Creative Execution: What Great Leaders Do to Unleash Bold Thinking and Innovation

Desert Storm Unleashed

At 2:30 in the morning on January 17, Norman Schwarzkopf walked into a room full of generals and colonels of the U.S. and coalition forces to read a message he had addressed to the troops of Central Command. He noted that the coalition forces were “the most powerful force our country, in coalition with our allies, has ever assembled in a single theater” and concluded by saying that “my confidence in you is total.”¹² At 2:47 a.m., the first flash message announcing the destruction of two radar installations across the Iraqi border by U.S. Special Forces reached his headquarters in downtown Riyadh. This was followed by a stream of tactical messages relaying the brutal efficiency and execution of the air war over Iraq:

“0310: ...