so people ask me what do you do for a
living
I usually smile it's not because that I
don't have a job it's not because that I
don't have an answer it's just
complicated my boys are in elementary
school and they don't do complicated so
if you ask them the same question
they'll tell you my mom she's a war
doctor close enough for the past 15
years I've been training generals to be
generals I travel with my team around
the world and we do advanced workshops
on strategy and military operations meet
general Zaza former chief of general
staff of the Armed Forces of Georgia in
2008 they invited us to train them
several months later a war broke out
between Russia and Georgia coincidence
so so by saying I train generals it's
even more ambiguous than my original
smile let's try and break it down to
three questions shall we so first of all
how do we train generals second what we
train them for what does it general even
mean and third why me so how do you
train generals and the simple answer is
you can't
why not because there are generals
generals always think they know best and
you know what they do know best or so we
need them to
we need them to think they know best to
be self-confident and self-reliant
because when it comes to matter of life
and death on death scale in magnitude it
can be very lonely at the top and there
is no one out there but you to tell you
what's right and what's wrong so stop
trying to train them generals Mustangs
should train themselves or to quote from
the sensei do without doing and
everything gets done think of it as a
course without a course there are no
professors no students there are no
frontal presentations they structure
their learning and they decide the
outcome there are no simulations or
scenarios they talk about real problems
in real time why because real life is
more complex and more challenging and
more powerful than any artificial
setting we can come up with in a
nutshell they decide what it a general
is and they train themselves for it but
in order for this approach to be
effective they must change perception
and realize that the general is not just
another promotion and the fact that you
are standing in a ceremony getting a new
rank on your shoulder and being saluted
to doesn't make you general quite yet
which brings me to question number two
what do you train them for what's a
general until they get to the top of the
pyramid generals are just a part of the
system they're a part of the whole the
system shapes them in its own image at
what it thinks best it is based on past
experience doctrine manuals audits vast
amount of knowledge that was written in
blood but by the time they get to the
top of the pyramid when they become in
charge of the whole system they must
change
spective generals are like the interface
between their system and the rest of the
world so suddenly it is not enough to be
measured according to what you already
know suddenly are measured by what you
don't know because reality is changing
is changing in a faster pace than ever
so a general must look for places his
system may not be in sync with the world
and find an alternative way about it
there are no blueprints for generals all
he sees questions not answers there are
the system's navigators sailing through
uncharted waters think of Shackleton and
his crew sailing to Antarctica that sea
of ice must have been a view they've
been seeing for days that's pretty
intense isn't it so maybe in order for
generals to become generals they must be
able to forget before they can begin to
learn in that sense they evolved from
being products of a system to being
creators of systems much like strategy
strategy is about creating systems in
shaping realities a general wants to be
the one who defines the rules of the
game why you played how you played where
you played because if he doesn't shape
reality his enemies will shape it for
him and we don't want that yet that's
not true only two generals look at it
that way 99% of humanity lives in a
world that was created by just 1% not
all of us want to be that 1% some of us
are content with the world as it is but
those who can and do shape our entire
ecosystem what this 1% have in common is
that they have a new understanding about
life they can visualize it in their
heads they can make it happen and they
have something compelling to sell a new
idea a new truth or a new lifestyle
some do it for fame some do it for
profit some do it for influence all of
the manage to change a world
Moses Galileo da Vinci Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson Ted Turner Steve Jobs
Oprah try to imagine the West without
the Ten Commandments astronomy without a
telescope science without the theory of
relativity the world without a u.s.
world news without CNN hipsters without
Apple or Lady gaga
without Madonna how many times have you
heard the same stories about those
successful billionaires who were
University dropouts or social misfits or
outcasts over and over again could there
be a model of reality shapers I believe
there is and I call it the first model
the first model of reality shapers
stands on three personality attributes
there are free thinkers they're awed and
they're special now what's interesting
about it is if you read it backwards you
get the abbreviation of self
special-operations forces the most
advanced military organization in the
world today so maybe sometimes in order
to gain strategic impact you need to
look at things backwards so first of all
reality shapers are free thinkers they
never accept any truth automatically
from any higher authority beat a
professor a priest or unfortunately a
parent now one time in history they were
called heretics and one time in history
they were burned at the stakes for it
Field Marshal AVO who was a free thinker
on his own had the following advice
for his fellow soldiers never let
yourself be traveled by the bonds of
Orthodoxy always think for yourself get
as much experience as you can outside
the possible run and remember that the
herd is usually wrong second reality
shapers are odd and offbeat they think
and act in unconventional ways and they
never stop at anything when there is an
impasse
they bypass like Bruce Lee used to say
be water my friend
and third and third reality shapers are
special they stand for everything that
is different from what we know frida
kahlo
was a Mexican painter she never let
anyone define her she was of her own
making when art critics tried to frame
her that was her response they thought I
was a surrealist I wasn't I never
painted dreams
I painted my own reality much like him
anyone know who that is probably not
orde Wingate was very famous in these
days and the stuff military legends are
made of Winston Churchill called him a
man of genius who might have become a
man of destiny and much like Frida Kahlo
and they were both of the same
generation he had the power of making
people loose the power of distinguishing
between the feasible and the fantastic
nothing in his upbringing had any
indication to what would become of him
he was born to an average family in the
British sense
he bought millet a big military
a bit religious a bit politically
connected he was an average height he
was an average built he was an average
athlete he was a mediocre military cadet
and in fact was rejected not once but
twice from the higher command and staff
course also he had a habit of looking
eccentric he had the look of a biblical
prophet and some old habits on the way
so he was definitely not part of the
herd at the system thering average so we
have to look at his genius elsewhere
orde Wingate didn't have any interest in
what in you only in what he didn't know
so he took positions in the margins of
the Empire the Sudan Palestine Ethiopia
or Burma these were the interfaces
between his system and the rest of the
world these were his uncharted waters
that's where he could grow and that's
what made him an expert in
unconventional warfare
he rose like a meteor from major to
Major General in just under three years
and in his very short time spent he
flipped the entire British military
institution on its head breaking taboos
like fighting at night fighting in the
desert fighting in the jungle fighting
in the enemies depths splitting
formations and transforming regular
soldiers average soldiers into a special
force so he was an embodiment of the
foss motto
he was a free thinker he was awed and he
was special and he taught himself
because that new form of warfare he came
up with had no precedent he had to make
it on his own which brings me finally to
my third question why me why and how did
that girl who grew up in Tel Aviv
could never sit still and spend most of
her time at the beach have the hutzpah
to think I'm qualified to Train generals
in that godforsaken war magnet called
the Middle East don't know if you ever
met Israeli general but if you have you
may notice I don't look like one I'm not
the right rank I am NOT the right age
I'm definitely not the right gender and
as my boss likes to remind me from time
to time I am probably the only woman
training generals to be generals
in any military that he knows of so I
mean what did they need me for and in
that I go back to the creator of
creators in Genesis 2:18 the Lord God
said it is not good it is not good for
man to be alone I will make him a help
meet for him but what is missing from
King James Bible version in exist in the
original Hebrew version is this and the
Lord God said it is not good for men to
be alone
I will make him help against him so my
generals oppose me confront me engage me
I am the other self I am that special
mirror that lets them see what they
don't want to see only when you see your
shortcomings you have the potential to
evolve so maybe this is exactly what my
generals need to be able to forget
before they can begin to learn to be
free thinkers to be awed to be special
maybe that what is needed to win the
next war and not the last one and this
is how you shape realities thank you