Turn The Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers Into Leaders

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There’s no better way to inspire your subordinates than making them an equal part of the same decades-long story. That way, they will feel as part of a family. Since Turn the Ship Around! was published in 2013, hundreds of thousands of readers have been inspired by former Navy captain David Marquet’s true story. Many have applied his insights to their own organizations, creating workplaces where everyone takes responsibility for his or her actions, where followers grow to become leaders, and where happier teams drive dramatically better results. The leader-leader structure is based on a different assumption about people: everyone can be a leader, and an organization is most effective when everyone thinks and acts like a leader. During Christmas break, Marquet wandered around the ship, where a skeleton watch crew was performing routine duties. He asked the petty officer on watch, “What do you do on the ship?” The answer was a cynical “Whatever they tell me to do.” 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)

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 fully engaged, contributing their full intellectual capacity every day, and the Santa Fe started winning awards and promoting a highly disproportionate number of officers to submarine command.When he took over as commander, Marquet had six months to get the submarine ready for deployment. Santa Fe was to join a battle group for a torpedo exercise in the Arabian Gulf intended to demonstrate combat effectiveness. Marquet needed to radically change the way officers and crew operated. Above all, you want them to think for themselves and make decisions for themselves. To be leaders. Each and every one of them. Marquet also realized that as control is pushed down, the importance of clarity on the purpose of the organization is increased. In this book, Mr. Marquet describes the experience of taking the worst submarine in the U.S. Navy and turning it into the best performing submarine in the entire fleet. According to Marquet, there’s a simple reason for this: we’ve lost our step with the times. And this is especially true for leaders and managers!

As Brave Leaders, we can certainly use one of these simple techniques to improve or turn our own business around. 1. Instead of Leader / Follower : LEADER / LEADER That’s why “Turn the Ship Around” suggests that you think outside the box! Instead of a “leader-follower” approach, develop a “leader-leader” strategy. In short, train trailblazers – not devotees. One can raise some arguments that the environment was specific (military, elitist, non-typical supply:demand in "job market", etc.), but in fact author's ideas are applicable in different contexts, sometimes with re-adjustments (SKIN IN THE GAME!), but they remain quite valid. One of my favorite all-time leadership books is in fact titled Turn the Ship Aroundby L. David Marquet.

Turn the Ship Around” doesn’t conform to this standard. It is a book with a much narrower audience, written by a leader for leaders. And it’s got a lot to do with military skills. Its outlook, however, is groundbreaking even in that area. From 1999-2001, Captain L. David Marquet served as Captain of the USS Santa Fe, a nuclear submarine stationed in Pearl Harbor. At the beginning of his tenure, Santa Fe was one of the worst subs in the fleet. His book Turn the Ship Around! is the phenomenal story of how the ship turned from poor to excellent during his tenure and beyond through his leadership. If you haven’t read it, I hope this article inspires you to do so. I will summarize it and then briefly relate the book’s principles to Scrum. Leader-Follower vs. Leader-Leader

In short, a revolutionary book about leaders who want to disrupt the leader-follower paradigm by learning about the benefits from an unconventional source: The US Navy. About L. David MarquetEnhance opportunities for informal communication - encourage team members to think out loud as a mechanism for control and organizational clarity.

But, “Turn the Ship Around” is a bit different. It’s even more democratic than “ The Leaders We Need.” 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.” Identify practices and procedures embedded in the organization—the “genetic code”—that dictate control and rewrite them. Clarity: Ensure crew members are clear on the organization’s goals so their decisions align with what Santa Fe needed to accomplish.David Marquet is a former U. S. Navy captain and a successful author on articles and books about leaders and leadership. A 1981 U.S. Naval Academy graduate, he commandeered the nuclear-powered USS Santa Fe submarine from 1999 to 2001, turning its crew from “worst to best” by disturbing the standard practices. Because, if there’s one thing people like more than following is being followed. Everyone can be a leader, in its own fashion. Along with competence, a leader-leader model that decentralizes control also requires clarity. Everyone needs to understand the organization’s goals so that the decisions they make align with what the organization is trying to accomplish. If the purpose isn’t clear, the criteria on which decisions are made may be off base, leading to bad decisions.