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

by Stanley McChrystal

We also expanded and refined our system of sending liaison officers to our partner organizations. Liaisons are institutionalized ambassadors who serve to connect organizations—our Task Force would send a liaison to, say, the CIA, and they would send a liaison to us. Traditionally, this was a duty assigned to someone on their final tour before retirement or as a way to shuffle someone away from a squadron where they were not fitting in. Their duties were unenvied, and they were generally seen as a spy by the gaining organization—someone who was there simply to sit through meetings and report back to their home organization. They brought very little to the plate, and were rarely trusted. However, as interfaces became increasingly important, we realized the potential for bolstering our relationships with our partner agencies by way of a strong linchpin liaison officer (LNO). As it turned out, some of our best LNOs were also some of our best leaders on the battlefield. We started taking world-class commandos—men who could snipe, fast-rope, and skydive—and we placed them, attired in civilian suits, in embassies thousands of miles from the fight, because we knew we needed a great relationship with the ambassador and the other interagency leadership posted there. Everyone hated removing some of our best operators from the battlefield, but we reaped enormous benefits. Our goal was twofold. First, we wanted to get a better sense of how the war looked from our partners’ perspectives...