Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Protect the risk takers


 

"If you are always on the hunt for complacency, you will reward risk-takers, and people who thrive in uncertainty."

"Take the mavericks in your service, the ones that wear rumpled uniforms and look like a bag of mud but whose ideas are so offsetting that they actually upset the people in the bureaucracy. 

One of your primary jobs is to take the risk and protect these people, because if they are not nurtured in your service, the enemy will bring their contrary ideas to you."

General James Mattis
United States Marine Corps
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousAugust 11, 2011 at 8:19 AM

    "I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I’ll kill you all."

    General Mattis

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  2. Bryan LopezAugust 8, 2012 at 1:08 AM

    Great philosophy, but rarely practiced

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  3. Bryan LopezAugust 8, 2012 at 1:11 AM

    Great philosophy, but rarely practiced

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousOctober 5, 2012 at 11:32 AM

    Agreed, Bryan. Nice thought, but a paradigm shift is needed. We say we practice risk management but in actuality we practice risk avoidance. We avoid risk to the point of impacting operations and exercises.

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  5. AnonymousOctober 5, 2012 at 1:08 PM

    I would also add that a zero-defect/zero tolerance mentality has only fostered and proliferated the risk avoidance attitude.

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