I learned at JSOC,” McChrystal explained, “that any complex task is best approached by flattening hierarchies. It gets everybody feeling like they’re in the inner circle, so that they develop a sense of ownership. The more people who believe that they are part of the team and are in the know, the more you don’t have to do it yourself.”
Later in that same article, Brigadier General Scott Miller said about McChrystal and Rodriguez’s philosophy:
“Decentralize until you’re uncomfortable, then scrutinize, fix, and push down and out even further, to the level of the sergeants.”
Why does it work?
(B)ecause of the commander’s ability to reach down to the junior noncommissioned officers, a flat military organization puts—in the words of one admiral I interviewed—“performance pressure on everybody.”
Analogously, Cpt Roger Hill said
I have learned from working with good NCOs over the years that Soldiers come first. This is in spite of the fact that every Army school I have attended has preached mission first. If you take care of your men, the men will take care of the mission.- empahsis mine. Yep, good stuff. It jives with my beliefs about management, as well as freedom and personal responsibility, and seems to work for the most successful military in the world operating in some very challenging environments. It would be interesting to see what the Israeli philosophy on these topics is.
