presented his work at a range of academic venues, including the United States Army Command and General Staff College. He has also made contributions to military ethics literature, notably with the International Committee of the Red Cross, and has appeared on the Canadian CTV Network as an expert discussing the war in Ukraine and broader issues in military and international affairs. Our conversation aims to explore the complexities of Strategic Theory, particularly its role in informing decisions about war. Dr. Flint brings a unique perspective to this subject, advocating for the inclusion of ethical considerations in strategic planning for conflict. Here are some of the key topics we cover: **Pathway to Specialisation**: Dr. Flint shares how he entered the niche field of military ethics and Strategic Theory. **Unlocking Strategic Theory**: We examine what Strategic Theory entails and the problems it seeks to solve. **Defining 'Victory'**: We discuss the often-ambiguous term 'Victory' in the context of warfare. **'Wars of Choice' Conundrum**: Dr. Flint elaborates on the difficulties tied to defining victory in wars of choice. **Ethics vs. Interests**: A look into the tension between moral values and geopolitical interests in 'wars of choice'. **Moral Injury**: An exploration of the concept of 'moral injury' as it relates to ‘wars of choice'. **Ethical Frameworks**: We discuss General McChrystal's concepts of 'Courageous Restraint' and 'Insurgent Math'. **Moral Compass**: The conversation turns to defining the difference between morals, morality, and ethics in warfare. **Case Studies**: Dr. Flint briefly outlines his thesis, examining the Falklands and Kosovo conflicts through an ethical lens. **Accountability**: We close with a discussion on the responsibility of senior political and military figures for unethical actions on the battlefield. This episode provides a nuanced exploration of the ethical considerations in Strategic Theory and warfare. It's a thought-provoking listen for those interested in going beyond surface-level discussions about conflict. **Join the Conversation** For listeners looking to engage with this discussion further, follow us and comment: https://www.thevoicesofwar.com https://www.twitter.com/twitter.com/thevoicesofwar https://au.linkedin.com/company/the-voices-of-war https://www.facebook.com/facebook.com/thevoicesofwar https://www.youtube.com/youtube.com/thevoicesofwar **Thank You for Listening!** We invite you to share, comment, and subscribe. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-voices-of-war/id1551498657 or your preferred podcast platform.
General Stanley McChrystal was born into a military family: three generations of men in his family were officers in the armed forces. He followed the family tradition and eventually rose up the ranks to become a General in the Army. While serving as the commander of Allied Forces in Afghanistan in 2010, he was forced to resign after he was quoted making disparaging remarks about President Obama. It was in the wake of this moment that General McChrystal learned the value of leadership.
Ever daydreamed about quitting your job in dramatic fashion? Well in June 2010 General McChrystal gave us all a lesson in how to leave in style - getting himself sacked from a job I think we can all agree sounds pretty tough - Afghan war commander. Here I am with John Oliver in Bugle issue 120.Hear more of our shows, buy our book, and donate here: thebuglepodcast.com/This episode was produced by Chris Skinner and Laura Turner Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
PJ Caposey is the Illinois Superintendent of the Year and is a best-selling author having written nine books for various publishers. His work and commentary has been featured on sites such as TED, The Washington Post, NPR, CBS This Morning, ASCD, Edutopia, The Huffington Post (HuffPost), and has been featured in think pieces alongside General Petraeus and General McChrystal. PJ is a sought after presenter and consultant who recently keynoted several national conferences with expertise in time management, the tyranny of the status quo, school culture, continuous improvement, and teacher evaluation. Dr. Bryan Wills is a chiropractor, entrepreneur, executive coach, and a dynamic speaker. Bryan opened his first chiropractic office right after he graduated from Palmer College of Chiropractic in a rural community in northern Illinois. He has gone on to open two more highly successful practices in Rockford, Illinois, built with the same small-town values of Family, Integrity, and Authenticity, as the original. From the experience Bryan gained in starting multiple businesses from scratch, he decided to help others by becoming an executive coach in 2015. Since then, Bryan has been able to help hundreds of people chase after their dreams of becoming entrepreneurs and business owners. ***Order Cracking the Coaching Code*** Connect with PJ and Bryan: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mcusdsupe/ and https://www.instagram.com/wills_chiropractic/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MCUSDSupe and https://twitter.com/WillsChiro LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pj-caposey-516538166/ and https://www.linkedin.com/company/wills-chiropractic-llc/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MCUSDSupe/ and https://www.facebook.com/WillsChiro/Website: www.pjcaposey.com and https://www.willschiro.com Connect with Hunter: https://linktr.ee/edessentials --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/edessentials/support
General Stanley McChrystal is a retired four-star general and former commander of the Joint Special Operations Command who led counter-insurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. In this episode, General McChrystal discusses the weaknesses in American democracy, and how insurgents within our country are using them to erode democracy. He also warns against dismissing these threats: “There is an idea that it can't happen here, that our society can't break down, that we can't have an autocratic dictator. We sure could. And we'd have a lot of Americans who would fall behind that and do things that we've criticized other countries for, we've been shocked by. It could happen here. We could have a civil war. We could break down and kill our neighbors. We say we couldn't, but everywhere around the world that we see, the Balkans, you know, now Ukraine and Russia, just almost everywhere you go where you think it's unthinkable. It's thinkable. It's possible. It can happen, and it can happen here. Because while we think we're exceptional, we're not enough different that we're not subject to the same weaknesses that can happen elsewhere. And if we stare into the abyss and we say, ‘Wow, that could actually occur.' Then we've got to step back and say, ‘That's why the founding fathers spent so much time and effort to try to create a republic that could survive the wins. It could survive the ups and downs. It could survive internal discord, but it wouldn't lose sight of the fact there are things we have to hold on to.' And that's what I would tell people.” This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/BOATS and get on your way to being your best self. Athletic Greens is giving you a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free travel packs with your first purchase at athleticgreens.com/BURNTHEBOATS. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Text Hawk to 66866 to become part of "Mindful Monday." Join 10's of thousands of your fellow learning leaders and receive a carefully curated email from me each Monday morning to help you start your week off right... Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12 https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12 The Learning Leader Show was first published on April 9, 2015. TODAY marks the show's 8th birthday! To celebrate, I kick off the episode by sharing some key learnings I've gathered over the past 8 years... And then I answer YOUR questions and did a full AMA (Ask Me Anything). If you'd like me to do more AMAs, send me an email: Ryan (at) LearningLeader dot com Here are some key things I've learned after publishing The Learning Leader Show for 8 years... Consistency > Intensity. Showing up to do the work (prep) each day is key. Become part of your routine as a listener. Consistency builds trust. You know you're going to have a new show for your Monday morning walk or commute. Following your genuine curiosity is attractive. This parasocial relationship is built because as the listener you know I'm following what I'm actually curious about. I own guest selection 100%. They are all my call and my call alone. I only choose guests that I'm deeply curious about. The curiosity-judgemental spectrum. Talking with more people with a wide range of life experiences has helped me view the world from their eyes and be less judgemental. All the way back to episode 3 with Maurice Clarett. Approach people with curiosity, not judgment. The prep works as a forcing function to learn. Same with mindful Monday. I have systems in place to ensure I'm getting a little bit wiser each day. And that learning compounds over time. Create forcing functions on your life to intentionally get better. Don't just wander from meeting to meeting each week. What are you doing to ensure your learning is compounding? The Charlie Munger quote; go to bed a little wiser than when you woke up. I try to live by that. Relationships with your heroes: General McChrystal. Pat Lencioni. So many others. Being pleasant to work with. Showing up prepared. Being grateful. Following up. All of that has helped me build real relationships with people I admire. The McChrystal trip to Gettysburg. Forewords to books. McChrystal and Lencioni. Dan Pink. The Kat Cole ATL show. Adam Grant. Ryan Holiday. Relationships with listeners. Some amazing friendships have been formed and fostered because of this podcast. So many of my Learning Leader Circle members. Technically they are clients of mine, but lots of them have become genuine friends for life. Communication skill - LISTENING. Thinking. Speaking, Writing. All have improved. Earned the opportunity to speak on hundreds of stages all over the world. Publish books. Meet fascinating people. Listener AMA: Learn 2 Cope (Instagram) – What was the biggest struggle you had transitioning to life after sports? Kevin Janiec (Instagram) – How do you and Miranda balance and align your competing priorities? Samantha Phillips (LinkedIn), Sales Manager at Insight Global – 1. What is 1 of your champagne toasts? (Victory Shot toast) 2. Who is 1 person you have not yet had on your show that you'd like to? Aaron Arnston (LinkedIn) - Congratulations, Ryan! Truly blazing a trail, we'll done! You have interviewed hundreds of guests and I have liked every show, can't recall one, not one, show I didn't like...have you ever interviewed guests that didn't make the cut or do you have a filtering process prior to the show that helps with this? Noah Vasilj (Mindful Monday email response): My question is a “3 parter”: What is your favorite part of your job? Do you generally enjoy/love what you do? What keeps you interested and going on the days when you are not at 100%? Brian Causer (Twitter) — Congrats! Love the show, Ryan. One of my top podcasts and I listen weekly. Maybe have two questions... How do you choose your guests? Referral? Follow your curiosity? Also, what is one question you wish someone would ask you that nobody has asked you before? The Greek In The Kitchen (Instagram) — Who is the guest you think about most or has had the most influence on you? Denise Kollias (LinkedIn) Hi! Congratulation! I have been listening to your podcast since 2017 and it has been a Godsend. It has taught me so much and I appreciate all your hard work to continually bring insightful conversations on leadership. My question is what episodes were your favorite to record or the top 5 that you recommend with the greatest impact to help people grow or push through? JP Botero (Instagram) - After 8 years of experience, what would you recommend to the Ryan thinking of creating The Learning Leader Show? Aaron Campbell – After 8 years of exploration along a central theme, how would you finish this sentence: “A great leader is….”
Stephen Biddle is a Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. Stephen previously worked for General Petraeus in Iraq and General McChrystal in Afghanistan. Get full access to What Happens Next in 6 Minutes with Larry Bernstein at www.whathappensnextin6minutes.com/subscribe
(***TIMESTAMPS in description below) ~ Joby Warrick is a 2x Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, author, and Middle East Expert. Since 1996, Joby has been at the Washington Post, where he currently serves as a National Security Reporter. His three books –– “The Triple Agent,” “Black Flags,” & “Red Line” (the second of which won him a Pulitzer Prize) –– are all Best-Sellers (links below). “Black Flags” by Joby Warrick: https://amzn.to/3WdiGwp “The Triple Agent” by Joby Warrick: https://amzn.to/3kgNvmu “Red Line” by Joby Warrick: https://amzn.to/3XxTe5W ***TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - Joby's remembers his first Pulitzer Prize 6:08 - Joby explains his first book on the infamous 2009 Attack on CIA Base in Afghanistan 14:48 - The hot Jordanian Translator who got Joby into bomber's house; No judgment journalism 26:13 - Homeland's CIA accuracy; General McChrystal's Iraqi kid story 35:51 - The CIA's tracking of Bin Laden in the leadup to Sepp 011 38:55 - Joby's Nucalear Weapons reporting during Iraq War; Building trust in Middle East 45:20 - Rogue translators & developing sources 50:32 - How to determine whether CIA sources are telling the truth 56:39 - The Tom O'Neill WAPO CIA source story 1:03:27 - King Abdullah II of Jordan; Jordan & its role in the Middle East 1:13:28 - Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, The Founder of ISIS; The murder of Nick Berg 1:20:50 - Al Zarqawi's radicalization in prison 1:24:29 - Al Zarqaqi meets Bin Laden; CIA & Zarqawi's early standoffs 1:29:50 - King Abdullah told President Bush NOT to invade Iraq; Sectarian Violence (Sunnis & Shiites) 1:36:36 - Al Qaeda makes Al Zarqawi a franchisee; Iraq's implosion post-invasion 1:41:30 - Nada Bakos - CIA's chief Al Zarqawi targeter; How the US merked Al Zarqawi 1:46:33 - ISIS vs. ISIL naming; Al Baghdadi succeeds Al Zarqawi 1:50:19 - The Arab Spring of 2011; Al Nusra in Syria; ISIS leadership doesn't do dirty work 1:56:22 - When did ISIS come on Joby's radar? 2:01:05 - Caliphate explained; the brutality of ISIS 2:05:49 - The Kurds; 20th Century European Agreements that led to Middle East violence 2:14:04 - Strongman leaders; Bashar Al-Assad & Syria 2:21:43 - The Yazidi Genocide 2:26:56 - How the US neutralized ISIS 2:35:12 - The US Drone Program; The War in Yemen 2:42:37 - What's happening in Iran right now? 2:48:32 - Iran's race to a nuclear weapon 2:52:46 - Israel's new far-right government 2:56:52 - The Jordanian Intelligence Service (Mukhabarat); The Laurence Foley hit 3:00:34 - Joby's Middle East schedule; Joby's upcoming book project Intro Credits: “Homeland” (Showtime) “The Looming Tower” (Hulu) “Body of Lies” (2008) “Munich” (2005) “The Physician” (2013) “Zero Dark Thirty” (2012) ~ Get $150 Off The Eight Sleep Pod Pro Mattress / Mattress Cover (USING CODE: “TRENDIFIER”): https://eight-sleep.ioym.net/trendifier Julian's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julianddorey ~ Music via Artlist.io
ABOUT GENERAL STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL General Stanley McChrystal is a retired four-star general, the former commander of US and International Security Assistance Forces in Afghanistan, and former commander of Joint Special Operations Command, America's premier military counter-terrorism force. General McChrystal is also the founder of the McChrystal Group, a senior fellow at Yale University, and the author of several New York Times bestselling books including Leaders: Myth & Reality and his most recent book Risk: A User's Guide. General McChrystal joined host Robert Glazer on the Elevate Podcast to discuss how to assess risk, core qualities of leadership he looks for, propaganda, the conflict in Ukraine and more. Show Notes
In this "Best of" episode from November 2021, A'ndre and Ryan speak to retired Four Star General Stanley McChrystal about his new book Risk: A User's Guide, applying the principles of risk management to the War in Afghanistan -- a situation the General is very familiar with. We ask General McChrystal to discuss what he defines as the 'Risk Immune System', and to explain the 'Risk Control Factors' that he outlines in the book. General McChrystal, famed for creating a comprehensive counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan, applies those Risk Control Factors to the situation in Afghanistan, talking about how factors such as narrative, bias, leadership, why we shouldn't fall for the 'Myth of Helplessness' in assessing our performance and failures in Afghanistan. General McChrystal also touches on the issue of diversity -- not necessarily simply diversity in identity, but rather diversity of thought, experience, perspectives, skillsets, and expertise -- and why the U.S. Government and U.S. military were not using diversity on the battlefield. The retired General is also candid about his own successes and failures during his service in Afghanistan, while also offering thoughts on solutions for better risk management -- and whether it was ever too late to apply these solutions to Afghanistan.You can check out General McChrystal's new book Risk: A User's Guide here.
During the war against Al Qaeda in Iraq, General Stanley McChrystal had a realization. Conventional, bureaucratic tactics used by the United States military were failing against an enemy that was more agile and decentralized. So, he flipped the way the US operations were being run to a trust-based model with decentralized decision-making and teams that were empowered by information and intelligence. As a result, he and his team were credited with the death of the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq at that time. In the first episode of The Intel by Auror podcast series, join Auror CEO Phil Thomson as he chats with General McChrystal about why and how that approach worked for the US military - and how it can work for retail Asset Protection/Loss Prevention (AP/LP) too as they address Organized Retail Crime (ORC). Don't miss an episode of The Intel by Auror podcast series by subscribing or following wherever you get your podcasts. You can read more about the conversation in our article, Lessons from a Four-Star General. Stay updated on our latest content via The Intel and sign up to our monthly Retail Crime Intelligence newsletter.
This week's guest, PJ Caposey, shares how experiencing a tragedy at a young age shifted his mindset on the value of time and how time management is key in any successful leader's skill set. In this episode, we discuss: The Reflection Process Valuing Coaching from Others Preparing our Students for their Future. About PJ Caposey: PJ Caposey is a dynamic speaker and a transformational leader and educator. PJ began his career as an award-winning teacher in the inner-city of Chicago and has subsequently led significant change in every administrative post he has held. PJ became a principal at the age of 28 and within three years was able to lead a small-town/rural school historically achieving near the bottom of its county to multiple national recognitions. After four years, PJ moved to his current district, Meridian CUSD 223, as superintendent and has led a similar turnaround leading to multiple national recognitions for multiple different efforts. PJ is a best-selling author and has written 8 books for various publishers. His work and commentary has been featured on sites such as the Washington Post, NPR, CBS This Morning, ASCD, Edutopia, the Huffington Post, and was featured in a Global Leaders Forum thinkpiece alongside the likes of General Petraeus and General McChrystal. He works in the Education Department of two universities and in a myriad of capacities with the Illinois Principal's Association including Principal Coach and author of the first complete stack of MicroCredentials offered in Illinois. Follow PJ Caposey: Website: https://pjcaposey.com/ (https://pjcaposey.com/) Twitter: https://twitter.com/MCUSDSupe (https://twitter.com/MCUSDSupe) Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pj-caposey-516538166/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/pj-caposey-516538166/) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp8FrmXxUmmMcMYF6aH_eYQ (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp8FrmXxUmmMcMYF6aH_eYQ) https://www.amazon.com/Manage-Your-Time-Will-You/dp/1416626654?crid=1OKMYUW0Q3GTE&keywords=PJ+Caposey&qid=1657654647&sprefix=pj+caposey+%2Caps%2C101&sr=8-1&linkCode=ll1&tag=aspirewebsite-20&linkId=2db054976a4db66b70c4bf3b0568ae7c&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl https://www.amazon.com/Building-Culture-Support-P-Caposey/dp/1596672277?crid=TN4Y8U2R5XRK&keywords=pj+caposey&qid=1658605059&s=books&sprefix=pj+caposey%2Cstripbooks%2C101&sr=1-5&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.18ed3cb5-28d5-4975-8bc7-93deae8f9840&linkCode=ll1&tag=aspirewebsite-20&linkId=996ab27457c0e0c63ff38de315e1e006&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl [caption id="attachment_3508" align="alignnone" width="1024"]https://joshstamper.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Aspire-Swag-Website-Image-update-6.18.21.png () Aspire: The Leadership Development Podcast Swag, Joshua Stamper, Teach Better[/caption] NEW Aspire Swag with Discount Code: ASPIRE Tee-Shirts and Drinkware: https://teachbetterswag.com/collections/aspire-the-leadership-development-podcast (ASPIRE: The Leadership Development Podcast) This post contains affiliate links. When you make a purchase through these links, The Aspire Podcast gets a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you. Need a Presenter for a conference or school PD? https://joshstamper.com/contact/ (Contact Joshua Stamper ) for presentations on Restorative Practices, Leadership Development, and Innovative campus systems. Watch my session on Trauma Informed, restorative and social emotional practices athttp://www.teachsummit.com/stamper ( www.teachsummit.com/stamper) Follow the Host, Joshua Stamper: Contact:https://joshstamper.com/contact/ ( https://joshstamper.com/contact/) Twitter:http://www.twitter.com/Joshua__Stamper ( www.twitter.com/Joshua__Stamper) Instagram:http://www.instagram.com/joshua__stamper ( www.instagram.com/joshua__stamper)...
Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. Yousef was working with a team that others call “trouble team”. But, as he observed the team, it looked like they were trying hard to do a good job. So he started working through 1-on-1's to try to get a better, more detailed picture of what was going on. In that process, he realized that something critical was missing for that team to work well. Featured Book of the Week: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Lencioni In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Lencioni, Yousef learned how to diagnose a team by looking at their dynamics. He also learned a model that helps him work with teams and grow the people in it. In this segment, we also refer to Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General McChrystal, and MobProgramming, a topic we've covered before here on the podcast. How can Angela (the Agile Coach) quickly build healthy relationships with the teams she's supposed to help? What were the steps she followed to help the Breeze App team fight off the competition? Find out how Angela helped Naomi and the team go from “behind” to being ahead of Intuition Bank, by focusing on the people! Download the first 4 chapters of the BOOK for FREE while it is in Beta! About Yousef T. Fahoum When starting out as a ScrumMaster and BA years ago Yousef passionately followed the ScrumMaster Podcast. Yousef is a SAFe Enterprise Coach at Elabor8 with experience implementing Agile and SAFe at some of the largest and most recognized brand leaders across industry domains in the U.S. and Australia. You can link with Yousef T. Fahoum on LinkedIn and connect with Yousef T. Fahoum on Twitter.
General Stanley McChrystal is a retired four-star general, the former commander of US and International Security Assistance Forces in Afghanistan, and former commander of Joint Special Operations Command, America's premier military counter-terrorism force. General McChrystal is also the founder of the McChrystal Group, a senior fellow at Yale University, and the author of several New York Times bestselling books including Leaders: Myth & Reality and his most recent book Risk: A User's Guide. General McChrystal joined host Robert Glazer on the Elevate Podcast to discuss how to assess risk, core qualities of leadership he looks for, propaganda, the conflict in Ukraine and more.
Craig has read all of General McChrystal's books which cover different aspects of leadership. His new one, Risk: A User's Guide by General Stanley McChrystal (US Army, retired). I'm about a third of the way through it. I couldn't wait until the end to tell you about it.
Dynamic speaker and transformational leader and educator, PJ Caposey, joins us to share his thoughts on how school leaders can build realistic optimism. PJ began his career as an award-winning teacher in the inner-city of Chicago and has subsequently led significant change in every administrative post he has held. He became a principal at the age of 28 and within three years was able to lead a small-town/rural school historically achieving near the bottom of its county to multiple national recognitions. After four years, he moved to his current district, Meridian CUSD 223, as superintendent and has led a similar turnaround leading to multiple national recognitions for multiple different efforts. PJ is also a best-selling author and has written 8 books for various publishers. His work and commentary has been featured on sites such as the Washington Post, NPR, CBS This Morning, ASCD, Edutopia, the Huffington Post, and was featured in a Global Leaders Forum thinkpiece alongside the likes of General Petraeus and General McChrystal. He works in the Education Department of two universities and in a myriad of capacities with the Illinois Principal's Association including Principal Coach and author of the first complete stack of MicroCredentials offered in Illinois. Tune in on Wednesday, April 20 @ 6pm EST!
What does it mean to be a leader in the modern world? All leaders must contend with challenges and risks, but how you deal with them can set good leaders apart from great ones. Someone who knows this all too well is retired four-star General Stanley McChrystal. General McChrystal is our first-ever guest on the brand new A Healthier Future podcast. In this podcast, Intermountain Healthcare CEO Marc Harrison interviews innovative leaders and explores big ideas around transforming the future of healthcare. General McChrystal is someone who has seen the thick of combat and gained invaluable wisdom about risk and leadership. Now the Founder and CEO of McChrystal Group, McChrystal helps organizations tap into the potential of their people to become better leaders. In episode one, General McChrystal shares his fantastic insights and advice for others on risk, leadership, and much more. Listen to the full episode to find out: How Stanley's background led him to where he is today What growing up in a military family taught him Why you should always “focus forward” Why redemption and a belief in change are so important How to think about risk in a different way Why old leadership styles don't work anymore Why leaders have more responsibility these days The trick to being optimistic Key Links https://www.mcchrystalgroup.com/ (McChrystal Group) https://www.mcchrystalgroup.com/library/risk-a-users-guide/ (Risk: A User's Guide) https://intermountainhealthcare.org/ (Intermountain Healthcare)
General Stanley McChrystal was born into a military family: three generations of men in his family were officers in the armed forces. He followed the family tradition and eventually rose up the ranks to become a General in the Army. While serving as the commander of Allied Forces in Afghanistan in 2010, he was forced to resign after he was quoted making disparaging remarks about President Obama. It was in the wake of this moment that General McChrystal learned the value of leadership.
This is the final episode of the DODReads: What are you Reading? podcast. Thank you for listening! In Episode 63, host Tim Bettis interviews General Stanley McChrystal, USA (Ret.) on risk, learning from history, and the importance of language skills. General McChrystal is an Army Ranger who led Joint Special Operations Command and Commanded the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and United States Forces - Afghanistan before his retirement in 2010. He is the Founder of the McChrystal Group and is a senior fellow at Yale's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. Check out his newest book - Risk: A User's Guide. As always, head to DODReads.com for more resources, free books, and interviews with military authors. The views presented in this episode are those of the participants and do not reflect the views of the Department of Defense or its components.
The son and grandson of Army officers, McChrystal graduated from West Point in 1976 as an infantry officer, completed Ranger Training, and later, Special Forces Training. Over the course of his career, he held leadership and staff positions in the Army Special Forces, Army Rangers, 82nd Airborne Division, the XVIII Army Airborne Corp, and the Joint Staff. He is a graduate of the US Naval War College, and he completed fellowships at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1997 and at the Council on Foreign Relations in 2000. From 2003 to 2008, McChrystal commanded JSOC - responsible for leading the nation's deployed military counterterrorism efforts around the globe. His leadership of JSOC is credited with the 2003 capture of Saddam Hussein and the 2006 location and killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. In June 2009, McChrystal received his fourth star and assumed command of all international forces in Afghanistan. Since retiring from the military, McChrystal has served on several corporate boards of directors, that include Deutsche Bank America, JetBlue Airways, Navistar, Siemens Government Technologies, Fiscal Note, and Accent Technologies. A passionate advocate for national service, McChrystal is the Chair of the Board of Service Year Alliance, which envisions a future in which a service year is a cultural expectation and common opportunity for every young American. He is a senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, where he teaches a course on leadership. Additionally, he is the author of the bestselling leadership books, My Share of the Task: A Memoir, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, Leaders: Myth and Reality, and Risk: A User's Guide. General McChrystal founded the McChrystal Group in January 2011. Recognizing that companies today are experiencing parallels to what he faced in the war theater, McChrystal established this advisory services firm to help businesses challenge the hierarchical, “command and control” approach to organizational management. https://www.mcchrystalgroup.com https://www.linkedin.com/feed/?trk=guest_homepage-basic_nav-header-signin https://youtu.be/kuoJbrwheJs --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/richard-lamonica/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/richard-lamonica/support
My guest today is General Stanley McChrystal. General McChrystal led a stellar military career culminating in becoming the commander of US and International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) in Afghanistan. Since leaving the US military, he's founded the McChrystal group and has also written several books. His latest book is called ‘Risk: A User's Guide'.In this episode, we talk about different ways to think about risk, how he led an information-sharing revolution in the American Secret Service. He also tells us about a recent phone call to patch up his differences with Joe Biden and what it was like to get sacked, but in a kind way, by Barack Obama. I could have listened to Stan talk all day.✔ Links: Stan McChrystal on TED:https://www.ted.com/speakers/stanley_mcchrystalStan McChrystal on Twitter:https://twitter.com/stanmcchrystalMcChrystal Group:https://www.mcchrystalgroup.com/Subscribe to Graham's Newsletter: https://www.grahamallcott.com/sign-upOur Show Sponsors: Think Productive - Time Management Training:http://www.thinkproductive.comUseful links:https://www.grahamallcott.com/links See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
This episode is a real gem, filled with wisdom. Co-authors General Stan McChrystal and Anna Butrico join me to talk about leadership, risk, resilience, adaptability and what they call our risk immune system. We discuss the risks associated with a global pandemic, special military operations, and how to navigate a complex changing environment in corporations. Show notes: General McChrystal was a green beret, ranger and paratrooper during his career. He is perhaps best known for his command of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the mid-2000s. As you might guess, he was no stranger to risk. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates described McChrystal as "perhaps the finest warrior and leader of men in combat I ever met." After retiring from the military, McChrystal founded the McChrystal Group in January 2011 to deliver innovative leadership solutions to businesses globally in order to help them transform and succeed in challenging, dynamic environments. Anna Butrico is an Associate at McChrystal Group where she focuses on thought leadership. Currently, she is the co-author with General Stan McChrystal's for their newly released book, "Risk: A User's Guide" https://www.amazon.com/Risk-Users-Guide-Stanley-McChrystal/dp/0593192206/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1639525798&sr=8-1 "Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World" https://www.amazon.com/Team-Teams-Rules-Engagement-Complex/dp/1591847486/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1639526621&sr=8-1 Both Stan and Anna can be reached through the McChrystal group at www.mcchrystalgroup.com
Former Commander of Afghanistan General (Ret.) Stanley McChrystal shares lessons from Afghanistan, the impact of the withdrawal, what makes a great leader and what he is most proud of in his career. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates has described General McChrystal as, "Perhaps the finest warrior and leader of men in combat I have ever met." Learn what General McChrystal believes to be the biggest risk facing the U.S. and the solution.Gen. McChrystal rose to four-star general in the U.S. Army and Commander of both the International Security Assistance Force and Commander of the U.S. Forces in Afghanistan. He previously served as Director of the Joint Staff and as Commander of the Joint Special Operations Command. He is the author of several books, including Leaders and Risk, and is currently a senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and co-founder of the McChrystal Group, a leadership consulting firm.
In this week's episode, A'ndre and Ryan speak to retired Four Star General Stanley McChrystal about his new book Risk: A User's Guide, applying the principles of risk management to the War in Afghanistan -- a situation the General is very familiar with. We ask General McChrystal to discuss what he defines as the 'Risk Immune System', and to explain the 'Risk Control Factors' that he outlines in the book. General McChrystal, famed for creating a comprehensive counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan, applies those Risk Control Factors to the situation in Afghanistan, talking about how factors such as narrative, bias, leadership, why we shouldn't fall for the 'Myth of Helplessness' in assessing our performance and failures in Afghanistan. General McChrystal also touches on the issue of diversity -- not necessarily simply diversity in identity, but rather diversity of thought, experience, perspectives, skillsets, and expertise -- and why the U.S. Government and U.S. military were not using diversity on the battlefield. The retired General is also candid about his own successes and failures during his service in Afghanistan, while also offering thoughts on solutions for better risk management -- and whether it was ever too late to apply these solutions to Afghanistan.You can check out General McChrystal's new book Risk: A User's Guide here.
From his first day at West Point to his years of deployment in Afghanistan, retired four-star U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal is no stranger to the deadly risks of combat. Throughout his illustrious career and efforts helping business leaders navigate a global pandemic, General McChrystal has seen how individuals and organizations have failed to mitigate risk by focusing solely on the probability of something happening as opposed to the interface by which it can be managed. In his new book, Risk: A User's Guide, McChrystal and co-author Anna Butrico offer a battle-tested system for detecting and responding to risk. This book offers an alternative way of maintaining a healthy "risk immune system" that involves monitoring 10 different dimensions of control the authors say can be adjusted at any time to effectively anticipate, identify, analyze and act upon the ever-present possibility that things will not go as planned. Join us as General McChrystal reveals an entirely new way to understand risk and master the unknown. SPEAKERS General Stanley McChrystal Retired Army General; Author, Risk: A User's Guide; Twitter @StanMcChrystal In Conversation with Dan Ashley Co-Anchor, ABC 7 News; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors; Twitter @DanAshleyABC7 In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on October 24th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
From his first day at West Point to his years of deployment in Afghanistan, retired four-star U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal is no stranger to the deadly risks of combat. Throughout his illustrious career and efforts helping business leaders navigate a global pandemic, General McChrystal has seen how individuals and organizations have failed to mitigate risk by focusing solely on the probability of something happening as opposed to the interface by which it can be managed. In his new book, Risk: A User's Guide, McChrystal and co-author Anna Butrico offer a battle-tested system for detecting and responding to risk. This book offers an alternative way of maintaining a healthy "risk immune system" that involves monitoring 10 different dimensions of control the authors say can be adjusted at any time to effectively anticipate, identify, analyze and act upon the ever-present possibility that things will not go as planned. Join us as General McChrystal reveals an entirely new way to understand risk and master the unknown. SPEAKERS General Stanley McChrystal Retired Army General; Author, Risk: A User's Guide; Twitter @StanMcChrystal In Conversation with Dan Ashley Co-Anchor, ABC 7 News; Member, Commonwealth Club Board of Governors; Twitter @DanAshleyABC7 In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently hosting all of our live programming via YouTube live stream. This program was recorded via video conference on October 24th, 2021 by the Commonwealth Club of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Retired four-star general Stanley A. McChrystal has lived a life associated with the deadly risks of combat. He was once called “one of America's greatest warriors” by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. 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. He is a transformational leader with a remarkable record of achievement. General McChrystal is widely praised for launching a revolution in warfare by leading a comprehensive counter-terrorism organization that fused intelligence and operations, redefining the way military and government agencies interact. In this episode, General McChrystal shares lessons learned over the course of his extensive career and shares leadership nuggets of wisdom. He is the author of the bestselling leadership books, My Share of the Task, Team of Teams, Leaders, and his latest book Risk: A User's Guide which we dive into today. In Risk: A User's Guide, 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. Be sure to listen to this powerful episode, and grab your copy of his latest book off of Amazon! Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Risk-Users-Guide-Stanley-McChrystal/dp/0593192206
A retired four-star general, General Stan McChrystal is the former commander of the US and International Forces in Afghanistan and the former commander of the nation's premier military counter-terrorism force, Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). He's the founder & CEO of The McChrystal Group and a senior fellow at Yale, where he teaches a popular course on leadership. An expert on leadership and teams, General McChrystal is the author of several books, including his new book, Risk. In this conversation, we talk about the future of leadership, leading through adversity, and building resilient teams.
In this special Bonus episode, Chris has an extended dialogue with General Stan McChrystal, US Army (Retired) about his new book: Risk: A User's Guide, co-authored with Anna Butrico. They talk through assessing risk in our own lives: amid the pandemic and persistent uncertainty at work and at home, with real world examples of how to systematically detect and respond to it. This is a conversation not to miss. General Stanley McChrystal retired in July 2010 as a four-star general in the U.S. Army. His last assignment was as the commander of the International Security Assistance Force and as the commander of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan. He had previously served as the director of the Joint Staff and as the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command. The author of My Share of the Task, Team of Teams, and Leaders, he is currently a senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and the cofounder of the McChrystal Group.
General Stanley McChrystal — Mastering Risk: A User's Guide | Brought to you by Kettle & Fire high quality, tasty, and conveniently packaged bone broths; Eight Sleep's Pod Pro Cover sleeping solution for dynamic cooling and heating; and ShipStation shipping software. More on all three below.General Stanley McChrystal (@stanmcchrystal) was called “one of America's greatest warriors” by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Having held leadership and staff positions in the Army Special Forces, Army Rangers, 82nd Airborne Division, the XVIII Army Airborne Corp, and the Joint Staff, McChrystal became commander of JSOC in 2003, responsible for leading the nation's deployed military counterterrorism efforts around the globe. His leadership is credited with the 2003 capture of Saddam Hussein and the 2006 locating and killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. In June 2009, McChrystal received his fourth star and assumed command of all international forces in Afghanistan.General McChrystal founded the McChrystal Group in January 2011, an advisory services firm that helps businesses challenge the hierarchical “command and control” approach to organizational management.He is a senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, where he teaches a course on leadership, and he is the author of the bestselling leadership books My Share of the Task: A Memoir; Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World; and Leaders: Myth and Reality. His new book is Risk: A User's Guide. He is also the co-host (with former Navy SEAL Chris Fussell) of the No Turning Back podcast, where they explore the future of leadership and teams with the world's most consequential leaders.Please enjoy!This episode is brought to you by Kettle & Fire! Kettle & Fire makes one of the highest quality, tastiest, and most conveniently packaged bone broths on the market, and I have a huge collection of their broths on my kitchen counter for easy access. I've been a fan ever since 2015, when podcast guest and ketogenesis expert Dr. Dominic D'Agostino introduced me to the company. Their products fit me and my lifestyle extremely well: bone broth is a great ‘one-stop shop' for low-carb, high-protein nutrition, and bone broth makes an excellent lower-calorie breakfast that requires no prep.It's one of the simplest ways to get many of the nutrients I need, and I simply feel better when broth is a regular part of my diet. You can save 25% off your order by going to KettleAndFire.com/Tim and using code TIM at checkout.*This episode is also brought to you by ShipStation. Do you sell stuff online? Then you know what a pain the shipping process is. ShipStation was created to make your life easier. 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I also love reading the reviews!For show notes and past guests, please visit tim.blog/podcast.Sign up for Tim's email newsletter (“5-Bullet Friday”) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Discover Tim's books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim:Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss YouTube: youtube.com/timferrissPast guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, and many more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
As a four-star Army General and chairman of the United States Joint Special Operations Command, Stanley McChrystal has led in some of the most high-stakes, high-pressure environments imaginable, and yet he says leading in business is remarkably similar to leading in the military. In this live recording, Paula Faris interviews General McChrystal on some of his most critical leadership learnings, including the role of curiosity, growth and risk, and how to break down information silos in an organization.
Risk taking is unavoidable when it comes to modernization. Best selling author and retired four-star U.S. general Stan McChrystal outlines 10 control factors to help citizens and agencies alike take smarter risks. Carolyn and Mark also get some early insight on Stan's upcoming book Risk: A User's Guide. Episode Table of Contents[01:44] Stan McChrystal of the Team of Teams [10:54] A Story of a Defensive System by Stan McChrystal [18:26] Stan McChrystal Talks About Inertia [25:57] Why Stan McChrystal Doesn't Want to Worry About External Threats [35:40] Artificial Intelligence Based Episode Links and Resources Stan McChrystal of the Team of TeamsCarolyn: We are joined this morning by retired four-star U.S Army General Stanley McChrystal. We've had the pleasure of talking to General McChrystal on a few occasions. Good morning, General McChrystal. Stan: Call me Stan, and it's an honor to be with you again. Carolyn: Let me give our audience for those that have been living under a rock, just a few more of your credentials. So Stan is a former commander of the U.S and International Security Assistance Forces, ISAF Afghanistan. He's the former commander of the nation's premier military counter-terrorism force, JSOC. He is best known for developing and implementing a comprehensive counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan. For creating a cohesive counter-terrorism organization that revolutionized the inter-agency operating culture. Is it fair to say, Stan, that's the basis for your book https://www.amazon.com/Team-Teams-Rules-Engagement-Complex/dp/1591847486/ref=pd_sbs_3/142-9463856-7907441?pd_rd_w=vGUvO&pf_rd_p=0f56f70f-21e6-4d11-bb4a-bcdb928a3c5a&pf_rd_r=M3XJVJ4F55G3HSFFJK9Q&pd_rd_r=591fbfaa-e089-4f6e-9adf-3fa401273d69&pd_rd_wg=G2DSo&pd_rd_i=1591847486&psc=1 (Team of Teams)? Stan: It was certainly the foundation of it, and then our study beyond that. Carolyn: Honestly, https://www.amazon.com/Team-Teams-Rules-Engagement-Complex/dp/1591847486/ref=pd_sbs_3/142-9463856-7907441?pd_rd_w=vGUvO&pf_rd_p=0f56f70f-21e6-4d11-bb4a-bcdb928a3c5a&pf_rd_r=M3XJVJ4F55G3HSFFJK9Q&pd_rd_r=591fbfaa-e089-4f6e-9adf-3fa401273d69&pd_rd_wg=G2DSo&pd_rd_i=1591847486&psc=1 (Team of Teams), just a little plug here, is the best book on leadership that I have read. If you haven't read that one, do that. But we're here to talk about a new book that will be out this October that is also sure to be a bestseller. Mark and I got to have a sneak peek. We got to read an early copy of the manuscript. We're here to talk about your new book, https://www.amazon.com/Risk-Users-Guide-Stanley-McChrystal/dp/0593192206 (Risk: A User's Guide). We'd like you to talk to us a bit about the 10 risk control factors, and the four measures that are the foundation for your new book Risk. Calculating RisksStan: We decided to take on Risk as a subject because through my career, there had been processes to follow. Calculating risk and acting on that too, to be able to measure the threats or risks to your organization. But it never connected with how we actually did it. Now, certainly there are some financial firms that use financial models that theoretically do this. But if you look at so many things in our lives, there's one way we talk about risk. Then there's another way we actually respond to it. I wanted to understand what the disconnect was. Of course, that had been my experience as well. In most cases in my career, we had done checklists or matrices, and calculations to come out with a risk score. But the reality was most of our reaction was intuitive. And so we decided to study risk. What we came away with was the idea that each organization and individual actually, but organizations particularly have something which I'll call a risk immune system. It's a system consisting of 10 factors, such as communication, diversity, bias, timing. Those things interact together to...
As Kabul falls today it's important to take a sober and objective look at what went wrong. To immediately seek perspective to deter and hinder the effectiveness of the political spin and posturing from both sides full of cartoonish politicians that seem to have all the influence over the public these days. Here is the hard truth: The Bush administration faltered when they decided to pivot entirely to Iraq during the early days of operations in Afghanistan. They failed when they set the precedent of never planning forward past a 1-year strategy. That blunder would then be repeated every year for 20 years. We didn't fight a 20-year war. We essentially fought a 1- year war 20 times in a row. The Obama administration including General McChrystal failed when they caved to Hamid Karzai's pressure to impose crippling rules of engagement in 2009 that tied both hands behind the backs of our forces and allowed the Taliban to strengthen just as we had our boots on their necks at the brink of their destruction. The Trump Administration failed the second they began negotiating with the Taliban while excluding the Democratically elected government of Afghanistan from the talks. Effectively delegitimizing their lawful claim to power and significantly reducing their standing with their own citizens and the world. The Biden Administration failed when they abruptly withdrew all forces on a predetermined date. Refusing to listen to experts that urged them to keep at least 2,500-3,000 troops as a deterrent to a hostile takeover. Don't let any side start pointing fingers. The incompetence on display over the last 20 years is shared equally with the left and the right. The Republicans and Democrats. We learned nothing in Vietnam, we better learn something from this. My Father suffered defeat in Vietnam, I now suffer defeat in Afghanistan. I'll be damned if my son has to experience this anguish 30 years from now in some other faraway land. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/comethisfar/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/comethisfar/support
Relationships are so important in all areas of life, whether business or personal. How do we build and grow strong relationships? We're joined on this episode by special guests, Jason and Melanie Crane. Jason & Melanie recently transplanted their family from the State of Washington to the Red Rocks of St. George, Utah. They have been entrepreneurs for over two decades, with a background in wealth management, life & business coaching and holistic healing. They are the creators of “The Resilient Entrepreneur Summit” which premiered in June. They just celebrated their 23rd wedding anniversary and have five amazing kids ages 4-17. Jason & Melanie are on a mission to help entrepreneurs master client acquisition without sacrificing their families. Jason and Melanie share their story of the lessons they've learned throughout their 23 years of marriage, while also navigating the challenges of starting and growing businesses. We also discuss the importance of speaking well of others, the ability we have to change ourselves and our lives, and the power of having a shared goal.Please join me for this conversation and let's consider together how to build strong relationships, in our work and our lives.Links and resources mentionedInformation about Jason and Melanie CraneJoin their Facebook group The Resilient Entrepreneur Summit - https://www.facebook.com/groups/319883872871130 Email them at support@tresummit.com Resources Included in This EpisodeGlobal Leadership Summit - https://globalleadership.org/global-leadership-summit/Craig Groeschel - https://www.craiggroeschel.com/General McChrystal - https://www.mcchrystalgroup.com/people/stan-mcchrystal/Jamie Kern Lima - https://jamiekernlima.com/Business Boutique - https://www.ramseysolutions.com/business/business-boutique48 Days Eagles Community Learn to create the work and life you love with a community of like-minded people. Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
For most leaders, failure is not a matter of life or death. But for some, making life-or-death decisions is part of the job. What can high-risk decision-making teach us about the more ordinary and conventional risk leaders assume every day? What roles do preparation and instinct play in this process? How can leaders become better at conquering a fear of failure in order to make hard decisions? In this episode, Host Gautam Mukunda speaks about risk and high-stake decision-making with two remarkable individuals who have spent their lives doing the impossible in the face of enormous danger. General Stan McChrystal is a retired four-star general, former Head of Joint Special Operations Command in Afghanistan, and the founder and CEO of the McCrystal Group. Alex Honnold is a professional adventure rock climber, who is known for his free solo ascents, most notably El Capitán as documented in the movie Free Solo. “The more often you encounter the unexpected, the more comfortable you feel with the unexpected in general. You can prepare as much as you can, but you kind of know that some random thing is always going to go sideways, but then the more often that you encounter those kinds of sideways challenges and manage them… I think you build some confidence to just know that when a situation arises you'll figure it out quickly” — Alex Honnold “Nothing helps innovation like necessity.” — General Stan McChrystal Follow @GMukunda on Twitter or email us at WorldReimagined@nasdaq.com Books Referenced: Alone on the Wall, by Alex Honnold Risk: A User's Guide by Stanley A. McChrystal and Anna Butrico Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know? by Philip E. Tetlock The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe Guest Info: Alex Honnold is a professional rock climber whose audacious free-solo ascents of America's biggest cliffs have made him one of the most recognized and followed climbers in the world. A gifted but hard-working athlete, Honnold is distinguished for his uncanny ability to control his fear while scaling cliffs of dizzying heights without a rope to protect him if he falls. His humble, self-effacing attitude toward such extreme risk has earned him the nickname Alex “No Big Deal” Honnold. This Sacramento, California-native's most celebrated achievements include the first and only free-solos of the Moonlight Buttress (5.12d, 1,200 feet) in Zion National Park, Utah, and the Northwest Face (5.12a) of Half Dome (2,200 feet), Yosemite, California. In 2012 he achieved Yosemite's first “Triple Solo”: climbing, in succession, the National Park's three largest faces — Mt. Watkins, Half Dome, and El Capitan — alone, and in under 24 hours. In 2017 Alex completed the first and only free-solo of El Capitan's “Freerider” route (5.13a, 3,000 feet), a historic accomplishment that has been hailed by many as one of the greatest sporting achievements of our time. The story of this feat was told in the Academy Award-winning documentary, FREE SOLO. Whether climbing with a rope or without, Honnold believes climbing is a fantastic vehicle for adventure, an opportunity to seek out those high-test moments with uncertain outcomes in which you're forced to push through to survive. Though Honnold often downplays his achievements, his rope-less climbs have attracted the attention of a broad and stunned audience. He has been profiled by 60 Minutes and the New York Times, featured on the cover of National Geographic, appeared in international television commercials, and starred in numerous adventure films including the Emmy-nominated “Alone on the Wall.” He is the founder of the Honnold Foundation, an environmental non-profit. General Stanley A. McChrystal is A transformational leader with a remarkable record of achievement, General Stanley A. McChrystal was called “one of America's greatest warriors” by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. He is widely praised for launching a revolution in warfare by leading a comprehensive counter-terrorism organization that fused intelligence and operations, redefining the way military and government agencies interact. The son and grandson of Army officers, McChrystal graduated from West Point in 1976 as an infantry officer, completed Ranger Training, and later Special Forces Training. Over the course of his career, he held leadership and staff positions in the Army Special Forces, Army Rangers, 82 nd Airborne Division, the XVIII Army Airborne Corp, and the Joint Staff. He is a graduate of the US Naval War College, and he completed fellowships at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1997 and the Council on Foreign Relations in 2000. From 2003 to 2008, McChrystal commanded JSOC - responsible for leading the nations deployed military counterterrorism efforts around the globe. His leadership of JSOC is credited with the 2003 capture of Saddam Hussein and the 2006 location and killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. In June 2009, McChrystal received his fourth star and assumed command of all international forces in Afghanistan. Since retiring from the military, McChrystal has served on several corporate boards of directors that include Deutsche Bank America, JetBlue Airways, Navistar, Siemens Government Technologies, Fiscal Note, and Accent Technologies. A passionate advocate for national service, McChrystal is the Chair of the Board of Service Year Alliance, which envisions a future in which a service year is a cultural expectation and common opportunity for every young American. He is a senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, where he teaches a course on leadership. Additionally, he is the author of the bestselling leadership books, My Share of the Task: A Memoir, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, and Leaders: Myth and Reality. General McChrystal founded the McChrystal Group in January 2011. Recognizing that companies today are experiencing parallels to what he faced in the war theater, McChrystal established this advisory services firm to help businesses challenge the hierarchical, “command and control” approach to organizational management.
In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with General Stanley McChrystal and Chris Fussell about the radicalization of the far Right under Trump. They discuss the events of January 6, 2021, the behavior of the Capitol police, the history of white supremacy in the US, the effect of banning extremists from social media, the logic of insurgency, the consequence of public lies, what should happen to Trump and his enablers, and other topics. Stanley McChrystal retired from the US Army as a four-star general after more than 34 years of service. In his last assignment, he was the commander of all American and coalition forces in Afghanistan. He has written several books including a memoir titled My Share of the Task, which was a New York Times bestseller. Stanley is a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, and he is the founder of the McChrystal Group leadership institute. Chris Fussell is a Partner at the McChrystal Group and the co-author (with Stanley McChrystal) of Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, which was also a New York Times bestseller. Chris was a commissioned naval officer and he spent 15 years in the Navy SEALs in various points around the globe. He served as the aide-de-camp to General McChrystal during his final year commanding the joint special operations task force fighting Al Qaeda. Chris is on the board of directors of the Navy SEAL Foundation and is a lifetime member of The Council on Foreign Relations. Chris also teaches at the Jackson Institute at Yale University. Together, Stanley and Chris host No Turning Back—a podcast that explores the future of leadership and teams with the world’s most consequential leaders. Website: www.McChrystalGroup.com Twitter: @McChrystalGroup, @StanMcChrystal, @FussellChris
This will impact YOU! Episode 8️⃣ of 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣0️⃣ is out NOW‼️ In today's episode, Chad and Cody take a look at the book by General Stanley McChrystal and his co-authors, Jeff Eggers and Jay Mangone, which explores a variety of different genres of leaders from geniuses, founders, politicians, reformers, heroes, and zealots. While he asserts that a group's performance is less about the leaders ability and more about the surrounding factors, General McChrystal claims that the best leaders are those who are empathetic to the group's position at a given time and are able to constantly adapt. Today Chad & Cody pick out leadership lessons that they feel can help contractors create a competitive advantage by understanding the complexities of leadership and the importance of creating a learning leadership environment at every level. Enjoy Episode 8️⃣ - Season 3️⃣ of The NEXT Academy Podcast on #ConstructionLeadership, #BrandGrowth & #StayingOnOffense We are very grateful for your support of The NEXT Academy and this Podcast. THANK YOU and ENJOY! Be sure to rate us on Apple or drop us a comment at info@nextleadershipacademy.org
In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with General Stanley McChrystal and Chris Fussell about the Covid-19 pandemic. They discuss the nature of the ongoing crisis, the threat of a breakdown in social order, the problem of misinformation, the prospects of a nationwide lockdown, the trade off between personal freedom and safety, the threat of tyranny, the concerns about the global supply chain, concerns about the price of oil, safeguarding the 2020 Presidential election, and other topics. Stanley McChrystal retired from the US Army as a four-star general after more than 34 years of service. In his last assignment, he was the commander of all American and coalition forces in Afghanistan. He has written several books including a memoir titled My Share of the Task, which was a New York Times bestseller. Stanley is a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, and he is the founder of the McChrystal Group leadership institute. Twitter: @StanMcChrystal Chris Fussell is a Partner at the McChrystal Group and the co-author (with Stanley McChrystal) of Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, which was also a New York Times bestseller. Chris was a commissioned naval officer and he spent 15 years in the Navy SEALs in various points around the globe. He served as the aide-de-camp to General McChrystal during his final year commanding the joint special operations task force fighting Al Qaeda. Chris is on the board of directors of the Navy SEAL Foundation and is a lifetime member of The Council on Foreign Relations. Chris also teaches at the Jackson Institute at Yale University. Twitter: @FussellChris Website: www.McChrystalGroup.com Twitter: @McChrystalGroup
Technovation with Peter High (CIO, CTO, CDO, CXO Interviews)
371: General McChrystal is a retired four-star general of the US Army and the author of multiple books, including his most recent one, Leaders: Myth and Reality. Following a 34-year career in the United States Army, General McChrystal founded the McChrystal Group, an advisory services firm that specializes in leadership consulting.
David Silverman is the guest on today's episode. David is a retired US Navy SEAL officer and the co-author of Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement in a Complex World. David's co-author on that book is none other than four-star General Stanley McChrystal. General McChrystal wrote one of my favorite books on leadership and on reinventing […]