Book Club: Turn the Ship Around

management, book club
Book Club: Turn the Ship Around

BQ rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)

This is a short review of the book of David Marquet: Turn the ship around and a summary of lessons learned from it. If you look for a one sentence summary: empower the 135 people strong crew of a Los Angeles-class nuclear attack submarine Santa Fe to become a high-performing team reaching above average performance across the whole Navy.

I really liked this book: it was easy to read and follow, the chronological order of events helped a lot, and liked the narrative of the captain very much. His approach to leadership, willingness to be critical of himself, and the general goal to reach operational excellence was very inspiring. Not only the message from Mr. Marquet is important, but he engages the audience with questions at the end of each chapter. This way, you have the opportunity to think though your own situation and adjust his advice in your context.

I also like the self-reflective style: the book mentions many cases where the author was unsure about the results, violated his own ideals, and made mistakes. He focuses on the small behavioral problems, that great managers I worked with also put into the center of focus. That is not nitpicking or micromanagement, but seemingly tiny changes that drive the retraining of the crew members.

While I do not want to list every single idea in the book, I will highlight some that resonated with me the most.

Ideas to take away

Empowerment is a core concept, which is, in a military setting, even more revolutionary. But it is not only about giving more power and tasks to subordinates, but also the authority to do them. The change does not solely affect others; but you need to change your behavior as well!

As a leader, your performance will hinge on how others are performing. It is a situation that any leader, on any level of the career ladder, will experience. You will not be able to control everything and effectively take everything into account to make the best decisions. If you take too much control for yourself, that means others do not have the space to learn and practice decision-making. What they learn is to let others/managers make the decisions and offload all the responsibility. This makes the manager and the team member (follower) both miserable.

One remarkable technique for introducing change: the captain did not only want to change his immediate subordinates, but started with line managers, the chiefs of the submarine. This approach meant a larger pool of people who formed a critical mass and amplified his message. Of course, all levels of management need to be part of the change, but it was crucial to include those directly responsible for the teams right from the beginning. His officers (direct subordinates) spent a lot of time with him anyway, providing ample opportunity to correct their behavior (if needed).

Love that the captain has long-term goals and that the ship performs well even after he left. He focused on creating a culture that does not depend only on him or his personality. This is a worthy goal for any leader.

The power of “I intend to”: just tell me what you are going to do. Taking deliberate action and being proactive has great value, instead of waiting for a command. Leaders are eager to know what subordinates think, and people will optimize much better than a single leader can. Taking it one step further, also explain why you are taking that action and why you think it makes sense. This way, your teammates will need to practice thinking with your head, act them into a next higher level - a surefire way for merit-based promotions.

📖 There is much more in the book; read it yourself! 📖

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