Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

by Stanley McChrystal

ability to adapt to complexity and continual change has become an imperative.

the processes we refined, and the relationships we forged and nurtured are no more enduring than the physical conditioning that kept our soldiers fit: an organization must be constantly led or, if necessary, pushed uphill toward what it must be. Stop pushing and it doesn’t continue, or even rest in place; it

There’s likely a place in paradise for people who tried hard, but what really matters is succeeding.

The pursuit of “efficiency”—getting the most with the least investment of energy, time, or money—was once a laudable goal,

This misses the point of Lorenz’s insight. The reality is that small things in a complex system may have no effect or a massive one, and it is virtually impossible to know which will turn out to be the case.

moved from data-poor but fairly predictable settings to data-rich, uncertain ones. • •

the most brilliantly engineered fixed solutions are often insufficient or counterproductive.

“The believer will put his life on the line for you, and for the mission. The other guy won’t.”

“We do these things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

only 20 percent of workers feel empowered and act resourcefully; most feel disenfranchised or locked down.

The role of the senior leader was no longer that of controlling puppet master, but rather that of an empathetic crafter of culture.

When we did it right, the analyst left the O&I more confident about, committed to, and personally invested in our effort.

I told you that you weren’t going home until we win—what would you do differently?”