3min chapter

#535: General Stanley McChrystal — Mastering Risk: A User's Guide

The Tim Ferriss Show

notes

CHAPTER

Making a Decision - It Carriers Risk

When i talked about preparing athletes to be a team, a world class team, or to be soldiers in combat, i start with the absolute assumption that risks will emerge. And unless we're extraordinarily fortunate or nimble, we won't dodge them completely. A leader in combat often has to decide to do things which may carry significant cost ind casualties from their force. Now the desire is to wait until you have perfect information, so that you don't do something tat turns out to be ineffective. But not making or delaying a decision is a decision in itself and carries its own risks.

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Episode notes

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!

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