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

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The book is a step by step guide of changes from top-down management approach in organisation like US Navy. Story starts with Cpt. Marquet assigned in charge of submarine with worst results in the fleet, and turns it around within a year to the best one, by changing the top-down (leader-follower) approach to the empowerment (leader-leader) approach. Before long, each member of Marquet’s crew became a leader and assumed responsibility for everything he did, from clerical tasks to crucial combat decisions. The crew became completely engaged, contributing their full intellectual capacity every day. The Santa Fe set records for performance, morale, and retention. And over the next decade, a highly disproportionate number of the officers of the Santa Fe were selected to become submarine commanders. 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.” It doesn't try patronizing you, doesn't pretend there's a magic sequence of works, secret super-efficient technique or just a new "framework" to free good spirits of self-organization within your team :) It's just a story (not complete one, just particular, representative scenarios) of developing leader (Captain - Commanding Officer of LA-class submarine) who've managed to elevate its crew from far beyond average to top notch performers by applying careful, highly aware leadership practices in so called leader-leader model, where everyone can contribute in highly autonomic way that utilizes her/his potential & skills.

David Marquet is the kind of leader who comes around only once in a generation ... his ideas and lessons are invaluable" USE YOUR LEGACY FOR INSPIRATION is a mechanism for CLARITY." Note achievements and legacy - these are helpful for guiding the team.The leader-leader structure is fundamentally different from the leader-follower structure. At its core is the belief that we can all be leaders and, in fact, it’s best when we all are leaders. Leadership is not some mystical quality that some possess and others do not. As humans, we all have what it takes, and we all need to use our leadership” DON’T BRIEF, CERTIFY is a mechanism for COMPETENCE." - this was fantastic because instead of the chief reading off the process while everyone else's eyes glazed over, the person who would be doing the task would identify the steps that he would be taking and the others would certify that process was correct (technical competence). This terrific read actually provides new and valuable insights into how to lead. And nothing important gets done without leadership. Captain Marquet takes you through his life of learning how to lead, and presents you with a winning formula: not leader-follower, but leader-leader. It’s about leading by getting others to take responsibility–and like it. It works for business, politics, and life.”– Leslie H. Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of several business boards, and a former columnist for The New York Times But then it is good to read a business book based on real incidents, not anonymised case studies, and which shows how the approaches were developed, and indeed the mistakes made and corresponding learnings along the way. And Marquet does provide top and tail each chapter with the key learning points and with templates for how to apply this to other situations. 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.

Turn the Ship Around! by David Marquet was given to me by Dom and Jed, two former Royal Marine Commanders and successful business people from the consultancy Albany York, whose work I would throughly recommend to companies looking for coaching on building high performance teams. ( https://www.albanyyork.com/about-us#team) Enhance opportunities for informal communication - encourage team members to think out loud as a mechanism for control and organizational clarity.USE GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR DECISION CRITERIA is a mechanism for CLARITY." Development of guiding principles (see the book - fantastic list created by his chiefs) is critical to empowering a team.