Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Building Leaders by Breaking the Rules

Product Information

The first step he took in his early days on the ship was to remove the requirement for the Captain to be the final authority to sign-off shore leave (having also been signed off my every intermediate level in the chain of command) and pass the final authority to a sailor’s direct superior. Now I’m a business context this is an odd example - I think this sign-off by the supervisor would be standard practice in most businesses and most where I have worked have taken it further and left the employee to sign off their own leave. That said, it does illustrate his principle well - when there was a chain of sign-off those lower down the chain would then take no real responsibility for or ownership of the decision and the Captain would be too far from the situation and not really best utilised to sign off 150 people’s leave.

Military metaphors seem to fit into my understanding of the organisations. There is also a good proportion between military and business use-cases. Fake it til you make it" - or, as the author says "Acting your way to new thinking" as a mechanism for control. Even if you feel bad - smile - that will eventually make you feel better (it's proven). If you have doubts and don't fully commit to a new thing - it will come through so fake it til it feels natural and only then will you be able to determine the efficacy. Short early conversations make efficient work (another mechanism for control) - this is basically like a daily standup in Agile - it helps to talk through any questions and get an idea of where potential misunderstandings or misdirections may lie. A standup isn't intended to solve all the problems - you may create more meetings out of this but it's a good touchpoint! When the performance of a unit goes down after an officer leaves, it is taken as a sign that he was a good leader, not that he was ineffective in training his people properly.”As a former Navy “Nuke” I am a bit biased towards this book as it spoke of situations I am familiar with in a language I was fluent in.

The book is a fast read, but the approaches he described are not simple or necessarily easy to apply. He sprinkles anecdotes liberally throughout each chapter. How do we release the intellect and initiative of each member of the organization toward a common purpose? Here’s the answer: With fascinating storytelling and a deep understanding of what motivates and inspires. David Marquet provides leaders in the military, business, and education a powerful vehicle that will delight, provoke, and encourage them to act.”– Michael P. Peters, president of the St. John’s College, Santa Fe

WE LEARN (EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME) is a mechanism for COMPETENCE." This was a great section on learning from mistakes without coming down really hard on the team members - everything is a learning opportunity. Taking care of your people does not mean protecting them from the consequences of their own behavior. That’s the path to irresponsibility. What it does mean is giving them every available tool and advantage to achieve their aims in life, beyond the specifics of the job.”

The basic gist of it is using the author's experience in transforming an under-performing submarine crew into the top performing submarine crew in the US Navy in about 18 months, and translating that experience to a set of leadership concepts that he feels would be generally applicable in any organization. If there are rules, which could be applied in the military we can't say that our organisation is not agile enough to build the leader-leader approach to team management. The author explains why, in the long term, it is far more effective then leader-follower setup. You can also find here ready-to-use examples of how you can support your team members on their way to engage, taking ownership and becoming the leaders. David Marquet is the kind of leader who comes around only once in a generation ... his ideas and lessons are invaluable" What? Yet another book on leadership, filled with generic statements focused on WHAT (which is quite straightforward) instead of HOW (the hard part ...)? Not really, not this time. Leaders and managers face an increasingly complex world, where precise execution, teamwork and enabling of talent are competitive advantages. David Marquet provides a blue print, along with real-life examples and implementation mechanisms. Anyone who is charged with leading and making a difference needs to read this.”– John Cooper, President and CEO, Invesco Distributors

If all you need to do is what you are told, then you don’t need to understand your craft. However, as your ability to make decisions increases, then you need intimate technical knowledge on which to base those decisions.” RESIST THE URGE TO PROVIDE SOLUTIONS is a mechanism for CONTROL." The leader has to create space for open decision by the entire team; in crisis situations - you can have the team brainstorm and then as a leader vet the best option for action. Will this book shake your world? In my case, it didn't, but as it's a nice set of R-L cases, it's truly educative & I believe it has provided my some additional input to "digest" intellectually.