Risk: A User's Guide

We may not be able to see the future, but Control can teach us how to improve our resistance and build a strong defense against what we know -- and what we don't.

Retired four-star general Stan McChrystal has lived a life associated with the deadly risks of combat; he has seen how individuals and organizations, too often and to great cost, fail to mitigate risk. Why? Because they focus on the probability of something happening instead of the interface by which it can be managed.

In Control, McChrystal offers a new system of responding to risk, through ten dimensions of control we can adjust at any given time: narrative, bias, diversity, action, timing, adaptability, communication, technology, structure, and leadership. By monitoring these controls, we can anticipate, identify, analyze, and act when things do not go as planned. Drawing on compelling examples ranging from military history to the business world, and offering practical exercises to improve preparedness, McChrystal illustrates how these ten factors are almost always in effect, and how by considering them, individuals and organizations can exert mastery over every conceivable sort of risk that they might face.