Chris Fussell

“If the most deeply interconnected individuals can exemplify the behaviors that your official top brass sets out, then the rest of the organization will follow suit.”

“In 2010, I was an executive officer in the Navy, splitting my time between U.S. headquarters and being deployed to an international location.”

“Before you can trust your team to make decisions better than you would have, you need to build their capability to connect the dots.”

“Leaders in an interconnected organization must be comfortable sitting in the middle of a network, not at the top of an org-chart.”

“In the military, and in business, the most elite and effective teams I've seen or been part of are filled with individuals who take responsibility for their choices. Life is a series of decisions that you make and actions you take, not a series of things that happen to you.”

“The reality, as the battlefield taught us, is that a 20th-century organizational system is simply insufficient for the speed of the information age.”

“When the collective mentality of any organization is self and self-preservation first, it's a sure sign of pending doom.”

“It's difficult to feel as though you are truly being effective at work. Many of us feel trapped in endless meetings, with barely any time to grab lunch, let alone do any work. Overarching strategies and key priorities seem completely divorced from the day-to-day tactics.”

“The 21st century is dominated by networks because the introduction of the information age, we can suddenly create, free flow these globally distributed, organic, shaped networks of individuals.”

“The truth is that key influencers exist in all effective organizations, but a solid-line org chart won't tell you where they are.”

“If you're trying to stay productive, stop and think, 'Are my meetings actually productive, or are we merely having meetings for meetings' sake?'”