Stanley Allen McChrystal's Departure

General Stanley Allen McChrystal has been sacked from his position of commander of the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. How does it matter to me? Nothing!!! It doesn't matter to me at all unless I start thinking about it from Project Management perspective.

If I was Barak Obama, the stakeholder, bearing direct impact by the outcome of Afghanistan project, would I have done same? Yes, I would have.

General  McChrystal  is a career soldier with impaccable record to have reached the position of commander of US and NATO forces. Therefore, no one can challenge his capabilities as project manager of Afghanistan project. However, there were three things that led to his removal.

One, the non alignment of vision with the primary stakeholders. If the stakeholder and project manager do not share the common vision the project is likely to fail. It happens quite often happens the project manager doesn't agree with the stakeholder's vision or the methodology. It is important to synchronize between the two.

Two, public display of disagreement with the vision and the stakeholders, negatively affects motivation and direction of the team members, in this case officers and soldiers under the command of the General.

Three, availability of a substitute. Obama has an easy option of replacing General McChrystal with General David Howell Petraeus who has a proven track record from Iraq Project. It is obvious to assume that when he delivered results in Iraq, he shares common vision with the stakeholders and he is a good project manager.

All the above reasons can have an impact on a project of any magnitude, something as small as holding a house party or running a war expedition of this magnitude.