In the book Turn the Ship Around!, L. David Marquet was a U.S. Naval Officer who was about to get his command of a nuclear submarine. He spent a year preparing for a command in a submarine only to have his assignment changed at the last minute to a different submarine. One of the worst scoring submarines in the Navy. He goes on a journey with his team to turn the the ship one of the highest performing submarines. One that would not only perform well but continue to produce leaders.
Throughout the book, David Marquet discusses all three factors of motivation that Daniel Pink also addresses. The easiest one for the U.S. Navy to embed in it’s team is a sense of purpose. The United States military has a strong and deep sense of purpose that directs its steps. Keeping America and it’s citizens safe from threats foreign and domestic. However, the overall feel in the submarine when Marquet started was ‘we are here to do a job and not be caught making a mistake’. Their goal was not to excel and he addresses this challenge early on.
What makes his story really unique is how he addresses autonomy. The historical structure of the military is a hierarchical structure. Leaders make decisions and the other men follow. Marquet discusses that he actively pushed the decision making down to the men actually involved in the day to day. A huge risk to his career. And it worked, but not without bumps in the road.
“Caring but not caring”- that is, caring intimately about your subordinates and the organization but caring little about the organizational consequences to yourself. -Marquet
When he talks about where he failed on this journey to autonomy, there were a couple of key factors that caused failure. The big one that would trip up his team is the lack of CLARITY.
- Clarity!
- If someone understands why and how you came to a conclusion, they are able to make the right decision to support the goal. They can better support the team and in an emergency, make the right call.
- Short and early conversations- just to make sure we were on the same page with the goal and help direct traffic. This is a big point in the book The Effective Manager by Mark Horstman. To be discussed.
- Competence!
- Your team will need enough information and training to be able to perform their tasks. If they don’t have the skills, they just can’t do it. Make sure your team has the skills and that builds trust.
- Larry Firkins from the University of Illinois once said he would give someone free reign when they made 80% of the same decisions that you would in that situation. Larry said that you can’t expected 100% because everyone is different but 80% was his guide.
- Trust!
- He also struggled with the lack of TRUST when things went wrong.
- They combated this problem by ‘thinking out loud’. He needed to create more informal conversation about the tasks and what was happening. It helped with clarity and autonomy as well. Those in positions of authority could easily understand when they needed to step in or stay out. This prevents the leaders from stepping in unnecessarily and eliminating the decision making power from those underneath them.
Some things that you may need to watch out for on your way to achieving excellence and not just avoiding errors.
Pigs and People 