Top 41 Mcchrystal's Quotes
#1. When my editors and I at 'Rolling Stone' came up with the idea to do a profile of General McChrystal, I simply just e-mailed General McChrystal's press staff, said we wanted to do a profile, and said if you could give us any time to hang out with the general, that would be great.
Michael Hastings
#2. I was raised to believe that soldiers were strong and wise and brave and faithful; they didn't lie, cheat, steal or abandon their comrades.
Stanley A. McChrystal
#3. We must be bold . . . as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.
Stanley McChrystal
#4. General McChrystal had to go. Whatever his virtues as a strategist and commander, the 'Rolling Stone' interview fatally compromised his ability to represent the United States in dealing with allies and to act within the circle of people who must make decisions in Afghanistan.
Jim Talent
#5. It is now a building in which individuals toil independently in accordance with top-down, need-to-know reductionist planning. They might as well be spread around the globe.
Stanley McChrystal
#6. Like leaders in many walks of life, my business has been to serve with, and for, others.
Stanley A. McChrystal
#7. McChrystal had organized a jaw-dropping counterterrorism campaign inside Iraq, but the tactical successes did not translate into a strategic victory. This was why counterinsurgency - blanketing the population in safety and winning them over - was necessary.
Bob Woodward
#8. As the demands of the positions differed, and as I grew in age and experience, I found that I had changed as a leader. I learned to ask myself two questions: First, what must the organization I command do and be? And second, how can I best command to achieve that?
Stanley McChrystal
#11. There's likely a place in paradise for people who tried hard, but what really matters is succeeding. If that requires you to change, that's your mission.
Stanley McChrystal
#12. There is only one Army in which you serve. When that identity is gone, it is gone forever.
Stanley A. McChrystal
#13. I thought Gen. McChrystal was unfireable, that his position was secure.
Michael Hastings
#14. Replacing General McChrystal with David Petraeus was a good first step, but more will be needed.
Jim Talent
#15. Purpose affirms trust, trust affirms purpose, and together they forge individuals into a working team.
Stanley McChrystal
#16. Taylor despised workers' free association - their attempts to establish horizontal bonds - because it created too many
Stanley McChrystal
#17. physical space has for a century been used to facilitate and enforce efficiency and specialization. Along with factory assembly lines, the architectural frames of white-collar work have evolved to maximize efficiency.
Stanley McChrystal
#18. Military guys are rarely as smart as they think they are, and they've never gotten over the fact that civilians run the military.
Maureen Dowd
#19. To General McChrystal, those men on his team are his family. You know, these guys, they would do anything. They would die for each other.
Michael Hastings
#20. It Takes a Network to Defeat a Network." With that, we took the first step toward an entirely new conversation.
Stanley McChrystal
#21. sharing information would help build relationships and the two together would kindle a new, coherent, adaptive entity that could win the fight.
Stanley McChrystal
#22. In battle, refusal or hesitation to follow orders can spell disaster. But at the same time, the rigid hierarchy and absolute power of officers slows down execution and stifles rapid adaptation by the soldiers closest to the fight.
Stanley McChrystal
#23. I don't miss the bureaucracy of being in the Army. But I still love the relationships you can build. And it doesn't have to be in military service - it can be anything you're doing with someone that matters. You develop a bond.
Stanley A. McChrystal
#24. Attempts to control complex systems by using the kind of mechanical, reductionist thinking championed by thinkers from Newton to Taylor - breaking everything down into component parts, or optimizing individual elements - tend to be pointless at best or destructive at worst.
Stanley McChrystal
#25. If I told you that you weren't going home until we win - what would you do differently?
Stanley McChrystal
#26. The rules and limitations that once prevented accidents now prevented creativity.
Stanley McChrystal
#27. One of the great things about America is we should not judge until we know the facts.
Stanley A. McChrystal
#29. Efficiency, once the sole icon on the hill, must make room for adaptability in structures, processes, and mind-sets that is often uncomfortable.
Stanley McChrystal
#30. So this general with the background in intelligence who is supposed to conquer Afghanistan can't even figure out what Rolling Stone is? We're not talking Guns & Ammo here; we're talking the antiwar hippie magazine.
Maureen Dowd
#31. Michael Hastings has never served his country the way McChrystal has.
Lara Logan
#32. I want the American people to understand, we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Stanley A. McChrystal
#33. General McChrystal wanted to be on the cover of 'Rolling Stone.'
Michael Hastings
#34. My very identity as a soldier came to an abrupt end. I'd been soldiering as long as I'd been shaving. Suddenly I'd been told I could no longer soldier, and it felt as though no one really cared if I ever shaved again.
Stanley A. McChrystal
#35. Although we intuitively know the world has changed, most leaders reflect a model and leader development process that are sorely out of date. We often demand unrealistic levels of knowledge in leaders and force them into ineffective attempts to micromanage.
Stanley McChrystal
#37. As the world grows faster and more interdependent, we need to figure out ways to scale the fluidity of teams across entire organizations: groups with thousands of members that span continents, like our Task Force. But this is easier said than done.
Stanley McChrystal
#38. When you go through some controversy and you see your face on the news in a negative way for 48 hours ... you doubt yourself. And your friends make the difference. They become a safety net that come in and say, 'That's not the case.' And the relationships that you've built ... come to the fore.
Stanley A. McChrystal
#39. Catchy acronym in the consulting world, "MECE," which stands for "mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive.
Stanley McChrystal
#40. Our actions, particularly interventions, can upset regions, nations, cultures, economies, and peoples, however virtuous our purpose. We must ensure that the cure we offer through intervention is not worse than the disease.
Stanley McChrystal
#41. I came to believe that a leader isn't good because they're right; they're good because they're willing to learn and to trust.
Stanley A. McChrystal
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