Rapid Response: A crisis leadership session with General Stanley McChrystal

Team Connections

Building and maintaining team connections is crucial, especially when working remotely. Stanley McChrystal highlights the need for intentional team creation and disciplined communication to replicate the nonverbal cues lost in a remote environment. He suggests using video calls to foster human connections and improve team morale.

You can't multitask. You can't be looking around doing other stuff because it's so obvious and disrespectful, but there's no other way to create it.

--- Stanley McChrystal

McChrystal also advises leaders to encourage regular video interactions among team members to maintain a sense of camaraderie and support 1 2.

   

Collaboration

Fostering collaboration during crises requires overcoming organizational inertia and leveraging the crisis as an opportunity for change. Stanley McChrystal explains that crises can break down silos and encourage integration across different parts of an organization. He emphasizes the importance of maintaining a steady pace of collaboration to avoid burnout.

The hardest thing about changing an organization is overcoming the inertia.

--- Stanley McChrystal

McChrystal also discusses the role of intuition in high-stress environments and the potential for corporate equivalents of post-traumatic stress due to prolonged crises 3 4 5.