X-board: 'Team of Teams'

by Stanley McChrystal.

Somehow we would have to scale trust and purpose without creating chaos.

Stanley McChrystal in 'Team of Teams'

Fabio Walser February 4. 2018 X-board: 'Team of Teams'

We didn't need every member of the Task Force to know everyone else; we just needed everyone to know someone on every team.

Stanley McChrystal in 'Team of Teams'

Fabio Walser February 6. 2018 X-board: 'Team of Teams'

Shared consciousness in an organization is either hindered or helped by physical spaces and established processes.

Stanley McChrystal in 'Team of Teams'

Fabio Walser February 8. 2018 X-board: 'Team of Teams'

Creating transparency and information sharing at the scale we needed required not only a redesign of our physical plant, but also a rethinking of almost every procedure in our organizational culture.

Stanley McChrystal in 'Team of Teams'

Fabio Walser February 10. 2018 X-board: 'Team of Teams'

Encouragement to collaborate tends to be more of a bumper sticker slogan than an actual managerial practice. In an interdependent environment, collaboration may be necessary to survival.

Stanley McChrystal in 'Team of Teams'

Fabio Walser February 12. 2018 X-board: 'Team of Teams'

We need true, not theoretical, collaboration, transparency, and trust.

Stanley McChrystal in 'Team of Teams'

Fabio Walser February 14. 2018 X-board: 'Team of Teams'

The stronger the ties between our teams [...] the higher the likelihood we would achieve the level of cooperation we needed.

Stanley McChrystal in 'Team of Teams'

Fabio Walser February 16. 2018 X-board: 'Team of Teams'

When asking for LNO nominations to fill critical positions, we used two criteria: 1 if it doesn't pain you to give the person up, pick someone else. 2 if it's not someone whose voice you'll recognize when they call you at home at 2.00 a.m., pick someone else.

Stanley McChrystal in 'Team of Teams'

Fabio Walser February 18. 2018 X-board: 'Team of Teams'

As partner organizations came to appreciate our LNOs, they reciprocated by sending their own LNOs to us.

Stanley McChrystal in 'Team of Teams'

Fabio Walser February 20. 2018 X-board: 'Team of Teams'

We began to overcome internal competition and barriers to cooperation. Bonds of trust began to form. [...] Even strangers were now, by extension, part of a familiar and trusted unit entity.

Stanley McChrystal in 'Team of Teams'

Fabio Walser February 22. 2018 X-board: 'Team of Teams'

Together, these two cornerstones–systemic understanding and strong lateral connectivity–grounded shared consciousness.

Stanley McChrystal in 'Team of Teams'

Fabio Walser February 24. 2018 X-board: 'Team of Teams'

Sharing information and creating strong horizontal relationships improves the effectiveness of everything from businesses to governments.

Stanley McChrystal in 'Team of Teams'

Fabio Walser February 26. 2018 X-board: 'Team of Teams'

Our new architecture was shared consciousness, and it consised of two elements: extreme, participatory transparency and the creation of strong internal connectivity across teams.

Stanley McChrystal in 'Team of Teams'

Fabio Walser February 28. 2018 X-board: 'Team of Teams'

Decisions that senior leaders a few decades prior would have been unable to oversee now required senior approval.

Stanley McChrystal in 'Team of Teams'

Fabio Walser March 2. 2018 X-board: 'Team of Teams'

The requirement to consult me […] was symptomatic of a bureaucracy that, over the years, had grown slower and more convoluted as the world around it had become faster.

Stanley McChrystal in 'Team of Teams'

Fabio Walser March 4. 2018 X-board: 'Team of Teams'

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X-board: 'Team of Teams'

Somehow we would have to scale trust and purpose without creating chaos.

We didn't need every member of the Task Force to know everyone else; we just needed everyone to know someone on every team.

Shared consciousness in an organization is either hindered or helped by physical spaces and established processes.

Creating transparency and information sharing at the scale we needed required not only a redesign of our physical plant, but also a rethinking of almost every procedure in our organizational culture.

Encouragement to collaborate tends to be more of a bumper sticker slogan than an actual managerial practice. In an interdependent environment, collaboration may be necessary to survival.

We need true, not theoretical, collaboration, transparency, and trust.

The stronger the ties between our teams [...] the higher the likelihood we would achieve the level of cooperation we needed.

When asking for LNO nominations to fill critical positions, we used two criteria: 1 if it doesn't pain you to give the person up, pick someone else. 2 if it's not someone whose voice you'll recognize when they call you at home at 2.00 a.m., pick someone else.

As partner organizations came to appreciate our LNOs, they reciprocated by sending their own LNOs to us.

We began to overcome internal competition and barriers to cooperation. Bonds of trust began to form. [...] Even strangers were now, by extension, part of a familiar and trusted unit entity.

Together, these two cornerstones–systemic understanding and strong lateral connectivity–grounded shared consciousness.

Sharing information and creating strong horizontal relationships improves the effectiveness of everything from businesses to governments.

Our new architecture was shared consciousness, and it consised of two elements: extreme, participatory transparency and the creation of strong internal connectivity across teams.

Decisions that senior leaders a few decades prior would have been unable to oversee now required senior approval.

The requirement to consult me […] was symptomatic of a bureaucracy that, over the years, had grown slower and more convoluted as the world around it had become faster.

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