McChrystal Group

Red Teaming

Unleash Divergent Thinking, Adapt to Risk, Prepare for the Future
Group brainstorming session at a whiteboard
Coffee break discussion

Organizations are confronting disruptive shifts with increasing frequency: geopolitical instability, extreme natural disasters, supply-chain challenges, emerging technologies, workforce disruptions, and the prospect of an economic downturn. These trends offer considerable new opportunities for organizations that can quickly adapt to them–while harming those who remain complacent and fail to adjust. Navigating these volatile times requires leaders that are willing to practice divergent and critical thinking.​

Leverage red teaming to thrive in an era of disruption. 

About Red Teams

To Red Team is to implement a structured process that is semi-independent from an institution and is designed to better understand that institution’s interests, intentions, and capabilities—or those of competitors or clients. And from that analysis, we help you strengthen your plans and increase your odds of success.

McChrystal Group’s proprietary Red Team solutions equip organizations with the tactical, strategic, and environmental tools, methods, and transformations required to compete and flourish in today’s complex business world… and to give you tools your competitors are not using for their decisions.

Recent Red Team Engagements

We have partnered with organizations of all industries and sizes to implement our Red Team approach to an array of strategic choices. Whether it is a decision, product, plan, policy, or strategy, you can Red Team it.

  • Fortune 50 biopharma deciding how to market and price a new drug and assess probable response of second-mover competitors.
  • U.S.-based technology company deciding whether to proceed with the $950M acquisition of a competitor and its associated patents.
  • State government uncovering the logistical and political risks associated with messaging and rolling-out of COVID vaccines.
  • Global technology company trained to establish its own internal Red Team to pressure-test its products before launch.
  • Fast-growing venture capital firm making the cultural shift to a “scaling to agility” mindset to provide more immediate value for its portfolio companies.

Proven Results Across Industries

WORKSHOP 1

A Four-Company Technology Consortium

30-person leadership cohort
One-day, in-person workshop

 

Participants were able to improve their collective alignment on the collaborative approach to win government contracts—an increase of 49%.

 

I feel really good about the direction we're going. We have tangible goals and a schedule to execute.”
Workshop Participant
WORKSHOP 2

$5.2B Global Medical Company

20 participants from disparate functions
8-hour, 2-part series virtual workshop

 

Participants noticeably increased their confidence in implementing the new organizational strategy.

 

Fantastic facilitators and overall team. The ease and clarity in which the discussions were documented throughout the workshop were so helpful and impressive.”
Workshop Participant
WORKSHOP 3

Leading Regional Financial Firm

35 leaders and key enterprise partners
Half-day, virtual workshop

 

93% of the cohort agreed that they would recommend the workshop to a peer.

 

Red Teaming is a great way to identify controllable versus non-controllable concerns and issues, and align on mitigation plans.
Workshop Participant

Related Articles

Case Study

Red Teaming Workshop

It is not always easy for an organization to objectively assess its own decisions. While careful research and planning may alleviate some of the risks associated with a big, strategic change, it is difficult to prevent personal or organization-level biases and assumptions from undermining success.

Learn More ›
Case Study

Equipping a Global Technology Company with the Skills and Tools Needed to Identify and Evaluate Risks

McChrystal designed and implemented a Red Team Training Program within a global technology company to add rigor to product development processes, enable permanent Red Teaming capabilities, train employees on how to run their own red teams, and enhance organizational alignment around product prioritization.

Learn More ›

Insights

What If You Had Red Teamed?

Despite all the procedures, resources, and regulations that exist to mitigate risk, we are seeing businesses continue to experience highly consequential and catastrophic disasters.
Read More Read More

Why Red Teams Are Imperative

of executive leadership teams spend less than one hour per month discussing their unit’s strategy, with 50% spending no time at all.

Nearly 60%

of projects failed to fully meet their objectives.
Source: IBM 2008 Study - Making Change Work

of a company’s employees are unaware of or do not understand its strategy.

feel no ownership in getting the goals completed.

Following the conclusion of a Red Team workshop, we synthesize outputs into an actionable report containing practical recommendations, tools, and tactics.

 

FREE RED TEAM TOOL

Try a McChrystal Group twist on a classic Red Team exercise—the Pre-Mortem Analysis exercise created by Gary Klein.

 

Download Exercise Download Exercise

Red Team with Us.

McChrystal facilitates half-day to multi-day focused red team exercises for clients of all industries and sizes. These exercises can also fit within executive offsites, all hands, strategy tabletop exercises, simulations, team development events, and more.

Get in Touch Get in Touch

Our Professional Red Team Facilitators

Micah Zenko

Director of Research and Learning

Read Bio ›

Micah Zenko is a Red Team facilitator at McChrystal Group, where he develops offerings designed to enhance organizational performance.

Maryam Shariati

Senior Principal

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Maryam Shariati is a Red Team facilitator at McChrystal Group, where she is responsible for designing and implementing strategy and leadership development services to drive higher performance for teams and organizations.

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S2,E20: Micah Zenko - Let’s Play Devil’s Advocate

Dr. Micah Zenko, author of 'Red Team: How to Succeed By Thinking Like the Enemy', explains why Red Teaming is an important practice for any organization.

Why Leaders Should Expect Their Own Company's Collapse.

Practical steps to create a culture that learns from failure. Written by Micah Zenko in Fortune.

Excerpts of Red Team: How to Succeed by Thinking Like the Enemy

Learn more from the world’s leading Red Team expert and McChrystal’s Director of Research and Learning.