Episode 78: General Stanley McChrystal - Risk: A User's Guide

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