Keynote General Stan McChrystal: Leveraging Uncertainty

From some insightful looks at the how space flight finally achieved success to some behind-the -scenes peeks at what goes on in a 4-start general’s mind during a war, General Stan McChrystal had the conference crowd riveted during his hour-long keynote on Monday. But, for someone so accomplished, who has led troops into battle and made life-and-death decisions for thousands – if not millions - he was surprisingly down-to-earth. “The world teaches you humility,” he explained.

His comparisons and examples were so varied, that if one didn’t quite reach you, the next one would be crystal clear. For example, when it came to initial attempts at space launches, it wasn’t that any particular piece was bad, he said. It was that they didn’t all connect together seamlessly. It was the thought-process of George Mueller, a systems engineer who came into the Apollo program, that connected the pieces. He made sure that everyone understood the entire entity. Only in the context of the whole can you understand, McChrystal relayed. It is critical to success. Mueller called the success a “mundane art of management,” though McChrystal said he would add “leadership” to that as well.

He then used Frederick Winslow Taylor to illustrate how there was “one best way” that led to massive improvements in manufacturing efficiency. Then, he followed that up with an example of how efficiency is being trumped by adaptability and how “we are going to need wisdom” to conquer that one. It won’t be the kind of wisdom flowchart that we are used to, though. “Wisdom used to reside at the top,” he said. “That is not true anymore.” He said things change too fast and things shift, which is an important, life-changing concept he learned during his command of the Joint Special Operations Command. In order to beat the Al Qaeda terrorists, we had to change how we operated, he said. “For two years, they were defeating us because they were different.”

These concepts apply to organizations as well, including ACI-NA. He said the answer is to understand ourselves and where we fit in. Take, for example, a spear. It is not the tip that is dangerous; the lethality comes from the power in the shaft, which is made up of many parts/people. “How does it all come together?” he asked. “It comes together with leadership… The key is leveraging uncertainty.”