Sublime

Despite the communicated intent of our senior leadership, no one wanted to give up their best talent to fill what appeared to be a remote position, especially as the intensity of the war increased. Moreover, few high performers would want to leave their familiar, intimate home unit in favor of this isolating job. On top of these concerns, the logic

“If you aren’t winning,” I responded, “then you aren’t making the right decisions.”

My final remarks were a way to prioritize that information—the three most important things I wanted the assault force to remember and keep first and foremost in their minds:

If you met Lewis in the street, you might guess that he was a lawyer or a kindly geography teacher. In fact, he was one of the most efficiently deadly men in the British services.

of personal perspective was discouraged.

The first feature of an O&I that allowed for these effects was the breadth and depth of the teams that it was able to assemble, and prompt dialogue between. In order to assemble these teams and facilitate discussion, an O&I depended on someone who could “own” the operation of the forum. The voice that the Task Force’s teams heard open every

A common misperception among military leaders or corporate senior executives, this was an example of a boss who didn’t fully comprehend the weight of her position. In her mind, she was fairly laid back, open to questions, comments, and suggestions from people. She talked about maintaining an “open-door policy.” But in the minds of her sales manager

leverage colocation to produce boundary spanners who transcended the divisions among intelligence collection, analysis, and operations teams.

they took absolute ownership—Extreme Ownership—not just of those things for which they were responsible, but for everything that impacted their mission. These leaders cast no blame. They made no excuses. Instead of complaining about challenges or setbacks, they developed solutions and solved problems. They leveraged assets, relationships, and resou