Washington DC is an amazing city and one of the major seats of power in the USA. I got to see a bit of the movers and shakers in the city when we visited the McChrystal Group during our the Leadership Possibilities and Paradoxes Project sponsored by the US State Department. We read former General Stanley McChrystal’s book, Team of Teams, and got the opportunity to discuss the book at their headquarters in their headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia and receive a presentation by one of their consultants.
After retiring from military service, McChrystal started a business management consulting firm that helps companies collaborate better. They work mostly with larger companies like petroleum companies and large pharmaceutical companies. It was nice to get to experience this as a leader of a non-profit. They were great hosts and it was a fascinating glimpse into the world of the military and of high-powered, executive consulting services.
The experiences of leading the Joint Special Operations Task Force in Iraq and Afghanistan are much different than leading a K-12 international school learning community. However, working with people and solving complex problems in ever-changing environments is the same. The idea of a leader as gardener resonated with us and it is funny that a leader whose main goal is to kill enemy combatants, takes a nurturing approach to managing people, the same as a school. We had a long conversation about the Team of Teams (I blogged about it on my professional blog “Global School Leadership”. Looking back at my life, I would have liked to have had a military experience after college as I was immature and I think it would have helped me develop faster.
My major takeaway from the experience besides all of good ideas for leadership was to focus on my physical fitness and body. I strongly believe that a healthy body improves my thinking and empathy. Professor John reminded me of Thomas Jefferson’s take on this. Jefferson is right that ball games at my age are risky, but the idea of moving daily for 2 hours is good advice. For me its 1 hour of yoga and 1 hour of walking my dog, jogging, or lifting weights. I am setting a goal for next year to be more active.
1785 August 19. (Jefferson to Peter Carr). “Encourage all your virtuous dispositions, and exercise them whenever an opportunity arises, being assured that they will gain strength by exercise as a limb of the body does, and that exercise will make them habitual. … Give about two of them [hours] every day to exercise; for health must not be sacrificed to learning. A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this gives a moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprize, and independance to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks. Never think of taking a book with you. The object of walking is to relax the mind. You should therefore not permit yourself even to think while you walk. But divert your attention by the objects surrounding you. Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far. The Europeans value themselves on having subdued the horse to the uses of man. But I doubt whether we have not lost more than we have gained by the use of this animal. No one has occasioned so much the degeneracy of the human body. An Indian goes on foot nearly as far in a day, for a long journey, as an enfeebled white does on his horse, and he will tire the best horses. There is no habit you will value so much as that of walking far without fatigue. I would advise you to take your exercise in the afternoon. Not because it is the best time for exercise for certainly it is not: but because it is the best time to spare from your studies; and habit will soon reconcile it to health, and render it nearly as useful as if you gave to that the more precious hours of the day. A little walk of half an hour in the morning when you first rise is adviseable also. It shakes off sleep, and produces other good effects in the animal œconomy.”
https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/exercise/#fn
McChrystal is devoted to fitness and he looked great for age 69. He surprised us by coming into the office at the end of our time in their headquarters.
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