This book had the biggest impact in my thoughts, vocabulary and actions this year.
Turn the Ship Around by David Marquet
This is a book on changing an organization from a Leader-Follower model to a Leader-Leader model. The lessons are easy to understand because they are told with great examples from the author’s command of a US Submarine - The USS Santa Fe. Marquet’s orders were changed at the last minute so all of his preparation for a different class of submarine is for nothing. Marquet is asked to take the USS Santa Fe from failing to an effective battle-ready machine. To do this, Marquet pushes his new crew to change from a mindset of avoiding errors to a learning mindset to pursue excellence. He delegates control to the lowest possible levels in the ship and supports that control through training for competence and clarity of mission. This change does not happen right away and requires the whole command to embrace higher levels of accountability and execution. Instead of issuing commands, Marquet teaches his officers to think at the next level and take initiative. His officers initiate action by saying “Captain, I intend to…”. If the Captain agrees, he says “Very well.” And the action is approved. Marquet encourages the sailors to think out loud as they approach decisions so that everyone around understands their actions and intents and can correct themselves and each other in real-time. The Captain stops having briefs before procedures. Instead, he has certification meetings where everyone involved in the next procedure is required to account for their part of the process, answer questions, and claim readiness. The Captain wins the hearts and minds of his crew by giving them real authority in areas that mattered to them. He also beefed up training to help his men excel in advancement tests so that they could be promoted more efficiently in the Navy’s bureaucratic promotion process. Captain Marquet took a crew of sailors who was down, out, and defensive and transformed it into a crew of leaders. They learned together. They didn’t worry about making mistakes, because mistakes were ways to learn. My friend, Adrian, recommended this book and we are going to start using these ideas at work to be more awesome.
This book is for all leaders.
(Rated G, Score 10/10, ebook and audiobook read by the author, 6:26)
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