MacArthur and McChrystal

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/23/opinion/23friedman.html?e




http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/23/opinion/23dowd.html?emc=eta1



One of our favorite things to post about is effective management. That can sometimes be defined by examining ineffective management. "Don't do this" is sometimes just as instructive as "Do this!"

Two of our favorite writers are Dowd and Friedman. Both get too extreme at times but both make compelling and effective points. Friedman (and his three Pulitzers) can define the Middle East like no one else and make the political situation there sound like there is, indeed, a solution available. Dowd understands management and politics.

We're guessing here that General Stanley McChrystal knows who General Douglas MacArthur was. We're betting he studied that at West Point (if not before that). General MacArthur was fired by Harry Truman during the Korean War when he refused to stop his troops at, roughly, the current line of demarcation between North and South Korea. General MacArthur was a hero of World War II who had come back to win in Korea. If there had been public opinion polls similar to those done today back then, Harry Truman would have been an "also ran" and MacArthur would have been somebody who could have beaten Truman if he'd wanted to run for President. But, Truman was the boss.

Mike Martin, one of the great college head baseball coaches of all time (Florida State), has a favorite saying: "Sometimes you're the windshield, and sometimes you're the bug." Truman was the windshield.

We're guessing here that McChrystal didn't learn the MacArthur lesson. We're also guessing that McChrystal's attitude was about the same as MacArthur's. And, it got him the same result. And, might we add, McChrystal had nowhere near the stature of MacArthur.

The "Rolling Stone" article on this situation is an instant classic. It should be required reading in business schools. Whether or not you respect the person, respect the position.

Jim Collins (he of "Good to Great" and, more recently, "How the Mighty Fall") on what one single trait is the most important to management success: "HUMILITY". To Collins, CEOs who don't have it, fail sooner or later. To quote 'Rolling Stone': "Although McChrystal has been in charge of the war for only a year, in that short time he has managed to piss off almost everyone with a stake in the conflict." Reading about McChrystal's behavior, he actually put himself in a position where President Obama had no choice but to fire him - again, instructive from a management point of view.

We wonder here whether McChrystal had any clue that allowing a "Rolling Stone" reporter access to everything he and his staff thought and said was possibly NOT a good idea. We can only conclude that his ego saw it as inconsequential.

Again, we have attached Friedman on the Afghan situation because he makes the "unclear" clearer. We have attached Dowd because she adds some class and perspective to a classless and sad situation.