Christopher Fussell
Meet Christopher
Chris Fussell is the President of McChrystal Group. Chris has focused on bringing his Special Operations experience and expertise in cross-functional collaboration, knowledge sharing, and decision making with large corporations facing similar challenges. He joined McChrystal Group as a Partner in 2012.
Chris was commissioned as an Officer in the United States Navy in 1997, and spent the next 15 years on US Navy SEAL Teams, leading SEAL elements in combat zones around the globe. From war-torn Kosovo, to counter-terrorism operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, to highly specialized efforts in the troubled areas of the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa, he experienced and led through the modern evolution of the US military’s Special Operations community, first on SEAL Teams Two and Eight, then in the Naval Special Warfare Development Group.
Chris was selected to serve as Aide-de-Camp to then-Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal during General McChrystal’s final year commanding the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), where they served for a year together in Iraq. He witnessed first-hand the Special Operations community’s transformation into a successful, agile network.
Chris is also a Senior Fellow for National Security at New America, a Washington, DC-based non-partisan think tank dedicated to understanding the next generation of challenges facing the United States. Chris is actively involved in several non-profits dedicated to helping veterans and their families, and holds a seat on the Board of Directors for the Navy SEAL Foundation. He is also a lifetime member to the Council on Foreign Relations.
Chris earned a Master of Arts in Irregular Warfare from the Naval Postgraduate School, receiving the Pat Tillman Award for highest peer-rated Special Operations Officer in the program. His thesis work focused on the interagency collaboration and intelligence sharing processes that drove effective, cross-silo collaboration during the peak of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He is an author of the 2015 New York Times bestseller, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World as well as 2017 Wall Street Journal bestseller, One Mission: How Leaders Build a Team of Teams.
B.A. University of Richmond
M.S. Naval Postgraduate School
Written Articles/ Materials
Chief of Staff Resource
Do you need a Chief of Staff?
Even before the COVID-19 crisis, executives within Fortune 500 companies were dealing with too much complexity to succeed without a strong support staff. Chris Fussell discusses strategic lessons learned during his career on the staff of a 3-star general, and current business partner Stan McChrystal, and how these tactics transcend the role of many corporate Chiefs of Staff.
Playbook
Do you need a Chief of Staff?
Even before the COVID-19 crisis, executives within Fortune 500 companies were dealing with too much complexity to succeed without a strong support staff. Chris Fussell discusses strategic lessons learned during his career on the staff of a 3-star general, and current business partner Stan McChrystal, and how these tactics transcend the role of many corporate Chiefs of Staff.
Making the Case for Fusion Cells
A Fusion Cell can connect key organizations to share information and co-develop decision support for government leaders at a local, metropolitan, region or state-level. Connecting these fusion cells into a national network can create a nervous system for information flow that is unhampered by bureaucracy or state boundaries, and able to keep pace with the network spread of COVID-19.
Way to Work in 2022 Playbook
Slow Is Smooth, Smooth Is Fast Playbook: This playbook provides practical tips and insights on how you and your teams should be thinking about leading with intentionality, shaping resilient culture, and forging deeper connections to tailor your environment to the challenges ahead. In each of the playbook’s sections, we will focus on how your teams can operationalize these concepts in your People, in your Processes, and in your Technology.
