by Michael O'Neill | Jul 1, 2016 | Knowledge Management, Quote
Effective prediction – as we have discussed – has become increasingly difficult, and in many situations impossible. Continuing to function under the illusion that we can understand and foresee exactly what will be relevant to whom is hubris. It might feel safe, but it is the opposite. Functioning safely in an interdependent environment requires that every team possess a holistic understanding of the interaction between all the moving parts. Everyone has to see the system in its entirety for the plan to work.
Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams
by Michael O'Neill | Jun 25, 2016 | Knowledge Management, Quote
Internal and external analysis later concluded that all these problems stemmed from shortfalls of organizational communication – devastating “interface failures,” or blinks. In his 1964 book The American Challenge, French journalist Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber argued that Europe’s lag behind the United States in the Space Race was not a question of money but of “methods of organization above all . . . this is not a matter of ‘brain power’ in the traditional sense of the term, but of organization, education, and training.” On the other side of the pond, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara concurred that Europe suffered from a managerial deficit: “The technological gap was misnamed.” It was a space age Tower of Babel: the countries’ inability to speak to one another obstructed their joint effort to reach the heavens.
Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams
by Michael O'Neill | Jun 10, 2016 | Knowledge Management, Quote
NASA’s success illustrated a number of profound organizational insights. Most important, it showed that in a domain characterized by interdependence and unknowns, contextual understanding is key; whatever efficiency is gained through silos is outweighed by the costs of “interface failures.” It also proved that the cognitive “oneness” – the emergent intelligence – that we have studied in small teams can be achieved in larger organizations, if such organizations are willing to commit to the disciplined, deliberate sharing of information. This runs counter to the standard “need-to-know” mindset.
Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams
by Michael O'Neill | Jun 5, 2016 | Open Floorpan, Quote
Bloomberg says, “I’ve always believed that management’s ability to influence work habits through edict is limited. Ordering something gets it done, perhaps. When you turn your back, though, employees tends to regress to the same old ways. Physical Plant, however, has a much more lasting impact . . . I issue proclamations telling everyone to work together, but it’s the lack of walls that really makes them do it.”
[…]
This is not just about symbolic egalitarianism. The cultivated chaos of the open office encourages interaction between employees distant from one another on the org chart. Putting himself in the middle of it kept Bloomberg’s finger on the pulse of the organization. “If you lock yourself in your office, I don’t think you can be a good executive,” he says. “It makes absolutely no sense to me.”
Stanley McChrystal quoting Michael Bloomberg, Team of Teams
by Michael O'Neill | May 29, 2016 | Quote
As a leader, however, my most powerful instrument of communication was my own behavior.
Stanley McChrystal, Team of Teams
by Michael O'Neill | Apr 3, 2016 | Agile, Quote
“I once asked Steve Jobs, often mistakenly considered a lone visionary and authoritarian leader, which of his creations made him most proud. I thought he might say the original Macintosh, or the iPhone. Instead he pointed out that these were all collaborative efforts. The creation he was most proud of, he said, were the teams he had produced…” –Walter Isaacson, preface to Team of Teams
